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One green girl's story of ditching shampoo altogether; she (and her gorgeous new hair) never looked back.
Sun, Nov 01 2009 at 2:54 PM
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HAIR GLARE: Turns out that not washing with shampoo can create shinier, healthier hair. (Photo: *Zara/Flickr)
Every day I faced off against lackluster tresses, while two friends of mine couldn’t stop raving about their own glossy, sexy hair. They had recently stopped shampooing — just went cold turkey — and the results were marvelous. Both are decidedly un-crunchy, so I knew they weren’t making some hippieish statement about evil soap conglomerates or shampoo pollution in our waterways; this no-suds policy, I reasoned, must actually be good for hair.
What did I have to lose? I tossed out my shampoo, began simply rinsing my hair in the shower every day, and waited to be dazzled by my new chemical-free, naturally lustrous mane. The payoff was a while in coming, and I soon regretted having told everyone about my little experiment. Was it dirty, friends asked? Did it smell? Most concealed their revulsion at the idea of not shampooing, but when one involuntarily put her hand to her face in horror, it made a powerful impression.
Seven months later, my hair has never looked better. It’s shinier and has more body, and my ordinarily flake-prone scalp is noticeably healthier. Plus, I get the self-righteous buzz of having beaten the system: I washed The Man right out of my hair and it stayed clean anyway.
The problem with shampoo is that most of it contains sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate as a foaming agent. Both are detergents capable of degreasing engines. Not surprisingly, they are also skin irritants. The charge against them by the no-’pooers is that they strip the hair and scalp of natural oils, creating an artificial demand for moisture that only commercial shampoos and conditioners can fill.
Bahman Karimzadeh, a Los Angeles stylist and staunch anti-shampooist, advocates a more DIY approach to conditioning. “You have to let your scalp make enough oil to bring it through to the end,” he says. “Some people say, ‘My scalp is dirty, oily, I have to wash it.’ You have to get over that feeling.”
Admittedly, when I first got off shampoo there was a funk factor. Around week two, I noticed my hair felt tacky when I wet it. Not long afterward I thought, “What’s that smell?” The answer came: “Oh. It’s me.” And I hadn’t even been hitting the gym that hard.
That’s when I contacted Karimzadeh, who counseled “shampooing” with conditioner once a week. That improved life dramatically. My hair was cleaner and softer, and it was starting to develop body I’d never seen. It fell in ringlets and held a style. It even stayed out of my face.
I should throw in one caveat here: The anti-’poo camp is dominated by folks with wavy and curly hair. Straight-and-fines may have trouble with the shampooless lifestyle — it usually just weighs their manes down. But for everyone else, says Lorraine Massey, co-owner of Devachan Hair Salon in New York City, ditching the suds is de rigueur. Something of a demigoddess among the curly-headed set, Massey has developed a line of products called DevaCurl. I now wash with Massey’s fragrant, sudsless No Poo (think of conditioner minus the slippery element) once a week.
And so here I am. There has been just one significant setback in my quest for natural hair. It happened a few days before Thanksgiving, when I decided to deep-condition using a product recommended by Karimzadeh and countless beauty magazines: mayonnaise. I wet my hair, towel-dried it, worked in about one-eighth of a cup, and rinsed a few minutes later.
After it dried, I admired the shine in the mirror, but something was off. It was a little too shiny. I rinsed again. And then I understood: The stuff wasn’t coming out. Over the next two days, my hair hung in oily clumps and developed the distinct odor of rancid nut oil. Finally, on Thanksgiving morning, dinner with the in-laws just hours away, I gave in and shampooed my hair for the first time in months. It looked great that day, but my shocked scalp immediately started to shed delicate flakes, and the texture of my hair soon got weird. That was all the assurance I needed. I’m back on the ’poo-free track, and this time I’m not getting off.
DIY Beauty
A sampling of natural cleansers and conditioners.
BAKING SODA:
This is the best natural cleanser I found, but don’t use it more than once every few weeks: Too-frequent use will strip away the lipids in the hair’s cuticle, says hair researcher Yash Kamath of Princetonbased TRI (formerly known as the Textiles Research Institute). Dissolve 1 teaspoon in a cup of warm water, massage through hair, and rinse. Leaves hair crazy silky and squeaky-clean.
BEER:
In a favorite book of mine from childhood, the heroine escapes from a Nazi concentration camp and is taken in by nuns who wash her matted hair with beer, making it lovely again. I had such high hopes as I opened the can in the shower! Instead it left a dull residue on my hair. I’ll stick to drinking it.
HAIRBRUSH:
Brushing every single night makes my wavy hair too straight, but 100 strokes twice a week helps to distribute the natural oils evenly.
LEMON JUICE:
Some people swear by it as a clarifying cleanser, but after applying the juice of one lemon to my hair and rinsing, I found it lank and lifeless for a couple of days.
MAYONNAISE:
The ingredients in this supposed miracle conditioner — eggs, lemon, and oil — are the holy trinity of home hair remedies, but I say leave the stuff on the sandwich.
OLIVE OIL:
Good for long hair that gets dry on the ends. A drop or two — no more — rubbed between the palms and applied lightly to dry hair will moisturize and add shine.
Story by Traci Hukill.
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If I don't shampoo my hair it get's really greasy on top, no matter how much I rinse it out with water.
I have straight-ish hair : /
use a little bit of baking soda at the roots and rinse out, and to condition dilute 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar with a cup of water and apply it and rinse out
I have thick curly hair and use head and shoulders daily or i get oil spots on my scalp. Will I have this problem if I quit shampooing?
That's all well and good and I've been considering kicking the shampoo bottle for a while but I wanna know if you can still use hairspray and mousse afterwards or do I have to stay away from those too?
It is better to stay away from them as they dry out the hair anyway. But of course you can use them, if you cannot deal without them. They wash off easily.
On the other hand you will not need them. Just 5 days ago I curled my hair (we went to our friends, but I wanted to look a bit nicer than usual) and did not use neither mousse nor hair spray, my curls held for two days. During the times when I used shampoo and mousse with spray, they held only for a couple of hours.
I haven't used shampoo on my hair in about 2 years, and my hair has never been healthier. It's a relatively recent invention, and most people have been brain washed into thinking that they need to use it every single day, or else their hair will look horrible. This simply isn't the case. I use a baking soda solution about once a week and then in between that, just use water. Works fine for me.
There's no way you're going to talk me into not washing my hair. I don't WANT the natural oils. Natural oil = GREASY!! What is WRONG with you people? Organic this, natural that, good for the planet, yada yada yada, OMG, now I see why they call hippys dirty.
excuse me please, what are u doing here then, just come to insult people with other ideas different to your own.
love and hugs to our differences i say :)
Okay, ashley. If you want dry stripped chemically strained hair, sure. keep doing what youre doing. But if all you're going to do is call people who care about their natural beauty 'Dirty' then why dont you give it a chance before you go insulting people because of how they choose to live their life. And maybe if you dont care about the earth enough to just try not using shampoo, then you dont deserve beautiful hair.
So it looks like u were never told that the 'greasy' hair u dislike is actually healthy hair. You should not wash ur hair everyday or when ur older you end up with limp dry brittle hair. Shampoos strip all the natural life from hair and not washing frequently will even help ur hair grow faster.
Who said anything about not washing hair......????
I dance everyday and get really sweaty... I have to wash my hair everyday or it looks really oily... I have thick super straight hair. If i did this would my oily hair change?
I really want to do this but i swim every day for 1 hr and 45mins, so i really dont know of this will work?
To help prevent chlorine damage after you've gone swimming, try mixing one egg, one eggshell's worth of olive oil with one quarter of a peeled cucumber. Blend together, spread evenly onto hair, leave in ten minutes and then rinse well.
What about the smell? Does your hair still have that gross smell in it? Also....can I still straighten my hair without it being all limp and lifeless. I really want to try this but I have somewhat wavy hair so I don't if itll work for me. I might just start buying organic shampoos/conditioners and only using it once or twice a week.
You can still put product in your hair, just make sure to rinse it all out. I've found that a little baby powder in the morning gets rid of all the unwanted shiny and the small. Make sure you get it on the hair around your ears and part, then use a round brush to help style and get rid of all the excess. Don't put it everywhere on your hair because then it will fell grungy!!
My hair is naturally curly, but its super greasy! I tried the "no poo" regimin for 3 weeks, and my hair looked horrible! It was weighed down and greasy! Also, in the summer I am a serious swimmer and my local pool is highly chlorinated. I have to wash my hair every day in the summer or else my hair turns green! Any advice?
So, you'd drink aloe vera gel? Gross
Yep. Aloe vera juice is a near miracle for digestive problems. I give it to my autistic son and it helps his stomach issues tremendously. So yes, I'd drink aloe JUICE, not gel.
there is such thing as aloe vera juice, its super good! it tastes very sweet :) and it is healthy for youu ! good for hangovers ;)
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