You would think that when purchasing an organic product, that you can trust that the product really does do what it says on the bottle, and that the manufacturers claims are ethical in their marketing. This however does not appear to be the case when it comes to purchasing organic shampoo’s, not all of them are ethically made. In fact you could go as far as to say, that in most cases, that organic shampoo should come with a health warning on the bottle, that states buyer beware. That’s right, the synthetic chemicals, petro chemicals, and detergents that are lurking in many of your mass produced shampoos, could also be lurking in your choice of organic shampoo. To add insult to injury, the organics consumer’s agency, has recently gone on record stating that, ‘when it comes to liquid soaps and shampoos, if it says it is organic on the label, then it almost certainly is not organic’! The problem lies with the fact, that there are a number of reasons why its such a hard product to regulate under an organic category. One is that the organic personal care industry, does goes largely unregulated when it comes to certified organic shampoo, standards are to generalized and regulatory body’s having little control over what is really going on. Secondly unlike food items, the water percentage that makes up the bulk of the shampoo has to be included and within this herbal water ,there is a small percentage of chemicals that can be found that help to preserve the product. What happens is that many unethical companies, add different chemicals to prolong the shelf life and add fragrance, many of the organic herbs are seasonal and a number of unethical companies have been caught adding normal herbs, instead of organic. The other reason is to do with the foaming agent, this adds a psychological value to a shampoo, consumer’s associate lather with clean shiny hair, which actually couldn’t be further from the truth, but it is the lauryl sulphate that creates the foam, that can be potentially harmful to your health. Generally an organic shampoo should be lather free, but it seems we just can’t get used to the non-foaming shampoos and prefer the more traditional approach, that creates lots of suds.
So how can we as the consumer, protect ourselves from being exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals and toxins, that really do penetrate into the skin, the body’s largest organ and become stored in our fatty tissues, where they begin a dance of destruction, corrupting and mutating cells and potentially causing untold harm. Basically it is a case of buyer beware, it is down to you to become educated about ingredients, become a label detective and try experimenting with your own hair shampoo recipes at home, many of these ingredients can be found lining your kitchen shelves, are rich in vitamins and minerals, they have wonderful hair cleansing and conditioning properties. There are also a number of ethical organic shampoo companies out there, that offer a low foam product, that will clean just as well as a commercial hair shampoo, that will be much more friendly to the environment and your skin.
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