Ultra Processed Haircare?
We all know that ultra-processed foods aren't great for our bodies. Studies by Dr. Chris Van Tulleken and others have shown links between ultra-processed foods and a serious list of health problems: But what about our curls? It’s time to talk about ultra-processed haircare.
Ingredients like sunflower oil, guar gum, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, soy protein, lecithin, and dextrose are all hallmarks of those ultra-processed foods we try to avoid. But they're also showing up in our curly hair products, in that hair shop near you, in that new salon you found, on the high street, and even in luxury beauty stores.
So where’s safe? Often the indie brands like us. We have our eczema-safe shampoo and 8-ingredient leave-in conditioner but we aren’t in shops just yet. Curl care on shelves is full of UPF-ingredients like: ammonia. Research shows it can irritate and burn the skin, mouth, throat, lungs, and eyes. Written as Brassicamidopropyl Dimethylamine in one of the products we found in a luxury store recently, please take note: anything with amine at the end: or any member of a family of nitrogen-containing organic compounds that is derived, either in principle or in practice, from ammonia (NH3). Dimethylamine is a stronger base than both ammonia and methylamine because it has two methyl groups.
Formaldehyde is also rife in the high street curl care and is a known carcinogen, linked to an increased risk of various cancers, most notably nasopharyngeal cancer.
Attentive
This isn’t to frighten, but to make you aware of what is out there on the shelves of the most familiar beauty stores. We are on a completely different level because we are so bespoke. We have the capacity to care.
I am also a former journalist and research is in my nature. To simplify things I have done the digging for you.
To be completely upfront some have called me extreme, and I understand. But I have a nephew. If I could have a farm tomorrow so that my nephew never experiences anything external that isn’t linked to cancer I would.
I’m not there yet. Instead, I do what I can, which is grow my own rosemary and formulate natural, eczema-safe haircare used on his precious skin myself. Highly processed doesn’t exist at Jim + Henry HQ because we care. I care.
It’s also a reason why we were selected by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and we have been chosen as a Breast Cancer Prevention Partner. Our research into ingredients is constant, and we have been chosen as safe.
It makes my blood boil that black women have been exposed to cancerous ingredients since the ages of 7 up to 70 due to relaxer - the chemical straightening cream which has been shown to cause endometriosis and uterine cancer. We know this thanks to a 20-year (and ongoing) study by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences which revealed women who used relaxer at least 4 times per year increased their risk of uterine cancer by 150%.
More than Enough
It’s figures like this which make me so passionate: Afro hair is beautiful. Curly hair is beautiful. Wavy hair is beautiful. Very short ‘fro’s and cropped curly cuts are pretty, just like the mid-length, I’m growing-it-out curls you have.
I will continue to share what I know, and shine a light on ingredients because when we’re informed, we ascend.
Yours,
Tammy
Links for further reading:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/hair-dyes-fact-sheet
https://www.britannica.com/science/amine
http://www.tightlycurly.com/ingredients/brassicamidopropyl_dimethylamine/#:~:text=Avoid%20means%20this%20ingredient%20may,it%20down%20and%20walk%20away. > Quote from text: Caution. This ingredient (Brassicamidopropyl dimethylamine) may hurt your hair. If you see this ingredient in a hair product, it's best to put it down and walk away.