Liquid Hand soap - Should You Buy It?
More importantly, is it harmful to your family to use?
Next time you visit the store for liquid soap for your family, check the label, does it say liquid soap or hand wash?
If it states "hand wash," "Cleansing Gel," or "Facial Cleanser," or numerous other innovative names, you may be buying something other than you bargained for. You are probably not buying soap at all, instead, many of these products are simply detergents, much simpler and more economical to mass-produce than true soap, but not as natural and not necessarily as good for your skin - despite what it says on the label.
It is also very likely that the first or second item in the list of ingredients is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, or Sodium Laureth Sulfate, or something very similar.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or SLS is a foaming agent, it has no other function. It is used in many commercially available body cleansers, this includes hand wash, shampoo, liquid wash, bubble bath, in fact, a vast quantity of mass-produced products that require a lather.
I was going to continue this article spouting the commonly known horrors of SLS as follows:
"It is a little more startling to discover that SLS is suspected to be harmful, it has been linked to retarding healing and the development of children's eyes and is also thought to cause cataracts in adults. Some reports say that it is carcinogenic (cancer causing).
SLS has a low molecular weight and this means it is easily absorbed by the skin, therefore it can build up in the heart, liver and brain. It is a caustic cleanser that actually can corrode the hair follicle and impairs the ability for the hair to grow. SLS causes the dysfunction of the biological systems of the skin."
I decided that rather than using the above information, which came from an article I read a year or so ago, I had better see if there is any other information to back up the claims.
What I discovered was very interesting, it appears that there is no direct evidence to suggest that SLS causes any of the above symptoms or conditions. In fact, the only thing I could find is that SLS is a known skin irritant, it is used in the standard model for skin contact dermatitis, this means it is tested by placing a concentrated form of the chemical on the skin and leaving it for a predetermined time. Soap is not used in this way, it is applied diluted with water and it is quickly rinsed off, so unless you have clinically sensitive skin, you should not experience any major health issues in using products that contain SLS.
It appears that the worst that can be said for this chemical is that it could be a minor irritant and somewhat drying to sensitive skin types including African American hair and skin.
So Liquid Hand Soap is not always soap, they are not always very good for your skin, but don't go believing all the horror stories about cancer and cataracts, most are simply not true.
What is true is that real liquid soap is a natural product (occurs in nature), it is more beneficial to your skin, utilizes no harmful chemicals, and chosen carefully, can be extremely beneficial to your skin.
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