Why is drug store shampoo so bad for your hair? The packaging and smell of some of them is so pretty and official so why does your stylist cringe when you tell her you use Organix? Let’s break down some of the common ingredients of some of the most common drug store shampoos.

• SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE: a cheap cleansing agent also found in harsh detergents, like engine cleaner. In many shampoos SLS is the base ingredient. If it can dissolve engine grease, as you can imagine it dissolves the natural oils of your skin creating dryness and irritation. In the natural shedding process the average person sheds over 100 hairs a day. During shedding the open hair follicles are vulnerable to SLS damage by drying and irritating them. Unfortunately once hair follicles die, they can’t come back.

• SILICONES: you probably swear by your Pantene or tresseme because it’s so shiny!.. but it’s the plastic. Silicones are plastics that fill in your hair’s porosity. It locks out water and even air. It gives the hair the appearance of a smooth shiny surface and that slippery-when-wet feel. Over time the silicone builds up on the hair- making it heavy, lifeless, and dull. Remember it locks out moisture, so the hair becomes dried out and becomes a sponge to dirt. You get very shiny hair for a couple of days, but over time not letting in conditioners will just have them sit on the surface and your hair will be one weak and brittle.

• SODIUM CHLORIDE: aka… table salt! Great on a baked potato, not so much your hair. This is used as a thickener in shampoos but can cause a dry and itchy scalp by stripping your scalp of its natural moisture.

• POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL or PEG: another thickening agent in shampoos that strips hair

• MINERAL OIL: engine oil’s cousin! So you probably don’t want that on your hair. Your products claim to have argan or macadamia oil in them but at the bottom of the ingredient list they usually have less than 5 percent and use mineral oil as a cheap filler.

• PARABENS: prolong shelf life of products. They’re known for their toxic nature. Not only do they irritate they cause hormonal imbalance.