Is Your Hair Being Greenwashed?
Last night I spent a little quality time with prime time and was completely thrown by what I saw: Hair commercial after hair commercial making very specific claims of cleanness and greenness. First it was ads for Suave with its new almond oil and shea butter line. “I love natural ingredients,” a woman whispered. To my surprise, these actually do contain natural ingredients, but they are by no means clean.
Then it was Natural Instincts’ ammonia-free hair dye, now with antioxidants. Which obviously begs the question: Does my hair need antioxidants?
The most elaborate claims go to TRESemmé (and I’m sorry, but American brands that use mixed-case type for their pseudo-French name that also requires accents nobody has on their keyboards? Annoying. But I digress.)
TRESemmé has a new “naturals” line, and they’re getting pretty detailed in their discussion of what that means. Not only are they bringing us salon quality the natural way, which brings out hair’s natural beauty (duh) and happens to make it 10 times stronger…their new “low-sulfate” formula also won’t dry out hair! They even use some USDA-certified organic ingredients.
This is starting to feel like a category unto itself: brands that get extremely specific with their clean and green claims even as they douse their organic avocados (or whatever) in industrial-strength chemicals.
So is their shampoo really low in sulfates? Well, the first three ingredients after water are all surfactants, and ingredients are listed in descending order, so…. Take a look:
TRESemme Naturals Shampoo, Nourishing Moisture, with Aloe Vera and Avocado: Water (Aqua), Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Lauryl Glucoside, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Fragrance (Parfum), Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Ammonium Chloride, Propylene Glycol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Dipropylene Glycol, DMDM Hydantoin, Citric Acid, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Sodium Xylenesulfonate, Quaternium-80, Bisamino PEG/PPG-41/3 Aminoethyl PG-Propyl Dimethicone, Disodium EDTA, Alcohol, PEG-18 Glyceryl Oleate/Cocoate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Polyquaternium-7. USDA Certified Organic Extracts: Aloe Vera, Sweet Orange, and Avocado. (Emphasis mine.)
But onto a happier subject for a moment. Does anyone remember why Kimberly’s hair turned green on Different Strokes? We’d really love to hear from you, and we’re not above resorting to games to make it happen.
I don’t know about those shampoos and whatnot but I totally remember when Kimberly’s hair turned green. Didn’t that happen to Anne of Green Gables, too?
I totally think about that Diff’rent Strokes episode all the time!! If I remember correctly, Kimberly is readying herself for a hot date, but her hair turns green after she washes it with acid rain water she collects from the roof top of their penthouse apartment (ostensibly “natural” water delivered from the heavens). Gotta give DS points for delving into 80s enviro issues!
Me too! But couldn’t remember why so I googled it (is that cheating?). Here’s what I found: “Aunt Sophia pleads with Drummond to get involved with an effort to address pollution, but Drummond stubbornly refuses. Then, Kimberly’s hair turns green after washing it with dirty water.” Man, acid rain sucks.