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Why did so many of us stop shopping for hair care at the drugstore in the first place? Most prominently, sulfates—a type of surfactant, the thing that creates a bubbly lather—and silicones—a type of polymer that creates a shiny, smooth film on hair—have gotten a bad rap due mostly to the clean beauty movement, which really took off in the early 2010s and peaked nearly a decade later. The clean movement’s initial raison d’être was to help people distance themselves from ingredients that could be harmful to their health, but myths that silicone and sulfates can cause cancer and other health risks have long been debunked, per previous Allure reporting.
There are other reasons people have avoided these ingredients; when used too frequently, silicones can lead to build-up on the scalp, resulting in heavy, limp hair. Sulfates can be drying and strip hair color; they can also be irritating for certain scalp types.
In response to the clean movement’s rise, many hair care brands, especially mid-range and luxury brands, removed silicones and certain sulfates—particularly sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)—from their formulas throughout the 2010s and haven’t looked back. (Some brands replaced sulfates with more “natural” cleansers derived from ingredients like coconut oil, for example.) A wave of drugstore brands eventually followed suit; for example, Pantene’s sulfate-free Gold Series line and my own beloved Herbal Essences, which proudly proclaims to be silicone-free.
Which leads us to the big question: Is there really a difference between drugstore shampoo and mid-range to luxury shampoo formulas? The short answer to that is yeah, but they still do the same thing.
According to AJ Addae, a cosmetic chemist and the CEO of Sula Labs, shampoo is a rather simple product to formulate at any price point because it only has one job, which is to cleanse. High-end and other sulfate-free shampoos commonly rely on those coconut oil derivatives for their cleansing agents—Addae points to cocoamidopropyl betaine and sodium cocoyl isethionate specifically. But luxury shampoos also tend to utilize “sensory elements like foam boosters, fragrance, or delivery of active ingredients” that can drive up the price point.
Meanwhile, “lower-priced shampoos tend to either skip on fancy actives or utilize surfactants like sulfates, which are both a surfactant and a foam booster, to save on costs,” Addae says. At any price point, the surfactants are all doing the same job at the end of the day: “binding to both oil and water and rinsing dirt down the drain.”
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