(NaturalNews) For years, I've tried to find a truly natural shampoo that I could feel good about using and recommending to family, friends and NaturalNews readers. It's been a virtually impossible task: Many of the so-called "natural" shampoo products sold today are loaded with fragrance, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or questionable preservative chemicals. This is true even with many "organic" brands (some of which aren't really organic, of course).
Those aren't the kind of things I want to be putting on my
hair (and scalp), and I'm willing to venture you feel the same way about it. Why is it so difficult to find a good quality, truly natural, fragrance-free
shampoo sold at a reasonable price?
I decided to work on this problem myself. With the help of a couple of remarkable product formulators in the natural products
industry (who are long-time followers of superfoods and living foods themselves), we've been able to come up with a really solid shampoo formula using absolutely nothing artificial:
• No parabens
• No SLS (
sodium lauryl sulfate) or other "hidden" forms of SLS
• No
fragrance chemicals • No chemical preservatives
• No sudsing
chemicals • No harsh chemicals that destroy hair fibers
• No petroleum byproducts
• No testing on animals (of course!)
We went all out on this formula, working on it with our formulators for months, sourcing everything
organic that we could find. The result? Our shampoo is 98% organic and 100%
natural. (It's not yet certified organic, nor USDA Organic. We've just begun that process and hope to receive those certifications in the future...)
What's in the 2% that's non-organic? Both guar gum and Kosher vegetable glycerin are not available in organic forms (because these aren't
ingredients commonly made with pesticides anyway). Everything else is 100% organic.
Check out these remarkable ingredients yourself:
Our natural shampoo ingredients:
Purified Water, Saponified organic oils of Cocos Nucifera (Coconut Oil), Organic Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower), and Organic Castor Seed, Kosher Vegetable Glycerin, Guar Gum, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Organic Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail/Silica), Organic Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Organic Astragalus Membranacus (Astragalus), Organic Coriandrum Sativum (Cilantro), Triticum Vulgare (Wheat Germ Oil), Pelargonium Gravolens (Geranium Essential Oil), Organic Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary), Organic Matricaria Recutita (Chamomile), Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf (Aloe), Citric Acid, Rosemary Seed Extract.As you can readily tell yourself, this formula is absolutely loaded with
herbs and nutrients that support and nourish
healthy hair: Horsetail, Nettle, Geranium
oil, Aloe, Coconut Oil and much more. And our only "preservative" is
rosemary seed extract - a natural inhibitor of bacterial growth, made by Mother Nature!
Beware of false "organic" shampoo products
In my five years as the editor of
NaturalNews, I've tried hundreds of different hair care and body care products. There are some real gems in the industry, such as Karen Adler's Toothsoap company (
www.Toothsoap.com), which also offers a "Hair Soap" shampoo that's truly natural. But overall, I've been totally let down by the so-called "natural" products industry when it comes to shampoo.
In fact, NaturalNews worked directly with the Organic Consumers Association (
www.OrganicConsumers.org) to help break the story about the
toxic chemical 1,4 dioxane being found in baby shampoo products (
http://www.naturalnews.com/022846.html). In that breaking news story, we informed NaturalNews readers of the dangers of cancer-causing chemicals in so-called "natural" shampoo products, urging them to look for and avoid all the following potentially toxic ingredients:
• Myreth
• Oleth
• Laureth
• Cateareth (or other "eth" chemicals)
• PEG
• Polyethylene
• Polethylene Glycol
• Polyoxyethylene
• Oxynol
You'll notice that our Valley of Longevity Natural Shampoo contains
none of these ingredients. I wouldn't dare use a product made with potentially toxic chemicals that could harm human
health.
If you haven't already, read up about the dangers of SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/003210.html(You'll instantly realize why we don't use SLS in our shampoo...)
Our list of ingredients is, I'm sure you'll agree, the most honest, natural and truly healthful list of ingredients you'll find in any shampoo product, anywhere. Compare our Valley of Longevity Natural Shampoo side-by-side with ANY other shampoo on the market, and you'll be amazed at how much better the quality of ingredients is in our product.
You can pick some up for yourself at the NaturalNews Store:
We offer an 8 oz. bottle here:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/Valley_of_Longevity_Natural_Shampoo_8_oz_p...... and an even greater value in our 36 oz. bottle here:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/Valley_of_Longevity_Natural_Shampoo_36_oz_...But what about the cost?
The "dirty little secret" of the shampoo products industry is that most shampoo products are made with very low-quality ingredients that cost virtually nothing. Filling a plastic bottle with synthetic chemicals and artificial
fragrance is, of course, dirt cheap. But it's also not honest, in my opinion, especially when so many of those products use misleading words like "natural" or "organic" or "herbal" on their labels.
The ingredients that have gone into our
Valley of Longevity Natural Shampoo are expensive! We had to contract to make this formulation in very large quantities just to keep the price of the ingredients within reason. Remarkably, we've been able to price this product very competitively, thanks in part to the fact that we aren't selling this through Whole Foods or other retailers. As a result, we don't have to build in a huge markup to cover the costs of retailing.
What's a better bottle: Plastic or glass?
A glass bottle would be the ideal container for any personal care product. We considered that very carefully, but in the end, it turns out that a recyclable plastic bottle is actually better for
the environment and for consumers.
Why? Because glass is heavy, meaning more fossil fuels are consumed during transportation, causing greater CO2 emissions into the
environment. Glass also breaks easily in the shower, creating a safety hazard for bare feet. Plastic is easier to grip, easier to squeeze, and it bounces off the shower floor! So using recyclable plastic makes more sense for lots of reasons, especially for a shampoo product.
Does it dry out my hair?
I've tried a lot of "natural" shampoo products, and most are disappointingly drying to hair follicles. Amazingly, our
Valley of Longevity Natural Shampoo formulation avoids this through the careful use of moisture-enhancing herbs (like horsetail and
aloe). This is the only "natural" shampoo formulation I've ever tried that left my hair feeling healthy and nourished, not dried out and brittle.
100% without fragrance
Here's another really cool part about our shampoo: It completely avoids the use of any fragrance whatsoever! No fragrance chemicals, no essential oils... nothing! That makes it ideal for chemically-sensitive individuals, pets and anyone who wants to wash their hair without having their senses assaulted in the process.
Add your own fragrance, if you want, in the form of
tea tree oil and mint essences. But we ship this shampoo 100% natural and 100% without any fragrance whatsoever.
We offer an 8 oz. bottle here:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/Valley_of_Longevity_Natural_Shampoo_8_oz_p...... and an even greater value in our 36 oz. bottle here:
http://www.truthpublishing.com/Valley_of_Longevity_Natural_Shampoo_36_oz_...Happy showering!
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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