What's In Your Shampoo

Smiles, Wolfie this is listed on Top 10 E-Mail Health Hoaxes of the Decade http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-1-2006-107386.asp Shampoo Causes Cancer. Circulating since 1998, this hoax email claims that sodium laureate sulfate, a synthetic chemical found in brand-name shampoos and other personal-care products, causes cancer The message Is unsigned and cites no references to support its claims It Is true that sodium Iaureth sulfate (SLES) is found frequently In shampoos and occasionally In toothpastes However, the chemical does not appear on any official list of known or suspected carcinogens, says urbanlegends about com

I wash my hair every day in the shower and I was getting really worried there untill I read your first response , I feel so much better now xx

OK, I already see that people have told you that it is a hoax email used to scare people. I don't know why they make emails like that. I guess just to get a rise out of people and to see how far it would go. Maybe they were trying to start a mass of dirty hair around the world to stop people from washing their hair. But at least you know it is ok to wash your hair again. :) I also found this fact sheet about it... This might also give you some more information. http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/1998-October/006509.html Thanks for posting this discussion though! I hadn't heard about this email hoax. And it is nice to know ahead of time because if my mother ever tried to tell me about it, I will be able to put her worries at ease right away. My mom is the type of person that will get worked up over every email unless I can tell her otherwise right away. LOL Thanks for posting! I am sure I will hear something from my mom. hehe

You are absolutely right .. in fact there is very little difference between the ingredients of hair care products and washing up liquids .. I changed over to natural hair products a few years ago and I have far less problems with my scalp now .. Faith In Nature is the brand I use .. they are a little more expensive .. but the products go further than 'regular' hair care products as you need less to achieve good results .. They are well worth a try .. http://www.faithinnature.co.uk/

Wow that is scary! As a committed vegetarian, I am very careful about the cosmetics, and beauty products I use, because I don't agree with animal testing, or using animal ingredients, so all the stuff I use is from the Body Shop, or other natural health care manufacturers. They use only natural ingredients, and no chemicals, so guess that means I'm safe. They do cost more of course, but I don't care as I am pretty strong in my principals on that subject.

contact the company and ask for the MARS materal safty data sheets on that sly to see if it is true.

I use products made by Lush. They are all natural... they are coming out with hair product line that doesn't have SLY.... so you may want to check with them. Definately check them out for shower gels... it's good stuff - all natural. no chemicals.

I think this was one of those internet scares from a few years ago. FDA has to regulate substances. I remember doing a search on this several years ago and the companies use this in shampoos and soaps because of the suddsing abilities. Anyone else have more info?

There are a ton of chemicals in shampoos. Does anyone other than a chemist know what all these chemicals are? It may be a hoax, but how do we know if any of these ingredients are not harmful in the long run?

I want to know about what we saw on the topic of baby shampoos being so dangerous. I was concerned about the tearless formulas. I have heard bad things about the dangers of these baby shampoos. What does anyone else know about this?

Even if its a fallacy, i agree its scary as well when you think about it that you dont even know what all those other chemicals made of. Or what it will do to us in the long run. We just normally just accept products because "Oh! it smells good." or because "Oh this makes my hair shines." But we never know if it protects our hair but drains life out of our skin. Makes me think of all those movies about beauty products which will make you forever young, literally but your face will harden to stone unless you keep using the product because of all those chemicals and stuff.:P

I avoid products with the sulfates in it, not because of the cancer "scare", but because it really dries out the hair and skin. I buy natural products without that stuff and I get compliments about how shiney my hair is and how I have a glow to my skin, so if you want to look pretty lol, don't use that stuff!