Interested in going clean with your hair care line? Here’s how

Clean beauty has rapidly taken over skincare already, but what about haircare? Hair and scalp were a little slower than their fellow skin to find cleaner options, but now that technology has made a turn for the best, clean haircare is on the rise, and likely going to stay! Why? Let’s find out.

I’m sure you’ve heard about clean beauty before, but let’s recap what it is for a second: clean beauty is a safe, non-toxic approach to beauty that is free from harmful chemicals and therefore safe for us and the environment.

Be mindful: clean DOES NOT mean natural. In fact, you should know that many natural ingredients are actually very harmful, such as talc and lead, for example. Clean ingredients, on the other hand, can be both naturally and synthetically sourced (meaning that they are made in a lab) and have been proven to be absolutely healthy, safe and non-toxic.

Why going clean?

But why should you consider going clean with your haircare line? Well, first of all: it’s a fast-growing trend that looks very promising, and why would you not want to be among the first far-sighted people to ride this wave? I see absolutely no reason at all.

Second of all, our scalp is super absorbent, did you know that? The skin on our scalp and forehead is four times more absorbent than the skin on our forearms. I know, crazy.

Everything we put on our scalp goes immediately into our bloodstream, so we might want to be extra careful that it’s safe. Also, when we wash our hair, all the bad stuff contained in regular products goes down the drain and, through the wastewater, ends up in the aquatic ecosystem.

Therefore, it’s our duty and responsibility, as cosmetic manufacturers, to do whatever is in our power to protect our clients’ and the environment’s health and wellbeing. How can you do that?

Clean beauty no no’s

The first thing you need to do in order to switch from regular to clean haircare products is to know which ingredients are a clean beauty no no. Here come the bad boys:

• Sulfates: these are very strong detergents, also found in household cleaners, that give shampoos their lather. However, sulfates strip hair color. And still, I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would want to wash their hair with a house cleaner, so why should your customers?
• Parabens: these petrochemicals (often listed as butylparaben, propylparaben and methylparaben) are used as preservatives in order to increase the shelf life of a product. However, not only do they cause skin irritation and even dermatitis, but they also mimic estrogens, and are therefore very dangerous hormone disruptors.
• Silicones: these nasty ingredients give the impression of soft, glossy hair in the short term, but are actually very harmful; they coat strands in a thin waterproof seal, disturb the pH balance and affect color by fading the hair fiber.
• Alcohol: this ingredient is usually used to decrease a product’s drying time. However, it actually prevents beneficial nutrients from penetrating hair and the scalp, sending all your haircare good work down the drain with it.
• Mineral oils: these petrochemicals, also known as paraffin, clog the hair follicles, causing scalp not to receive enough oxygen and are also well-known carcinogens.

Now that you know what to be on the lookout for, you need to make cleaner choices and find sustainable, non-toxic alternatives to these ingredients.

Clean alternatives for your haircare line

For example, you can replace petrochemicals with oleochemicals: naturally derived oils and fats, such as palm and coconut oil, argan oil and avocado oil, but also shea butter and many others.

You didn’t think I was going to give away all our secret, did you?

Now that you have all the info you need in order to make a smart choice for your business and switch up to clean haircare products, the next right move is to get in touch with us, so that we can discuss how to implement that for you. Deal? Deal.