Parabens

[aries]

Does anyone have trouble with parabens? I can't use proteins and I think parabens are giving my hair a hard time as well but not sure. The ends get dry and crunchy using paraben products. Are parabens a protein? I know this has been discussed in before but can't remember what was talked about with parabens and I can't find the articles.

[akurah]

Parabens are preservatives and will only be present in products in the most minute amount necessary to prevent them from spoiling.

[RavennaNight]

I've never noticed a difference but people have told me they're bad. I'm not sure why though. Sorry I'm no help but I'm gonna watch this thread with you, because I'm curious about parabens myself!

[bgarrison]

http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/563

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/06/21/what-are-parabens-and-why-should-you-avoid-them/

Not every one agrees with this, (of course)

I avoid them as much as I can, but it's tough. Same with phthalates.

[flapjack]

They're harmless. There was a crap study claiming that parabens were found in high concentrations in breast tumors, but that turned out to be false. The American Cancer Society, along with the NSF and a bunch of other reputable groups of scientists and medical professionals have come to the conclusion that as far as we know, there is no connection between parabens and cancer. First, there were email rumors that it was carcinogenic. Which is total BS. Then, the next tale was that it was incredibly estrogenic. Again with the BS. You get tons more estrogen from eating soy for lunch. A lot of it was the classic health scare study... where the media takes a scientific study that says "We put 350,000mg of this in a rat and it died!" and makes it sound like if we have 0.35 micrograms we're going to die.


Obviously, common sense reigns supreme with this. Parabens are synthetic chemicals. They are used as preservatives because natural preservatives are not always the best at the job. So you shouldn't eat anything that has parabens in it. You should look at the natural and/or synthetic preservatives in all products you use and make sure you're not using too much of any one thing. Because, like water and oxygen, too much of anything is unhealthy.

[starla_zero]

All of Naked's products are paraben, silicone and sulfate free, you might want to try those? I tried them but unfortunately it made my scalp worse and my hair very dry, so I guess my hair just loves sulfates and silicones.

[Mahars]

I've also heard mixed things about parabens. I try to avoid them as much as possible just in case they're dangerous. I have a family history of breast cancer, so I try to be careful about avoiding estrogenic substances like birth control pills.

Just a heads up for other people trying to avoid parabens, look out for high doses in Loreal products. This includes Kerastase, Redken and Matrix. I've found that parabens are way high up in the ingredients list of these products.

[ruby_tuesday]

I doubt parabens in shampoo & conditioner have any effect on hair since you wash those out immediately. Having said that, parabens are unnecessary synthetics, and I wouldn't use a face cream, makeup or toothpaste that contains these. I prefer natural products in general, that dont contain any weird/suspicious ingredients. So my shampoo& conditioner are paraben-free & plant-based. I feel like I cant go wrong with that.

flapjack, just to avoid more confusion concerning soy : the amount of phytoestrogens in soy beans shouldn't be compared to concentrated estrogen. Just sayin'. :toofers:

[Euphony]

Just a heads up for other people trying to avoid parabens, look out for high doses in Loreal products. This includes Kerastase, Redken and Matrix. I've found that parabens are way high up in the ingredients list of these products.
Parabens are used at between 0.5% and 1.5% of a finished product, that means that the ingredients listed after the parabens are less than that.


Having said that, parabens are unnecessary synthetics, and I wouldn't use a face cream, makeup or toothpaste that contains these. I prefer natural products in general, that dont contain any weird/suspicious ingredients. So my shampoo& conditioner are paraben-free & plant-based. I feel like I cant go wrong with that.
What preservatives are used in the products you use? Anything that has water requires preservatives. Parabens seem to have a better rap than formaldahyde producing preservatives. Grapefruit seed extract are used by some as a preservative but it has been proven ineffective (extremely ineffective) except for those sneaky manufacturers of grapefruit seed extract that add parabens into the grapefruit seed extract but don't list it on the ingredients.


flapjack, just to avoid more confusion concerning soy : the amount of phytoestrogens in soy beans shouldn't be compared to concentrated estrogen. Just sayin'. :toofers:
I wouldn't be too quick to jump to conclusions about soy beans phytoestrogens. I tried Nutrisystem for 2 weeks and had to go off of it since it put my cycle horribly out of whack. I found out it was the soy protein used that had me messed up. That was almost 3 months ago and I'm almost back to normal since I went off the diet.

[ruby_tuesday]

We're all different, and might react differently to some products, (tofu & soy milk work fine for me) it's just that there is some confusion concerning soy & estrogen and that is why I mentioned it... There's a lot of information available on the net so I'll leave it at that....I'm using shampoo & conditioner by Urtekram and some skincare by Faith In Nature. You can google the ingredients. Peace.

[aries]

Thank you for all the responses. So I guess what comes from my assumption of this thread is to try it and see if I like it or not, hair and scalp wise. I am asking because I am wanting to try Nexxus Therapy and Humectress, Jessi Curl is killing my pocket book although I've been using it for several years now. We will see how it goes. I also have to be careful because of the proteins but they are both so far down on the list of ingredients that they may not affect me to harshly.

Once again, thank you for reminding about what parabens are.

[Soniasonia]

Parabens make my breasts hurt. I cant use anything with parabens, at all, or else they will hurt all day.

[aries]

Ok, I have to ask, how do parabens cause pain in other parts of the body when they are in the hair only? Does the body soak up that much with washing and conditioning? I don't understand how this can cause pain in the rest of the body.

Not being rude, just don't understand.

[Soniasonia]

No I mean in general when I use stuff with parabens. Im sure the scalp absorbs them. I dont just wash my hair fast and rinse out, I take my sweet time and massage my scalp with it to get it nice and clean.