An Animal Friendly Guide to Cruelty-Free Hair Removal

You’ve dumped your old shampoo, body wash, and even your laundry soap for cruelty-free alternatives. But have you paid any mind to your hair removal routine? Hair removal products are often overlooked when making the switch to a cruelty-free lifestyle, but nonetheless, the industry is not a very animal-friendly one.

Razors are not tested on animals, but the lubricating strip can contain animal ingredients like glycerin (animal fat) or allantoin (urea taken from the urine of mammals). Although both ingredients can be derived from plants.

Shaving creams and hair removal creams are often tested on animals, and are likely to contain animal ingredients as well.

In this post we’ll take a look at the shave clubs that are so popular nowadays, I’ll introduce you to some cruelty-free and vegan alternatives, and I will update you on the animal testing stance of the big-name brands.

Shave Clubs

Dollar Shave Club

I have some good news and bad news. I’ll start with the good…

Dollar Shave Club does not test on animals, and all of their shaving creams are vegan friendly.

The razors are vegan as well. The Humble Twin and 4X razor contain plant-based allantoin on the lubricating strip. The Executive razor does not contain any products that can be derived from animals.

The bad news… Dollar Shave Club was purchased by Unilever in mid-2016 to dip their hands in the razor business. Unilever tests on animals where required by law. This may not change Dollar Shave Clubs stance on animal testing but I understand if that does not sit right with some cruelty-free’ers.

Harry’s

Harry’s does not test on animals, and all of their shaving products and razors are vegan. The lubricating strip, among other ingredients, contain PEG-115M, PEG-7M, PEG-100, & Calcium Carbonate which can be derived from animals or plants. Harry’s made the right choice in going plant based.

Angel Shave Club

Angel Shave Club is the first shave club exclusively for women. They claim to be animal friendly and even use PETA’s cruelty-free bunny logo.

However, Angel Shave Club is nowhere to be found in PETA’s list of cruelty-free companies. I’ve inquired with PETA and will update.

Also, they were unable to answer if the lubricating strip on their razors contain animal ingredients. (Note: The website does list the ingredients as Aloe Vera and vitamin E, but I do like to play stupid sometimes 😊). I’m not one to troll companies, but I find it odd that they claim to be all natural and cruelty-free but they can’t answer a question about animal ingredients.

One positive thing they were able to confirm is that the glycerin in their shaving soufflé is plant based.

I will continue checking in with them and update this post once I have clear answers. It’s possible that the representative I’m communicating with is not very knowledgeable, and I don’t want to trash a company without having clear facts.

Cruelty-Free Razors & Shaving Cream

Cremo Company

Cremo Company carries a complete line of shaving and beard creams for men, and a limited line for women. The owner of the company confirmed that they are cruelty-free and vegan in this article, and I did ask again since the article is a few years old. Cremo Company has excellent online reviews and I imagine that they’d do even better if they marketed themselves as a vegan product.

Everyman Jack

Everyman Jack carries a complete shaving line for men, including a razor, pre-shave face wash, shaving cream and gel, and post shave face lotion. The entire line is vegan and cruelty-free.

Kiss My Face

Kiss My Face “4-in-1 Moisture Shave” shaving cream line is natural, vegan, and cruelty-free, and available in several classic and fruity fragrances for women. They also carry a version for men in aqua scent.

Personna

Personna is a mainstream, though less known, brand of razors for men and women that is cruelty-free. But like Dollar Shave Club, Personna’s parent company tests on animals where required by law. Personna is owned by Edgewell Personal Care which owns other big brands like Schick & Skintimate. More on Edgewell at the end.

Preserve

Preserve is a manufacturer of several eco-friendly products, including cruelty-free and vegan razors for men and women. You will not find Preserve at your local supermarket. Preserve razors are found at similar eco-friendly and sustainable stores like Whole Foods, Nutrition Smart, & Fresh Market.

Total Shaving Solutions

Total Shaving Solutions is an Irish brand of shaving oils for men. The shaving oils are supposed to last longer than gels and creams, while giving a closer shave. They ship to the USA. But the best thing about them is that they are cruelty-free and vegan.

Cruelty-Free Body Waxes

BodyHonee

BodyHonee is a cruelty-free waxing line with some vegan options. The non-vegan products contain either honey or beeswax.

Vegan: BodyHonee Sugar Wax for fine to medium hair, & BodyHonee Spa Wax for thick/coarse hair.

Not Vegan: BodyHonee Hard Wax for the body, & BodyHonee Hard Wax for face, underarms & bikini.

Nad’s

I was surprised to find out that Nad’s is cruelty-free as most mainstream brands are not. I’ve read it in other blogs but I had to ask for myself, and indeed they are. Here’s a breakdown of the vegan and non-vegan products.

Vegan:

• Nad’s for Men Hair Removal Cream
• Nad’s Facial Hair Removal Crème
• Nad’s Ultra Smoothing Exfoliating Body Wax Strips (contains synthetic honey)

Not Vegan:

• Nad’s Hair Removal Gel, Nad’s Facial Wand, Nad’s Warm Wax, and Nad’s Sensitive Hair Removal Cream all contain honey.
• Nad’s Body Wax Strips for Normal Skin, Body Wax Strips for Sensitive Skin, Mens Body Wax Strips, Bikini & Underarm Wax Strips, Facial Wax Strips, Brazilian & Bikini Wax, and Nose Wax all contain beeswax.

Razors & hair removal brands that are not cruelty-free

For a cruelty-free hair removal routine, the best thing to do is avoid the big-name brands like Gillette, Schick, and BIC. I reached out to each of these companies asking about their animal testing and animal ingredients policy specifically on their shaving products. Here are their responses.

Gillette — Owned by Procter & Gamble

We believe that eliminating animal testing is the right thing to do. We do not test our products or ingredients on animals anywhere in the world unless required by law, and we are working hard to make it obsolete. To date, we have developed over 50 alternatives, non- animal testing methods, and have invested more than $380 million in finding alternatives and getting them accepted by regulators around the world…

It is our policy to use synthetic or vegetable derived ingredients where they are available. If there is no alternative to using animal ingredients or if there is a shortage in synthetic or vegetable ingredients, we may have to use animal ingredients. These may include:

Alcohol (fatty

Gelatin

Glycerin

Hydrolyzed Collagen

Keratin Amino Acids

Tallow Glycerides

Schick, Skintimate, Edge, Hydro, & Wilkinson Sword — Owned by Edgewell Personal Care

It is our policy to avoid animal testing on our products whenever possible. The majority of our products, including all of those in the following product lines, are never tested on animals:

Razor and blade products such as Schick, Wilkinson Sword, and Personna;

Shaving gels and creams such as Edge, Hydro and Skintimate…

But they then go on to say…

Edgewell only performs animal testing on products where required to do so by law, or where no acceptable alternative exists to assess the safety of a product for consumer use.

Edgewell did not answer the question on animal ingredients, and BIC did not respond at all. I imagine their response wouldn’t differ much from these.

Originally published at guiltfreevegetarian.com on March 24, 2017.