In an effort to curate a kinder beauty routine, consider the five best vegan shampoos and conditioners featured here, which are all completely free of animal-derived ingredients. Keep in mind that “vegan” doesn’t necessarily mean “synthetic-free,” but any ingredients that don’t come directly from the earth are very low-risk. And you’ll still find a good amount of plant-derived oils and extracts in these formulas to promote stronger, softer hair.
If you’ve done any amount of research into vegan (and non-vegan) beauty brands, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that animal byproducts can sneak their way into pretty much everything — though you wouldn’t necessarily know it, unless you took a very close look at the ingredients list. Some of those sneaky, non-vegan substances you might find in shampoos and conditioners include keratin, hydrolyzed animal proteins, palmitic acid, some types of panthenol, cetyl palmitate, and honey, among tons more. None of which, of course, you’ll find in the shampoos and conditioners listed ahead.
Strangely enough, not all vegan products are certified cruelty-free — meaning the brand doesn’t use animal byproducts, but they may still conduct animal testing at some stage in the production process. But the vegan shampoos and conditioners included here are both vegan and cruelty-free, so they’re truly some of the most animal-friendly hair-care products you can find.
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