Nice hair without soap?

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[DeseretRose]

This is all a-buzz on a parenting forum I visit (I know, that means I cheat on PF, boo!  )

The idea is that shampoo/soap keeps your hair's natural oils from making all the way down the hair shaft.  Therefore, you become dependant on soap because all that oil gets trapped up on the scalp, leading to greasy, nasty hair. 

I've been checking around seeing what else I can find about it, and there are rumors of women who go months, even years, between using soap.  The idea isn't to stop washing your hair altogether (ewww ).  I think it might work, though.  I only wash my face with water, unless I wore makeup that day.  I have nice skin, which I didn't when I used all sorts of products meant to give one nice skin.  For me at least, why not true with my hair, as well?  After sifting through a lot of forums and articles, the things that seem to work are these:

--You need to rinse your hair with warm (but not hot) water *every day*, and message your scalp. 

--Brush your hair gently, preferably with a boar's bristle brush.

--Many women who were trying this rinsed their hair with herb rinses (notably rosemary), or apple cider vinegar.

--Some, usually with dry or curly hair, also used small amounts of jojoba oil (often with a little honey) on their ends. 

--It took most of the women who said this worked two weeks to a month after starting to have their hair fully "equalize" and start looking very nice and healthy.  Until then, most resorted to ponlytails and buns. 

--Another thing that I saw reccomended, was to use egg yolks as a shampoo substitute (obveously not with hot water, or you get scrambled eggs ).  From a scientific standpoint, that makes sense to me, since they contain lesithin (spelling?), which would bind oils and remove them from your hair, but not as roughly as soap would. 

Soo....anyone want to try this with me?

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=19345
http://www.punkymomsforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63868&hl=
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/go/index.php/389/why-you-should-go-no-poo/
http://www.noshampoo.org/

[Narmez]

Hmm...sounds interesting. I have a book that gives a suggestion for making a herbal rinse. I'll post it up here when i'm home next week. Could be worth a try.

[thalassa]

I love to wash my hair...

especially after I work out and my hair/head is all sweaty...


I don't know if I could give that up 


that being said...I don't wash Sophie's hair(not that she has much at all (I use her shampoo instead...lol)---I just rub a washcloth over it, and she gets a good scalp massage when she gets out (which she loves)...considering that she had dry skin before, and now she doesnt, it works---we'll see how that continues to work though, as she gets older

[Ankharan]

I would, but I shave my head.  Its too bloody hot in Florida to have hair.  Also, I don't think not using at least a gentle soap in hair is very appealing.  The smell alone would be a problem for me.  I have a pretty sensitive nose.

[thalassa]

The smell alone would be a problem for me.  I have a pretty sensitive nose.

I do know a few people that do this, and don't have a smelly head (trust me, sensitive nose)...

...but they don't really have that active of a lifestyle or hard core of a workout plan...personally I'm not sure how much this would stand up to the kind of PT I'm trying to get back into...


...and I really like to wash my hair...

[Ankharan]

Ummmmm... PT... good for you... ummmm PT good for me... PT !

[thalassa]

Ummmmm... PT... good for you... ummmm PT good for me... PT !

omg...not here too!!


bad enough I hear the students running past my car every morning...

[picaboo]

I could do this...my hair's pretty easy to deal with and I also just use water for my face with decent results.

[Ankharan]

omg...not here too!!


bad enough I hear the students running past my car every morning...

Model A ford and a gallon of gas... hand full of...... and a mouth full of ..... PT... good for you... good for me.  Oooh rah!

I know a girl who lives on the hill....

oh crap... can't stop... shoot me.  Nightmares...

[picaboo]

 

[Raphaeline]

When my face begins to break out, it's usually from stress.  But when I wash my face with bar soap to dry it out, I was getting worried that drying it out was actually making it worse because my skin released more oil to replace it.  I stopped washing my face with soap so that I could try to get a grip on it.

Turns out the answer was to STOP SLEEPING IN MY MAKEUP.

LOL

I could see how that would work.  I just don't know if I could go the time it would take to get my hair used to it.  My hair could get pretty bad - I usually have to wash it twice a day and put conditioner in afterwards to make sure I'm not drying it out too bad.  I wish you luck, though, Deseret, and I might join you later after I think about it some more

[Noctuary]

Well you aren't supposed to wash your hair every day. You have to give your hair a chance to secrete its oils.

[DeseretRose]

  I wish you luck, though, Deseret, and I might join you later after I think about it some more

I'm going to give my hair one last good scrubbing before church tomorrow, and then I'm going for it...I'll let you all know how it goes.

[picaboo]

Are you still wanting someone to try with you?

[Raphaeline]

I think I'm going to give it a shot. 


Question:  what about putting chemicals in your hair, such as hairspray?  Is that a no-no, is it okay to shampoo that out, or just... leave it?

[picaboo]

I would think no-no, but I'm no expert.  I've got about a month off of school so I can afford to be less nice looking for awhile.

[Raphaeline]

I can hide it in a ponytail when I'm at work and under a hat when I'm not, so I'm going to go for it.  I think.  Oh, it's going to be hard!

[Narmez]

When I'm back from college I'll have about 5 weeks to play with not having to look nice all the time, so I might give it a try as well. I get extremely oily hair within two days, though, so unless I can find something to counter that then it probably won't work out for me

[picaboo]

I've heard, but not tried, baby powder on the roots can absorb some of the oil.  I know there's a company that makes it in hair colors so you have no risk of white powder (appearance of dandruff I guess) on your head.

[DeseretRose]

I think I'm going to give it a shot. 


Question:  what about putting chemicals in your hair, such as hairspray?  Is that a no-no, is it okay to shampoo that out, or just... leave it?

I'm going to avoid chemicals for the first month just to make sure that the oil can start making it's way down the hair shaft correctly.  I'm also going to keep my hair up so I don't play with it (no extra oil from my hands), take it down and brush it every night before bed, and do either an egg wash or a baking soda/vinegar paste every three days. 

I'm hoping that between those and a good rinse every day, it shouldn't be too bad.  I have very fine hair, so this should be interesting. 

[thalassa]

lol...I keep thinking about this...so...I emailed my friend Ange, who I consider my athourity on all things granola-ish...figured one of her or one of her house-mates might be into this--and I knew she had tried it at one time, but didn't remember what the outcome was... (they do all sorts of environmentally friendly things...pee rags, flushing for poo only, composting, solar powered water heating, cloth pads, etc---PLUS, since they are lucky enough to live in an area with artesian wells, they get their water that they use for drinking/cooking from their rather than the city water supply)

She has some BEAUTIFUL long, thick red hair that aparently she hasn't washed regularly for about 3 years...

She says her plan when she started out was to wash it it if she did anything to it that requires styling product (for a special occasion),  if it got physically dirty enough that just rinsing didn't do the trick, or if it got funky and an herbal rinse didn't take care of it (like a loooooong hiking trip or some such)...but in the end, she has only washed her  maybe 3 or 4 times as she says there have been very few things that necessitate needing to wash your hair if it works, and the after-care to get it "back" is a pain in the ass (kind of like starting it out)...

She says she does an apple cider vinegar rinse and honey "conditioner" if her hair gets too funky and has tried the baking soda scalp scrub thing---but it is important to get the dilution right aparently.  She herbal rinses once a week, and then spritzes in between...she does the brushing with the boar bristle brush and such that DR mentioned...

She uses a rose/lavender/chamomile combo, or rosemary-mint combo with a drop or two of  for her herbal rinse for EVERYTHING...I have tried her rose/lavender/chamomile recipe before as an herbal rinse, or to add to the bath---it rocks...  

Basically, take a gallon of distilled water and pour into a pitcher, and add a BIG muslin bag (or just filter or strain with a potato ricer, if you don't have a bag) filled with a handful of dried roses (just the rose buds you can buy in bulk), a handful of lavender, and a handful of chamomile, shake it up, then infuse overnight, shake ,then add about 10-15 drops of tea tree oil and a drop of liquid castile soap (it lets the tea tree oil be distributed into the water, rather than sitting on top of it), shake....and use for a facial "toner", body spritz, hair rinse, herbal bath, etc....

some other stuff I found...because I'll be honest...this is intriguing...so I am "looking into it"

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/go/index.php/389/why-you-should-go-no-poo/
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid40141.aspx
http://www.greendaily.com/2007/09/12/check-out-skin-deep-a-personal-products-database/
http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlcolumns/articles.php?type=articles&id=24154
http://www.smh.com.au/news/richard-glover/the-no-shampoo-challenge/2007/03/22/1174153246888.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=394226&in_page_id=1879
http://naturaldsm.wordpress.com/2006/12/20/25/

[picaboo]

Thanks Thalassa, found that last link VERY useful.

[TempestBrewer]

Well considering the native americans went so long without soap and their hair rocks I'm sure this is possible. Sadly, I have to maintain a certain hygenic quality due to the nature of my work, or I might try this out.

[thalassa]

I'm more concerned about the fact that I dye my hair...

...and I enjoy the fact that I dye my hair, and don't plan not to...


....still havent really found any good info about that...

[Noctuary]

Wait? So you all want to practice not looking nice for why?