Do parabens build up on hair?

curlicarly

Hey guys! I got a deva cut yesterday and brought my conditioner (GVP Conditioning Balm) for the stylist to look at. He read through the ingredients and totally berated me for using a product with parabens because they "build up" on hair. I thought parabens were a health risk, rather than a hair risk?

He also said that the alcohols in it were "bad" (myristyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol) but I always thought these were moisturizing alcohols?? Am I confused?

Long story short, I bought a huge thing of One Conditioner because I'm a pushover, but I cannot afford this conditioner in the long run... College student here. Thanks for your help!

Geek_Chic

I always hear Deva stylists saying parabens build up on hair because they are "plastic", but I've never seen any definitive info. elsewhere to support that claim. As far as I know, a single study linked parabens to cancer, but other than Deva stylists, I've never seen people complaining about paraben buildup. I did request that the Curl Chemist address that in an article here, last time she asked for ideas, but it hasn't happened yet.

Myristyl and cetearyl alcohols are fatty alcohols and thus moisturizing (good for hair). Phenoxyethanol is a preservative, although the "ethanol" portion does mean it's a drying alcohol. It is the 6th ingredient (not counting water) of a total 14 ingredients, so there is a good bit of it in the product.

Overall, if using One Condition improves the look and feel of your hair, then you might consider switching to something other than GVPCB (and it doesn't have to be Deva). On the other hand, if you don't notice a major difference and like the way your hair looks and feels using GVPCB, then you don't have to switch just because a stylist tells you it's "bad" for your hair.

sixelamy

The stylist doesn't really sound like he knew what he was talking about. Sounds like he wanted to make a sale and made some stuff up.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using CurlTalk App

eveum

I agree^ Very dishonest. If you haven't used it maybe you could try returning it.

curlicarly

Thanks. I love how he cuts my hair, but I definitely feel like he's a little short-sighted when it comes to ingredients. He also said there was salt (?) in the conditioner and that's apparently bad?

Anyways, one conditioner has always been fine for me, so I didn't mind buying it too much, but I hate the mindset that there is only one good product out there and anything else is bad. I guess I need to do some research!

Geek_Chic

curlicarly wrote: »

Thanks. I love how he cuts my hair, but I definitely feel like he's a little short-sighted when it comes to ingredients. He also said there was salt (?) in the conditioner and that's apparently bad?

Anyways, one conditioner has always been fine for me, so I didn't mind buying it too much, but I hate the mindset that there is only one good product out there and anything else is bad. I guess I need to do some research!

He probably saw the chloride in "Cetrimonium Chloride" and assumed salt. It's actually a quatrernary ammonium compound that acts as anti-microbial, preservative, emulsifier, and anti-static agent.

See here: CETRIMONIUM CHLORIDE || Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database | EWG

ttoosday

Ya know, my stylist never told me crap about true hair care. And I would always complain about dryness, frizziness, unruliness, etc. I'm guessing stylists don't know that much about moisture/protein balance? Or hair properties? Or ingredients? Or technique? I don't know, maybe mine plays dumb but I had to learn everything myself.