Even though I have nothing against regular shampoos that contain gentler sulfates and don’t think they are “bad,” recently I have jumped on the sulfate free shampoo bandwagon! As you can read on my new site hair loss hell, my hair loss has been progressing rapidly and I thought I would try out SLS free shampoos. I didn’t expect them to fix my hair loss, but I have become desperate and wanted to see what the hype is all about. Navigating the category of sulfate free shampoos is complicated because there are so many different shampoo ingredients, and I haven’t become an expert on every single shampoo ingredient yet.

I’ve tried these shampoos lately, which are SLS free (meaning they are free of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate):

* Free & Clear Shampoo *
If you have fragrance allergies and are very sensitive to skin and hair care products, this is a shampoo you want to try! I got a sample of it from my Dermatologist, and it gets a lot of great reviews. It’s from the makers of Vanicream, one of my favorite sunscreens, and it contains fewer ingredients than most shampoos, so it’s less likely to cause a problem. It’s a very boring shampoo – it has no smell, but it does what it’s supposed to do - clean your hair nicely and gently, without leaving it greasy or overly dry. It’s also free of dyes, lanolin, and parabens.

* Yes To Tomatoes Volumizing Shampoo *
This is my current new favorite shampoo. I love the smell of it (it smells like baby powder), and it cleans my hair well, without over-stripping it, nor does it leave it greasy. It’s also paraben and petroleum free. Its main cleansing ingredient is sodium coco-sulfate (which is a gentle cleansing agent, – very similar to sodium laureth sulfate, but gentler). This shampoo has a lot of plant extracts, which makes me a little nervous because a lot of plant extracts can be irritating, but I haven’t noticed a problem. I wouldn’t say this shampoo is that volumizing, despite the name. A similar shampoo I like is the Yes To Carrots Daily Pampering Shampoo. I know it’s silly to use a shampoo mostly because it smells good, but washing my hair is traumatizing, so at least I look forward to using these nice smelling shampoos. Both of them can be found at Target for around $9.

* Jason Natural Thin To Thick Shampoo *
This paraben-free product actually worked as a volumizer and made my hair feel about 20% thicker! It’s definitely one of the most volumizing shampoos I’ve tried. It has a mint like smell that I really don’t like, but it worked really well. Please note I tried the new version that lists decyl glucoside as the second ingredient (they recently changed their formula). I used this for about a month with great results, until my hair started falling out like crazy. It was probably not the shampoo (I was experimenting with Rogaine at the time), but I got so spooked and stopped using it. This has a lot of ingredients in it, and some ingredients like menthol and citrus extract, could be irritating to your scalp. You can get this at Whole Foods for about $7.

* Avalon Organics Biotin B-Complex Thickening Shampoo *
This is another one of those shampoos that smells terrible to me (like mint and essential oils), but scent is of course subjective. This shampoo wasn’t very volumizing and left a weird plastic feel on my hair, so it’s definitely not my favorite, although a lot of people like it. It’s paraben free. The product is not tested on animals, and it contains 100% vegetarian ingredients. It costs around $10 at Whole Foods.

* Burt’s Bees Very Volumizing Pomegranate & Soy Shampoo *
This has a pleasant fruity pomegranate scent and the shampoo feels very gentle (although not really volumizing). This leaves a plastic-like coating on my hair, and my hair sometimes still feels greasy after using it, so this isn’t my top pick, but it’s worth trying because a lot of people love it. It’s free of parabens, petrochemicals, phthalates, and it’s not tested on animals. This retails for around $6 at Target.

* L’Oreal Paris EverPure Volume Shampoo *
This shampoo lathered pretty well and made my hair feel soft, but again the fragrance was horrible to me. I had to stop using this after a few days because of the scent. The matching conditioner was even worse, and smelled like cheap men’s cologne. This has some potentially irritating ingredients like linalool (citrus), and this product actually gets a “hazardous” score on the cosmeticsdatabase.com website. Just because something is sulfate free doesn’t mean it’s great for your hair. You can find this at your local drugstore for about $6.

The SLS free shampoo bottom line:
I think there is a lot of hype and gimmickry about SLS free shampoos. Just because a product is sulfate free doesn’t mean it’s any better than a regular shampoo that contains gentle sulfates, and a lot of the SLS free shampoos come with potentially irritating “natural” ingredients. On the other hand, a lot of sulfate free shampoos are not tested on animals, and they contain less of the ingredients that could pose a potential health danger (according to the cosmeticsdatabase.com website). I will continue researching SLS free shampoos and keep you updated with what I find. As far as helping my hair loss issues – I haven’t noticed a change overall since I’ve gone SLS-free, and my hair looks and feels the same as it did when I used regular shampoo, like Garnier Fructis. 

I know sulfates are a hot topic, and I look forward to hearing about your favorite shampoos. Who knew washing your hair would take so much work???

Related posts:

1. Shampoo Ingredients To Avoid
2. Tresemme Dry Shampoo
3. Living Proof Full Thickening Cream

TRESemme Dry Shampoo Review
I’ve used this product about 10 times now, and keep experimenting with it. To use it you 1) shake the can vigorously before each spray 2) spray lightly and evenly 8-12 inches from your head, and leave it in for 1-2 minutes 3) brush it out, then style as usual. The first several times I tried it, my hair felt more greasy and sticky than it did before using it. After spraying it, it coats your hair with white powder, and even after brushing it out, I could still see it on my dark roots, and the lighter brown parts of my hair looked dull also. My scalp looked extra white too, which sort of magnified my part.

After several tries, I found I got better results, and my hair didn’t look greasy or sticky, but it still looked a bit ashy. I sprayed my hair with a glossing spray to attempt to disguise the dullness, and that helped a little. If you have blonde hair, or a lighter hair color, this may not be as big of an issue. I think what I was doing wrong initially was not shaking the can before each spray, and I may have been concentrating on one area for too long, rather than moving the can around quickly to create a light mist. The dry shampoo does work to create volume when I spray the underneath part of my hair, so that’s exciting. I wasn’t really able to create too much volume on the top of my hair, though.

Due to the ashiness of the product, and the fact that half the time it comes out sticky and doesn’t help with oiliness, I don’t plan on using this anymore to remove oil. However, I will still use it underneath my hair to create volume until the can runs out. Keep in mind, though, that I’m really bad at styling my hair, so other people might be more skilled at using this product. Unfortunately, I will probably still have to wash my hair every day since this didn’t help to extend days between washing.

Online a lot of people have written that they hate the scent, but I actually like it, and I’m hard to please. It’s a bit overwhelming and strong, but it has a typical fruity shampoo-like scent. The scary thing about this dry shampoo, and really most dry shampoos, is the ingredients. Most dry shampoos contain butane (which is what’s in lighter fluid), plus alcohol. Instead, this one’s first ingredient is hydrofluoocarbon (I’m not exactly sure what it is, even after looking it up on wikipedia), plus alcohol denat (which dries out your hair and scalp), and then cornstarch is what is used to sop up the oil. I try to stay away from hair products that contain alcohol, but have been using hairspray lately as a desperate attempt to create volume in my hair.

Once my can of TRESemme dry shampoo is up, I don’t plan on buying it again, or any dry shampoo that comes in a can because the ingredients seem too scary to me, but I might be overreacting. I would be interested in trying a different form of dry shampoo, though – one that doesn’t have alcohol or butane, etc. Do you use dry shampoo? What is your favorite one? Do you have any tips for using it? Even though I don’t love it, if you are curious about trying a dry shampoo, you can’t beat the price, and there are some people online that do really like it. Also check out my review of Living Proof Full Thickening Cream.

Related posts:

1. Shampoo Ingredients To Avoid
2. SLS Free Shampoo
3. Prevent A Hair Disaster!

I went to Sephora three times in the last  month because I had seen the product online and it was getting rave reviews, but I wasn’t able to finally buy it until a few days ago. I also saw a QVC spot where they were demonstrating the product, and the hair on the models kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger as the half hour show went on, and I was so jealous! At $24 for a small 3.7 oz bottle, the cream is pretty pricey, but I was willing to spend the money to see how well it worked on my hair. One of my biggest beauty concerns is my limp, thinning hair and even though I’ve tried several different thickening creams, volumizing sprays, and special shampoos, nothing has really worked to create the illusion of thick hair.

According to the directions, to get the most out of Full Thickening Cream, you are supposed to apply a nickel-sized dollop to wet hair, and then blow dry your hair. The product can also be used on dry hair or wet hair that you air dry, and it says to experiment with the amount of product you use. It’s not a root lifter, so a separate root lifting product may be used if you want. The LivingProof.com website has more specific details, plus videos that show you how to maximize your results.

Get Living Proof Full Thickening Cream at Sephora

Full Thickening Cream Results
The first time I tried the product, I put it on my wet hair and let it air dry. The second time I used it on wet hair but then blow dried my hair. Each time I would estimate my hair looked about 10-20% thicker than normal. That’s not a huge difference, and my boyfriend had no idea I had used something different on my hair, but guys never notice these things. At the end of the day, my hair hadn’t really gotten too much flatter. The cream is not greasy at all, which is great for me, because I hate greasy styling products. I am absolutely terrible when it comes to styling my hair, so I think people that know how to work with their hair could see better results. I have shoulder-length wavy hair, with hardly any layers, so someone with a shorter, layered hairstyle may have even better luck.

The product has a citrus scent, which I thought smelled fine, and true to its word, it didn’t weigh my hair down or make it crunchy or stiff. My hair looked slightly duller than usual, but a little glossing spray can disguise that. This product doesn’t really work on frizz (how I can have frizzy, thinning hair is beyond me), but the thickening cream can be used together with Living Proof’s popular Frizz products as well.

Bottom Line
For me this product was not a miracle, but it’s definitely worth trying because a lot of people are raving about it and saying how great it’s worked on their hair. How you tried it? What do you think? Have you tried other hair products by Living Proof? What products have you used that actually work to make hair look substantially thicker?

Related posts:

1. Tresemme Dry Shampoo
2. Why My Hair Is Now A Frizzy Mess!
3. Neutrogena Hand Cream – Fabulous For Dry Skin

One time I dyed my hair, and instead of it getting lighter, it turned a horribly dark drab brown. I was so confused, and then I realized the hair dye bottle has a number on it, which is supposed to correspond with the number on the box. It turns out the numbers didn’t match up, so I ended up using a totally different color. It wasn’t exactly the end of the world, since I still had hair, and it was just boring and unattractive looking on me (since it totally accentuated my hair loss). And it didn’t look as bad as when I tried to give myself blue highlights in college, and they turned out puke green.

Anyway, I called the L’Oreal number on the box to see if there was any sort of remedy, and they sent me some free shampoo and conditioner. If I recall correctly, they also sent me a gift certificate to a salon to get my hair fixed, but since I’m afraid of going to hair salons, I didn’t go. Actually, I would have loved to get a free salon dye job, but I didn’t want to have to re-dye my hair in the same week, since I didn’t want to hurt my hair loss-prone hair anymore than necessary. I just lived with the dark hair, and then it got a bit lighter on its own after a month or two.

Always check that the number on the box matches the number on the bottle!
Right after my “incident” I noticed L’Oreal and the other hair dye companies started putting little seals on the box packaging. I’m sure this helps dissuade people from opening up the boxes and messing with them, but always make sure to check that the numbers match up, just in case! I have had the same problem with makeup being the wrong shade when I open up the box at home, but that’s not as big of a deal.

Do you have any hair dye horror stories?

Related posts:

1. My New Hair Loss Blog!
2. My Hair Loss Story
3. Why My Hair Is Now A Frizzy Mess!

Why do companies change product formulas?
Remember when I wrote about my product discontinuation paranoia? I guess I jinxed myself by not including the conditioner in that list. I had a giant bottle of the conditioner that ran out last week, and when I went to Ulta to get more of it and noticed it now had new packaging, I got worried. The ingredients have changed, and now the conditioner is not as thick, and it now works like every other conditioner on my hair – horribly. The scent is the same. Why did they have to change the ingredients? This conditioner used to get rave reviews on Makeupalley.com, and now, of course, the reviews are sucking. I can only assume the new conditioner is cheaper to make. No other explanation makes sense.

How to find a product to replace your favorite discontinued product
Now I’m on the sad, daunting task of finding a good conditioner once again. I typed in the first five ingredients of the old conditioner into Google, putting quotes around them. One random conditioner I’ve never heard of contains those five ingredients, in that order, and I will soon be ordering it online. Frederic Fekkai Protein RX Conditioner has the first three same ingredients, and it’s the only conditioner I found that is sold at stores, so I will try that also, even though it’s ridiculously expensive.

If neither of those work, I will soon start researching good conditioners for frizzy, curly hair, and start my 28-year search all over. The only good news to this story is that at least I still have hair to worry about. As bad as my hair looks now, I am still thankful to have hair. Recently, I’ve also tried Living Proof Full Thickening Cream, which wasn’t exactly a miracle for my hair either.

For now, if you have a favorite product that’s been discontinued, my only advice is to type its ingredients into Google, and see if you can find something else that lists the first several ingredients in the same order, or at least near the beginning of the list.

Quick Update
After writing this post, I went back to Ulta and found that Healthy Sexy Hair makes lots of different conditioners, and their Curly Sexy Hair’s ingredients are more similar to my old conditioner, than the re-vamped version. I’ve been using it, and it’s not exactly great, so I’m not real happy. But the point is to first look within the same brand if one of your favorite products gets discontinued. A lot of times companies will make more than one product with the same ingredients, even though the products will be called something totally different.

Related posts:

1. Prevent A Hair Disaster!
2. My Hair Loss Story
3. My New Hair Loss Blog!

If you are concerned about hair care, and what you are cleansing and styling with, check out this book: Don’t Go Shopping For Hair-Care Products Without Me – Paula Begoun. It’s a few years old, but it’s still a good resource to learn more about hair care, and a lot of the products reviewed are still on the market today.

Shampoo Cleansing Ingredients To Avoid:

Extremely common ingredients
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate
Ammonium Laureth Sulfate
Ammonium Xylene Sulfonate
TEA Lauryl Sulfate
Sulfur (in dandruff shampoos)
Selenium Sulfide (in dandruff shampoos)

Less common ingredients
Magnesium Sulfate
Sodium Thiosulfate
Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate
Alkyl Sodium Sulfate
Alkyl Benzene Sulfonate
TEA-Dodecylbenzene
Sodium C12-15 Alkyl Sulfate
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfonate

At the drugstore, a lot of the cheap shampoo brands like Suave, Dove, VO5, and Pert Plus contain these “bad” ingredients and I would suggest staying away from them. I’m sorry to say, even Pantene is a shampoo that is on the “bad” list.

Good Shampoos
Currently I use mostly drugstore shampoos that only cost a few dollars, and they work great and do not contain the “bad” ingredients. I’ve been using L’Oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss Shampoo, and Garnier Fructis Fortifying Shampoo, and from Ulta I buy Back To Basics Citrus Clarifying Sage Shampoo. At the store today, I noticed cheapo Sunsilk also makes the “okay” list. Most of the higher-end drugstore shampoos, or more expensive shampoos from Ulta or hair salons don’t contain the bad ingredients, but you should still read the labels to make sure. I’ve used expensive shampoos, and don’t think they work better than cheap ones, which is why, even with my hair loss issues, I’m okay with $3 shampoos if they contain the right ingredients.

Is there ever a time when it’s good to use “bad” shampoos?
Several years ago, I dyed my hair with a semi-permanent color, and for some reason my hair turned black, and it was all goopy and sticky, even after washing it 3 times! I was desperate and bought the cheapest, crappiest sounding shampoo I could find, hoping that it would be super harsh. I believe I bought Prell. Well, let me tell you, that Prell got all the goop out of my hair and it worked wonders to strip all the nastiness right out of there!

If you have “perfect” hair and are using Pantene, or some other shampoo that contains the “bad” ingredients, then by all means keep using it. But if you are experiencing any problems at all – hair loss, dandruff, dry hair, frizzy hair, then I would recommend switching.

What about Sodium Laureth Sulfate?
Sodium Laureth Sulfate is the gentler version of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. A lot has been written about the evils of SLS, and how it is extremely irritating and possibly carcinogenic. At this point, I personally feel comfortable using Sodium Laureth Sulfate, but stay away from its harsher Sodium Lauryl Sulfate cousin.

What about “natural” shampoos?
If you go to Whole Foods, or even some drugstores, there are shampoos that are SLS-free. This is good if you are sensitive to SLS, or are afraid of it. However, natural shampoos aren’t necessarily and better than regular ones, nor are they really all that “natural.” A lot of natural shampoos also contain a lot of ingredients that Paula Begoun deems irriting, which is why I stick with regular shampoos. Below is a list of more ingredients to avoid. I usually don’t bother searching labels for these ingredients since these aren’t usually in regular shampoos.

Shampoo Additive Ingredients To Avoid:
Balm Mint
Balsam
Certain Essential Oils
Eucalyptus
Grapefruit
Horseradish
Lavender Oil
Lemon
Lime
Menthol
Orange
Papaya
Peppermint
Rose
Sage
Thyme

Update: I also wrote a recent post about sulfate-free shampoos - SLS Free Shampoo and a reader told me about this website – Tightly Curly Hair Care Products Ingredients List, where there is a very long list of shampoo ingredients to use, and to avoid (you can search there alphabetically).

Related posts:

1. SLS Free Shampoo
2. Tresemme Dry Shampoo
3. How To Prevent Cosmetic Acne