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Your Shampoo Is Chock Full of Toxins

Few ingredients contribute to cleaning

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 13, 2009 8:39 AM CDT

(Newser) – Most of what’s in shampoo does nothing to cleanse—instead, it “strokes your emotions,” writes Bill Bunn in Salon. If your hair is greasy, you simply need detergent. But shampoos contain a variety of other ingredients—two-thirds by volume—intended to make you feel good about the product and use more than you need to do the job. Take thickeners, for example: “Shampooers trust the velvet heft of the shampoo in the palms of their hands,” so several ingredients simply make the soap thicker.

These extra ingredients—which also boost lather, color, and smell, and coat your hair with silicone—aren’t innocuous: “Of the 22 ingredients” in a bottle of Pantene Pro-V, “all except three have proved to contribute, or are suspected of contributing, to health or environmental problems,” Bunn writes. And these chemicals enter our water systems, which “can’t remove the diversity of chemicals that Americans flush every day.” So what does Bunn use to clean his hair? Sunlight Dish Detergent.

Just 3 of 22 ingredients in a bottle of Pantene Pro-V actually clean, Brunn writes.
Just 3 of 22 ingredients in a bottle of Pantene Pro-V actually clean, Brunn writes.   (Procter & Gamble/ Pantene.com)
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So whether the shampoo brags that it is 'infused' with real beer, exotic proteins, vitamins, antioxidants, or extracts from some fabulously endangered species, the additive saturates the users' minds, not their hair. - Bill Bunn

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 20 comments
Snarfeh
Aug 15, 2009 3:44 AM CDT
Google the phrase "no poo"....some say it's better to not use shampoo or conditioner at all. I've considered trying it, but I just don't know if I can handle going through the greasy stage to get to the healthy stage....
cognitivefilter
Aug 14, 2009 3:42 AM CDT
surprise, big industry is trying to make us sick
kokuaguy
Aug 14, 2009 2:40 AM CDT
I was looking for the right place to put in a plug for this stuff-- I love it.

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