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I stopped washing my hair, I think, either last spring or the spring before. Anyway, it took about three months for things to balance. Sometimes I use shampoo if I am on the road in a hotel, or I might let the hairdresser use it, depending on whether I feel like going into my diatribe about why I don’t wash my hair. I never use hair products anymore. And I always say I am allergic to them when the hairdresser styles my hair. This is actually true. My face breaks out and my head itches. This has always been the case even before I stopped shampooing.
My current practice is to use baking soda and acv about once a week. But now that I have read this thread, I think I might try sea salt mainly because my neighbor just returned from Mexico and brought me a big bag of it! I do notice that I get split ends. I think I will buy one of those wooden brushes and try to brush the oils down assuming that the splitting is from dryness. My hair became more full-bodied and wavy after I stopped shampooing. I also have a 5 year old daughter and don’t usually wash her hair with anything. Every now and again I do soda and acv. She had some left over scalp junk called cradle something or other from when she was a baby. I used to put olive oil on it comb is out, and recently did so again, but the oil is really hard to get out of hair, so I shampooed it with some natural shampoo. She has really curly hair.
Anyway, does anybody know how to eliminate split ends? My ends are a little dry, but not too bad. I have tried putting coconut oil on the ends, but that did not seem to do anything.
Thanks for this thread!!
Well I’ve been a week w/o shampoo for a week now and I have to say that my scalp has not felt better. My hair is a little greasy today and I think I’ll have to do a BS wash and an ACV rinse once a week till my PH balance returns but I haven’t had any problems. I always have itchy scalp not matter what I did and if dealing with a little grease for a while takes care of that its a no brainer in my book. I got a BBB brush but its a cheap one from conair b/c I haven’t had time to go to whole foods (its about an hour from my house) but I really dont like the brush I’m going today and I’ll get a wooden brush. The other one makes static in my hairnad I dont feel like it is getting to my scalp. Are you supposed to feel it on your scalp?
Just a question or two. One week into no ‘poo
My hair feels clean to me, but is there any particular way of knowing this?
I guess I never could tell with shampoo either…
and how do you get the gunk off of your comb?
A few years ago I stopped using shampoos and now I use liquid castille soap that I make with some essential oils. Once or twice a week I use a vinegar rinse with apple cider vinegar and herbs I infuse in the sun for several weeks. The rinse leaves my hair so soft and it doesn’t leave it smelling like vinegar at all!
Then last week a local friend who makes his own Kombucha Tea gave me some and I combined it with the vinegar for the best hair rinse ever. I think I’m going to start making it as one of my products. My website is: www.greenridgeherbals.com
I agree that shampoos today are loaded with detergents and nasty chemicals. And conditioners just weigh hair down. I love my routine and it works for me. Thankfully I can avoid all those things now.
Hi Greenridge,I went to your site and found it very interesting!!
I’d like to ask you about the castille soap.Do you wash your hair with it? and also some essential oils,which ones?
HELP! i recently moved to costa rica and want to return to no poo (i was doing it in portland with some success).
the problem is: i am in the seawater everyday and it is making my hair NASTY! i have fine, medium length hair that tends to be oily, and i’d prefer to use as little methods (including ACV and Baking soda) as possible. right now i’m using bronners and it is doing absolutely NOTHING—my hair is sooo clumpy and sticky and gross, it feels like i’ve just gotten out of the ocean and i have to just keep it up in a bun to not be grossed out by it. if anyone has any imput i would so so so so so SO appreciate it!! i can’t check the board frequently (lack of consistent internet here) so if anyone could send me advice to holidayatsea@gmail.com i would be in your debt!! thank you so much!!
annie
Wow! lots of posts this week! I am on the road and not able to check too often!
redhouse – There is no way to get rid of the split ends you already have except to cut them off. There is no way to repair them – they are broken hair and will stay that way. It is actually best to cut them off because they can continue to split farther up the hair shaft and you may never get rid of them all together. You just need to let them grow out after you cut them off. Using coconut oil and being careful of how you brush your hair and not using products is a good step towards not getting any new ones though. I stil have some myself but I am noticing that they aren’t as visible since I have gone no poo – I can tell I am not getting as many new ones.
naturegal – It will take longer than a week. Be careful with the BS wash because if you use too much it can be drying to your scalp. Use as little as possible or just do water rinses or sea salt and see if that makes a difference. Actually, if you have thick hair, you might not feel the BBB brush on your scalp – you might want to section off your hair and try to get it on your scalp. You can buy different thickness of the brush depending on whether or not you have thin or thick hair. I would try a wooden comb to get at your scalp – that will get to the “itchies” and loosen any flakes (if you have them). You can use a plastic comb if you can’t get a wooden one – just use a fine toothed one.
Teade – If you are judging “clean” by standards of using shampoo or no shampoo – than yes your hair is clean. When you shampoo, your hair is actually “overly clean” – it is stripped off everything that might be protecting it (sebum). If you don’t use any products on your hair and you are doing no poo, than your hair is clean. For the gunk on the comb, the gunk is sebum. I use soap to get mine off. I will do it in the shower when I do my water rinse. I use an old toothbruh or nail brush to brush it in the teeth and let it sit while I do my water rinse and by the time I am done, I rinse out my comb and it is pretty clean. I don’t stress about removing it all because it is good to have some of the sebum in there esp. if you have dry ends, you can use the sebum that gets in your comb to help “condition” you dry ends – just comb it through.
holidayatsea – I would stop using ANYTHING on your hair (no BS or AVC or anything to clean it). The seawater will naturally get the oilies out of your hair. You are probably in it so much it is drying your hair out too much! Also, the sun might be a factor too if you are in the sun with sea water in your hair without rinsing it – that can make it feel sticky and clumpy.
You are lucky to be near the sea water – free cleansing for your hair!. What I would do is to make sure you rinse with fresh water as soon as you can (and for as long as you can – try 10 minutes – rinse really good) after being in the seawater. If you hair is still nasty and dry, use some coconut oil on it. Sleep with it in. Another thing you can do is to keep your hair away from the sea salt water for a while – use a cap if you have to go in the water and put some coconut oil on it too. I am guessing you don’t use any products right? If you do, stop obviously. You won’t be able to get those out without shampoo. I’ll send this to your email too. So lucky you are in Costa Rica. I went there once and I love it there! Hope to go again!
I’ve read the whole thread, yes, the WHOLE thread! WOW! I didn’t know anything about this, I’ve been enlightened tonight. I have normal hair and only need to wash it after 3 days or so, sometimes I take longer. I stopped using soap on my face a while back and only wash my face with baking soda and water and moisturized with flax seed oil. I bet if I just dry-brush it would be fine. But well, we learn something new every day! I’ve just slathered flax seed oil on my hair earlier today after washing out of impulse, little did I imagine that I’d end up reading about this later on!
I’m going to give it a go, this is so exciting!
It reminds me of a cat friend we had who’d come and visit at times. One day she was really dirty and we thought we’d be nice and give her a bath. Right after we did and got her all nice and dry, she went straight out to a patch of dirt and started rolling on it! It’s sad how old humans are yet our wisdom gets lost so easily.
Well, right now my hair is very oily from the flax, and I might feel like I started out bad if I want to do this so I can’t be sure if I’m starting ‘no poo’ now or if I will feel compelled to wash it before I do. It’s wonderful to know that it’s working for you guys, please keep us posted!
I think my hair is taking too long to normalize. I went no-poo at the end of November and although my curls are back(yay!!!), and it looks good, my hair smells! And it has a thick, rough quality to it, as if it is waxed but dry.
I can’t stand the smell. Maybe I am not rinsing/washing it enough? I only have been washing it twice a week: baking soda in water, then a rinse of apple cider vinegar and water.
Is that not often enough? My hair is moderately long.
that is exactly what happened to me. i attribute this to the coconut butter i was using in place of conditioner. since it solidifies at room temperature, i think that’s why my hair was getting waxy.
it finally went away with an acv rinse the other day. try rinsing TWICE with the acv, and then rinsing with hot water REALLY well. also: are you using RAW acv? i wouldn’t cuz it’s still LIVING and thus might be making a little home in your head.
i hope you find a solution… it might just be part of the process.
Okay, I’ll try a double rinse with ACV and no baking soda today. (You say the avc shouldn’t be raw?)
Ok,I’m two weeks now and loving it!My scalp is a little dry after the BS wash so I think I’ll take queenfluff’s advice and try sea salt instead. I am noticing some waxy flakes is that my hair detoxing or is it just dandruff? I have been using both a BBB and a wooden brush on my hair that might be over kill but I only brush when its wet and before I jump in the shower. I seems like the BBB is gentler on my hair so I use that first then the wooden for my scalp and the stubborn nots. What is everybody else using? I am really enjoying this experience and my wallet loves it too. I was spending so much money on sh/cond and buying only the natural or organic brands. My husband is still shampooing but is considering giving it a try. He says he’ll wait and see how my hair looks in a couple of weeks.
Hey all!
Plumeseed – You are right on track! Actually, Victoria Buentenko uses flax to “wash” her hair. She said she soaks the flax overnight and than blends it in the morning and rubs in it like shampoo! ;) It will probably take a bit for the flax oil to work its way out of your hair but it will – just be patient. I did the same thing with an avocado – boy, did it get oily! – It took a few days but it went away just by water washing.
Alix1962 – It can actually take up to 26 weeks for hair to really normalize. What will happen is that your hair will go from being really nice and clean and than it might go oily and “waxy” again and than do it again. That is what happened to me. It takes longer than a month and a half. You are at the beginning phase and what you are experiencing is normal. The “waxiness” will completely go away after a while. Did you use a lot of conditioner on your hair before? That coats your hair and it may take a while to get it all out. Another thing to remember, since you are doing hte BS/AVC, to make sure you don’t use to high a concentration and make sure you rinse REALLY WELL. When you use the BS and don’t rinse well enough, you hair might feel stiff, sticky or coated. You really have to experiment to get the right “amount” of BS to use on your hair – it is different for everyone. That is why I never started it.I would do a really long rinse (we are talking 10 to 15 mintues) of fresh water after you do your BS to make sure you get it all out. But honestly, the “waxy/dry” phase is normal – I went through it too – you just have to wait it out. If you hair smells, you might want to consider a essential oil rinse. (you add a few drops of your favorite EO - like peppermint etc) to water and rinse your hair with it.
naturegal – The flakes could be due to detox or it could be due to not rinsing out the BS enough or if you are using really warm water to rinse your hair – it could just be drying out your scalp. I have a few right now but just in one spot on my scalp because I have been using warm water to rinse because it is cold out! Normally, I don’t have any flakes. I just comb them out and dab a bit of coconut oil in the spot where they are. Fine wooden tooth combs really work great for not only getting the flakes out but removing excess sebum. For me, it honestly works better than the BBB.
Another tip for the flakes is to do a scalp massage right before you rinse your hair – that will help loosen the flakes and than you can rinse them out in the shower. Don’t forget to use your finger tips in the shower too on your scalp. If you can, get one of those shower heads with a “massage” or hard spray setting, the pulsating action of water on your scalp will help loosen and wash the flakes away. I only use the massage setting on my shower head – I think it really helps keep my scalp clean and it get the oilies out of my hair. Right now I am traveling and not all the places have a good shower spray and my hair is looking messy. Cant wait to get back to my own shower head. Ha ha!:)
Queenfluff it was your response in rawfoodtalk that brought me here last night, I couldn’t thank you enough! It’s reassuring to hear that about Victoria, she does have beautiful hair.
What motivated me to just put oil in my hair was remembering an old local tv show from a lady who made her own hair products and on each show would showcase a young lady with lushious long shiny hair (because she used them) showing people how to use them.
She had a coconut oil product that the girl would slather on the hair, comb, leave on for a certain amount of time and then rinse and rinse and rinse off with warm water, no shampoo!
Her hair was incredible, it glowed. Like the pantene commercials without the special effects!
My hair looks permanently wet lol, I will try rinsing and hope for the best lol.
I was wondering how it would be to start with almost hot water, rinse the oil out then rinse with cold before stepping out? I wash my face like this, to open up the pores and melt out any dirt, once clean I rinse with ice cold water to close them back.
ugh, I shampooed my hair last night and it feels sooo flat now.
I felt soo good without the shampoo..
but I saw this bug in my bathtub, and got a horrible fear of getting lice or something!
So, I washed it and combed it with one of those little combs.
No bugs, but I got real scared… lice are not fun!
How do you keep yourself from worrying, I want to go back to no ‘poo without fear.
Thank you, queenfluff! If I use an essential oil, should I rinse it out completely? Or should I just put a bit in a glass of water and douse my head? Also, how often should I rinse my hair? Was twice a week too much? Sorry for the questions, duh!
I’m so happy to come across this topic. About 3 years ago, I stopped washing my hair. Rarely do I tell people that I dont poo but I haven’t pooed my hair since June of last year. Typically I get my hair cut twice a year and I will let them poo and condition just so they dont freak out. But this time around, I might just let them condition only.
plumeseed – Yeah, that will work fine. I am not sure about the “pores” on the scalp but rinsing with cold water will “seal” the hair shaft and make the hair seem smoother. Some no pooers says that water rinsing doesn’ work unless you use really cold water. I find that at the beginning – the cold water worked better than hot – but now that I am ten months in, it doesn’t seem to matter. I think the hotter water will help get some of the oil out. If you really want to get the oil out, you can do a white vinegar rinse (start with a low concentration of white vinegar – about 1 tablespoon – to 2 cups warm water – saturate hair and leave in about 30 seconds to a minute and rinse out well – if hair is still oily you can increase the winegar but it does dry out your hair so be careful).
teade – yeah, that is one of the weird things about no poo if you do shampoo again, your hair looks even worse than it did before. The hair is more sensitive to the shampoo or something. What kind of bug? Hmmm, I never worry about getting any bugs in my hair – just try and keep it as clean as possilbe with good rinse. Keep in mind that people who use shampoo get lice – so not shampooing isn’t going to increase your chances of getting bugs in your hair.
Alix1962 – there are several ways you can do the EO rinse. Do it in water and apply all over hair in shower and than rinse out. Or use a little spritzer bottle and use like a leave-in conditioner. Don’t use alot of oil – this is mainly for scenting – although the oil might help if you have any staticy or fizzy hair. You don’t want to need up with an oily head. For rinsing, it is really up to you – if you feel you need too, you can rinse everyday. I do everyday otherday most of the time but sometimes I do everyday. If I go longer than everyday other day, I have to rinse longer when I do my rinse. Twice a week isn’t too much at all! Some people can go for a long time between rinses and some can’t. I like my hair to feel fresh so I do mine more often. I believe that humans were meant to get their hair wet everyday – most preferably in sea water and than rinse out in a fresh water stream (preferably a waterfall which because of the pressure will clean your hair good and fast!) but since that isn’t possible for most of the people on this planet – but I try to recreate as much as I can. :)
I rinsed and rinsed with almost hot water, scrubbed the locks like a pair of socks but gently of course, when I felt that I could do no more I rinsed with cold water and stepped out. (My hair is just below the shoulders, not as short as in the picture anymore). It’s not as oily as yesterday but it’s still quite oily. I just twirled the locks and pinned them so I have wild curls and it just looks like I put hair product on. It must be easier to mask the oiliness when your hair is layered than if it’s all in a straight cut. I love to wear hats especially now in winter so it shouldn’t be a big deal. If it gets bad I’ll do the vinegar rinse. Something I came across today is that it’s very important to massage the scalp thoroughly while rinsing to open up the pores and stimulate the blood flow.
By the way I meant sealing the hair shaft with cold water as you mention. I can’t say the cold water did anything special but moist is better than dry any day, I’m not horrified yet :p
queenfluff, when doing a sea salt wash do you do it like BS. 1 TBS to a cup of water? I dont feel like I will need it anytime soon but would like to know. I was WW my hair everyday when I started but didnt feel like I needed to this weekend. Thanks so much for all your help I have to say that I havent every been part of a forum before and this has turned out to be a great experience. I love the support everyone gives.
awesome, this is the forum I needed to find.
I’m halfasian, so I have this weird thick somewhat wavy straight hair
I use to shower daily, then as my hair got longer, I straightened it for a while to rid the annoying non-symmetrical wavy curls, Eventually I started to only wash my hair every other day, to twice a week, then to once a week with whatever was in the shower. v05, suave, loreal, all the stuff my siblings and mom had, even for a while Lipton ice tea shampoo, and sometimes conditioner. my hair would always get really dry or too bouncy, and I didn’t like it, i actualyl prefered day 2 and 3 of being dirty/oily/greasy, or however long I could go without feeling gross. Well today I kinda sat with my friend who rarely showers, and another whos a hobo, who showers when he cans and thought about not using shampoo. one of them said he’d show me the natural ways tomorrow, but eager to clean myself I just went home, showered with just water for my almost long hair, got out, towel dried, kinda pulled it back with a straightener to stop the air drying wavy ness, and it feels pretty nice so far, not stiff, its like being greassy without the grease. im thinking about boycotting shampoo, or taking whoevers best advice on my hair. I also dont want to use a straightener, kinda funny for me(not emo lol), I just prefer having my hair straighter. other than that, is it pretty much okay to just rinse with heavy water? if so, how often would you suggest it? my front goes down to my chin, the back nearly covers my neck almsot too my shoulders now, and i have the asian sideburns that arent attached to my jaw going down past my ear lobes
Hi all!
Sorry, I am a bit laxed in responding. Normally, I check everyday. I am on the road right now (in the process of moving to Cali – finally!) Anyhoooo…
Plumeseed – Sounds like it is going away! Yeah, it will go away – just takes time. Makes you really realize how much shampoo really strips your hair too. You can pretty much use very little oil (which ever kind use choose – I like coconut) on your hair now for a bit of extra conditioner (which you honestly will not need very often at all – I use on my ends only)
naturegal28 – the sea salt wash is: 2 tablespoon of sea salt (don’t use table salt – it has additives to it) to 2 cups warm water. So, 1 tablespoon per cup – you want to make it like sea (or ocean) water – it should taste salty. What I do is put in in my hair when it is dry (you can do on already wet hair too) and leave it in for about 5 minutes and rinse out really well. I am noticing than my does better on just water rinse now that it is cold out – but when it is warm out, I do the salt more often. Oh, also, the sea salt rinse is not an every day thing, like the BS - it is more like a once a week thing because the sea salt can dry out the hair too much. You can adjust the salt to your needs too.
InsaneShiyn – You can rinse as much as you want for as long as you want. It is need-based. If your hair feels gross, rinse more often and longer. In the beginning of the process, your hair may not look or feel really great no matter how much you rinse, you will just have to wait it out.
I like the Iced tea shampoo idea! That would be easy to make plus if you use herbal tea you would end up with some nice smelling hair. The thing about the straightener (you are talking about a chemical one or a heat one?) if you are using chemical straightener you are sort of defeating the purpose of no poo (you need to shampoo the straightener out) – if you are talking about a heat straightener (like an iron) than it shouldn’t interfer with the no poo but keep in mind that you might be causing damage to the natural state of your hair (hair should grow out of your head with a protection coating of sebum on it and the high heat will melt all the sebum away).
Thanks queenfluff, I was doing the BS wash about once a week as well but I really like the sea salt idea thanks for the tip. I’m really happy right now b/c the past couple of week I would feel like I needed a BS wash by now and I dont. I dont know if its b/c I was using organic shampoo and cond. before but my hair feels great! I think it still will be a week or two until its back to normal but the grease is a lot less. I’m WW only every other day now. Congrats of the Cali move we live in Florida and cant wait to move ourselves.
For those of you who are dealing with greasy locks… I found the answer. Its a really nice and clean hair product called Hair Fix. I bought one off ebay over a year ago and the bottle is still half full. I just love it. When it has been a few days and I havent rinsed, I put a light dusting in my hair and it looks great. It also adds volume.
http://www.myhairfix.com/news.htm
It’s day five for me since the last time I washed my hair, and drenched it in flax oil! Well, today I used about half a teaspoon of baking soda on my head and massaged thoroughly to the point where I had built a lather and washed my hair with that, then used the vinegar rinse after.
The oil had slowly gone off but the hair looked lifeless and felt hard and waxy.
My hair is definately clean now, a tad dry but definately not all greasy like before. Now that my hair is back to normal, meaning no more flax oil, I will see how long it takes for it to get too greasy and then do the baking soda wash again, maybe once every week or two. I will try to wait for as long as I can stand it!
Either way, I much rather wash my hair with baking soda than shampoo. It seems baking soda has become my ultimate hygiene tool, teeth, face and hair :p
What a cool thread! I’ve been pondering this…is shampoo REALLY necessary? My husband thinks I’m nuts.
For 2 weeks straight I went completely raw and green! After a week and a half, I noticed that I had no scent! I decided to do the ultimate test by going to an arrobics class at the gym without wearing deodorant…and you know what? After multiple sniff tests, I concluded that the rumors are true! When you’re raw you can toss away the pit stick! Oh JOY!
I recommend the ‘Curly Girl’ book and system of going shampooless. I use 1 part vinegar, 1 part lemon juice to clean my hair, and I use a leave-in conditioner by Giovanni. I still use small amount of shampoo about once a month on my scalp, and I never use a blow dryer; I always let my hair air-dry.
Curly Girl makes a couple of products with little-to-no sodium lauryl phosphates; Low Poo, and No Poo. I haven’t tried them, but I probably will eventually.
I’ve been using this system for about 8 months, and I’m very happy with the results. My hair is well moisturized with bouncy curls; when I used shampoo on a regular basis my hair was dry, frizzy, and wavy with a bit of curl.
3 weeks, feel great and my husband is starting to wonder if he really needs shampoo either. I WW every other day now and if I am feeling a little greasy in between I brush my hair with a wooden brush that seems to really help my dry ends as well. I need a hair cut but dont feel like I’m ready (still a little greasy) and I really dont want them to put anything in my hair. This is one of the best things I have done and I dont want to spend an entire hair cut (I have really long hair) arguing about why I’ve done this and why I need hair products in my life. I think its time to let my layers grow out.
Day 9. Today my scalp is oily enough to make me want to wash my hair but not totally disgusting just yet. I’ve been brushing my hair quite alot with a vegetable brush, something I normally didn’t do because it would split the locks, now there’s locks regardless with all this oil. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow and if it’s worse I might do a gentle baking soda wash on the scalp only. But basically what I can achieve with baking soda is actually better than what shampoo ever did anyhow so I see no use in shampoo anymore.
Well, this does make sense!! I l have longish hair that has always no matter what I used, smelled bad-now I think I know why! I have tried vinegar, but it leaves an even worse smell. Salt didn’t help at all, nor baking soda. Sure gets greasy in one day w/out shampoo tho. Ok, anyone use citrus fruits or something not too drying, but cleansing as well? What about pollution, that’s not natural, but no doubt absorbed by hair and needs to be washed out….hmm, I shall try to find some substitues for organic shampoos.