I'm sure you've all heard this debate a few times in your haircare journey. Parabens (proplyn paraben, methyl paraben, etc.) have been getting a bad rep lately mainly with their name and cancer being in the same sentence. I am an avid user of the Cosmetic Database website and learned more about this popular preservative and why it may cause a problem. Now, there hasn't been a lot of large scale research on this so, yeah, in some ways nothing is law yet but after doing my research, I made the decision to let them go from my skin care and hair care products. Curly Nikki posted a great post on this topic today.
For me, I didn't want to take the risk. When I first started this blog, in my earlier posts, you'll see I did post reviews on non-green products. And they all had parabens in them. Some were products I really, really loved and had great results with but I eventually found safer and greener alternatives for them as you see in my posts now with the hair care products and skin care products that work better actually. I'm currently working on the make-up. This is a lil harder b/c eco-friendly cosmetics can be a lot more expensive so it's taking some time but I'm making strides and ultimately, my make up collection will be completely green/eco-friendly. In future posts, I will be talking about/finding green cosmetic companies and products. The debut issue of Organic Beauty shares tons of info on this and I couldn't be happier. A review on that later tho.....
Any and everything you put on your skin, hair, and into your mouth gets absorbed and goes into your bloodstream within minutes, if not seconds. I advise everyone to do their research though. We trust that what we're using is safe b/c it's FDA approved (and that's a whoooooole nother post) and don't always have the time to or care to look into what's really in our products. And we should. How can we be completely in control of our lives and health if we don't really know what's going into our bodies? The amount of people being diagnosed with cancer these days is astounding. You can ask any random person on the street and in most if not all cases, they know someone battling cancer or that has passed away from it. And yes, while some is hereditary, wouldn't we want to avoid things that increase our risks even more of getting it and at an earlier age? I have a hard time believing the increase in cancer is all due to our genes.....
So what A Grl Can Mac, I'm just supposed to throw all my stuff away that has parabens in them? I don't have money to do that and buy all new products. Buying more green products is expensive! I hear you. Totally not saying that and that's how I felt at first. But what I learned was to do a little at a time. I used up my previous products one by one and did my research on safer alternatives. It took time but this method worked best for me. And yes, sometimes greener products do cost more. But its all about priorities. I made it a priority of mine to live more green and truly know what I was putting into my body. (And for some this isn't a priority but you can live your life however you want to) Some products, I just had to bite the bullet and say, can I really put a price on my health? For other products that I wasn't willing to pay a higher price for, I got into making my own products. I joined Mixology 101 and have learned recipes to make all kinds of safer and more green hair care, skin care, and cleaning products. In your life, you must decide if it's a priority to you and what you want to do with the research you uncover. But at least now you'll be making an informed decision as opposed to a blind one. Do you! But I just wanted to let ya know.
Do do your research and do share your thoughts.
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