What SLS-free actually costs

Sodium lauryl sulphate is one of the most efficient cleansing agents ever commercialised. It is inexpensive, it foams enormously, and it strips oil from hair with total reliability. That last quality is the problem.

A sulphate shampoo does not distinguish between the sebum you want gone and the sebum your scalp produced to protect itself. Strip both often enough and the scalp compensates by producing more, which is why so many people find themselves washing daily.

Formulating without it means accepting less lather. This is almost entirely a perception problem: consumers read foam as cleaning, and a gentler surfactant system produces noticeably less of it. Our shampoos lather modestly. They clean completely.

The first wash is the adjustment. By the third, most people stop noticing — and a good number find they are washing less often than they used to.