Random Thoughts

Try the grocery shopping guide Gluten-Free from Cecelia's Marketplace. It's a pretty cheap guide and it has in there everything from food, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, etc. Basically my lifeline for my 5 year old daughter who has celiac.

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 years ago, so far I have had almost every symptom related to celiacs, including intestinal inflammation, hair loss, scalp blisters, loss of energy, skin rashes, throat blisters, migraines, etc... A purely gluten free organic diet has been the only thing reliable to help. DermaOrganics has a line of hair products that are 100 % gluten free and fantastic on your hair. As a hairdresser, and the daughter of a hairdresser I've been looking for better products. Redken also has a new line of products out called Nature's Rescue that are sulfate and paraben free and use a soy protein instead of wheat so far I haven't had a problem with them... both of these are only available through a professional salon.... Also I've found that the brand Alba found in many local grocery stores which are herb and fruit based don't seem to have any gluten and they have a full line of hair and body products. Neutrogena has also been very good on my skin. I also use Paul Mitchell Dual Purpose Lightner which is based in soy protiens and don't have many problems with that. Another great line is Alterna they will email you a list of which of their products are gluten free, and what type of gluten ingredient are in the rest in case you are only sensitive to certain types.

Shannon, ALL grains are glutenous. Teff and quinoa are common alternatives that are not glutenous because they are not grains. Wheat has the most gluten but oats have some too. If you are trying to heal the gut, ALL grains including rice should be avoided. To go one step further in the healing, all starches should be removed until the gut is healed. This includes corn and peas...it's overwhelming at times I know.

There is a fantastic interview with Peter Osborne that explains it very well in audio. Look him up on gluten free society.

Hi All

New to this site, I was diagnosed with coeliac disease Nov 2009, just realized the shampoos etc.. I may be using, may contain wheat derivatives Aargh! I was just getting to grips with my diet, do I really have to check all shampoos etc too ??? this was not covered in my talks with GP or dietitians, noticed by chance the salon products I have been using contain wheat ! Are alternatives readily available in stores/supermarkets ?? are they hard to get hold off ?

There is gluten in oats, granted it is different than wheat gluten. It is recommended to avoid oats and other types of gluten for sixish months while you are healing, especially since oats gluten is similar but not the same as wheat gluten, and there is a substantial amount of celiacs who cannot have oats, but not all.

Have a dermatologist examine your sores. I am a celiac and have Dermatitis Herpetiformis. Google that and see if your blisters look like the ones pictures.

Thank you, thank you! This list is JUST what I was looking for!

You don't need obvious symptoms to have uncontrolled celiac anti gliadin antibodies. In fact you don't need any symptoms at all. It took me 17 years to be diagnosed with celiac due to lack of apparent symptoms (well, I thought the constipation was due to my calcium intake). I suggest all celiacs use strict gluten free skin care, hair care and personal products...sometimes you don't know what is hurting you!!!

I unfortunately went gluten free before getting tested. I have been gluten free for 2 years now. While the bloating and cramping have gone away, I still have lots of problems with gas. I finally resorted to a gastro Dr. I described my gluten free journey and what happened when I had gluten by accident. She said I am definitely gluten intolerant but of course we can not tell if I have celiacs. So she gave me a plan to follow for the gas problem. It has been a month and it has done nothing although I do know that dairy makes it worse. I started thinking that maybe I am not being as careful with the gluten free. I have also had an itching problem and now thinking about it, it has been the last year and a half. My armpits itch, under by breasts, sometimes my scalp and skin. no rash just itchy. Sometimes bad sometimes not at all. I recently had blood work and skin prick tests for allergies and all negative. I checked my shampoo today and while it is from an all natural company,( I actually sell the product) it has a few wheat ingredients. I also think the soap and shower gel does also. So I think that will be my next step. I was always told that 40 % of what you put on your skin is adsorbed into your blood stream. Someone made a good point. In the shower the hot water opens the pores. Also at Easter time I helped by Dad make these Easter pies with pizza dough. Not only did I touch the dough but I was breathing it in. My stomach the next couple days was awful. I was worse then a 400 pound guy after eating 20 white castle hamburgers.

Hopefully this is the answer, if not the gastro dr wants to do more tests. I know there is a lost of debate as to whether you have to watch gluten free health care products but everyone is different and I think you find out by trial and error. I have a freind who's blood work and biopsies have all come back neg for celiacs yet now that he is following a gluten free diet he lost 25 pounds and all his digestive issues went away and if he eats the tiniest amount he reacts faster then his mother who has celiacs. Yet the Dr will no diagnose him as celiacs just gluten intolerant.

Kirkland (Costco brand) shampoo and conditioner are both gluten-free.

Bumble & Bumble's Sea Weed line is gluten free. Its amazing! I also have to be very careful of shampoos and such. Its $22/bottle and you can now buy it at Target & Sephora.

I use gluten-free Savonnerie shampoo, conditioner and soaps and they all work very well for me also. My hair was falling out, I had itchy skin and blisters on my scalp. ALL went away and my hair looks fantastic!

Wow. I was diagnosed celiac almost 4 years ago. I have had problems as far back as I can remember. Was told it was stress and irritable bowel. My blood work was off the charts and the small intestine biopsy was conclusive.

A friend of mine knew someone with celiac (a doc friend). He called me up and gave me the information to read. I read it and dispelled it because.... well I didn't want to have it. Put the information away and went on with life.

A couple of months later I got another severe rash on my face (one of the signs of celiac). For the past 7 years I have gotten severe rash on my face during July or August every year. One or two of them a year. I look like Frankenstein's wife. Once an occurrence it done I forget about them and speed thru my life as normal. Anyway, I remembered the brochure and went to my doctor to be tested. My doctor asked why I thought I had it. Doctors don't think about celiac. He researched it and now has a better understanding of it.

The bad part of this is I don't go outside and work in the yard as much now. My face gets purple sometimes. I live in the Dakota's where wheat is prominent. I too was told you only need worry about ingestion. After reading all of your thoughts, I will now check everything. This was another blow to my fast paced lifestyle and my budget as a single mother. On the bright side, I would love see my soft smooth skin again.

I was using Tresseme conditioner and over the course of 3 weeks or so, I had an increasingly itchy scalp , neck and back (I have really long hair). It got so bad to the point I was up all night itching. It felt like I had lice, but there was nothing, no bugs, no hives, no rash, nothing but my own empty scratch marks from my nails.

It tuned out the conditioner contained Wheat Protein.

What a nightmare? I'm still trying to get that stuff out of my long thick hair, but I must have scratched my scalp open many times allowing the conditioner to get in, so I have a feeling the healing process is going to take longer than I hoped. I went out and bought a Shikai Shampoo and a Dove conditioner (both safe of gluten) and I'm hoping my scalp stops itching soon. BE AWARE!

Same happened with me. I used an cosmetic product and applied it on my face. Before applying it I tested on my hand and it does not harm me. After some time time I got rashes on my skin and I am no longer using it.

Over the years I've noticed that shampoos containing wheat or wheat germ cause my hair to fall out in excess, and it doesn't fall out if I use a shampoo that doesn't contain wheat. Even if I use a shampoo that contains my hair will continue to fall out until it has ran its falling out cycle. One of my daughters recently bought me AG Xtramoist, fast food, and tech one. The ingredient I suspect is wheat is in Xtramoist shampoo, and it is Humulus Lupulus (Hops), and Triticum Vulgare (Wheat). I want to know if I am correct and what other names are wheat products in shampoos? I am currently using VO5 and would like to have some professional hair product choices. Thank You for your help!!!!

Thanks Again!

Thank you!

I haven't been diagnosed with celiac disease but I believe I have it. I was tested for food allergies and when it came back my most severe allergies was wheat and yeast. I've been on and of the gluten free diet and also have to avoid milk and egg and other foods. The test I did gave me a plan to follow on what foods I should eat, but it didn't say anything about makeup, skin creams, soaps and hair products. Eventually I started to realize that the acne that I'd had for years that I was trying to cover up with makeup was getting worst because the makeup I was using although organic wasn't gluten free. I'm a black women and was able to grow my hair beautiful and long, but after awhile my scalp always had a build up and was dry. It is always dry and more tangle than I think it should be. So now I know that I have to avoid gluten/wheat products in my hair products after watching a episode on Dr. oz a while back.

I don't know if my bad dandruff/dry scalp inluding large welts was due to my celiac disease, but Selsun Blue works great for me. I just checked and there is no wheat or anything listed that might indicate wheat in the ingredients. I am now wondering if this shampoo is necessary or if there might be another gluten-free alternative that might be cheaper than $10/bottle, not likely but I will be looking into it.

I too have celiac disease. I didn't know what was going on with my skin. I got blisters all over my forehead and nose. I was using a hair moisturizer that on the bottle said no mention of wheat/wheat germ. This was a new product, so It wasn't hard to narrow down that it was this product. It is said in the government regulation that if wheat is in the product it must say so. Well it wasn't on this product. I found out online that it was manufactured using the same machine as other wheat products. Call the company while in the store before you buy the product. There is most always a 800 number on the bottle. I use suave. I called and they said they definitely list wheat/wheat protein if it's in their product. These companies are aware of wheat problems. I stop going to healthstores for for hyperallogenic products and paying over $9.00 for shampoo in tiny bottles when suave 32 oz. no wheat/gluten is less than $4. Plus there are all kinds of face products that are hypoallogenic in these super stores.

Thanks for all the celiac info! It really helped me. I'm celiac too with dermatitis herpetiformis.

Hi, could you tell me which shampoos and conditioners you use? I have a gluten and wheat allergy.

I'm a celiac and had bad reactions to 3 different St. Ives products (face wash, face cream). My face broke out and I got a rash, which is very unusual for me. I'd be careful buying anything from that company in the future, since I recently learned that a lot of their products have wheat in them. As soon as I stopped using their products, the reactions stopped happening.

I actually use Shielo's hydrate line of shampoos (which are sulfate-free) to wash my hair. It doesn't have any of those harmful ingredients. I used to have the worst hair, and now I ALWAYS get complements when using the Shielo shampoo. Worth the price...

Be cautious of the Savonnerie. Its a great product, but it has a formaldehyde releaser in it and if you have sensitive skin it can be troublesome.