Great Green Hair Care with Suds? : Ursa Major

Okay… it’s official I may just pack my crap and move to Vermont! I meannnnnn after binge watching everything Tata Harper ever said about her eponymously named luxury skin care line on the YouTube I started toying with the idea again. I say again because every time I watch one of my favorite Diane Keaton movies, “Baby Boom” (which I will probably watch for the elevendybillionth time directly after completing his post) I get this idea of moving to Vermont, buying a farm house (not as dilapidated as in the movie), meeting the naturally single, extremely handsome country doctor and creating my own farm to bathroom brand of something that will show up on Oprah’s list of favorite things. Dreams are necessary in these difficult times.

Ursa Major is a cosmetics brand based in … you guessed it Vermont, founded by a husband and wife duo who are “obsessed about the craft of making awesome natural skin and body care products.” I like it!

While the line claims to be for all hair types I think that Ursa Major’s hair care may be best for a hair type 2. What I liked most about Ursa Major’s Go Easy Shampoo ingredient list is that it includes a coconut based surfactant namely sodium methyl cocoyl taurate. What is a surfactant? Its basically the chemical that makes your shampoo suds or foam when water is added.

Many times when people opt out of more natural hair care it’s because it doesn’t suds up like normal shampoos would. Has this turned you off in the past? With me, it’s always the smell. I mean I don’t want to smell like hemp, patchouli and crystals. Practically speaking, we are a “little” (read: a lot) conditioned to believe clean has to include suds. It’s not a wrong belief. Surfactants act as detergents which break up oil and help things feel and look “clean”. The thing is, chemically derived surfactants may break up the oil but also strip all the naturally occurring oils from your hair. Green products don’t include these surfactants which means your hair is more moisturized and balanced.

Paying attention to your ingredients when purchasing a product is super important. The marketers are super clever. They aren’t misleading you… too much. Case in point. You may see the term “coconut -derived surfactant” emblazoned across a bottle of the latest and greatest new product that promises to be super pure made to make you feel are warm and fuzzy inside. However, according to Bubble & Bee, the term “coconut derived surfactant" can refer to practically anything, from something as innocuous as coco glucoside, which is of vegetable origin, to an inexpensive and very effective foaming agent like SLES. Consider taking a look at the ingredients list on the back of your selected product no matter what the advertising on the front says.

Or you can skip that and ask us about it in the comment box below.

How often do you check the ingredients of your hair product? Do you like more traditional products that have a lot of foaming power? Do you like your hair feeling squeaky clean?

Share your thoughts about how you like your products feeling on your hair below!