Q. What are sulfates? Are they damaging to hair? I have noticed sulfate-free and paraben-free shampoos. What are the differences in these shampoos? Cindi Stice; Villa Rica, GA
A. Sulfates (aka Sodium Laureth Sulfate on your shampoo’s ingredient list) are added to cleansing products to create foam. This sudsing agent is not harmful to the hair, but recent studies suggest that using a sulfate-free product will help your hair maintain a healthier moisture balance. Also, we find these shampoos help your hair color last longer, because salts (another name for sulfates) tend to reduce the vibrancy of your color over a shorter period of time. Parabens, on the other hand, are helpful bactericidal and fungicidal preserving agents. When found in cosmetics, they aid in combating bacterial growth in the finished product. It’s a low cost preservative, but not the only one available. Many companies now use natural ingredients, like coconut and grapefruit seed extract, to keep a product fresh. Alas, these ingredients cost more, which translates into a slightly more expensive price tag for your haircare.
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1 Comment at "Ask a Stylist: Info on sulfates and parabens"
Well you got the explanation of the sodium laureth sulfate right but your other information is really not. I think before you respond to an inquiry from someone you should research a little so you do not confuse people that would read this and accept what you say as fact. I am also a hairstylist and misinformation by other stylists makes my job a lot harder!! I pride myself in staying up to date on product knowledge and trends. You have a unique position here to reach out to many people and share your knowledge, please research it and be accurate about it. Clients are going to believe what you post for the real facts. Sodium Chloride, which is salt used to adjust the acid level is a preservative and fragrance. Glycol Distearate, chemically derived from Stearic Acid, which may have either animal or vegetable origins. Glycol Distearate is a WAX. And Silicone’s have been being replaced for Glycol Distearate because lower end product lines using it realized that people were not wanting to have wax in their hair. So they ditched it for a Silicone but it does the same as wax and is very cheap to produce.
*Quaternium-15 is used as a bacterial/fungicidal preservative.
*Methylisothiazolinone or MIT, a powerful biocide and preservative! There you have it and also I might add that when you look at the ingredients remember or know now that they are listed in desending order of what it contains. So my tip is that the anti bacterial agent* is usually less than 3% of the product makeup. If it is Methylisothiazolinone it is less than 1% because it is leathal in higher doses. Therefore if a product is touting that is contains special ingredients that sound really awesome and they arrive on the list after the anti-bacterial, forget it, it’s not worth the money.
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