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To shampoo or not to shampoo?

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  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    jkd_soccer801 – There are people on SAD diets who are doing Water only method – you don’t have to be a raw vegan to do it but I noticed my hair has less oil being a raw vegan – since you are not eating all that fried, greasy junk foods. I haven’t even had dandruff before but if you let your body do it, it will balance your scalp out by itself. The best threads to read would be some of the links I put towards the begining of this thread. When some people did the Water only method they got some dandruff and then it went away – so I believe it is part of the detox. Just rinse really well and give yourself scalp massages to loosen any flakes (good idea would be to do it right before you do your rinse then you can rinse out the flakes that were loosened).

    Spirit – There are other ways to naturally shampoo your hair. Morrocoo Method does NOT suds up – no lather. It is basically like a liquidy mud. So if you are looking for “suds” you will be disappointed. Check out some of the link towards the beginning of this thread. You can do baking soda and ACV or flax shampoo which is much cheaper and you can make it at home. Honestly, you could probably MAKE your own Morrocoo Method shampoo at home – it is basically ACV, clay, and aloe plus some other misc ingredients if you look at the ingredients on there site. So, something to think about …just try to save you alot of money here.

    kauaigirl – Me too! That is alot of the motivation for me behind this. Plus I was tired of buying expensive products (like MM) and wasting all of this money and having them not work. If I can have great hair and not spend a dime than I am all for it! The ACV is supposed to be something like a rinse and some people think it removes residue and build up and kind of “clarifies” your hair. I found it to be too drying. It doesn’t condition – it might make your hair feel “sleeker” but i found that cold water rinse does that too. If your hair is super oily it probably won’t dry it out but it dryed my hair out esp my ends but than I am further along than you are and you are still at the oily stage. I used the ACV a few times at the beginning and I just didn’t like the way it left my hair – I don’t think it will mess up your “progress” if you want to try it.

    For the clay, it was weird for me – my hair seemed to be getting oilier for a few days. I think that was because I dried it out so much. I think not leave it on so long. My scalp probably thought I needed more oils since it was so dry and went into overtime on the oil production for a few days. It is balancing out now. I am probably not going to use it again for a while. I actually tried a new way of brushing yesterday that seemed to help my oils move down (and removed a lot of the white “fuzz”). I take a section of my hair and hold it straight out from my head and start with my boar bristly brush at the roots and pull it through my hair to the ends- it definatley moved the oils around a bit. It took a bit longer to do but it was nice to get my whole head brushed out really well. I don’t know why my oils were never moving to the ends – I must have weird hair! :)

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Hi Queenfluff, the joborandi is just for the hair.Here in Brazil has many jaborandi shampoo.My mom always used it for her hair and we use it too.I

  • I have dreads and use knotty boy dreadlock shampoo, but it can be used by anyone, not just dreadheads :) its made with organic hemp oil, and essential oils of tea tree, peppermint and rosemary, to calm and freshen the scalp and relieve itchiness… smells awesome too. i use their liquid shampoo but they have it in a bar as well. i only use it once a week but i guess for someone with a lot of hair that used it more than that it might be a bit pricey… but knotty boy is excellent, theyre all into using natural, environmentally friendly, biodegradable products. (they’re also local for me, so i like to support them :) )

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    HI Lucy!

    Is the Jaborandi shampoo all natural or does it have chemical in it? That is so interesting – I have heard of jaborandi until now. It is so amazing how different things are in different countries.

    Yes, my hair is balancing back out again – it isnt dry anymore. I had too much oil for a while there but I am rinsing super well and more often. Here is a link to the brand of clay I bought: http://www.aztec-secret.com/Clay.htm

    It is the only brand they sell at my local co-op so that is why I got it. It pretty nice. Mostly receommended for facial and not hair but this is what others use on the hair.

    I think what David Wolfe was talking about it that people take the clay internally too. That doesn’t appeal to me. On the jar on this brand I bought, it say “not for internal use” – so I wasn’t going to take my chances. People have eaten the clay to clean out their systems I think. Maybe you can order some online?

    The avocado is supposed to be for dry hair I believe. It doesn’t remove oils from your hair. If your ends are dry, I would recommend putting it just on your ends. It is good for dry skin. I would eat them too – they are a recommended item in David Wolfes Eating for Beauty book.

    You are so lucky you got avocadoes growing near you like that! I would love that!

    I actually have to go to a wedding today – I hope my hair looks decent! :)

  • Greetings,

    This is a great topic. I eat clay for it’s detoxing affects on the cells and tissues. I also use it on my skin to pull out toxins.

    I am interested in knowing what those who say they do not use soap use for washing. Do you use salt or lemon? I use only natural liquid soap products as well as dead sea salt for bathing. I’m still tackling the hair shampoo issue. I have found that so far apple cider vinegar and dead sea salt are the winners.

    Bless Up! Tonya

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Hi Queenfluff,the jaborandi shampoo here in Brazil have chemical in it,but because we have a jaborandi tree at home we make a paste from the leaves. I have great news from my hair:I did aply lemon juice and aloe for a day,and last night I washed with baking soda and my hair looks AMAZING. Unbelievable !! The brown color did come back and it is soft as I had in my childhood. Today still beautiful,shinny and soft,and everybody is asking me what I

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    I use dry brushing or an exfoliating cloth instead of soap. My skin looks clean, and I don’t have any body odor. I don’t use anything in my hair, just rinse with water.

  • Interesting topic! I’m a member of the Long Hair Loom (http://www.longhairloom.com) and it was there that I first heard of people not using shampoo. I personally haven’t used shampoo in over a year; I wash my hair with conditioner only and it’s a lot softer and shinier. There’s currently a topic about water-only washing, but it’s been a week since I’ve checked in.

    Peace and Blessings, Suzy

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    kauaigirl and writeeternity – Ha! Ha! No, I went to A wedding NOT MY wedding. :) I am not married!

    kauaigirl – Are you talking about man-made salt water pools? I would think that man-made salt water pools would contain chemical and the salt they use is probably NOT good salt – probably table salt. You would have to ask who ever set the pool up I guess. Since you live in Hawaii, the ocean is the best. Alternatively, I have made a sea salt rinse (2 tbsp sea salt to 2 cups warm water) to cut the oil and it works. You leave it on 5 minutes and rinse. It can be drying so I would not do it very often or decrease the salt to teaspoons instead of tablespoons.

    Lucy – That is so great! I have heard that those on the baking soda water seem to be able to skip days of washing. I can go one day and I need to rinse but than I am not using anything. One thing you might try for volume is a “sea salt hair spray” – it is just sea salt dissolved in warm water – put it in a spritz bottle and spray it on dry hair – you will get some body. I used some before the wedding the other day and it gave my hair some fluff and hold.

    I notice if I skip a day of rinsing I have to rinse longer – which makes sense. Today I went to the beach so I did a lot of rinses. It seems like 10 minutes if I skip a day and 5 if I don’t.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi Lucy,

    The Baking soda wash is another no shampoo method – pretty popular. Lots of people said that it leaves their hair really nice. For me, the idea of putting baking soda on my scalp didn’t appeal to me. I was kind of worried about my body aborbing the baking soda. That is great that it works for you. Did you make a jaborandi paste shampoo too?

    Yes, my hair looked pretty good for the wedding. Actually I am finding a few things that I know are definately working for me. The first thing is rinsing for a full 10 minutes in the shower – I alternate water temp and do the cool rinse last. I figure that I don’t spend any time soaping up and I probably used to take 15 minute showers when I shampooed and conditioned so 10 minutes is not too bad. I think 5 minutes is good enough on some days. I did the 10 minute rinsing before the wedding and my hair was so clean and full. My ends are still on the dry side but getting better because of my second thing I have been doing which is brushing my hair in sections and dragging the brush from roots to tips. I am removing lots of white fuzz that way and the oil is getting down to my ends. I am pretty happy about it. I do probably need to trim my ends though. Tomorrow I’ll get some fresh river water and sun on my hair as I am headed to the beach. :)

    Hi Suzy – I first found out about this myself from the forum on www.sunfood.com (david wolfes site). Lots of people on their do only water or do the baking soda and acv and other natural shampoos such as the flax shampoo. I did read some of the super long thread on the long hair forum – just long enough to find out how long it was taking most people. :) There are lots doing the Conditioner only method too. Condition always weighed my hair down so I like not using it. I got have fluff. :)

  • kauaigirlkauaigirl Raw Newbie

    Wow, queenfluff, didn’t know you were getting married yesterday, congrats! I’ve been mostly brushing the way you described since day one, unless I get lazy. I think it does really help, it’s just so hard to get the crown area where it is the oiliest. My ends are still dry too but the oils have been slowly creeping down to the midway point. I realized that what I did last week to cause the oilyness was try conditioner only. Definitely not for me.

    Does anyone know anything about salt-water pools? I’ve found that soaking in it cuts the oil but I’m concerned that it is still a chemical and not natural…any thoughts?

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Wize_Femi9-

    I just rinse with water. The only thing I use is pink Himalayan Salt Bath bar under my arm pits if I have any stink (this is the only place I might have any smell – I am not detoxed out fully yet).Sometimes I rub a bit on my skin or hair (the sea salt water makes for a nice body building in the hair) but normally I don’t use it except under my arm pits. I don’t wash my face either out of the shower I just splash with water. Oh, I do use soap on my hands – like if I am washing dishes or after I handle my cats food.

    Here is the link to the salt bath bar I have – it lasts a long time: http://www.alohabay.com/bath_salts/index.html

    Otherwise, I don’t use anything else on my skin. I use coconut oil on my body when I feel I need too and MSM lotion on my face but that is it.

    My skin has never looked better since I stopped using soaps on it.

  • Congratulations! Did you go to a wedding or get married? Either way that’s an important thing to get dressed up for. All of these hair ideas sound so interesting. I need to try something more natural this summer!

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Hi Queenfluff, I did the jaborandi+aloe paste first,and than the bakind soda.It

  • queenfluff

    Thanks for sharing that link. This is a product I will be trying :)

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Queenfluff, thanks for the sea salt advise,very good. The baking soda makes my hair great and soft,and it is so fine that looks like when I was 10 years old. it has some oil though and I

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi Lucy,

    Me too! Well, my hair seems thicker at least…but I have some layers that are not all even and they never seemed to be growing at all. Now, they are getting longer! I think because they are not as dried out from being shampooed and I don’t have as many frizzy and split ends. I did give myself a little trim the other day – I know have some ends and will have to go one day – but I like to keep my length and my hair is so much healthier now – I know it will really start growing and I can crop those ends off! I should start measuring to see how much it is growing -hard to tell when you have long hair. :)

    Yes, leave the salt solution in for 5 minutes (I don’t think it matter if you put it on wet or dry hair.) It will take some of your oil out. Or if you are near the ocean – get your head in the ocean water and don’t rinse it out right away with fresh after you swim.

  • kundalalitakundalalita Raw Newbie

    Hello my oily friends

    I am so glad I happened upon this site. I just went 100% raw not too long ago, and as of yesterday I stopped using shampoo too thanks to you guys :D My hair goes down to my low back so it is a little difficult because not using shampoo makes it especially hard to brush. Also, I don’t know if I made a mistake by doing this, but I decided to add an oily solution (coconut milk, sesame seed oil, olive oil) to all my hair and let it soak overnight, for some reason I thought that maybe if my hair was super oily I could get through the process of my body overproducing oil quicker… anyway, probably i just made my situation worse, but just letting you know i’m in there with you guys!

  • kauaigirlkauaigirl Raw Newbie

    Welcome, kundalalita! Your theory kinda makes sense, let us know what happens.

    I am on day 30, and getting excited to be almost over the worst part…my hair is getting SHINIER than I’ve ever seen it! Oil is still working it’s way to the ends. My hair is pretty long so it still has a few inches left. I’m trying to re-focus on lots of brushing; I’ve been getting lazy. Much less white fuzz on brush but I still soak my brush every night in shampoo.

    Was thinking of trying the baking soda rinse b/c of Lucy’s fab results… What IS baking soda? Where does it come from? Is it at all natural?

    Had a massage the other day and was a bit self-conscious when the therapist did the scalp massage…LOL

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi kundalalita!

    Welcome to our little hair experiment! :) The reason hair gets so oily when you stop shampooing is that all this time you have been shampooing the shampoo has been stripping your hair of all the natural oils it was producing – actually the shampoo was WAY over stripping the oil and really drying out the scalp causing your body to produce more oils to compensate for this. If you have been shampooing for a while, your body just gets into the habit of doing this – so it just takes a while to figure it that the scalp is not being stripped anymore and not very dry and thereby, the excess oils that it was overproducing before are not needed. It is really just your body taking its time to return to its natural rhythms really.

    I am not sure whether saturating your scalp with tons of oil will work to trick your body. Although, your hair will be nice and moisturized! Oils like coconut (although you said you used the milk – did you mean coconut water or the meat?) and olive oil – any oil actually are hard to get out of the hair. I haven’t heard it before from reading others experiences and I read a couple that said they put on a bunch of oil and just had a hard time getting it out of their hair after but no one said it seems to help the oily situation. I think how fast you get over the oily stage really depends on how often you were shampooing before. That seems to be the main factor. But either way, those are good oils for your hair and scalp. :) let us know how it goes!

    Kauaigirl -

    Hey you are getting there! Congrats! You will notice your hair will start to feel cleaner around the one month mark (that is what I noticed anyway) and than it might get a bit oilier again for a week and than go back to being cleaner again. That seems to be a “normal” cycle with most people from the experiences I have been reading. I get lazy on the brushing too. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Remember that humans weren’t born with hair brushes attached to them so the brushing it just an extra added bonus for us to get rid of dirt, dust and oil in our hair (and since the world is so polluted today we probably need to brush!)

    For the baking soda, it is not really completely natural. It comes from a natural material but it is produced by a chemical process.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Baking-Soda.html

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    This is a great guide to the nutritional health of hair.

    http://www.jashbotanicals.com/articles/healthy_…

  • LucyLucy Raw Newbie

    Hi Queenfluff,thanks for the advise about the salt,it worked very well.I

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    Queenfluff… I haven’t read this entire “shampoo/no-shampoo” forum. But, I did read most of it so far… I’ve decided to try this no-shampooing again. Last time I tried this was in early 2004 (non-raw-food-days); I went a week without washing my hair and it got very greasy. (You gave me comments about that greasiness in another post). This time I am trying it a few days at a time. This is only my 3rd day without shampoo and only water rinsing. What I notice this time which I didn’t notice last time is that my hair feels thicker… and my hair hasn’t been this cooperative in a long time. I dont’ know what the difference is, but I did do a cleanse in April and I my diet is mostly raw since February. I’m already enjoying the results… we’ll see how long this lasts. :o)

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    hi germin8!

    Glad you are joining us! :) Yes, being a raw foodists seems to impart better hair – basically because you have better nutrition and your body is cleaner over all. Eating the greasy fried foods on the SAD diet makes for hair that is sadly nutrients deficient and normally alot oilier too.

    Alot of people actually do start the no-shampooing slowly by just cutting down their shampooing days and waiting longer periods of time to shampoo as you are doing. What I have learned is that the ones who have the less oiliness when they totally switch to water only are the ones who shampooed less often and not very day. I was an every day shampooer myself and I had the bad oiliness at the beginning but I just stuck it out.

    As time goes on, you will notice that you will be able to wait even more days between shampooing than you did before and than you will be able to stopped the shampoo all together as your hair will not seem greasy anymore. I have read several stories of people doing it this way. One tip too to make it more beneficial and to really start weaning yourself off of shampoo is to dilute your shampoo with as much water as you can – the less shampoo you use the better it is for your scalp because the less stripping it will be and your scalp will not over produce as much oil.

    I hope I am giving you good info and not confusing you. I found that understanding the process is a good key to getting this method to work for myself. It is often just taking time and waiting for your body to adjust. But it is also nice that there are several ways to get to the goal as not every way works out comfortablly for every person. For myself, I am not working right now so I was able to sit around and look gross for the really bad period which is why I just stuck it out. No one really important saw me anyhow and my bf didn’t care! Ha!

    I hope it works out for you. Your hair WILL only feel better as time goes on!

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi 123!

    Thanks for that link! I didn’t read the whole thing yet – some parts I already knew about like how the hair works and all – but I loved the way it talked about MSM. MSM is really making a difference for my hair and skin. :)

  • Im on week 3 of not shampooing. My hair is still a bit greasy but its getting better. One thing Ive noticed is that my hair is much fuller. Do any of you know rasul soap? Its not really a soap but dried mud. Ive used it on my body and just love the result, but am a bit weary to use it on my scalp. I dont want to mess up the detox process. Thanx queenfluff for bringing this up, its a very interesting subjekt.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi lushpapaya!

    Congrats on your three weeks! Keep it going! :)

    I am not familiar with rasul soap. But if it is a natural mud as you say (meaning no other ingredients) than I would think it should be safe for your scalp. Is it very drying on your skin? If so, just use caution on how long you leave it on. If you are anxious to remove excess oil, try the clay that several of us have used on here or the sea salt rinse. Those I have found, are the best for removing excess oil. They can be drying so just be careful about how long you leave it on.

  • kundalalitakundalalita Raw Newbie

    Hi!

    Wow, oil is so difficult to get out! That coconut mix moisturized my hair alright, and my hair doesn’t want to let go of it haha! except the last 5 inches of hair, it must have given up too long ago to care anymore. I tried leaving sea salt in my hair last night, and it worked a little on the top of my hair and it really super dried out the ends of my hair.. my boyfriend said it felt like money, and it did, lol…nice and crispy

    So today I tried to fix it with a variety of things that seemed to work… the baking soda really does work for me, i made it into a paste with water, put a drop of tea tree oil and let it sit on my scalp for a few minutes. I filled the bottom of the tub with hot water, sea salt, a Tiny bit of shampoo i have to admit, which was also diluted in the tub… rinsed out the baking soda… then filled the tub with a batch of peppermint and green tea boiled for more concentration and soaked in that… then put ACV with a couple drops of lavender oil Only on the dryer parts of my hair, not my scalp…

    When I was done I noticed that the acv/lavender had moisturized my hair (and skin!) some but it was still dry, so I used a Rosewater spray. I have to say that this really helped A Lot to moisturize the dry parts of my hair, and this as well as the lavender oil helps override the yucky vinegar smell

    The oil seems to be going away little by little every time I wash it, although its hard to get out, the advantage I can see about using that oily mix all over my hair is that it looks more like i have a shiny product in all my hair or like i showered not too long ago instead of only oil at the top which gives the impression of not showering..

    I just have one question.. The ends of my hair are so dry i’m considering cutting them off, but on the other hand it helps to have my hair long for work. I’ve been hearing that after not shampooing people notice their hair growing a lot faster, is there any estimate as to when this starts occuring and how much faster it grows (2x’s as fast, etc?) I guess like most things it depends on the person…or will my ends eventually retain oil and look nice and i just need to wait?

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hi kundalalita-

    Yep, the oil is very difficult to get out of the hair. I was listening a a raw podcast today with Alissa Cohen and she mentioned that she doesn’t shampoo her hair anymore – she uses just water and that sometimes she will “shampoo” with coconut oil in the shower. She just massages it in and washes it out. She also admitted though to once and a while using a natural Ivory conditioner in her hair. She said she her hair is pretty dry and frizzy otherwise though because it is so curly. So the coconut oil is probably not as oily for her.

    From your picture is looks like your hair is more similar to mine than Alissa’s – straight and the finer side. I will often get coconut oil in my hair by accident like if I have some on my skin. I have taken a bit and rubbed it into my palms and “scrunched” it in to my dry parts but that is as much as I put on – otherwise, it takes a while to get it out!

    It will get out by itself though. It just takes a few rinsings.

    For your dry ends – they will “remoisturize” if you give them time. I would leave them alone and just do water rinsing to let the oils come back. ACV can get drying after a while if you use it too much. Mine got really dry like “brillo pad” when i the clay mask and I was mad at myself but I increased my brushing with my bristle brush to get the scalp oils down to the ends and they went back to normal in no time. I do have some ends I know I should cut off – but I wait for layers to even out before I do.

    For the growing faster, I am not sure how much faster my hair is growing. It never grew at much at all before so I am not sure of the length per month. I am taking MSM too which helps your hair grow faster and thicker. But I do know that it does seem longer than when I was shampooing. I have to start measuring! :)

    Start doing scalp massages too – it will help with hair growth. It also helps with the oil production as it seems to even it out around the hair and scalp. Sounds weird but it does.

  • Hey guenfluff. The asul doesnt dry out my skin, it makes it soft and sleek. I do think it a kind of dirt/clay. It is something they use in Morroco and Ive used a lot. I think i will try the coconut oil. Any thoughts on sheabutter?

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