Contact dermatitis and formaldehydes

eln88

I experience inflammation on my hands whenever I use a product containing formaldehyde/formaldehyde-releasing substances. These things are formaldehyde releasers (according to Wikipedia) and so far, they all bother me:

Quaternium-15
Imidazolidinyl urea (Germall 115)
Diazolidinyl urea (Germall II)
DMDM hydantoin (Glydant)
2-Bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (Bronopol) (formaldehyde release is not related to mechanism of action)
Tris(hydroxymethyl) nitromethane (Tris Nitro)
Hydroxymethylglycinate (Suttocide A)
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DMDM hydantoin and diazolidinyl urea seem to be the common ingredients in curly hair gels. I'm looking for a good strong gel. I've done flax seed gel, aloe vera, and Aubrey gels, but they don't hold my hair for longer than 6ish hours and the effect has completely worn off by the next day. Does anybody have suggestions or gels they are currently using that don't have these ingredients? I'm all for organic/natural, as long as it works! I guess I'm a combo 3a/3b girl.

**by the way, formaldehyde has been shown to cause cancer in rats, but the levels are deemed low enough in beauty products that it's "safe".

principessa1984

I'm glad you posted this. I had a really bad respiratory reaction to a product w/ Quarternium-15. Hmm, I haven't checked the ingredients, but a lot of ppl like Kinky-Curly Custard (??)- I think that what it's called. I think that brand usually has decent ingredients (check them on CurlMart). There's also a product w/ supposedly good hold in the Shea Moisture line (Iforget its name though). I'm not sure about 3a's, but I know quite a few 3b's like that line. From what I've seen, their ingredients are GREAT! Hope this helps. And as for the contact dermatitis, I found that aloe vera relieved the problem quickly. I also used an OTC corticosteroid.

Lotsa loops

I love Kiss My Face's "Hold Up" Gel.