Many of us suffered from dandruff at least once in our life. When it gets a hold of our scalp, it is a pain in the neck (or scalp) to get rid of. Apart from dandruff we have many problems with our hair: split ends, dryness, no shine and so on. We try to improve the appearance of our strands with various products, mainly shampoos. Sometimes this is the problem that leads to many others.
To understand what we do to our hair, we need to have a brief look into shampoos and how our scalp works. The glands in our scalp produce oil and sweat just like on any other part of our bodies. When there is too much oily gunk stuck to our hair, we feel the need to wash it. For that, we need a solvent that will clean our hair and make it oil free again. This solvent is
Sodium Laureth Sulfate.
What is SLS?
Sodium Laureth Sulfate is a strong cleansing and foaming agent, surfactant and detergent that is used in our shampoos because of its ability to dissolve oil. It is a very cheap substance that can be found in the majority (close to 99% percent according my experience) of shampoos.
It can also be found in dish soaps and car shampoos.
It effectively removes the oily dirt from our hair, but the problem is that it is such a strong detergent that it destroys the protective layer of the skin and dries it out. Ta-dah you have dandruff. Sometimes people even try to treat their dandruff with shampoos containing SLS. A vicious circle.
I'm sure you have felt the sting when shampoo got into your eye. Guess which substance is responsible for that?
There are many more claims about what SLS does, but for me this was enough already, thank you very much.
A safer alternative
When I realized that my problems were caused by
sulfates, I immediately started looking for a sulfate-free shampoo. What I found was that there are shampoos especially for colored hair (as sulfates "clean" even the color out hair) for more than 2000 HUF/250 mls. I was hesitant to spend that much on a shampoo that I'll finish in two or three weeks, but I ordered one. Thankfully, when I went to pick it up, it wasn't in the hair salon from which I ordered it. I just went across the street into a drug store, and started going through each shelf, checking all the shampoos, all the ingredients, and then I found it. A sulfate free shampoo for 400 HUF/250 mls.
Choose the baby shampoo
It was a baby shampoo called
babylove by Drogerie Markt (one of the leading drugstores in Hungary), and the reason that it was so inexpensive is because it is of the own brand of the drugstore. No advertising money built into the price of your fancy L'Oreal or Tony&Guy shampoos. My face was just as happy as the baby's on the bottle when I bought it.
I started using it immediately, and I could instantly feel the difference. My tormented, scratched scalp was not irritated by the sulfates, and it was an enormous relief. A few weeks into using it and my scalp and hair was very thankful for the new shampoo.
Also, there is panthenol in it (which is basically vitamin B5) and chamomile extract, which will keep your hair shiny and your scalp healthy. No preservatives, no colorant, no ingredients made from mineral oils. It sound so good it makes me want to wash my hair!
The 250 ml bottle shampoo costs 400 HUF, the bigger bottle which is labeled as "wash gel head to toe" is basically the same but seems to be even milder to me.
Click here to find Drogerie Markt stores in Hungary! Enter Budapest into the search box and click the only search result to see all the stores in Budapest!
Try this product if your scalp is irritated or you want to switch to a safer alternative, and feel free to share your experience in a comment!
Stay tuned for my post about German natural products, drugstores, and the general German attitude towards natural and safe cosmetics and other goods!
