Chemicals That Lower Testosterone In Hair Products

Welcome to this article on chemicals that lower testosterone, if you’re returning to my site or have checked out a few articles today, you may have noticed there are multiple articles looking at the chemicals that lower testosterone in different items used daily. So sadly it’s not just hair products that pose an issue to your T, there are lots of products, most of which are grooming, skin care and hygiene products.

If you haven’t seen my other articles on the products that contain these chemicals, you can take a look at this Chemicals That Lower Testosterone – Where Are They Found Article to get a high level overview of the products that pose an issue to testosterone levels.

If you’re reading this article, I imagine you are interested in increasing ways to boost testosterone production; or at least ensuring they don’t drop any further.

Having low T negatively impacts your health in multiple ways and on the flip side having higher testosterone levels benefits your health in a number of ways.

If you’re unsure/ want a reminder of how Testosterone and health are linked, check out these articles on Testosterone And Health to understand/ get a recap as to why avoiding these chemicals that lower T is important.

What Hair Products/ Brands Contain Chemicals That Lower Testosterone?

The quick answer is that most commercially available hair products and brands contain these chemicals that lower testosterone. By hair products I’m referring to styling products, straightening chemicals, dyes and shampoos. I’ve actually done a separate article for shampoos, which you can check out below.

Chemicals That Lower Testosterone Found in Shampoo

The Toxic Chemicals Found In Hair Products

The chemicals listed below are the toxic chemicals that can be found in hair products, not all of them are chemicals that lower testosterone but they can all cause potential health issues, so thought it was worth noting them for you, so you can avoid them as much as possible.

• SLS/ Sulfates
• Parabens
• Benzene
• DEA/ TEA
• Formaldehyde
• Fragrance
• Alcohols
• Methylisothiazolinone
• Phthalates
• Polyethylene Glycol
• Toluene
• Triclosan
• Synthetic colors & Hair Dyes

I’ll be covering the chemicals that do lower T and why they lower testosterone in more details below.

What Are Endocrine Disruptors

You will notice that the term endocrine disruptor will be brought up quite a few times in this article, included amongst the chemicals that lower testosterone production.

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with how the hormonal/ endocrine system works. These interference can result in incorrect hormonal production & imbalance, which includes lowered testosterone production and increased estrogen production.

The problem with endocrine disruptors doesn’t finish there though, the hormonal imbalances can potentially cause multiple serious health problems such as the development of cancerous tumors, birth defects & other developmental disorders. Essentially any bodily system controlled by hormones, can potentially be negatively impacted by endocrine disrupting chemicals.

So now you understand what an endocrine disruptor is, let’s crack on with these chemicals that lower testosterone found in hair products.

SLS/ Sulfates

Sodium lauryl sulfate (often listed as SLS) is a common ingredient in thousands of types of products across cosmetics, cleaners, body cleaning, skin care, hair and oral care products, so sadly it is extremely widely used and most peoples exposure is very high! SLS is a chemical that causes products “foam” and can be listed on ingredient lists as sulfate, sure to keep an eye out for that as well!

While SLS originates from coconut, the manufacturing process it goes through to create the chemical results in SlS becoming toxic and an endocrine disruptor; and an endocrine disruptor can negatively impact your hormone profile as a whole and testosterone production.

SLS breaks down the moisture barrier on your skin, this then leads to other dangerous chemicals (like the ones listed below) being able to penetrate the skin far more easily and cause damage! Exposing your skin to SLS is thought to make it 100 times more permeable than it is naturally so the threat of SLS especially when combined with any of these other chemicals is a major one!

Parabens

Parabens are widely used in a broad range of skin, cosmetics and hair care products. It is probably the most commonly appearing chemical in my articles on chemicals that lower testosterone.

Parabens are used as a preservative and they are chemical that lowers testosterone due to two key problems. It mimics estrogen in the body, further worsening your ratio of testosterone to estrogen. Parabens are also endocrine disruptors, which as we know ruins hormonal balances including lowering testosterone production

Fragrance

Fragrance formulations are “trade secret” information and as a result what they consist of don’t have to be revealed. There are however some common fragrance ingredients used, one is phthalates which you can find out more about below, the others are synthetic musks like, galaxolide and tonalide. These synthetic musks have been linked to endocrine disruption and are likely chemicals that lower testosterone.

Phthalates

Pronounced thal-ates, these are chemicals are endocrine disruptors and can negatively impact the male reproductive system. This includes decreasing sperm count, the destruction of testicular cells and thyroid irregularities the destruction of testicular cells, with the first two being the major causes for Triclosan lowering testosterone levels.

The biggest issue with phthalates is that you never see them listed on product ingredients! The main way these are “snuck” in is through our old friend “Fragrance”/ “pafum”. Fragrance is potentially the most ambiguously listed ingredient that exists and as it’s considered “proprietary”, manufacturers don’t have to disclose what the fragrance is made from. This is how chemicals that lower testosterone like phthalates can be snuck in to hair and other products.

Triclosan

The FDA in the US has classified this Triclosan as a pesticide and despite this classification it is still a commonly featuring ingredient in many products including hair ones. Triclosan is an endocrine disruptor and has been linked with causing antibiotic resistance.

TEA

Triethanolamine (TEA) is a chemical that can penetrate the skin. In studies on animals it has been shown to be an endocrine disruptor, so can negatively impact testosterone production, potentially trigger asthma, be an immune system toxicant and negatively impact your kidneys & kidneys. TEA is considered so harmful that it has already been banned from products in Europe,

Alternative Product Options

I’ll be putting together an article recommending some hair care product brands that don’t contain these types of chemicals, so keep an eye out for that, until that time, I advise to opt for brands that organic and promote themselves as being free of toxic chemicals, as that as is the only way to insure you are avoiding the above!

Final Thoughts & Other Articles

I hope you have found this article on chemicals that lower testosterone in hair products useful; and now have an understanding of why these chemicals are such a threat to your wider health as well! If you have any questions in regard to this article or chemicals that lower testosterone as a whole, just drop me a comment below and I’ll get back to you.

Remember I’ll be publishing an article shortly on safe hair product alternatives that don’t contain chemicals that lower testosterone, so just be sure to keep an eye out for that as well!

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