Why do no sulfate's hate me?

[knux]

I have used a handful of no sulfate shampoo's over the past year but I find that they either immediately made my hair dull and greasy, or after a few washes. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe sulfates are good for some people? Is that possible?

[rena]

Sulfates do work well for some, yes. It is entirely possible, and if you read around, you may find there are many like yourself who prefer them in their shampoos over sulfate-free stuff.

[lmfbs]

I find with no sulfates I have to do a lot more manual massaging of my scalp and leave conditioner on for longer to break down any oils.

[Anje]

You might produce more oil than the shampoo can handle. Depending on your body, this might settle down with time and continued use of non-sulfate shampoos, or it might not. (My scalp reacts to harsher shampoos by producing more oil, and it decreases its oil production after an extended period without using those harsh shampoos. Other people seem to produced fix amounts of oil no matter what. It takes at least a few weeks of suffering the greasies to determine which you are.)

You might be using other products that the shampoo is unable to wash away.

You might be using soap-based non-sulfate shampoos. They don't necessarily rinse clean in harder water. You can probably compensate with a diluted vinegar rinse, but sometimes even that's insufficient to deal with a non-sulfate shampoo that doesn't get along with the local water.

Your technique for washing with the non-sulfate shampoo might need some modification. They don't froth up as much as sulfate shampoos, typically.

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No, sulfates aren't universally bad. They are fairly harsh cleansing agents, and for some that means more wear or stripping of the hair shaft. But if your scalp gets oily no matter what or if you use products that build up, they're useful for getting it off.

If you want to reduce the harshness, another thing you can try is diluting your sulfate shampoo down a bit and then washing with it. For many people, this is the best of both worlds.

[raingirl]

I see you are in the GTA.

I've tried many no-sulphate shampoos and the same thing, I just didn't feel clean.

Until I tried Live Clean products! They are a Canadian company and the products are about 98% organic, SLS free, vegan, paraben free...biodegradable...I think that's most of the benefits there. I love them. I feel like I am using a regular shampoo! They lather up beautiful, smell amazing and the conditioner is awesome! I love the Argan Oil one.

Here is their website: http://live-clean.com/

I checked where you were located before commenting because they aren't available in the USA yet. Lucky for us!! You can get them at some Shoppers Drug Marts but mostly I get them at Walmart because they are cheaper there.

[lapushka]

I pretty much had problems with the greasies with a typical no-sulfate shampoo. I didn't have it that bad with Urtekram (no-sulfates), which is odd. But still, no-sulfates is generally way too mild for me. I really do need quite a harsh cleanser, stuff like Herbal Essences or Pantene.

[ravenreed]

I haven't had any success with non-SLS shampoos either. I find CO-ing works better for me.

[Shermie Girl]

I have used a handful of no sulfate shampoo's over the past year but I find that they either immediately made my hair dull and greasy, or after a few washes. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe sulfates are good for some people? Is that possible?

My hair and scalp hate sulphate free shampoo. I have heard all of the "Sulphates are bad! Sulphates are evil! Sulphates fade your colour and are going to give you cancer!" BS and I suppose that I bought into all of that for a bit. I actually went sulphate free for a while, tried many different brands at many different price levels. With every one, my hair was an angry, dried out, staring haystack that looked and felt as if I had soaked my head in rocket fuel. And sulphate free shampoo makes my scalp itch like nobody's business.

As far as my hair is concerned, sulphate free is evil!

[long&blonde]

I just posted a similar thread, as to why sulfate free organix doesn't agree with me. My hair feels tangly, not clean, a bit itchy, and the conditioner doesn't help detangle,as others w/sulfates will. Checking out answers here! You aren't alone!

[blaketob]

I haven't went sulfate free yet but I have one shampoo that says less sulfate on it compared to my other normal shampoo. After just comparing the two I don't ever think I'll go sulfate free. Even though there is still sulfate in one I feel the difference in my hair between the two. I find that the less sulfate one makes my hair feel dry.