Sulphate free shampoo for men unnecessary?

Everybody is looking for natural haircare products nowadays and one of the first things to look at is a sulphate free shampoo. Preferably a shampoo that is sulphate AND paraben free. In this blog post I will specifically talk about sulphate free shampoos.

In the beginning us men were maybe slightly less critical about our shampoos compared to woman, but that has changed and now we also want healthy hair products with good ingredients. For many men that means a shampoo without sulphates.

What are sulphates?

Sulphates are ingredients called surfactants. They are minerals salts derived from sulphuric acid. Sulphates are primarily meant for cleansing purposes and they help the formula to be foamy and lather well.

Shampoo without sulphates does not really foam and has slightly less cleansing properties. When you are looking on the packaging and check what kind of sulphates you will find in the ingredient list, it usually will be one or more of these:

SLS | Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
SLES | Sodium Laureth Sulphate
ALS | Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate
ALES | Ammonium Laureth Sulfate

Are sulphates really that bad?

Perhaps it is better to use shampoos without sulphates, but in the past years sulphates have become pariah’s in the world of cosmetic ingredients. It is a chemical ingredient that has a clear function and with many other ingredients in cosmetic products, you can potentially be sensitive to it.

A sulphate free shampoo is milder for your hair and scalp and usually provides less irritation. But sulphates are deemed safe ingredients for cosmetic products in Europe. When you are not sensitive for sulphates, you probably would not even notice that a certain shampoo contains them.

For a more detailed analyses about sulphates and also parabens, I would recommend reading this blog post!

What substitutes are used in sulphate free shampoo?

Every shampoo is meant to cleanse your hair, so also a shampoo without parabens still requires ingredients to do so. So, sulphates are usually replaced by ingredients that look very much the same.

Substitutes that are being used in sulphate free shampoo are usually one or more of these:

Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isethionate
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
Cocamide DEA en MEA
Propylene glycol
Coco-betaine

Not all substitutes are created equally, because some of them are actually causing more irritation than sulphates itself. Sulphate substitutes you better should avoid are Cocamide DEA/MEA, propylene glycol and Cocamidopropyl Betaine for example. Click the links for more detailed information about these ingredients by a good source.

When a sulphate free shampoo contains one of these ingredients it is technically a shampoo without sulphates, but these ingredients have the same effect. That is because many manufacturers still would like their shampoo to be foamy and create lather easily.

Some examples of better sulphate substitutes you will see in ingredient list will usually end in Isethionate, sulfosuccinate or glucoside. There are also more and more sulphate free shampoos that contain aloe vera as their primary ingredient.

The ingredients mentioned above in sulphate free shampoos are actually milder for your hair and skin. They tend to be less irritating.

Is it even useful to use a sulphate free shampoo?

You can indeed ask yourself how useful it is to use a shampoo without sulphates, considering many substitutes are not any better and still can cause irritation and sometimes even more irritation.

It is primarily important to look closely to the ingredient list of (sulphate free) shampoos when you frequently experience an irritated scalp or limp hair. Sulphates are not harmful and they also do not cause cancer, as was suggested in the past.

So, in some regards shampoos without sulphates are a little bit a marketing scheme that manufacturers like to use to promote their sulphate free products.

When you experience very dry hair, you might want to look at more natural shampoos with better sulphate substitutes, because sulphates and the lesser replacement are very good in cleaning your hair, but sometimes a bit too good.

In that case natural oils are being washed away and that will dry out your hair a bit. When you have oily hair, you might actually want to use a shampoo with sulphates. Especially when you do not notice any irritation or discomfort.

The best sulphate free shampoos for men in the Moquer shop
I can imagine that after reading this blog post you are a little bit confused and do not know what to choose anymore. What sulphate free shampoo should I choose then?

Below I mentioned a few shampoos without sulphates that contain the correct replacements or no sulphates at all.

O’douds Shampoo Bar

Shampoo bars are relatively new and are becoming more popular fast. This product only contains a few ingredients and all of them are natural oils and butters. That is why this product does not foam a lot, but it is one of the more natural cleansers for your hair and scalp.

Shehvoo Activating Oil Cleanser

Also not really the most standard sulphate free shampoo, because it is more a cleansing oil. Also this product will not create much lather, but it does help to remove excessive oil and cleanse your hair. It does not strip your hair of its natural oils, so that your hair and scalp do not dry out.

Hanz de Fuko Shampoo

Our most popular sulphate free shampoo in the shop does contain some Cocamidopropyl Betaine. It is the sixth ingredient. Preferably you want to avoid this ingredient, but it is the sixth on the list, which means it only contains a little bit of it in reality. It is actually using 4 other sulphate substitutes that are all deemed safe and natural. That is why they are all classified as a 1 on the website of EWG.

Conclusion

Sulphate free shampoos are popular, but not all shampoo without sulphates is the same. In this blog post I made an attempt to help you on your way in the world of sulphate free products. It is also important to not go crazy and just look up some ingredients yourself and do your own research. There are multiple good websites that have databases with cosmetic ingredients to look up, like the EWG website I linked to earlier.

But in the Moquer shop you can find numerous shampoos that are sulphate free and that do not contain any of the substitutes that are in reality doing the same thing. Almost every product page will list an ingredient list and then you can check if it contains something you preferably do not want in your shampoo.