What's the Deal with Gluten-Free Beauty Products?

by Alexandra Tunell

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably noticed the recent boom in gluten-free foods--bread! Pretzels! Pasta!--as well as gluten-free friends, using the diet fad to slim down. But we were still surprised to see the latest gluten-free products. Because instead of snacks, they're hand soaps, shampoos, body washes, and face creams.

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Wait... Beauty products have gluten? And that's a problem? "Skin care products aren't typically loaded with wheat-based ingredients, so [gluten-free] is an easy claim to make," says cosmetic chemist Ni'Kita Wilson. But, "hair care products are more likely to contain [them]."

Okay, but gluten intolerance--a reaction to grains like wheat, barley, and rye--occurs in the small intestine, and we're not drinking our shampoo, right? I asked Joshua Zeichner, the director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, if gluten-free products made any sense. "There's no data that shows that topically-applied gluten can lead to a reaction," he says. "But there's also no harm in using gluten-free, on the off-chance any of the product left on your fingertips gets on your lips." That may seem like a small risk, but according to Wilson, "gluten allergies are molecular and sensitive to even the tiniest triggers."

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Bottom line: If you're avoiding gluten because you think it's unhealthy or to drop a few pounds, don't worry about it in your shampoo; but, for those with actual medical issues, such as Celiac disease, these products could be just what the doctor ordered.

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