Organic Shampoos: Natural, Healthy, Good For Your Hair

Organic shampoos? Why not? There are many good reasons to consider using shampoos made with safer, natural organic ingredients on your hair.

• Organic ingredients clean gently.
• No harsh synthetic detergents or other unsafe chemical ingredients.
• Organic ingredients are grown without pesticides or herbicides.
• You are supporting organic farming.
• It is environmentally friendly.
• It is environmentally friendly.

I try to buy organic whenever possible. I think it is important and beneficial to my health and the health of our planet. If that appeals to you too, here are a few things to consider before you shop.

It’s important to know that while there are shampoos made with organic or certified organic ingredients there are very few brands that can claim their shampoos are certified organic. Confused yet?

A product can contain organic or certified organic ingredients and can even claim to be an organic product and still may contain chemical preservatives and synthetic detergents. Only a product that carries the USDA seal does not contain any synthetic ingredients.  Currently, there are very few hair care products that can make this claim. So, read your labels very carefully.

Shampoo Ingredients

Detergents

In most shampoo, water and detergent are the main ingredients with the other additives making up a small percentage. Detergents cause sudding and work  to remove dirt and oils from hair. They are effective, but are not the safest or best solution.

Conventional shampoos typically use synthetic detergents like sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. Both of which have been commonly used and both have had questions raised about their safety and effectiveness. At the very least they can strip the natural oils from the hair and scalp making the scalp more absorbent to synthetic chemicals while leaving the hair feeling dry.

Often to compensate for drying the hair other chemical ingredients are added that coat the hair and make it feel less dry and conditioned. Decoyl glucoside,  a plant derived, safer, biodegradable, effective but more expensive solution is used in some organic shampoos.

Soap

Some new organic shampoos are a great alternative to detergent based products. These shampoos clean with soap made from saponified oils (a process of mixing natural oils like olive, sunflower or coconut with lye made from wood ashes, sodium hydroxide etc, to make soap).  Organic soap, especially when infused with essential oils is a simple, gentle way to clean the hair.

Saponins

Saponins like soap berry or soap nut, soap wort and even clay are few examples of natural cleansing agents. While using ingredients like this have been popular in many cultures throughout the world their use is just becoming popularized in products available in the U.S.

Though they are the most natural and gently clean the hair, they also take the most getting used to. Ingredients like soap nuts do lather but not as much as we are used to and organic shampoos made from clay do not sud at all.

Many of the most popular shampoos build up nice foamy lathers but tons of soapy bubbles doesn’t necessarily mean clean.
Foaming action is something detergents do well but often with harsh results. Did you know that some shampoo is made with the same detergents that are used to clean and degrease car engines?

Shampoo Made With Mild Detergents

Some shampoos use mild detergents like cocamidopropyl betaine or disodium cocoamphodiacetate. Decoyl glucoside. These products work like the conventional shampoos, sudsing and cleaning your hair;  but with the added benefit of natural and organic ingredients.

If you are looking for something that is as organic as possible look for products that contain the most organic or certified organic ingredients.