Is Your Shampoo Harming Your Health?

How did people wash their hair before shampoo? We don't have took look back too far for the answer to this question, since commercial liquid shampoo has only been in production for around 100 years. Civilization existed and even thrived for thousands of years before shampoo existed.

The word "shampoo" was derived from the traditional Hindi word, "chāmpo", which was commonly used in reference to the professional service of providing head massages using combinations of herbal oils and fragrances.

This particular style of personal hygiene was first observed by members of Western society in colonial India during the mid-1700's. The Anglo-Saxon word shampoo and the practice implied by it were then introduced in Britain by Bengali entrepreneur, Sake Dean Mahomed in 1814. Mahomed opened a shampooing bath known as ‘Mahomed’s Indian Vapour Baths’ in Brighton and offered remedial massages using various soap and shampoo products.

In the 1900’s, the accepted definition of the word "shampoo" shifted from being the provision of a massage service to the personal application of soap to an individual's hair. During the early stages of shampoo development, English hair stylists would boil shaved soap in water then add herbs to give the hair shine. Fragrances were also added. In 1927, bottled liquid shampoo was invented by German inventor Hans Schwarzkopf in Berlin, whose surname was used for the famous shampoo brand that is still in production to this day.

Up until the 1920's, soap and shampoo were very similar products; both containing surfactants, a type of detergent, and both being predominantly formulated from natural ingredients. Modern commercial shampoo as it is known today was first introduced in the 1930's with a product called Drene, the first synthetic (non-soap) shampoo. Since then, the quality of ingredients in our hair care products has spiraled steadily downwards.

Some of today’s conventional hair products contain a cocktail of toxic ingredients that harm sensitive skin and hair. These products are barely regulated, but we have been using them for generations on ourselves and on our children.

Here are four of the main ingredients that you should avoid when choosing a shampoo:

Sulfates are chemical detergents which are remarkably effective when it comes to removing dirt and oil… so effective that they can actually strip away the naturally occurring moisture and oils that keep our hair shiny and soft. Sulfates are particularly harsh on sensitive skin and can cause severe scalp irritation for some people.

2. Parabens- Another well-recognized commercial shampoo ingredient, parabens are a type of xenoestrogen; a synthetic compound with similar composition to that of naturally occurring hormones found in our bodies. Xenoestrogens are believed to disrupt hormones, impact reproductive functions and may even pose a cancer risk.

3. Fragrance - Synthetic fragrances are really bad news. If the fragrances in your shampoo come from an organic, natural source such as essential oils, it will be indicated on the packaging. If the only reference to fragrances on the label is the word “fragrance,” then you need to put that nasty bottle back on the shelf.

The term “fragrance” in the U.S. allows manufacturers to omit any reference to the list of ingredients that they used to create the fragrance. So really, if “fragrance” is listed on a label, there’s no telling what the product contains. There are over 3,100 chemicals used by the fragrance industry to formulate these suspiciously delicious aromas, and most of them are not very human-friendly.

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