Ethical Shampoo

There is nothing quite like a pandemic to put things into perspective. Along with soap, paracetamol, toilet paper and food, shampoo still remains on many peoples’ lockdown shopping lists.

Regular hair washing is advised as a preventative measure to avoid spreading COVID-19 (especially after visiting a space where there is a risk of contamination). But what should we be washing our hair with?
 

Environmental impact and Eco-friendly Shampoos

If you think through the life cycle of shampoo (from the growing or extraction of ingredients to the processing, distribution, packaging and use), it is the use phase that appears to have the biggest environmental impacts, and the extent of this will depend on how many times you wash your hair, with how much water, how the water is heated, and where the water goes afterward.

You could reduce the amount of shampoo you use, the frequency of your hair washes and the length of your showers. As well as reducing use you can:

• Avoid ingredients linked to deforestation, such as palm oil. Shampoo brands that are palm oil-free include: Caurnie Soap, Conscious Skincare, Friendly Soap, and Pure Nuff Stuff. For more information on Conscious Skincare head to our Q&A.
• Seek out organic products or those that have lower ‘foam miles’ – i.e. that contain ingredients that are locally grown and made. Caurnie is a good example here.
• Ditch the packaging and opt for shampoo bars. Most shampoo comes in plastic bottles which may not be widely recyclable. Seeking naked (without packaging) shampoo bars, shampoo bars wrapped in recyclable cardboard or paper packaging, or shampoo refill options are therefore an effective way to reduce, reuse and recycle. According to Caurnie, shampoo bars are also easier to send in the post.

Palm oil free shampoo

Palm oil and its derivatives are found in a vast number of cosmetics products including shampoo.

How a company sources and traces its palm oil products will affect whether it is linked with the clearing of rainforests and peatlands, and the degree to which its products negatively affect local communities, biodiversity, and climate change.

Our palm oil column in the scoretable above shows which companies receive our best, middle and worst ratings for their palm oil policies and practices.

Shampoo brands that are palm oil free include: Caurnie Soap, Conscious Skincare, Friendly Soap, Honesty and Pure Nuff Stuff.

Companies that source their palm oil more sustainably and get a best Ethical Consumer rating for their palm oil sourcing include: Odylique, Triangle Wholefoods Collective Ltd. (ALTER/ NATIVE), Little Soap Company, Lush, Weleda, A.Vogel, L’Oréal (however Nestlé gets a worst rating), PHB Ethical Beauty, and Badger.

Find out more about palm oil and the cosmetics industry.

Toxic chemicals

The often long and complex ingredients lists of bodycare products – including shampoo – contain a number of ingredients of concern. Parabens, phthalates and triclosan have been selected by Ethical Consumer as important indicators for our own toxics rating.

Since last writing about shampoo, in February 2017, a number of companies have chosen to remove all three ingredients from their cosmetics products, including Suma, Honesty and Colgate-Palmolive.

Others have started to remove some of them, including Body Shop, L’Oréal, Natura Cosmeticos, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble. This shift reflects a trend identified in Mintel’s 2019 Women’s Haircare market report: there was an increase in sulphate-free and paraben-free claims on beauty products in 2018.

Companies that receive our best mark for their toxics policies avoid all three toxins. Ones that score a middle have a policy to avoid one or two of the toxins, and companies that score a worst use all three or have no policy.

For more on toxic chemicals in cosmetics and self-care products, head to our feature 'Toxic Beauty'.

Controversial ingredients

Irritant foaming agents

You may also want to avoid the foaming agents sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and its milder form sodium laureth sulphate (SLES), which are known irritants and are often used in shampoos.

However, the Skin Deep website gives SLS and SLES hazard ratings of 1-2 (low hazard) and 1-3 (moderate hazard) respectively, depending on their usage. It states that research studies have found that exposure to the ingredient itself, not the products that contain it, has potential health risks.
 

Microbeads

Under UK law, shampoo, defined as a ‘rinse-off’ product, should not contain microbeads. However, some of the companies in this guide also produce cosmetics products that are not subject to this ban, i.e. products such as make-up that are classified as 'leave on’. All companies’ policies regarding microplastics were therefore assessed by Ethical Consumer.

See our feature The hidden plastics in your cosmetics for more information about our rating and the ethical issues with microplastics.

Shampoo companies that are considered to have positive microplastics policies (that exclude the use of microplastics and non-biodegradable liquid polymers in all products) include Friendly Soap, Green People, Hain Celestial, Honesty cosmetics, Laverana, Little Soap Company, Neal’s Yard, Rolland SRL (O Way), Pure Nuff Stuff, Triangle Wholefoods (Suma), and Weleda AG.

All other companies lost a mark under the Pollution and Toxics category as they either had no policy or had a policy that prohibited microbeads only.

Organic shampoos

As discussed in our feature on organic ingredients in cosmetics, greenwashing tactics are widely used within the beauty sector; tricking customers into believing those lengthy ingredients lists are full of ‘natural,’ ‘sustainably sourced’ and organic ingredients.

For example, Unilever has a ‘natural’ line of shampoos called ‘Love Beauty and Planet’ that claim to source fragrance ingredients ethically, from sustainable sources, whilst failing to provide details. And Herbal Essences describes itself as the ‘first natural hair care brand’; defining natural as ‘an ingredient that occurs in nature and has undergone limited chemical or other processing which modifies it from its natural state’.

As certification schemes offer an independent check on a company’s ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ claims, we have given certified organic products an extra Product Sustainability mark in the Ethiscore tables. (Look for the [O] next to the brand names in the scoretable).

Organic certification ensures that the agricultural ingredients used in shampoos are grown using organic growing methods without the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and GMOs.

A wide range of companies now offer shampoo bars, including ALTER/NATIVE (Suma), Caurnie Soap, Friendly Soap, Little Soap Company, Eco Warrior, Lush, Pure Nuff Stuff, Badger, and Faith in Nature. This is indicated in the score table above with ‘bar’ next to the brand name.

In terms of refill options, all of Suma’s bottles use 100% recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable. Five litre refill drums are also available across its entire liquid range. However, some companies are reducing refill options during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce cross-contamination.

Vegan and cruelty-free shampoo brands

Although a number of animal derivatives are found in cosmetic products (including honey, beeswax, propolis, milk and lanolin), there are now a wide range of vegan alternatives within the shampoo market – as highlighted by a [Vg] after the brand name in the table.

In fact, the number of shampoo products marketed as vegan appears to have increased since we last wrote about shampoo in 2017, suggesting an increased demand for vegan products.

Vegan products are now offered by Suma, Baylis and Harding, Bentley Organics, Caurnie Soap, Conscious Skincare, Daniel Field, Earth Friendly Baby, Friendly Soap, Honesty, Little Soap Company, Lush, Noughty, Pure Nuff Stuff, Yaoh, Lavera, Avalon, Odylique, Badger, Green People, Weleda, Urtekram, Inecto, PHB Ethical Beauty, Attitude, Sante, Love Beauty and Planet, Neal's Yard, and Faith in Nature.

You may also wish to buy from a totally vegan company. Vegan shampoo brands made by vegan companies include: Caurnie, Daniel Field, Friendly Soap, Honesty, Little Soap Company, Yaoh, and Faith in Nature.

Animal testing

As highlighted in our feature on animal testing and REACH, animal testing is common in the cosmetics industry. We have therefore rated the animal testing policies of all companies in this guide. Companies will score a best rating if they have a policy not to test on animals.

This policy would include a fixed cut-off date (a date after which none of their products or ingredients will have been tested on animals). In addition, we would not expect them to be selling into markets (e.g. China) where product animal testing is required by law.

Tax avoidance

At a time when the NHS and other public services are under huge strain, it is ethically absurd to think that corporates can still avoid paying a fair rate of tax. Ethical Consumer calls on the UK Government to urgently tackle systemic tax avoidance and ban government contracts with companies engaged in tax avoidance.

For those seeking shampoo, we advise boycotting companies that receive Ethical Consumer’s worst rating for the likely use of tax avoidance practices. These include: Procter and Gamble, Hain Celestial, Natura Cosmeticos, Clarins, Walgreen Boots Alliance, Johnson and Johnson, Nestlé, L’Oréal, Church and Dwight, JZ International, the Fung Group, Kao Group, Estée Lauder, Colgate- Palmolive, L'Occitane International, JAB Cosmetics, KKR, CK Hutchison and Unilever.

Companies that score a middle Ethical Consumer rating for the likely use of tax avoidance strategies include PZ Cussons and Henkel AG.