The Advice Goddess Asks:
Does Sodium Lauryl Sulfate dry your hair?
The Right Brain’s Reply:
Yes, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (also known as SLS) can dry your hair and skin. But that doesn’t mean you should completely avoid it. Allow us to explain.
SLS is a detergent. All detergents belong to the class of chemicals known as surfactants which, by definition, means they help water mix with oil. So all detergents, SLS included, can remove oil from hair and skin - that’s what they’re supposed to do. Removing “dirty” oil from hair and skin is good, but removing all the natural oils that keep hair and skin moisturized is bad. So too much exposure to SLS can cause problems. But for the average person, under normal use conditions, using a shampoo or hand soap, or body wash with SLS is probably fine. But if you use any of these products very frequently (shampooing 3 times a day, for example) then you might start to overdry your hair and skin.
The other factor to consider is what else is in the formula beside SLS. Co-surfactants can reduce the drying effect and so can adding conditioning agents. So as you can see, it’s not a simple case of “SLS is drying so stay away from it.”
By the way, SLS has a twin brother called Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (or ALS). Tests have shown that ALS may be SLIGHTLY less irritating than SLS but for all practical purposes, they’re almost exactly the same. So if decide to stay away from SLS, don’t move to ALS.
Oh yeah, and then there are the cousins: Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (called Sodium Laureth Sulfate or SLES) and Ammonium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (called Ammonium Laureth Sulfate or ALES). The “ether” part means they’re a little bit milder but they don’t foam as well.
The Beauty Brains’ Bottom Line:
SLS can dry out hair and skin but unless you have sensitive skin or you’re experiencing specific dryness related problems, don’t worry about it too much. If you are having problems, switching to a non SLS or ALS formula may help.
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