What’s the deal with hairspray?
Why do we care about our presence so much in society today? Have humans always used products in order to change, alter, or simply enhance their own physical features? The thing about the hundreds of thousands of products available for humans to use is that the average person is probably not aware of what goes into the products he or she is using on probably a daily basis, and this is concerning. I am definitely guilty of buying products at the store simply because it has pretty packaging, or I have seen commercials with the product being used, and honestly, I am guilty of buying certain products because I happened to like the actor who promoted the product on television. The reasons behind buying the products that we buy are endless, and it seems that the number of products we buy is also endless; however, the research that we put into finding out how our products are made and more importantly, how they might impact our health over time, is surprisingly slim.
I grew up as a gymnast. For gymnastic competitions, my team would always wear our hair the same way. We would braid our hair into a bun, and a hairnet would be placed around our bun so that we did not have any flyaway hairs. Before putting in the hair net, we would hairspray our bun and then re-hairspray our bun after the hairnet was in place. We would then spray the rest of our head, very excessively if I recall, to make absolutely sure that our hair would not fall out of place or become lose during a routine. I remember hating this process because it always took me forever to wash the copious amounts of hairspray out of my hair the night after a competition, and I hated my hair feeling stiff and sticky. I would always ask my coach why we had to do this if we didn’t have to do our hair like this for practice, and her answer was always the same: We do this because it is what we have always done and this is just how it is going to be.
Is this why we use so many of the products we use, because people have always used them so we assume we need to use them as well? Probably. There is really no good way to answer this question, but instead, we can try to come up with better, safer, and more natural alternatives to the chemically enhanced products we are so used to keeping around our houses.
First, let’s talk about why we should do this and some of the questions we should be asking.
- What is hairspray?
2. How does hairspray affect our health?
Although there is not an abundance of research on the effects of hairspray on our health, scientists have found indications that “neutrophils predominantly seen in the lavage fluid is blamed for the development of inflammation causing pulmonary changes after the inhalation of hair spray” (Kawajiri et al., 2004). This concludes that hairspray actually does have a significant impact on our lung health, because it causes inflammation in the lungs when inhaled, and inhalation is the main path to which hairspray can enter a person’s body when in use.
Vinyl chloride is another reason we should be cautious of the hairsprays and products we use, because although now banned because it is a known carcinogen, it used to be one of the chemicals used in the make-up of hairspray. An article in Risk Analysis concluded in their studies that in the amounts of vinyl chloride inhaled via hairspray use was not significant enough to lead a person to have an increased likeliness of being diagnosed with cancer (Sahmel, Unice, Scott, Cowan, & Paustenbach, 2009), but it is still a cause for concern since it was then banned in 1974.
3. How does hairspray impact the environment around us?
One study found that after decreasing the use of aerosol product like hairspray throughout a span of about five countries, ozone-depleting substances were significantly reduced (Velders, Andersen, Daniel, Fahey, & McFarland, 2007). These same ozone-depleting substances have been found to collect in runoff water and pollute our environment and can impact our health when we drink this water or cannot properly filter and clean it (Zhang, Leu, Aitken, & Riediker, 2015).
Although there are numerous aerosol spray products on the market today, Dinh, Kim, Son, Choi, Park, Sunwo, and Kin (2015) actually concluded that hairsprays emit the most volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than any other product containing these VOCs.
4. What are the alternatives?
Starch
Zheng and Loh (2016) have found starch to be non-toxic and that it has great holding abilities that mirror the effects of hairspray, making it a great alternative!
Natural hairsprays
Shea Moisture
“The ingredients are very simple, with coconut oil and silk protein being the main ingredients, along with organic shea butter, neem oil, and ayurvedic oil. Shea Moisture never uses synthetic fragrance, parabens, phthalates, or formaldehyde, and their products are never tested on animals” (Bailey, 2017).
Aloe Gel
Egg Whites
“While many people like to whip up whole eggs to use as a hydrating and rejuvenating mask on their hair, by whipping just the whites with a few other ingredients, you can easily make a mixture that doubles as a hairspray while actually improving your hair instead of damaging it. Begin with three egg whites and blend them with a splash of water, ½ cup of aloe gel, and some essential oils” (“14 Alternatives to Hairspray,” 2018).
Beeswax Pomade
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After looking into the unknown chemicals (at least, unknown to me) that make-up hairspray, I have decided to test out and exhaust all of the alternative options I have found before resulting in buying the regular hairspray that I have normally purchased and used for years. Who knew one class could alter my habits and daily routine so much?
So now there are a few questions left about these hairspray alternatives: Who should be using them? Well, this question really depends on how you want to look at it. If you want to approach this from the health and environmental aspect, I might answer by saying everyone should use these alternatives. If we want to scale it down a little more, I might suggest that anyone who is interested in using more natural products that might benefit their hair’s health and ultimately save money as well, or people who are okay with their natural hair and do not really benefit from hairspray anyways. In the end, I would suggest these products to everyone to at least try out and see what works best for them, because the fewer chemicals we use on ourselves and put into the environment, the better off we will probably be.
References
Bailey, T. Best natural hair spray. SLS Free. Retrieved from https://slsfree.net/natural-hair-spray/
Dinh, T., Kim, S., Son, Y., Choi, I., Park, S., Sunwoo, Y., & Kim, J. (2015). Emission characteristics of VOCs emitted from consumer and commercial products and their ozone formation potential. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 22(12), 9345–9355. Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/10.1007/s11356-015-4092-8
Dylewski, A. [Reactions]. (2016 March 8). How does harispray work? [https://youtu.be/haP-EaElL-M]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haP-EaElL-M
Kawajiri, T., Nagata, N., Morimoto, Y., Ishimatsu, S., Hori, H., Tanaka, I.,…Kido, M. (2004). Pathology and mechanism of lung toxicity following inhalation of hair spray in rats. Inhalation Toxicology, 16(3), 147–153. doi:10.1080/08958370490270954
[POPxoDaily]. (2017 March 19). How to make hairspray at home — POPxo. [https://youtu.be/arq24ye8NVw]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arq24ye8NVw
Sahmel, J., Unice, K., Scott, P., Cowan, D., & Paustenbach, D. (2009). The use of multizone models to estimate an airborne chemical contaminant generation and decay profile: occupational exposures of hairdressers to vinyl chloride in hairspray in the 1960s and 1970s. Risk Analysis, 29(12), 1699–1725. Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2009.01311.x
Velders, G., Andersen, S., Daniel, J., Fahey, D., & McFarland, M. (2007). The importance of the Montreal Protocol in protecting climate. PNAS, 104(12), 4814–4819. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610328104
Zhang, Y., Leu, Y., Aitken, R., & Riediker, M. (2015). Inventory of engineered nanoparticle-containing consumer products available in the Singapore retail market and likelihood of release into the aquatic environment. International Journal of Environmental Research of Public Health, 12(8), 8717–8743.
Zheng, Y. J., and Loh, X. J. (2016). Natural rheological modifiers for personal care. Polymers Advanced Technologies, 27, 1664–1679. doi:10.1002/pat.3822
14 Alternatives to Hairspray. (2018). PopOptiq. Retrieved from https://www.popoptiq.com/hairspray-alternatives/
