So almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post about SLS and SLES compromising your health and I mentioned that there was a shampoo and a conditioner I bought that scared me into attempting to purge my life of SLS. Though I have not fully, fully committed to that yet because I love my Ponds facewash so, I have since switched out my bodywash (now using Green Mint by Method, which comes in this funny box-shaped bottle…part of their Bloq line) on top of using the shampoo and conditioner, which I guess I never mentioned the brand of. SO, here is my review of it…and a name!
I have been using Paves (there’s a little accent mark over the “e”) Professional’s FLAWless No Sulfates Allowed Repairing Shine Shampoo For Dry Damaged Hair (yes, this is really what it is called) for about a year now with the matching conditioning milk and I like it. This was available exclusively at Walgreens for a while but they discontinued the line so I bought out their shampoos, not knowing if they were really all that great, because I am occasionally an impulse buyer and a sucker for fun packaging, as illustrated by this and my purchasing of the Green Mint Bloq. I have a couple qualms with the shampoo. Overall, I do not regret my insane buyout (during which I acquired, I believe, four or five bottles of the stuff), and if I came across another good deal as that one again, I’d totally buy it. But the benefits of the shampoo have not got me hooked so once I am done with my bottles, given there is not another sale, I’ll try something else. So here we go…
Pros:I did notice a difference from using my old SLS-filled shampoos to using this one. First of all, I really like the natural scent. It’s kind of lemony and refreshing, not heavy and overwhelming like some shampoos out there. Rather than sucking the life out of my hair, it does what it’s supposed to, which is clean. It cleans away the gunk and leaves my hair and scalp alone. I’ll be entirely honest, even though this is kind of gross, but my old shampoos used to dry my scalp out so I would get flakes sometimes when the weather was especially dry but that hasn’t happened since the switch. 
Another pro is that my hair looks healthier and is stronger and I don’t find as many of those weird thick squiggly ones as I used to (a sign of unhealthy hair; I have straightish hair by the way so squiggly is not normal!).
Cons: As some reviews say, the shampoo does not lather as easily as I am used to, but I do not feel like that is a big deal. It does lather, just not as much as some other shampoos that contain potential carcinogins. Frankly, I’d prefer lack of lather to cancer, so this does not bother me a whole lot. One of the many reasons I switched was because I thought I would lose less hair. Not sure about other shampoos but it’s not really true with this one. I still lose about the same amount of hair, maybe a little less, but at least it’s stronger now? Other than that, not too many complaints.
Now, I can’t give the shampoo all the credit. I have really dry hair naturally so conditioning is a must. I REALLY love the conditioner. Unfortunately, I could only get my hands on one bottle, which has lasted me this long because I was trying to use up my Pantene conditioner too.
The conditioning milk also has that yummy light lemony smell and it’s really creamy and asorbs into my hair very well. It’s easy to notice the difference between this conditioner and my Pantene one because Pantene leaves this residue that makes your hair really heavy whereas the Paves conditioning milk does not. Even though that residue kind of helps for the next time you wash your hair because it sort of keeps your hair detangled, it weighs it down a lot so you lose some volume. But thanks to my current conditioner, my hair has gotten much of its sheen back and it’s still nice and light. 
So overall, the shampoo is pretty good but I’ll still look around, but the conditioner is awesome. Unfortunately, I do not know where to buy it besides online, and I am running low, so I went to Whole Foods yesterday and bought Nature’s Gate conditioner in the aloe vera scent. Its scent kind of reminds me of school soap…you know that one that smelled kind of bubble gum-y and it was pink?
And if you’re wondering about the Method Bloq, I really like the green mint one because it leaves you with a minty feeling, but there are so many things to try on the market so I’m still open to other bodywashes!
OH and by the way, I tried Burt’s Bees’ Raspberry and Brazil Nut Conditioner. It smells awesome but it sucks…for my hair at least. It might be good for people who don’t have dry hair like me, though!
Only a couple hours in and out of the sun and I am now as pink as Pepto Bismol on my shoulders and a slightly lighter on my chest and back until where my strapless dress ends. I look sort of like I’m wearing pink overalls and then there’s normal skin color in the middle where my large head luckily cast a shadow, providing shade for my poor epidermis that so rarely sees light that it blushes in its presence. I sunburn really, really easily because pretty much every day of the year I am in a t-shirt and jeans and very little skin is exposed. On the few occasions that I show anything outside of my farmer’s tan, I get burned like a mofo. Not only that, but it shows up really slowly. At first I’m only a little pink and then several hours later, long after I’ve left the evil rays of the sun, I turn a ghastly shade of hot pink. It just sort of sneaks up on me. I don’t think my shoulders have ever only been a little sunburned. Go big or go home, the sun seems to feel. Lucky me, I get to have charred shoulders while abroad. How will I ever hook my British boyfriend now? No one likes crispy shoulders. Oh well, our lovely photos with the grad were worth it. 
Pictures soon to come! Congratulations on your graduation, Roomie!!! I’ve been waiting to say that to someone for years because it’s been a while since anyone I knew graduated.
Really though? I was only in the sun less than two hours! Goodbye o-zone layer. Remember to wear sunblock, friends! Especially if you don’t want to have leather skin when you’re older. I’ll have leather shoulders for sure. They’ll be like shoulder pads. They’re gonna come back one day and you’ll all be jealous because my shoulder pads are built-in.
Apparently I have been drowning myself from head-to-toe in Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate for most of my life and have only just recently realized how horrible they are. As a kid, I used J&J Baby Lotion and Shampoo and stuff, but when I got to around middle school age, I started using Herbal Essences because it smelled so nice (not because of those creepy commercials that make it seem like an orgasm-inducer) and it all went downhill from there. My hair was much duller than it used to be and my skin was always dry, but I thought these were somehow the consequences of puberty and growing up and whatever. I picked up using conditioner soon after to fix the dull hair, which never did restore it to its original shininess, but it helped a little. SLS and SLES doesn’t affect some people as much as others, but I guess I got the crappy end of the deal. What it is is a degreaser, absorbing all the oil and dirt on you, leaving you oh so fresh and so clean…but dry. It took me until just a few days ago to realize the degree of the wrath of sulfates when I picked up a bottle of shampoo at Walgreens that noted how bad sulfates were because they dry you out, which prompted my Googling of it to see just how horrendous it is. Little did I know, aside from drying out your hair and skin, it also causes hair loss (which I did hear about but only associated with Herbal Essences, which stopped me from using it) and eye irritation, and rumor has it, it can cause cancer with prolonged use, but that’s just a myth. Someone was probably paid off to say that.
It’s hard to avoid products with SLS and SLES (somewhat less bad than the former) because it’s in practically everything, even in my face wash. 
There are a lot of shampoos out there that don’t include these ingredients, but they are a little pricier, such as Burt’s Bees Grapefruit and Sugar Beets Shampoo, which has an ingredients hazard level of 1 on a scale of 0-10, by the way. I haven’t looked into a lot of products, but I did buy the shampoo and conditioner that prompted my hair scare, so I guess I’ll update you when I use it. It smells really natural, so I’m sort of excited. Unfortunately, I have a Costco-size olive oil shampoo that is not nearly finished. When I first started using it, it made my hair feel so nice, but after a while, it probably became duller than ever. I don’t know the reasoning behind this, but I’m sure the sulfates don’t help all too much. Despite olive oil being good for you, something else is cancelling it out.
Another alternative is not shampooing at all and “going grunge” (about eight paragraphs down). As tempting as that sounds, I’m not sure I’m ready for a shampooless lifestyle, but according to that piece, it does reduce hair loss and restore it somewhat. And yet another alternative I found was making your own natural shampoo, which I’m sure the DIY-ers out there would love. This option sounds a little more appealing than the prior one. I might just try it eventually just to see how effective it is.
I’m not like haircare obsessed or anything, but why should I let my hair be all yucks when it doesn’t have to be? And I just wanted to promote awareness of what we’re all lathering up with after having just learned about this stuff myself.
