How Monat Haters are Right, But Oh So Wrong
Let me start by saying that I am technically a Monat Market Partner. My knowledge of Monat is not as good as others in the company, which is why I chose to go about the situation in the post below the way I did. I tried to look at this as objectively as possible, but at the same time, I'm a real person.
Soooo last week I decided to talk about Monat in a blog post for the first time. I shared my favorite 4 Monat products based on my personal experience over the last 9 months and the needs of my hair. What happened afterward was interesting, or awkward, or maybe even a little disappointing.
I posted to my Instagram stories to promote my post and my salon saw it. We follow each other. I love bragging about how awesome everyone there is on Instagram. Their stylists are so dedicated to their art and I love their passion for what they do. They truly have an amazing team working for them.
I've chosen to not show the salon name out of respect for those who work there. Throwing them under the bus isn't classy. I really just wanted real answers.
So I was a little surprised when they decided to message me on Instagram regarding my post. What if I chose to use Redkin or some other salon product? Would they have still felt the need to reach out to me in this way? My guess is probably not. They probably would have let it go, but I posted about Monat, a company that is a threat to the natural products they sell. The products at the salon I go to (or went to) are great and people love them, but they made me itchy and they just weren't for me. My hair was happier when I used something cheap from the grocery store so I stopped using their products for that reason. But all of that is beside the point.
I felt a little offended and sat and thought about how I wanted to respond or if I even wanted to respond. Several hours went by and I figured my 2018 word is Rise so let's give them the benefit of the doubt. I messaged them back asking my haircare professionals to give me a little more info. I never got it.
I took it upon myself to do a little more research just like they suggested so that I could get the "complete story".
So let's talk about their allegations and how they're right and oh so wrong.
Allegation 1: Monat is not FDA approved
After diving into this a little more turns out Monat isn't FDA approved. They're right. You know why? Because cosmetics aren't regulated in that way by the FDA. The ingredients however are FDA approved. Maybe this information below provided on a fact sheet about Monat products will help clear that up a bit.
Monat has sold over 14 million units of product in the United States alone. Monat has created unique product formulations, containing ingredients that have been tried, tested, and used in the cosmetics industry and that have been found to be safe for consumer use, in the concentrations Monat uses them, by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as the cosmetic and beauty industry world-wide, rely on the safety findings of the CIR, and leading companies use ingredients, in concentrations, determined by CIR to be safe. Other ingredients used by Monat are all known to experts in the industry to be safe for use in cosmetics. All MONAT formulations use ingredients, in concentrations, that CIR, the FDA, Health Canada, and the European Commission consider “safe for their intended cosmetic purpose.”
Allegation 2: Monat has estrogen
They never told me what those ingredients were after that message back to them, but I did end up figuring it out on my own.
Monat has Capixyl. This Capixyl is formulated with small amounts of Red Clover Extract. Red Clover Extract is a phytoestrogen (yes! A plant based estrogen). What people (stylists and other haters) are saying is that by letting this sit on your skin, that you are absorbing all this extra estrogen that is going to just completely mess with your hormones, which is going to result in cancer and wide variety of other hormonal issues.
Actual research is telling me anytime you eat broccoli, carrots, legumes, oranges, or drink coffee or tea, you're ingesting phytoestrogens. Coffee y'all. I'm done for apparently according to the haters.
But nobody is drinking their shampoo. If you are, you've got a whole other set of issues you should probably be more worried about and a bottle of wine would be way cheaper. Just saying.
So are dangerous levels of phytoestrogen being absorbed through your skin when you use Monat products? The short answer is no. Just so happens I had an OB/Gyn annual appointment yesterday and I took it upon myself to just ask my doctor while I was there if that was a possibility. I explained to her the situation and she kinda just looked at me like it was completely insane. Her opinion as a medical professional specializing in women's care was that we eat phytoestrogens all the time and if we did happen to absorb any of the phytoestrogens from the shampoo into our skin, that it wouldn't be enough to effect our hormone levels. I left her office confident in my decision to break up with my now ex hair salon.
Side Note: If you are genuinely concerned about phytoestrogens in your shampoo, talk to your healthcare professional and see what they say. Don't take my word. Don't take your stylists word.
Allegation 3: There are a slew of lawsuits surrounding this product due to it causing hair loss
This is true. There are some class action lawsuits that have been filed with this stated as the reason, but the word "slew" seems a little extreme in my opinion. To my knowledge the outcome hasn't been determined in any of those cases. I don't personally know anyone that has lost hair due to Monat (or at least not to my knowledge). Saying anything else about those lawsuits would be pure speculation and unfair so I'll stop there.
Final thoughts
What I will say is that these products work for me and my hair type. I am someone who is getting the desired results. I lost a ton of hair with the crazy hormones following each of my children's births and Monat is growing that hair back. My hair is healthy and strong and growing fast. Heck, even my ex salon that said I shouldn't use the products was always so impressed with how healthy and fast my hair was growing at each appointment (at least before they knew what I was using). I actually feel like my hormones are finally getting back on track post children and have noticed nothing negative in that area. I'm also not drinking my shampoo though and tend to stick to red wine, Topo Chico, and phytoestrogen filled coffee instead (in no particular order).
The number of people who claim issues is so tiny in comparison to the number of people currently loving their hair due to switching to Monat. If you try it and and don't love it, stop using it, like I did with the salon products I was getting before I started using Monat. We're all big girls capable of making simple decisions like what shampoo to use. You do you and if you think Monat might be something you want to try, don't forget to click the links below.