Sulfate Free Shampoo, and Why Gentle Formulas Took Over

Sulfates have been cleaning hair since the 1930s, when Procter & Gamble made the first sulfate-based shampoo, and they are still the reason most shampoo foams so dramatically. The pushback started in salons. Lorraine Massey launched her sulfate-free No-Poo and Low-Poo cleansers for curls in 1999, and Chaz Dean's cleansing conditioners, which began in 1995, helped start the wider trend. A sulfate free shampoo swaps in milder cleansers, so you get less foam but less stripping, which matters for dry, curly and color-treated hair. Kérastase launched in Paris salons in 1964 and is credited with the first care shampoo, and Discipline is its smoothing formula for frizz. Mizani was founded in Chicago in 1991 by Terri Gardner, who listened to stylists and saw a need for a premium salon line for textured hair; Press Agent preps hair for heat smoothing. Dianna Cohen launched Crown Affair from her rental apartment in New York in 2020, after a Google Doc of her hair routine circulated far beyond her friends, and it makes a volumizing gel shampoo for oily, flat hair and a creamy hydrating one for dry hair.

Living Proof was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005 by MIT scientists led by Robert Langer, working with hairstylists, and its PhD shampoo is built to keep hair cleaner for longer. Jonathan Van Ness launched JVN in 2021 around hemisqualane, a silicone alternative fermented from sugarcane, and sorted the line by concern rather than hair type; Nurture is for dry hair. Verb started in the back of Birds Barbershop, the Austin salon Jayson Rapaport and Michael Portman opened, and Ghost is its weightless moringa oil wash for fine hair, made without sulfates. Rōz was founded in 2021 by the hairstylist who did Emma Stone's hair for her Oscar wins, self-funded with her own savings, and Foundation is its balancing daily wash.

Helen Reavey, a trichologist who grew up in Armagh, Northern Ireland, started Act+Acre in 2019 to treat the scalp like facial skin, using a cold-processed method with ice-cold water instead of heat. Oribe, co-founded in 2008 by the Cuban-born stylist Oribe Canales, makes Supershine in its signature Côte d'Azur scent. Kérastase's Curl Manifesto removes buildup without drying curls, and Coco & Eve, inspired by a 2015 trip to Bali, makes Like A Virgin for deep hydration. What I would skip is expecting the same foam. Use less product, work it into the scalp with wet hands, and shampoo twice if you wear dry shampoo or heavy styling cream.

Wet hair thoroughly for a full minute before shampooing. Focus on the scalp and let the rinse clean the lengths. Follow with conditioner from mid-length down, and rinse with cool water to finish. If your scalp gets oily or itchy after switching, give it two weeks, and see a dermatologist if it does not settle. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together L'Oréal Ever Pure Shampoo, the 2009 Sulfate-Free Color Line and Shampoo Sin Sal.