This is what sulfates do to your hair

While it’s often in direct contact with your skin, face, and hair, the cosmetics industry is regularly guilty of using potentially harmful ingredients in its products. After parabens, sulfates are one ingredient that’s often singled out. Regularly found in shampoos, the chemicals can be damaging to your hair, even if the product claims to give you shiny, mermaid locks.

The sulfates found in your beauty products help create a lathering effect to remove dirt, oil, and product residues from your hair. In contrast, while they clean just as effectively, sulfate-free shampoos create little to no lather.

Among the ingredients in shampoos, sulfates are said to have the deepest cleansing effect and help give hair that-post wash “clean feeling.”

Whether or not to give up sulfates is a hot topic in the beauty industry. On the one hand, the ingredient has been safely used for decades in various beauty products and on the other hand, its effects can be too intense for some people, resulting in varying degrees of skin and eye irritation.

Additionally, while it’s an effective cleansing agent, sulfates can be a little too efficient in stripping your hair of its natural oils, resulting in dry and brittle strands. If you have dry or colour-treated hair, shampoos loaded with the chemicals can make your hair feel brittle.