Hair today, gone in 2 weeks

Movember is in full swing. Do you know anyone who's growing out a 'stache for prostate and testicular cancer awareness? This post is less about the 'staches and more about getting rid of them. Unless you're Tom Selleck, for sure your better half is counting the days until that sh*t gets shaved off.

The timing works out, because we've not covered hair removal here at SMACK! So I thought a roundup of related products would be a good help to those of you who don't want to celebrate your man's commitment to cancer awareness by putting toxic chemicals on his handsome face.

And I ran out of shaving cream. So this post helps me figure out what to buy the next time I'm at the store. Win win.

Here's how GoodGuide sees it: Dr. Bronner's and Aubrey Organics take nearly all the top spots (overall score), with drugstore favorite Skintimate filling out the listing of worst-rated products ('0' for health score. yikes.). That didn't really surprise me. I should also add that Skintimate had a few versions of its products with a much better '6' for health score. I WAS quite surprised to see products from Kiss My Face with the same health score.

Philosophy also had a bunch of products with a great health score from GoodGuide, but there weren't really any mainstream brands in the top scoring products.

EWG's SkinDeep database ranks 63 different products with the key words "shaving cream." It also ranks 93 hair removal waxes. Barbasol and Gillette each have a couple products in the middle of the ranks (so not bad but not great). But the field gets ugly pretty quickly, with only 7 products (out of 63) earning a green rating -- the healthiest -- from EWG.

The take-aways here: not all products are created equally. As with many categories, products within a brand family don't have consistent rankings for toxicity. That makes your job as a consumer so much harder. Which, really, shaving off a mustache shouldn't take so much thought.

Also, there's a subtle, underlying message that irks me. The healthier products are lesser-known brands, harder to find and usually more expensive than what your favorite supermarket or Target will stock on their shelves. So what are the choices for consumers who don't have the extra seven or eight dollars to spend on shaving cream? Too many people don't have the option of spending more to get a healthier product, but they are no less deserving of lower toxicity than anyone else. When can we move beyond the socio-economics and just make/market/sell healthier consumer products because it's the right thing to do?

Happy Tuesday!
Jazzy