Hair Product Lies

Now that you know what’s in those products you are using - lets take a look at marketing myths used to sell more hair and skin products.

Natural Products - Are They Really Natural?

In cosmetic, food and product terminology, the term "natural" is used when the manufacturer does not use more than 70% organic ingredients and methods and thus would not get a government certification to certify the products as organic.

Thus the only word that matters are “Organic” and not “Natural” The manufacturers know this. They have to comply with a ton of standards in order to simply get their products on the shelves. They however also know that it is a lot more expensive to make organic products, as organic farming is a small percentage compared to the majority.

Organic means that products or food are made avoiding any synthetic chemicals and the farm is free of synthetic chemicals used in irrigation. The level to determine the labeling of natural or organic products is as follows. Look at the labels to give you an idea of just how many ingredients are indeed organic.

Labels as follows:

“100% Organic” -products made with entirely certified organic materials and methods

“Organic” - products made with 95% organic materials and methods

“Made with organic ingredients” - products made with 70% organic materials and methods

“Natural” - used by manufacturers who have failed to meet the standards to be certified as “organic”

The only exception to “Natural” products are if the product has a Natural Products Association (NPA) certification that certifies that the product uses 95% truly natural ingredients excluding water (e.g. Plant and mineral based) with no toxins harmful to humans.

The NPA warns consumers to look out for the following top ten marketing foolery on products:

·       Made with organic essential oils

·       Contains organic ingredients

·       Made with nontoxic ingredients

·       100 percent natural

·       Essentially nontoxic

·       Earth-friendly

·       Environmentally safer

·       Hypoallergenic/Dermatologist Tested/Allergy Tested/Non-Irritating

·       Vegan

·       Cruelty-Free

They also warn that the US Food & Drug Administration only certifies food products as organic. This means that plant based products or ingredients are not certified by the FDA at all so may include harmful by products or have been farmed with chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides and other harsh chemicals.

The wonderful thing about home made recipes for hair care is that a lot of them are food based, so if you want to go all the way, then buy 100% organic honey, avocados, dairy etc to use in your hair care recipes.

PH Levels

PH stands for the power of the hydrogen atom. Skin and hair are said to have a pH of 5.0. A scale from 0 to 14 is used to measure acidity and alkalinity of solutions. PH 7.0 is neutral.

There is no such thing as a "pH balanced" product because a product's pH will drift during shelf life and alter when applied to the hair and skin.

A product's pH is not a danger to the body, but the synthetic chemicals used in cosmetics – often to alter the pH to please the ones who fall for the "pH balanced" story – are.

In a nutshell...

Thus you can see that you should never simply trust the marketing or labels  - no matter how natural or organic they say the product is - the best judge is to check the labeling for wording and certifications and read the ingredients list. Armed with the basics as above, you can now try to avoid the carcinogens that could damage your health in the long term. Your best options are to look at products that are as organic as possible, or make them yourself from raw ingredients.