You’re not alone if you’ve assumed that because a product is marketed for natural hair, it must have the best non-toxic products.
The sad truth is many hair products, both for natural and non-natural hair, contain toxic chemicals that put your hair at risk.
This means you have to look out for your hair by reading those labels and identifying those bad ingredients.
Yes, you might not know exactly what they are, so we’ve put together a list of some ingredients that we do not add to our hair products and why we do not add them.
- Alcohol (the fast chain/drying type): This type of alcohol dries the hair quickly, but it also reduces the moisture in the hair, thus making hair dry and susceptible to damage, so we avoid it entirely.
- Silicones/Dimethicone: This is not a natural product; rather, it is synthetic. When applied to the hair, often in shampoos, it makes the hair shine. But it's difficult to wash off and attracts dirt to hair. This adds unnecessary weight to your hair.
- Phthalates: Some manufacturers use phthalates in their hair sprays to ensure effective discharge of the contents of hair sprays. We shun including this in our hair products because phthalate is not only dangerous for your hair but it’s also hazardous to the human body. It causes cancer, reproductive and congenital disabilities, and hormonal changes. Bad news, this ingredient.
- Mineral Oil: Mineral oil is synthetic oil gotten from petroleum and it lacks the essential purity of natural oils. Occasional usage of mineral oil might not give noticeable changes, but long-term usage is dangerous. You can trace this to the improper and poor manufacturing process. It may also be difficult to wash mineral oil off completely, so the leftover prevents air and hair products from penetrating the scalp. Sheesh!
- Formaldehyde: Formaldehyde, when inhaled, can cause asthma. It could also lead to hair loss and damage to hair follicles.
-
Parabens: These are used as preservatives to make the products have a longer shelf life. Parabens are mostly found in shampoos and sulfates.
Now you know some of them, keep an eye out, queen. Your hair deserves truly natural, healthy ingredients to be its best. Always shop Tree Naturals to avoid harmful ingredients in your hair care!
