The quest for a natural shampoo - Part 1

I've been trying for a while to find the perfect shampoo. This quest has been made more difficult by the fact that I have psoriasis on my scalp. Finding a shampoo that would not only make my hair clean and manageable (my hair is insanely poofy) and would also not exacerbate my psoriasis has been a challenge to say the least. On top of that the product cannot contain animal ingredients or be tested on animals.

For a while my favourite shampoo was by The Body Shop, however it contained honey and was bought by L'Oreal which isn't my favourite company to say the least. I had tried various other treatments, tea tree shampoos, 'holistic' shampoos but after washing my scalp would be a disaster zone. At the advice of my hairdresser I switched to Kerastase, a L'Oreal product. Groan.

It was with some trepidation that I tried the A'Kin Lemongrass Shampoo. The first thing to note is the attractive price point. Many organic and natural shampoos are well above the $30 mark (E.g. Alba Botanica Daily Shampoo, smells wonderful but is $29). A'Kin starts from $13.90 for 225ml which is very reasonable.

The brand comes from Australia and among the bonus points:

1. There are no parabens. Parabens are used as a preservative in many cosmetics and many studies are being undertaken to determine whether they are carcinogenic. For this reason many people err on the side of caution and avoid products with parabens.
2. No Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. This is the ingredient which creates lather in products such as toothpaste, shampoo, floor cleaner and other such products. The removal of this compound from many natural products explains the lack of lather when using a natural shampoo or body wash. It has been known to be a skin irritant.
   
3. The company uses a local Australian work force to manufacture and distribute their products.
4. The product is 100% vegan and not tested on animals.
   

The A'Kin Lemongrass Shampoo is designed for oily to combination hair and scalp. I have an oily scalp but dry hair so this was a test to see whether the product could moisturise my hair but leave the scalp clean at the same time.

A big surprise was the amount of lather created when I washed my hair. I did a quick pre wash with a small dollar coin size amount which had the amount of lather I would expect. However going back for the second wash with a slightly bigger amount in my palm created so much lather that my shower looked like the inside of a rabid car wash. This isn't a bad thing mind you, but was surprising given the lack of SLS. Reading the back of the bottle revealed the answer, Sodium Cocoyl Sarcosinate. According to the parent website:

Sodium cocoyl sarcosinate is a derivative of coconut oil and the amino acid, sarcosine. It is skin friendly and has the unusual ability of producing a very rich lather in the presence of oil- the more oil, the richer the lather!

My hair didn't feel silky after washing but it certainly felt squeaky clean. A scalp test revealed a miracle, absolutely no pesky flakes on my scalp! This was certainly impressive because even the L'Oreal product hadn't managed to get rid of all of them. A few days later the shampoo yielded the same results. Clean hair, clean scalp. It's a miracle!

This product is definitely not suitable for coloured hair. It does strip colour very quickly. The other issue was that I expected a very strong citrus smell. However for an aromatherapy product there is surprisingly little fragrance. I couldn't really smell anything in the shower which was a bit of a disappointment.

In terms of cleaning this product did a great job. Now it's time to find the perfect conditioner!