There’s no disguising the fact that more and more brands use these terms all too loosely to entice shoppers, making them believe that they are doing themselves and the environment a favour by buying “natural”. But the cold, hard truth is that in the US today there are no official FDA regulations pertaining to natural and organic labelling of beauty or haircare products. (In Europe, a beauty product needs to include at least 11% of organic ingredients to don the organic label).

In short, a shampoo can claim to be “natural” because it includes a single plant-derived ingredient—and let’s face it: what shampoo doesn’t include one of those? So if your shampoo formula has a bit of rosemary, the bottle can say “natural”. But take a closer look at the label you’ll see that chances are the rest of the ingredients are chemical and synthetic-based.

The bottom line is that the hair-products industry hasn’t yet found a way to make 100% chemical-free products.

If you don’t want to be hoodwinked or are unsure as to which brand is truly natural and organic, visit cosmeticsdatabase.com, a website published by the Environmental Working Group. If it’s the environment you’re concerned about, do some homework on your favorite haircare brands to see which have responsible ecological policies.
Experimenting at home is another option, why not mix up some of your own haircare products? (See our article on homemade hair masks ).