Sulfate-Free Shampoo: Use It or Loose It.. Literally

How did I spend my Friday night? I spent it with my lovely boyfriend who took me out for dinner and drinks but what did he make the mistake of doing? He told me he needed to go to Target and pick up some shampoo for his shower.  You don't tell me you just need to PICK UP a beauty product.  Oh no.  I want to be involved in the process and look at everything.  I have to go up and down every aisle and look at what the shampoo does and check its ingredients.  So an hour and a half of shampoo shopping later reminded me of a tip that I wanted to share with all of you beautiful people.

When it comes to my hair, I want the best for it and that is why I like to limit the use of sulfate in my shampoos and conditioners.  Sulfate is a chemical used in lots of shampoos and while it gets your hair clean and may feel great while you use it, it also strips away natural oils from your hair, makes hair dry and brittle, it takes away some color and shine, is irritating to the hair and scalp, AND this chemical makes more of your hair fall out.  Yeah that's right FALL OUT!!! Oh helllll no. 

Take a look at the ingredients in your shampoo to see if it contains sulfates.  The ingredients you should look for are sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium lauryl ether sulfate(SLES).  Even though I don't like sulfate in shampoos I do use some shampoos that contain sulfate with the ingredient ammonium lauryl sulfate which has greater solubility in water compared to SLS/SLES.

My absolute favorite sulfate-free shampoo is by Enjoy and it is their Sulfate-Free Luxury Shampoo.  It feels so luxurious and oh my gosh it is on my Christmas List every year.  

www.enjoyhaircare.com

I never use just one shampoo at a time because I like options.  That is why I always have 2-4 different bottles of shampoo in my bathroom.  My current shampoos include:

• Aveda Black Malva Shampoo for dark shades. (They have shampoos for every hair color)
• Aveeno Active Naturals Sulfate-Free Pure Renewal Shampoo
• Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Shampoo

The picture below are the ones I just purchased for the boyfriends shower.  They include:

• L'oreal EverSleek Sulfate-Free Reparative Smoothing Shampoo
• L'oreal EverSleek Sulfate-Free Intense Smoothing Shampoo
• Aveeno Active Naturals Sulfate-Free Pure Renewal Shampoo

He barely has any hair but I don't want his hair falling out any time soon and I want to be able to have a shampoo for myself too.  

If it is your first time using sulfate-free shampoo it may take a while to get used to it.  It doesn't foam up like shampoos that contain sulfate and may not feel great the first couple times while your hair is getting adjusted but after that you'll be hooked and when you see what it does for your hair you will never want to go back to shampoos with sulfate.  

Side note: Burts Bees has some sulfate free shampoos but I haven't found one I like.  If you know of one that moisturizes your locks let me know!

Available at Target and Drugstores

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