Sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate?

jackieo1309

I've seen a lot of contrasting information on it- so what are the main concerns with it? Is it safe to use products that contain SLS? I'm a little confused...TIA!

SuperGreen

To quote from an awesome response mrspdxbride gave a few weeks ago:

?SLS? can actually refer to two different, but similar-sounding chemicals?one of which is merely irritating and the other of which may be linked to cancer. Both are a type of surfactant, which are what allow shampoos and other detergents to suds up and clean really well, explains Sean Gray, senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group. For years, the most common surfactant was sodium laurel sulfate, or SLS. Unfortunately, it irritates lots of people?s skin, so companies started looking for ways to improve it. They started putting sodium laurel sulfate through a marvelous process whereby it becomes sodium laureth sulfate, which does the same job, but without irritating skin. That?s great, right?

 

Wrong. This marvelous process leaves behind two chemicals, ethylene oxide and 1, 4-dioxane, both of which are, you guessed it, carcinogens. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Anyway, both the skin irritation problems associated with sodium laurel sulfate and the potential cancer risks associated with sodium laureth sulfate (which can be called either SLS or SLES) have lead to a profusion of ?SLS-free? and ?SLES-free? shampoos and other sudsy products. Most of these new products use sodium coco sulfate as a replacement surfactant, which brings us, finally, to your question.

 

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/health/stories/safe-shampoo

 

ETA: My DH is very allergic to SLS.  His hair was falling out at 24 (24!!!) and his mouth was sore a lot of the time.  He did some research on chemical sensitives, and SLS was a common one for both those problems.  We cut SLS out of everything, including shampoo and toothpaste, and overnight his mouth stopping hurting and his hair started growing back.  If it's caustic enough to make my DH's hair fall out then I'm sure as hell not gonna use it!

Alisha_A

Ah...where to begin. Well first and foremost, its just very harsh on your skin and hair, so that alone is enough for me not to use it. It seems ridiculous to me to use this on my body for 'cleaning' and then to use other products to moisturize. There are plenty of milder cleansers to use without unnecessarily stripping your hair and skin.

I've read a lot of health claims and I don't know how factual they are, but the suspicion is enough for me not to use a product that isn't very good anyhow. Especially to use it on your skin, the largest organ in your body! And there's evidence that by denaturing the skin proteins, it allows environmental contaminants access to lower levels of the skin, meaning greater absorption.

I've also read it acts like an estrogen.

But again... I don't really need to know for sure about all these health concerns. Its like bleaching your hair with peroxide. Its just not good for your body, even if it doesn't cause you to grow a 3rd boob. Companies use this because its cheap and provides a lot of lather. I would rather support companies producing better products, and rather use products that clean without unnecessarily drying. My skin and hair have felt so much better since I dumped all SLS/SLES products.

jackieo1309

Thanks ladies!