My Hair Grew Longer & Healthier When I Stopped Avoiding These Ingredients

As the adage goes, you only miss something when it’s gone — and that couldn’t have been more accurate than when I cut my hair into a bob a few years back. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my various crops, from the “Italian” bob to the “boyfriend” bob. Still, I missed the ease and versatility of long hair, which set me off on the journey of growing it out again. Three months in, it felt like my hair hadn’t grown a millimeter, and an appointment with a trichologist revealed seborrheic dermatitis — an inflammatory skin condition that can leave the scalp itchy and flaky. We agreed that the best course of action was to wash my hair more often and switch out my current products. That was important; I’d been trialing a so-called “clean” hair care brand that avoided ingredients like sulfates and silicones, having heard a few rumors about their effects (more on that later). But it turns out that a good hair care routine doesn’t demonize certain