Sulfates - My Experiences

The topic of sulfate free shampoo has been around for a while. I don't remember when I started hearing about this, but I do remember very clearly that it was a big deal when cleansing conditioners were hot on the market and L'Oreal came out with their first Ever products. I believe it started with the ever pure line. I also remember liking that shampoo, it smelled like rosemary and mint if I am not mistaken. As a teen fascinated with beauty I was convinced that every beauty guru on the internet was righting some new scripture! But I have just avoided shampoos containing sulfate for the most part since them. I currently own one cleansing shampoo and I always notice that it leaves my hair squeaky clean(over dried and stripped), makes my hair color fade faster and makes quite a lot of hair fall out. I don't wash my hair very often and of those times I use this shampoo about ever 4th or 5th time. At this point I really just want it to be empty! Because I find that this over irritates my scalp and removes color that I purposely put in my hair.
I feel as though a lot of people think it is normal to loose lots of hair when they wash their hair. While it is normal to loose some hair and rinse out hairs that were already loose but still caught up in the bunch, but there are limits to what can be considered normal, a big handful certainly exceeds that limit for most. Also it is important to mention that there are any number of other ingredients in your shampoos that could be irritating your skin and scalp.
All of this said, I do use shower gels that contain sulfates. I find that most of my skin is not irritated, but the skin on my head seems to be sensitive. And by that I mean not only my scalp but also my face. I find that the skin on my face dries out easily and a sulfate free face wash feels better. In the case of sulfates I know where I stand on sodium laurel sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate from the experiences I gathered from trying products and reading the ingredients. That's not to say I didn't read up on them, but I also listened to my body and the messages it was sending me about what was doing it good versus what was causing more harm than good.