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There are far too many variations amongst shampoo ingredients for us to list all those you may come across, so we'll concentrate here on the ones that are most often included in commercially available shampoos.

Two of the most common ingredients are SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) or SLES (sodium laureth sulphate). These are detergents used in many personal care products, as well as industrial products, to degrease. They are included in shampoos as they are very efficient detergents which foam well, so that the product can be easily distributed in the hair, thereby lifting out dirt and grease.

You only have to search online to find quite alarming reports concerning either of these two ingredients where it is implied that they are responsible for causing everything from cancer and irreversible eye defects in children to baldness. Sources for these reports claim impressive sounding research organisations. But equally impressive sounding research organisations claim that none of these reports are true, and that the so called dangers of SLS/SLES are down to misquotes and incorrectly interpreted research resulting in an 'urban legend'.

To add to the confusion, some 'natural' shampoos list their main detergent ingredient as a plant derived soap (ie corn sugar soap or coconut oil foaming agent or something similar). In fact, this could actually refer to SLS which is a foaming agent which can be derived from coconut or palm kernel oil (although it can also be petroleum derived). Added to this, there is very little information readily available about the plant derived alternatives to SLS/SLES.

The only substantiated health reason we could find to avoid SLS/SLES are that they are potential skin irritants. It is true that SLS/SLES are used in industrial degreasing products as they are such efficient detergents. They are included in personal care items such as shampoo in far lower concentations, so they are less likely to irritate. However if you have a tendency to a dry, flaky or itchy scalp it might be worthwhile changing to a shampoo containing milder plant derived alternatives to see if that alleviates the problem.

Since SLS/SLES can be derived from petroleum, coconut oil or palm kernel oil, you can never be sure exactly where it comes from, since ingredient listings rarely provide this information. If you could like to avoid petroleum derived ingredients in your personal care products, you would do well to avoid them.

One other reason to avoid SLS/SLES is that they might be derived from palm kernel oil. The farming of palm kernel oil is responsible for deforestation of rainforest in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia as land is cleared for palm oil plantations. The palm oil industry threatens native species and is now considered by scientists as the biggest threat to the orang-utan, which could be extinct in the wild within 12 years if deforestation continues at it's current rate. With 'natural' shampoos labelling is clearer and it is easier to avoid products that use palm oil as the source for their foaming agent. In any case, if you are using shampoo with palm oil based ingredients we would urge you to contact the manufacturer to enquire whether they are using palm oil from sustainable sources.

Another ingredient to watch out for in commercially available shampoos is DEA (diethanolamine), which has been linked to cancer in laboratory animals and may interfere with brain development of offspring in pregnant laboratory mice. There is no indication at the moment that humans are affected in the same way by this chemical, but we believe it to be best to err on the side of caution until further research is carried out and would also advise that similar chemicals such as TEA (triethanolamine) and MEA (monoethanolamine), are also avoided.

One other ingredient often found in commercially available shampoos is MIT (methylisothiazoline). When research has been conducted on the brain cells of rats, this chemical has apparently been found to cause neurological damage. There is no evidence to suggest that this chemical can be ingested through the skin or whether it would have a similar effect in humans if it could. But again, we would recommend that this ingredient is avoided until further research has been carried out.

As with all other commercially available personal care products, we would advise that it's probably best to avoid those containing 'fragrance' as you can never be sure exactly what this is.

And of course, other ingredients which crop up time and again are parabens. British researchers have found traces of parabens in tissue taken from women with breast cancer, and although there is no evidence that parabens cause cancer, researchers have asked for the use of parabens in personal care products to be reviewed, as these studies suggest that these chemicals may accumulate within the body after having been applied on the skin. We have discussed parabens elsewhere on Scene Green and would advise people to avoid using any product containing them. If there is a risk from using products containing parabens the risk would in any event be lessened in the case of shampoo, which is rinsed off the scalp and hair almost immediately – a greater risk might be to use a paraben containing product such as deodorant, which stays on the skin for extended periods.
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