Do you know what's in your shampoo?

Most people use shampoo at least a few times a week. But do you know what’s actually in it?

Surfactants are necessary for the lathering, cleaning, and degreasing effects of a shampoo. Conventional surfactants such as sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate have the potential for harshness, stripping away fatty acids.

It takes just a minute or two to give your hair a thorough washing, but when you multiply that by every day, or at least a few times a week, for a lifetime, it adds up to many minutes — and loads of exposure to the chemicals in your shampoo.

There are no federal regulations for beauty products, including shampoo, so it’s really a buyer beware market.

YOU CAN ABSORB MORE TOXINS FROM HAIRCARE PRODUCTS THAN FOOD

Your skin is your largest organ — and also the thinnest. Less than 1/10th of an inch separates your body from potential toxins. Worse yet, your skin is highly permeable. Just about anything you put on your skin will end up in your bloodstream, and will be distributed throughout your body.

Putting chemicals on your skin or scalp may actually be worse than eating them. When you eat something, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help to break it down and flush it out of your body. However, when you put these chemicals on your skin, they are absorbed straight into your bloodstream without filtering of any kind, going directly to your delicate organs.

Once these chemicals find their way into your body, they tend to accumulate over time because you typically lack the necessary enzymes to break them down. When you add up daily exposure over the course of a lifetime, this adds up to an untold amount of chemical exposures.