WHY USE A PROTECTIVE HAIR DETANGLER?

My daughter has very fine hair that tangles easily, so for years, I reached for a detangler every morning to help make brushing a little easier. Children’s hair products can seem so innocent, they often have fun colors, cute packaging and pleasant scents that make them especially appealing.

But when I started looking more closely at the ingredients in conventional children’s hair detanglers, I was surprised by what I found. Aside from water, I could barely recognize or understand any of the ingredients listed on the bottle. What I had always assumed was a simple, harmless product suddenly left me questioning exactly what I was putting on my daughter’s hair.

Here are your typical hair detangler ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Propylene Glycol, Polysorbate 20, Fragrance (Parfum), Amodimethicone, DMDM Hydantoin, Cetrimonium Chloride, Tetrasodium Polyquaternium-10, Citric Acid, Butylene Glycol, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate.

Unfortunately, I learned that some of the ingredients commonly found in these products may not be the best choice for our health. But I still needed a detangler! It made our mornings so much easier and I wasn’t ready to give up that convenience. So, I decided to find an alternative that would work just as well while giving me more confidence in the ingredients I was using.

Thankfully, there are several natural brands that offer detanglers made with simpler, more appealing ingredients. But I wanted something more than just a natural alternative. I was looking for a detangler that could offer a few additional benefits, too.

OTHER BENEFITS TO MAKING YOUR OWN

You can add beneficial ingredients to a detangler that repel lice and bugs. As a parent, many of us have experienced first-hand the stress of a lice outbreak at school. It is common to get warnings from teachers about sharing coats or backpacks to avoid infestation. Just the word ‘lice’ freaks many of us parents out. But using certain ingredients like thyme and sage can actually reduce a child’s risk of getting these tiny bugs in their hair.