It replaced sulfates in half the shampoos on the shelf because it’s milder. Then the American Contact Dermatitis Society named it Allergen of the Year, and the reason why turns out not to be the ingredient at all.
Women sued Unilever over hair loss they blamed on this preservative. By July 2022 it was gone from TRESemme in the US. The company never conceded the point, which tells you something on its own.
Europe has been quietly restricting a group of silicones since 2020, and the rules tighten again this year. Not because they hurt your hair. Because they don’t break down once they leave your shower.
People treat “mineral sunscreen” as one thing. It’s two ingredients that don’t do the same job, and only one of them covers the full range of UV on its own.
Key West banned it. Then the state of Florida stepped in and un-banned it, fourteen months before the rule was due to start. Here’s what the research actually says, and why the fight got that ugly.
It’s named in every sunscreen ban alongside oxybenzone and gets a fraction of the attention. It’s also hiding in products that aren’t sunscreen at all, doing a completely different job.
We read the ingredient lists, checked the certifications, and sorted the clean shampoos that actually work from the ones that leave your hair limp. Here are the non-toxic haircare picks worth buying.
One study from 2002 is doing all the work behind this fear, and almost nobody quoting it has read what it tested. Here’s the study, what it found, and why it doesn’t apply to your face cream.
The ingredient is benign. What can ride along with it from the factory is a likely human carcinogen, which is why New York wrote a law about it. That distinction is the whole story.
Half the internet will tell you it’s antifreeze. It isn’t, and the mix-up is one letter deep. Here’s what butylene glycol does, what the testing shows, and the one group who should pay attention.