 Are you a little suspicious of the shaving cream and the aftershave that you use on your face every day? Environmentally aware shoppers believe that you probably should be.
Conventional shaving creams and aftershaves conspire to feed your face more chemicals than soothing moisture or gentle lather as the commercials would suggest. Not only that, they don’t work as well as the organic stuff; emulsifiers found in foamy shaving creams actually don’t give you as close of a shave as emulsifier-free formulas. There’s also a free bonus with the emulsifiers triethanolamine (TEA) or diethanolamine (DEA); they are known carcinogens.
Shavin’ It Old School
The most “organic” shave entails not using any shaving cream at all; simply a shaving brush and soap. While an equally old-fashioned straight razor is the preferred tool for most earth-friendly guys, there are alternative options available for guys who can’t stomach the concept of a straight razor.
There are a few websites out there that can school you in the art of shaving like your granddad. The best teacher is an older family member or friend – most people swear by a straight razor soap and brush shave as the best shave available.
Give Me the Cream
There are many alternatives available for those who want to keep using shaving cream. The first place to start is the ingredients label rather than the packaging. The terms “natural” and “organic” are being used where the contents of the product are anything but. A study released by the Organic Consumers Association in March of 2008 listed over a hundred “organic” products that contained questionable ingredients. How do you know what to stay away from?
If you don’t recognize the ingredient, or it is more than three syllables in length and sounds like a chemical, chances are good it is far from organic. You especially want to stay away from the emulsifiers mentioned above, easy if you stick to the anything over three syllables in one word rule.
Sodium laurel or laureth sulfate is definitely one to avoid – when this ingredient is in a product it may also contain 1-4 dioxane, a highly toxic chemical. While bodycare manufacturers argue that you can’t avoid making a product for bodycare that doesn’t have this in it, safflower oil is a reasonable, if more expensive, substitute.
Electric Feel
The most environmentally friendly alternative to the disposable razor and its consequent waste is the electric razor. Braun even manufactures a model that is Energy Star certified, removing some of the down side of this method of shaving.
Beware the CFC Label
If you are buying a product that proudly declares that it doesn’t use CFC’s, give it a second look. Found mostly on shaving foam cans, this label is greenwashing of the highest order – CFC’s have been banned in most countries for decades. What else are they hiding, and do you really want to find out by putting it on your face?
Aftershave
Have you often asked yourself what the point of aftershave is? If you cut yourself, it is supposed to help disinfect the skin. However, if you don’t cut yourself, slathering pure alcohol on your face daily will just dry it out and make your skin irritated. Just keep some alcohol and cotton puffs on hand for when you do cut yourself shaving and save the aftershave for… well for nothing. Toss it. You know how your girlfriend has tons of useless bottles of nothing in the medicine cabinet? This is your equivalent.
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