Are you washing with chemical degreaser and don’t even know it?
A lot of liquid shampoos and body washes contain sodium lauryl sulphate or sodium laureth sulphate. These chemicals are very harsh lathering agents that strip the oils away from the body creating chronic dry skin. They can even cause eczema and contact dermatitis!
Sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulphate can be found in dishwashing liquid, laundry detergents and carwash liquids… basically anything that lathers has sodium lauryl or sodium laureth sulphate if it’s in a liquid. There are a new products coming out with different lathering agents but sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulphate has been used for decades.
As Americans, we’ve somehow been convinced that the more suds the better. Well the truth is that the more suds you have, the more you’re washing off the essentials oils that your body is meant to produce on its own. When you strip these oils away, you’re left with dry, scaly and cracked skin. It will have a stronger propensity to have dry itchy areas.
You wouldn’t consider washing your body with Tide laundry detergent, Dawn or Ajax dish soaps. So why would you use a product that has basically the same exact primary ingredient in it? If you turn the labels around (which I always encourage people to do) and look for sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulphate, you’ll find it as the primary ingredient in the ingredient list.
Healthier Alternatives
Switching over to a bar product such as a bar soap or a bar shampoo can make all the difference in the world with the chronic dry skin. Getting this chemical, lathering agents and chemical degreasing agents off your skin make a huge difference. I find that when we reboot the body and take this chemical away, the body tends to react quickly in healing itself.
Our bar soap and shampoo bars do not contain any sulphates as far as the chemical lathering agents go. Our shampoo bar contains sodium coco sulphate which is the pure form of the lathering agent. This has been used for centuries. The coconut oil in it has NOT gone through the harsh chemical stripping process that takes all the nice vitamins and essential fatty oils out of the product. So we used sodium coco sulphate in our shampoo bars which still creates a brilliant lather without stripping the body of its essential oils and placing those harsh chemicals on the body.
So I suggest that if you’re having problems with chronic dry skin, you should take a look at the liquid products that you’re putting on your body from the top down. Again, if you put shampoo in your body and it is a liquid, it most likely contains sodium lauryl sulphate. This is washing down in your entire body so you’re getting the same exact effect as as you would from a body wash. Take a look at your labels, turn it around and read it. See what a difference taking this chemical agent off of your body can do for you.