A New Approach to Healthy Hair
I was looking for the word "sulfate." 
"Dang. It's there." In tiny letters on the back of my shampoo bottle, 'sodium lauryl sulfate' was the very first ingrediant.
"This can't be bad for me." I said to myself. "This seems ridiculous."
I was reading the ingrediant list because I came across an article on the internet about "dangerous ingrediants that are used in most shampoos." I was NOT convinced but it made me curious - which is why I looked at my shampoo bottle.
"Do they actually know what they're talking about? Who wrote this article anyway?"
Just as I suspected, it written by an author I'd never heard of, on a website I'd never heard of. "Ah ha!" I thought. "Just more misinformation on the internet. Calling shampoo ingrediants "dangerous" is way over-the-top!"
But I was still curious, so I googled... 
"dangerous ingrediants in shampoo, New York Times."
I don't believe that the NY Times is the authority on everything, but they're a reputable news source that has a strict fact-checking policy - so I clicked 'enter' to see what popped up.
I read about 10 NY Times articles on the subject and was quite surprised - and fascinated! So I googled more news stories on CNN, Forbes, CBS News and others. After a few hours of reading, here's the short version of what I learned:
---The giant personal care corporations have spent MILLIONS of dollars lobbying in Congress so that the chemicals they use in their formulas DO NOT HAVE TO BE TESTED before bringing them to market!
---There is increasing scientific evidence that daily, long-term exposure to some of these chemicals is linked to a range of health concerns. Some are "endocrine disruptors" which have been linked to CANCER, REPRODUCTIVE DISORDERS, and OBESITY. 
Does this mean that if you use a shampoo with some of these weird-sounding chemicals, you'll get cancer? Become obese? Or have a reproductive disorder? No, it doesn't mean that.
But here's the question that I think is critically important:
Since these mega-corporations know that scientific research has linked some of their chemical ingrediants to serious health problems, why would they continue using them in their products?
I assume that the answer is "corporate profits." This infuriated me! I was in a complete tizzy and couldn't stop talking about it for days!
One of the people that I talked to was my aunt. She had the same reaction as I did! We talked about it on and off over the next couple of weeks, and we were both still so pissed that we wanted to do something about it.
So we started a little subscription box company called 'Luv Earth.'
We decided to create hair products that match our personal values and our "Eco Values." We set a goal to create shampoos and conditioners that are good for us AND good for our planet.
First, we took classes and got a diploma in Natural Hair Care. Next, we set out to create our own hair care formulas that match our values, AND
contain natural ingrediants that are good for us. (In the process, we also came up with a list of HUNDREDS of commonly used questionable ingrediants to AVOID!)
contain natural ingrediants that are good for us. (In the process, we also came up with a list of HUNDREDS of commonly used questionable ingrediants to AVOID!) It was challenging but after two years of experimentation, we did it! We have created our own unique, high quality formulas using THE BEST Natural Ingredients that are good for us, keep our hair looking fantastic, and are good for our beautuful planet.
NO Sulfates.
(such as sodium lauryl sulfate SLS, but there are lots of different sulfates in shampoos and conditioners.)
NO Paraben.
(parahydroxybenzoates or esters of parahydroxybenzoic acid. Yikes.) 
NO Petrochemicals.
(made from petroleum. Yuk.)
NO Synthetic Fragrances.
(cheap, weird, lab-made chemicals that try to smell like the real thing. alarmingly, these are not regulated by the FDA, and companies are not required to reveal the chemicals used to make these fake fragrences. ooomph!)
NO Sodium Hydroxide.
(sodium hydroxide is actually the main ingredient in hand soap - terrible for your hair and scalp.)
NO Plastic Bottle and no plastic packaging of any kind.
(not only is plastic pollution out of control, synthetic plastics are made from crude oil, natural gas or coal - contributing to global warming.)
NO Animal Testing or Animal Products.
(so unnecessary - and mean!)
Here are some of the Awesome, Nourishing Ingrediants in our Shampoo and Conditioner Formulas:
YES Natural Surfactants for super-clean, beautiful hair (instead of SLS or other sulfates)
YES Natural Moisturizers including luxurious amounts of Shea Butter, Panthenol, Cacao Butter, etc. for healthy hair with a natural shine, plus it improves the feel and texture of your hair (instead of mineral oil which is made from petroleum or palm oil)
YES Essential Oils from plants to strengthen your hair while keeping it soft with a natural, calming fragrance (instead of weird petrochemicals and lab-made artificial fragrances)
YES Natural pH balancing ingrediants (instead of Sodium Hydroxide which is the main cleansing ingrediant in most shampoo bars AND IS NOT THE PROPER pH for healthy hair and scalp) We believe that Sodium Hydroxide should never be used on your hair or scalp! (But is good for hand-soap!)
YES Natural Preservatives to keep our lavish ingrediants fresh which are a combination of a naturally occurring food additives (instead of lab-created preservatives - such as paraben and others which have been linked to health issues)
YES Distilled Water in a teeny-tiny amount because OUR shampoos and conditioners come in BARS rather then plastic bottles (instead of liquid shampoo which contains up to 80% water, liquid conditioners up to 95% water!)
Our goal was to formulate shampoo and conditioner that rivals the most expensive and luxurious hair care products on the market - but with no bad stuff. Instead, lots and lots of the good stuff!
Although we think we did it, it's more important that YOU think we did it!
Here's what to expect when you try our shampoo and conditioner:
Did I mention that you'll also save money?
The cost of our Luv Earth 'salon quality' shampoo bar is less than any single bottle salon quality shampoo liquid with the same cleaning capacity (number of washes). And your Luv Earth shampoo bar will out-last three 150ml average liquid shampoo bottles.
If you decide to try our shampoo and conditioner, here is our promise: 
You will 'LUV' the way your hair looks and feels. We promise! And if you don't agree, we offer a "no questions asked" FULL refund. (You won't even pay for return shipping.)
So please give us a try!
I mentioned above that we're a 'Subscription Box' company. Our program is super-simple:
--1-- Order a shampoo/conditioner combo today. (If you don't love it, ask for a full refund anytime in the next 6 weeks.)
--2-- If you love it (you will!), we'll ship you the same shampoo/conditioner combo every 2 months. (And charge your card the same price every 2 months. No surprises.)
--3-- Cancel anytime by phone or email.
