Shampoo and gel

The word hygiene derives from Hygeia, the Greek goddess of health. It is true that the establishment of public services of running water and sewerage in towns and cities was crucial in the elimination of infectious diseases that were frequent before. Nowadays, though, the level of public hygiene in the vast majority of places is sufficient to banish health fears due to lack of hygiene. However, we should be concerned about health because of some of the ingredients found precisely in hygiene products. We should not apply harmful substances or practices to our skin or hair.

How we can do it

We can look to see whether any of the ingredients recognised as toxic are on the ingredients list on the label. If we know how to identify them, we can identify contradictions, like that of The Body Shop brand.
We should avoid perms, dyeing, straightening and other aggressive treatments for hair, which makes it split and become coarse and difficult to brush. To “fix it”, conditioners (silicones) can be added to the shampoo formula. These form a kind of lining around the hair, which increases the complexity of the product, its green footprint and, potentially, its danger.
If we want to change our look, we should look for less aggressive ways than the ones appearing in the previous point. In any case, we should try to detach personal satisfaction from having a change of look from time to time.

Additional ingredients, largely vitamins and proteins, are put into many gels and shampoos to make the product seem more “healthy and nourishing”. We should detach skin health from the use of gels and shampoos.

How we can do it

We should not believe claims saying that gels or shampoos nourish our skin, strengthen our hair or regulate our scalp functions...What keeps the skin healthy so it can do its job properly, is eating well, having healthy habits and intervening or altering the cutaneous ecosystem as little as necessary.
These claims are particularly deceptive in the case of gels, because the time they spend touching the skin is very short and, when they are rinsed off, no trace of them is left. There is therefore no chance of them having any therapeutic effect on the skin.
It is a little more probable that the “therapeutic complements” of shampoos will have an effect because we usually have shampoo on our heads for a while, perhaps we apply it more than once, and polymers are added to shampoo formulas which chemically “hang on” to the skin. This causes an effect which the manufacturers call build up: in time a layer of “shampoo residues” forms on the scalp, which means the hair is flattened. This means other ingredients have to be added to shampoos to break down this layer of residues... and more synthetic, potentially toxic and polluting ingredients are accumulated.
Various countries have banned gel or shampoo packaging and promotional material from containing claims attributing any curative properties to the product. But this rule may be broken, for example in the labelling of Yipsophilia gel (Spain) it says: Orange Blossom soap is suitable for curing skin with eczema, psoriasis and dermatosis. Pantene shampoo says Healthy looking hair. And all pots of Sanex say Healthy skin.

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Data d'actualització: 03/01/2012 - 14:05