Gluten Free Hair Products that are Bad for You

I wanted to revisit the post that I had written a while back about gluten free hair care products. The reason being is that the more I’ve had to narrow down what I put in my mouth it also has made me evaluate what I also put on my body.

The skin is an amazing organ that soaks up very quickly what you put on it. If you unknowingly put gluten in your mouth and you are intolerant or celiac than your body will reject it and you can figure out what you ate. But what if your shampoo, conditioner, or styling products ARE gluten free and you are noticing signs like you lose a lot of hair in the shower or you can’t get your hair to grow past a certain length? Maybe its more than just gluten you have to be concerned with.

Most people that start losing their hair think of “maybe it’s my thyroid” or “maybe there’s a hair growth serum to make my hair grow back”. Have you ever tried the simple trial and error method of switching your shampoo to see if you loose less hair?? That actually worked for me! Whereas a family member of mine went the thyroid method and is taking a pill. I do believe people have thyroid problems, but WHAT CAUSES the thyroid to be off? Could it be the chemicals we use that throw it off, and then we throw more chemicals at it in the form of a pill, and then we have to take another pill for the side effects?!? Lets wipe the slate clean, start over on how we view the products we use and try a more natural approach.

If you have food allergies then you are probably in the habit of reading labels on your food products, but how many times do you read the ingredient list on your styling products, lotions, hand soaps, or lipstick? Do you see where I’m getting at? There are so many harmful chemicals that the FDA is allows in consumer products because they have not been “proven harmful”. Wait… how long do they have to determine before they take it off the shelf if it is?!? In other countries outside the US they look at it in a perspective that it has not been “proven SAFE” so they won’t allow it. Scary thought if you live in the US! So the key is to educate yourself on the ingredients that you come in contact with everyday.

Lets look at a biggie, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. It’s in almost anything that cleans, from floor cleaner to your toothpaste! I’m sorry, but I don’t want to put floor cleaner in my mouth… no surprise it’s in shampoo as well. When chemicals come in contact with your skin it is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. So the risk is much greater and faster than if you ate it, but most people don’t think of that because you are usually washing it off right after you put it on.  But think of your daily routine, you brush your teeth (SLS’s in toothpaste), you wash your hands (SLS’s in hand soap), you wash your hair (SLS’s in shampoo), you clean your dishes (SLS’s in dish soap), you wash your windows, floors, counters, (SLS’s in cleaning products). Do you see a pattern? It’s not just a little amount, its the accumulation of little amounts EVERY DAY that become toxic and lead to serious health problems.

Another scary thought is that beauty products do not have any federal regulations on them. They can be called “Natural” or “Healthy” and even “Organic” and be far from any one of those statements in reality. The only way you know if beauty products are truly organic is if it has the “USDA ORGANIC” seal on the packaging. My method lately is if I can’t pronounce it or it’s not grown from the ground, then I tend to stay clear of it.

The more I eliminate toxic chemicals from my daily routine, the better I feel physically every day. It takes a lot of thought process unfortunately in the beginning, but in the long run it becomes a routine and all the harmful products are no longer in your thought process.

Do yourself a favor and go through some of your everyday products and see how many contain SLS’s in them, you may be shocked! Then the next step is eliminating them from your routine and finding a more natural and safe product in it’s place.