Rapunzel throw down your EDTA free hair!

Hi,

My name is "Bwings" and my luscious locks are EDTA free!

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I'd discovered some of our shampoos had EDTA in them. Among MANY other products. I had vowed that upon replacing the shampoo I would ensure it's EDTA free quality. Last night was that night and, as I suspected, an EDTA free product was not easily found. Let's do a refresher on what EDTA is in case you forgot. This most concerns my fish eating friends I suspect.

When it comes to EDTA you must take the god with the bad I'm afraid. EDTA has the unusual ability to bond with complex metals. This can be good if you have suffered lead poisoning. In such cases a doctor may choose to inject you with Na₂CaEDTA over 6 hours for 5 days. Another good use is to bind Ca⁺² ion as an anticoagulant in stored blood at blood banks. Great uses that help instead of hinder. 


Now the over used aspect would be it's common use in soap, hand cream, body wash, shampoo, detergents and bubble bath. In detergents it is used as a replacement for phosphates which suffocate fish by mass producing algae. However, is unable to bio-degrade in the environment. EDDS has started making cycles as a biodegradable replacement to EDTA. But you'd be amazed with just how much EDTA is still used. So why does this most effect my fish eating friends? EDTA goes into our water and bonds with metals. Fish then live in this water and ingest higher amounts of mercury. My friends then eat these fish and thus ingest even higher amounts of mercury. Similar story to my beef eating friends. We spray the fields with pesticides, the cow then eats the grain and becomes filled with pesticides, one then eats the beef with a side of grain and acquires twice as much pesticides. But I won't go into that right now.


Last night I went on a mission to replace my EDTA shampoo and discovered just how hard this was! I found 4 shampoos that were EDTA free, 1 of those had a paraben and went back on the shelf. 2 others were incredibly expensive and I'll stock up on ONLY when they are on sale. The last one, the one I purchased, was a brand called "Live Clean". The humor in this being my having read the back of each bottle before the front. Upon making my selection I flipped the bottle back to the front and discovered it to state it was pure vegan, sulfate and paraben free. My friend, who had accompanied me by phone, stated I'd have checked the back regardless of the front as one can never trust such statements. 


Absolute fact, true, some shampoos will claim 99.9% natural ingredients. What they don't state is that those natural ingredients were simply soaked in water and then that water was used as the basis for the chemical cocktail. Shampoo can soak rose petals in water and then use the water and claim to be using natural extract from roses. Tricky tricky.

As usual I encourage one to take what I find and form their own opinion. But for now, this is my report from the field, from your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.