A couple of weeks ago I started to get itchy.
And before you starting thinking up some witty one-liner, I shower daily, often more than once.
And I use soap.
And shampoo.
And there-in lies the problem.
Apparently most “natural” bath & beauty and even cleaning and laundry products are filled with coconut derived ingredients. And I apparently am allergic to them – at least when they touch my skin.
And so every day I would get rashes on my arms and legs that were incredibly itchy. An antihistamine would take the itch away for a couple of hours then the rash would return. Often in a new location but always on my arms & legs and nowhere else. Mostly concentrated around my wrists and ankles, but it certainly didn’t discriminate against other parts of my arms & legs.
It’s been a miserable few weeks. Thankfully my mom suggested the coconut possibility pretty early on and I systematically began to remove it from my routine, which was easier said than done.
I don’t have a great picture of the rash but it was small itchy bumps. They did not appear like hives do, they were smaller but still raised. They would appear in clumps and focus around my wrists and ankles but did appear in patches on my forearms, calves and knees.
Our switch to natural home and beauty products
Last year we began making a change in our household to eliminate chemicals from our household products. From laundry detergent to spray cleaners to shampoo and everything in between. We did a major overhaul and threw out everything that had something in it that we couldn’t identify as safe.
For our laundry, we used either Seventh Generation products or ECOS by Earth Friendly Products. I preferred the ECOS because it had fewer ingredients and I could get a huge bottle at Costco for like $14. It also made our laundry smell better than the Seventh Generation.
For most of the rest of my household cleaning, I had taken to using Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. This amazing liquid soap is made from all-natural organic certified ingredients. I would mix it with water in a spray bottle and use it for our household cleaner. I made foaming hand soap with it. I even used it to shampoo my hair.
For my bath and body products, as I mentioned I was using Dr. Bronner’s as a shampoo but I also liked to use Everyday Coconut brand shampoo and conditioner for convenience. For soap, I would use either the Everyday Coconut body wash or a bar soap like Kiss My Face Olive Oil Bar Soap. Deodorant was a bit trickier to find one that worked well, but I stumbled across a little company called DeoDad Natural Deodorant. It worked great but the main ingredient was coconut much like most everything else I was using. Even my lip balm had coconut ingredients!
But coconut as an ingredient is not limited to natural products.
No ma’am.
Even the chemical filled products have ingredients that may have been derived from coconuts.
Contact dermatitis
The Mayo Clinic describes contact dermatitis as such:
Contact dermatitis is a kind of skin inflammation that occurs when substances touching your skin cause irritation or an allergic reaction. The resulting red, itchy rash isn’t contagious or life-threatening, but it can be very uncomfortable.
Clearing up contact dermatitis can be as simple as removing the offending substance from use. Which sounds simple, but when it comes to coconut, it’s not that easy because it has become so widely used in products of all kinds. And once you do finally remove the substance from use, it can take weeks to see an improvement in the rash and subsequent itch.
WEEKS.
And it did.
Take weeks.
But I am finally seeing an improvement.
I can’t tell you how nice it is to not be itchy.
What to look for
It’s hard to know for sure if an ingredient is, in fact, derived from coconut. Some will stand out for sure because it will say “coconut oil” or “coconut milk” or start with “coco” or “coca” but most are hidden under other names.
The list below was derived from two main sources and some additional places online.
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You really have to turn into a detective to find products that are free from allergens if you suspect a coconut contact allergy. I have taken to making my own cleaners and detergent and using bar soap and a mineral deodorant. I’ll follow up with a post about what I am currently using because what I am doing seems to be working. I only experience a small rash in the evenings, about 1/10th of what it was before.
I was concerned that I would now be known as the stinky lady (a la what’s that smell?) but so far everything is cleaning pretty well.
I joked that I was going to have to live in a cave and do my laundry in a stream on a rock.
All humor aside, it was that frustrating because I really didn’t know that it was working until one day I woke up and the rash was gone. Almost as mysteriously as it started.
Overall I have been pleasantly surprised by how well simple household ingredients can clean. It’s amazing that most of the products on the shelves these days have so many ingredients when just a few can do just as good of a job – and not cause people to have an uncomfortable itchy rash.
Do you have or suspect that you have a coconut allergy?
What about other allergies that severely limit the household and bath & beauty products you can use?
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Wow, I have never heard of that before, but I have sensitive skin as it is, so I usually buy products made for people like me.
I never would have guessed had my mom not gone through the same thing a few months ago. She only had to change out her shampoo though because she wasn’t using the large amounts of coconut containing products as i was.
So glad you finally figured it out but so frustrating when you are trying to do the right thing and change to natural. I don’t have any known allergies but do feel something in these commercial shampoos bothers my scalp and because of that I am no longer going to be using store bought shampoo or conditioner. Here comes hot oil treatments with coconut oil and not sure about my shampoo yet, possible the olive oil bar like you are using.
I just ordered the same olive oil bar with honey in it too. I do love the soap but it’s kind of a pain sometimes to only be able to use that bar soap. How do I wash my hands when I go other places?
I am so glad you found the cause!! I cannot believe that list of “other” names for coconut! That’s CRAZY!
I know! It’s insane.
I’m so glad I found this post – I was just diagnosed with contact dermatitis to coconut (and a host of other things) and it is in EVERYTHING! I had bumps all over my legs that looked just like the photo of your hand.
I haven’t been formally diagnosed, but because my mom went through it, we assumed it was the same and it appears to be. I plan to be tested soon though to rule out other things. It’s not at all fun. Did they tell you what else is related to coconut to stay away from? Did you have a skin test?
An allergist did a patch test – the coconut product they tested was Coconut Diethanolamide. I am allergic to several other things, so they are entering everything into a national database, which will create a list of products I can use. I can share the additional information I receive pertaining to coconut if you like.
Yes, I’d love to know. We have all sorts of crazy stuff going on with our insurance so it will be a bit before I get to allergist. If you want to email it’s kim@theysmell.com. I appreciate it!
hi…soooo glad you found the cause…i, too, have a coconut allergy…can u tell me what you are using to wash your hair…detergent for clothes? ty…sincerely, barbara
Barbara, I actually make my own detergent: http://theysmell.com/easy-homemade-laundry-detergent/ and I use Kiss My Face or this site for bar soap: http://lyesoap.com/. I was washing my hair with bar soap but on a whim I decided to try one of the shampoos I had leftover from Nature’s Gate. I am fine with the shampoo now but it’s the ONLY product I use that has coconut in it. I condition with apple cider vinegar and water. The bar soap worked GREAT for my hair for the most part though.
Hello Kim!
Thank you for sharing this very interesting post. I really appreciate the fact that you did share your story. Thank God I don’t have a coconut allergy. It is so nice to know that you are using organic products. As for me, I am also using organic products especially organic shampoo.
Coconut derived products are in baby soap too! I got a rash on my face and neck and scalp from using it. I spent 30 minutes at Walmart looking for shampoo, body wash, bar soap and vagisil washes and could not find 1 without coconut. So frustrating. I seem to be fine with WEN hair shampoo and it doesn’t have any products that start with coco… But I didn’t realize the list was so extensive. My coconut allergy is getting worse over the years. Thanks for the list!
Well it’s nice to know I am not alone, but this allergy really is life changing because most products have coconut derived ingredients.
I melted down a bar of lye soap and mixed it with water and made my own shampoo. It actually works fairly well, just is more of a hair gel than a lathering shampoo.
That’s good to know about WEN!
hi — thanks so much for sharing! i am looking for a sunscreen for my children. looking at the ewg website, the ones that rate the best have coconut oil in them. do u have any suggestions? sincerely yours, diane
Hi Diane, I bought this one: http://amzn.to/1li6O7W. You practically have to send them out all covered in it – like so you can see it but there is no coconut oil.
Thank you! ! !
I believe the coppertone babies and the coppertone kids sunscreens don’t have derivatives of coconut (the lotions, not the spray)
Have you found a good shampoo that is coconut free? I swear it is in every shampoo these days and the one I currently use without it leaves my hair pretty oily.
No. I have resorted to using lye bar soap. I actually made it into a liquid which worked ok, but I get lazy and just end up using the bar. I have long hair and it’s not too bad so long as you don’t get it in your nose – BURNS. I then rinse with apple cider vinegar.
It actually works well but took a few weeks for my hair to adjust and not be oily.
For the last 10 MONTHS my hands have been itchy. The skin blisters and breaks easily, and I often have tiny cuts. They do not *look* dry but the skin is tight. I stopped using alcohol hand sanitizer, switched to non-latex dish gloves, started applying lotion after every single hand washing, etc. (I talked to my family doc and he just said they’re dry and I need a new lotion. Umm, no; not it.) I have a suspicion, though, that I’m reacting to an ingredient in my daughter’s hair products. I did allergy testing over a year ago and the results showed no allergies to the common ones. I’m going to cut out coconut, which seems near impossible. My daughter is black and A LOT of the natural products for curly hair contain coconut. Sigh.
Thanks for these tips and links.
It’s not easy! I found that when I remove ALL coconut based products (which means ALL detergent, shampoos, lotions, soaps, etc. I can now wash my daughter’s hair without a problem and even use a shampoo with coconut in it. So I think it builds up and because I only use a small amount now, it doesn’t bother me.
Good luck!
I found your article while searching to see if “caprylic/capric triglycerides” in cosmetics might be causing allergies. I usually use mineral powder foundation, but tried a sample of a ‘all natural’ cream foundation that has those ingredients and I get some intense itching and reddish patches when I use it. However, there are a couple of other ingredients, magnesium silicate and candelilla wax, that are also not in my usual foundations, so it could be a combo of ingredients.
I hope I don’t have a coconut allergy, but I’ve suspected that phenoxyethanol used as a preservative in some face cosmetics is a problems for me. (Parabens were not as far as I now, but now that those are unpopular, many ‘natural’ brands are using phenoxyethanol.)
I don’t have a problem with natural coconut oil, so maybe these derivatives have solvent-like properties and are penetrating the skin to a deeper layer and perhaps pulling along other ingredients that were benign when sitting on top of the skin?
I also have had problems with all the shampoos I have been trying for a few years – even ‘natural’ and sulfate-free shampoos. My hair was very dry even with the supposedly most gentle products, and conditioner was not helping a lot, especially with scalp itchiness and dryness.
However, when I tried a bar soap called Traveler’s Choice by a St. Louis company named Herbaria, I was surprised to find it soothing and left my hair and scalp in much better condition. (I also usually rinse with dilute cider vinegar.) I do comb in some leave-in conditioner since I have long hair, but my scalp feels great now and I don’t use any treatments or oils on it. (That never helped when I was using liquid shampoos, anyway!)
I noticed that Herbaria has a lye bar soap, too, so that must be working for a lot of people.
I can certainly relate to the challenge of identifying allergens and avoiding any common ingredients in personal care products and appreciate your post very much!
That should have been “as far as I know” rather than “as far as I now”.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I don’t have an issue with pure coconut oil, it seems to be all of the derivatives like you mentioned. I have noticed I do have a tolerance for them now, I can use *some* on a regular basis, but I try to avoid as much as possible.
Good luck trying to figure out your problem!
I’m allergic to coconut oil too! It’s so difficult finding products that won’t make me break out in hives. What products do you use now for skincare and hair?
I just use a shea butter soap to hair and skin. I use apple cider vinegar as conditioner.
I’ve been struggling with a horrendous rash for the last 4 months. The doctor is convinced it’s my cats (they’re 7 years old and I’ve had them since kittens ). But I thought it was a detergent I bought to try for the first time from Costco. It’s ecos and it really irritated my skin. That’s when it started. But since eliminating the detergent and rewashing my entire wardrobe the rash has not improved! Constant questioning and investigating has brought me to searching allergic reaction to coconut based products. They’re in EVERY THING! I’m going to eliminate them and see what happens. Thank you for sharing your story. It sounds like mine! Trying to do the healthy thing and suffering with a burning itchy rash.Thank you thank you thank you!
It’s so hard to find stuff that doesn’t have coconut. I love the Shea Moisture body products but for detergent I’m just making my own with the olive oil soap. It works great.
What coconut free deodorant do you use?
It’s called Crystal I think. It has a hard rock version and a liquid roll-on version. It’s ok but definitely needs to be re-applied during the day