Ignorance is Bliss…Sometimes

I try to reduce as much chemicals as possible by reading labels, mainly to benefit my kids health (I’m not saying I am perfect. Occasionally, I still eat Red #40 injected licorice and other things that are bad for me-and yes I allow my kids to as well just not all the time). Just to show you how effective I am this little story will explain everything.

Dad walks into the grocery store with three beautiful daughters to buy hamburger and hotdog buns. Dad picks out the buns and then walks down the snack/treat isle.

Dad says you can pick out anything you want. A woman was in the same isle picking out her snacks. Daughter #2 picks a big box of brownies.

Daughter #1 says “We can’t eat those, we have to eat these. They are healthier.” Daughter #1 picked out a box of granola bars to show her sisters.

The woman couldn’t believe what she was witnessing and says “How did you do that?”

Dad replies, “That is ALL her mother.”

Okay so I am a little crazy about dyes and a few other specific things, which I share with my children routinely. What? Knowledge is power. Who says it’s a bad thing? Right? This way they will be armed with all the knowledge they need to make right choices when their mother isn’t around, hence the story.

Recently, I have been getting an over abundance of unwelcome flakes on my head. Yes dandruff. And this wasn’t just a few flakes. It was like a winter storm when I ran my fingers through my hair. I couldn’t figure it out. At first, I thought maybe I had sun burned my scalp when we were out on the lake one weekend, but after a few weeks I ruled out sun burn.

So I thought maybe it was my shampoo. I changed to a new dandruff kind of shampoo. Nope that didn’t help. Of course, I start talking to my friend (thanks friend, you know who you are) about my situation. She suggested not to use a certain kind of hair style product (which I was using- Garnier Fructis) because it seemed to cause her to have an overabundance of flakes and caused an itchy scalp..

Thus as an advent label reader, how did I miss the label on the can of mousse I have been using for the last few months? I don’t use hair products everyday and since it wasn’t being directly applied on my skin or ingested I didn’t think it was necessary to read. I was wrong. But have you read a Mousse label lately?

AQUA/WATER, ISOBUTANE, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, ACRYLATES COPOLYMER, PROPANE, PHENOXYETHANOL, TRIACETIN, AMINOMETHLYL PROPANOL, POLYQUATERNIUM-4, PEG-4O HYDROGENATED CASTER OIL, METHYLPARABEN, PARFUM/FRAGRANCE,AMODIMTHICONE, POLYSORBATE 20, LINALOOL, PEG 192 APRICOT KERNEL GLYCERIDES, PEG-70 MANGO GLYCERIDES, TRIDECETH-12, LIMONENE, AMYL CINNAMAL, CERTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, CITRUS LIMONUM/LEMON EXTRACT.


Holy Shit! Propane. Propane is used to heat some people’s houses or start a camping stove. Why the hell am I putting propane in my hair? I’m not even sure if I spelled everything correctly, but really doesn’t that look like a formula to a bomb?

I know, it’s just what you wanted to hear, another one of my theories. I figure since it was summer and we’ve been out in the sun lately, the sun probably reacted to several of these ingredients causing my scalp to get irritated and distressed, therefore causing an overabundance of flaking. After two days of not using the Mouse and several conditioning products, the excessive flaking ceased.

Anyway I go to Target to see what other brands I can buy that might not make my head start on fire if I get close to a flame. I am definitely switching to gel, but nothing at Target had any ingredients that I wanted to put in my hair.

I actually had to go to ULTA (a beauty specialty store) to find a less harsh product that didn’t have ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. Quite a bit more on the pocket book, but the alternative is to walk around with a really frizzy head. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will let you know how things go.