No shampoo? Sounds crazy but it sounds amazing to me!
I first encountered a "no-poo" video on YouTube and clicked on it because of course, it sounded silly. Even with such a ridiculous name, I kept on watching because the person claimed to not wash her hair more than once a week!
I know! Sounds so cool (Lol, please don't think I'm a filthy person because I think not washing your hair often is awesome). Well, of course I wouldn't have been intrigued if the person's hair looked nasty, oily and not healthy, but her hair was voluminous, curly and didn't look filthy at all. Of course, I can't smell her hair to identify if it smelled horrendous XD.
Apparently, this no-poo method is just how people used to wash their hair before shampoo was invented. Since shampoo is a relatively new thing, why does it seem so crazy to just revert back to old ways? Especially since shampoo is renowned to be harsh for the scalp and hair because of chemicals like sulfates. Even sulfate free shampoo doesn't seem like it's doing much difference.
I use a sulfate free shampoo and conditioner everyday, it's not even drug store! Expensive stuff, ya-know! But I still have to wash everyday just to keep it looking fresh. Even a weekly sulfate-free hair mask will not keep it soft forever! I loved my hair. Until recently, it was past my waist, but now its about shoulder length. Wish I would have heard about this before I chopped it all off! Could have experimented.
Now for the method of course! The You Tuber recommended to use a all-natural, shampoo bar and apple-cider vinegar. Get in the shower of course, lather up the bar very well and wash your hair like normal. Then, take a tablespoon or two and dilute it in a whole cup of water. If more scent is wanted, add few drops of essential oils like lavender or tea tree oil. Soak your hair in this mixture.
The idea of the apple-cider vinegar is to control the PH levels on your scalp, similar to how a toner would work on the skin. After applying the diluted apple-cider vinegar mixture, rinse it off thoroughly and all done!
Of course I would like to try this method because washing hair daily is laborious and takes forever to get ready in the morning. My morning routine takes about 50 minutes everyday because I cannot walk out the door with oily, dirty, thin, and just horrible hair. Because my hair is thin and oily, I would have to shower every morning to attain my fresh, voluminous, clean hair, but to also get the same results without having to wash it often? Sounds like heaven.
The only bad thing about switching to the no-poo method is the waiting period. Since your scalp is most likely used to modern Shampoo, it needs time to adjust. People say it takes about 4-6 weeks for your scalp to get used to producing it's own oils again.
Sounds like a miracle to me! Gorgeous, soft, voluminous hair without so much maintenance? However, I am scared of trying it because of the waiting period. Since school is still in session, I can't hide my oily hair! >_<! So hopefully I can try this over the summer!
Apparently curly hair looks better if you just leave it alone. Of course, not washing the hair would end up making curly hair gorgeous and what nature intended it to be. But I was wondering if this no-shampoo method would work on my thin, black, straight Asian hair? If anyone has any experience of thoughts I would love to know!
I have relatively thin, black, slightly wavy Asian hair that's been straightened and dyed at the ends. I've gone no shampoo for about two months now, except for one time two weeks ago when I had to wash massage oil out of my hair (let's not get into that).
ReplyDeleteI went through about a month and a half of very serious dandruff along my hairline, very limp hair on the crown of my head (to the point that I started getting very paranoid about going bald), and super frizz ball at the ends of my hair. Not a very pretty sight. It also caused some severe back acne.
Right now things seem to have calmed down. I have been alternating once a week trials of baking soda/ACV, conditioner only and plain water. The baking soda/ACV at one point got the unstraightened parts of my hair to have this super pretty curl, but I haven't been able to reproduce it since. Conditioner only after going without shampoo for so long felt like actual shampooed clean hair, but only lasted for a couple days before getting oily again. Plain water seems to work best so far, but you really have to get used to getting oil ALL over your hands when you wash (imagine water beading on your hands because there's THAT much oil).
One thing that I was majorly concerned about before I tried this was that I had a lot of hair falling out all the time. Since going no-shampoo, that has decreased about 50-75%, which is quite significant. After that one time I used shampoo to get massage oil out of my hair, I noticed shorter baby hairs falling out in the shower. I haven't used shampoo since, but am probably going to go with conditioner only to see how that goes.
Hope that helps!