All shampoos use some form of surfactant to capture oil and dirt and clean it off your hair. Surfactants are also responsible for the creamy lather you get when you shampoo your hair. We’ve developed a blend of different ingredients that balance excellent cleaning properties without being harsh. SLS and SLES are surfactants which are the actual soaping ingredients found in all personal cleansing products including shampoos. A lot of people are ashamed of dandruff and think it’s a reflection of poor hygiene, but that doesn’t have anything to do with it,” says Francesca Fusco, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and board-certified dermatologist in New York City. It’s important to not be too hard on yourself while experiencing something like dandruff because it’s totally normal and even common.

Parfum, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Hydrozycitronellal, Limonene, Propylene Glycol. Hexyl Cinnamal - A jasmine-like scent. This ingredient is found in chamomile and is used for jasmine reconstitution. Our active ingredients primarily target the Malassezia globosa, a yeast like fungus, that’s present on nearly everyone’s head.Dandruff shampoo that is sulfate-free+, silicone-free, and dye-free, giving you effective dandruff protection with the BARE minimum. Take it to the MAX with minimal ingredients. The issue isn’t necessarily with sulfates, it’s with surfactants. There are many non-sulfate surfactants, but they carry the same irritant warnings while being less effective and more expensive. If you have reacted poorly to sulfate surfactants in the past, then you could consider trying the milder SLES or ALES, or an alternative such as coco-glucoside or sodium cocoyl-glycinate. If you’ve even a passing interest in shampoos you’d be aware that the use of sulfates in shampoos is a hugely controversial topic. This isn’t to say sulfates are harmless. They are known to cause skin irritation by damaging membrane proteins, which can be particularly harmful to those with dermatological conditions, such as psoriasis, seb derm, eczema or a dry scalp [5, 6]. Individuals with sensitive skin may experience stinging, burning, or redness with sulfates, although several studies have shown that it’s difficult to predict who will be affected [7]. Together, they make your hair feel soft and silky without weighing it down, and also help repair damaged portions of hair giving them a boost of shine.

Selenium sulfide is our most powerful and fast-acting active ingredient that we use to fight severe dandruff. In this article, after speaking to four board-certified dermatologists and reviewing hundreds of dandruff shampoos, we’re going to tell you what we consider the best sulfate free dandruff shampoos on the market today. Sodium benzoate and benzyl alcohol - preservatives like these are used while the shampoo is being made, to prevent the raw ingredients from becoming contaminated. Some compounds are added to our starting materials before we receive them. Their role is to protect the quality, consistency & performance of the ingredients we use, before they get added to the shampoo. Stabilizers make sure our specially formulated dandruff treatment stays blended and each drop you squeeze gives you the same benefit from the first wash to the last.Scan for active ingredients: Pyrithione zinc, selenium sulfide, ketoconazole, salicylic acid, and coal tar can all work to reduce dandruff, says Dr. Zeichner, but you may need to experiment a bit to find the one your scalp reacts to the best. To get some clarity on this, we asked Dr. Ben Barankin, a Toronto based board-certified dermatologist at the Toronto Dermatology Centre, for his advice, and he told us, “For mild-moderate dandruff, I recommend daily shampooing, and ideally alternating 3 shampoos, each with active anti-dandruff ingredients.”

There has been some conversation about the potential dangers of sulfates, with people suggesting they dry hair and skin out. We use sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate, to get the right balance of both cleansing and mildness.They assess the formulation of the shampoo, deconstructing the shampoos to their constituent parts and describe the key ones in detail. In addition, they highlight the presence of any one of over 100 ingredients that can potentially itch, irritate and exasperate your condition.