I’ve been reading recently about the no poo (it’s short for no shampoo, nothing to do with the other kind of poo) method. If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s basically not using commercial shampoo and conditioner so as to break the cycle of stripping natural oils from your hair and scalp resulting in excessive oil production. It’s supposed to be kinder to your hair and your skin as well as the environment, which all sound like good things. On the various blogs I’ve read and YouTube videos I’ve watched, it seems that some people use natural shampoos, some use other substances like baking soda and apple cider vinegar, and some use just water. When I first read about this I thought it was heading a bit too far into crunchy territory, even for me, but I was intrigued especially as people had reported such great results and posted lots of pictures of luscious, clean, beautiful hair. Some even said they thought their hair grew more quickly but I’m not sure what the theory behind that is or whether it’s even possible.
I’m aware that ‘commercial’ probably isn’t the right word to use but I can’t think of another word that explains it properly. I refuse to refer to ‘chemical’ anything because everything has chemicals in it and it grates on my nerves when people talk about chemicals as if they’re all made-made or all bad. So when I say commercial shampoo here, I’m referring to plastic bottles of foamy, scented, sodium lauryl sulfate stuff found in the hair product section of shops. If you can think of a better word to describe that kind of shampoo, leave a comment and let me know.
I asked my Facebook hive mind (science hippies, assemble!) and quite a few of my friends had experience of not using commercial shampoo and conditioner, and their experience was generally positive. I’m up for trying pretty much anything (my favourite double edged sword) so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’d like to say I’m definitely going to stick with this for a month or three months or some other time frame that suggests dedication to the experiment but I’ll be honest with you, I hate wearing hats so if my hair looks absolutely horrendous every single day after a week or two, I might quit. The biggest issue I foresee with not using shampoo is not being able to use styling products because it wouldn’t be possible to wash them out properly. I literally do not remember the last time I didn’t use styling products. So yeah, I don’t know how I’m going to feel about that as time goes on but we’ll see.
MY HAIR
Ok, so a bit of background about my hair cause if you’ve found your way here thinking of having a go at no poo it might help you to have a frame of reference for my experience. My hair is short (chin length and layered on one side and the front, shaved but grown out to a couple of centimetres on the other side) and very fine with a natural kink that can manifest as anything from a slight wave to full-on poodle aesthetic depending on temperature and humidity. It’s also been dyed. A lot. The colour in the photos above has been through the following stages over the course of a few months – my natural dark blonde, bleached to light blonde, dyed bright blue every three weeks for a while then ignored for a couple of months until it faded to a mid-blue, then dyed over with a dark blonde permanent dye that did nothing but mute the blue into a soft teal. I have a couple of months of regrowth going on and I’m planning to let it grow for a while, not dye it at all and see what happens (or how long it takes me to get bored).
MY NO POO RECIPE
The most common no poo substances (I still can’t get past the word poo because my inner child is vocal and stubborn) are baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Although baking soda is alkaline and wouldn’t be good to use on its own with any degree of frequency, the acidic vinegar apparently neutralises the pH of your hair to whatever the pH of hair is supposed to be. Some sites I read mentioned baking powder rather than baking soda. These are actually different things. Baking powder seems to be baking soda with some other stuff added to it, so I went with just baking soda and suffered no ill effects even though I have sensitive skin. The ‘shampoo’ was made from 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 cup (237 ml) of water shaken up in a squeezy bottle and the ‘conditioner’ was made from 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of water, also shaken up in a squeeze bottle. I applied the baking soda and water, massaged it in, then rinsed well. I used the apple cider vinegar and water as a rinse, leaving it on for a couple of minutes before rinsing again with clean water.
HOW IT FEELS
Weird at first but great now. It’s not that my hair didn’t feel clean, because it did (its last wash a couple of days ago had been with shampoo and conditioner, and I hadn’t used any styling products afterwards so there was nothing to wash out), it just felt not very soft to the touch. When I got out of the shower, I sort of nervously poked at my hair a bit before wrapping it in a towel and it felt like it used to feel after it had been dyed but not yet conditioned. I envisaged spending half an hour trying to get a comb through it and resisted the urge to get back in the shower and tip a bottle of conditioner over my head. I was pleasantly surprised though! My hair was super easy to comb and dried in about a third of time it usually takes. I used a blow dryer cause the only way I’m going to be alright with not using styling products is if I can at least coax my hair into some sort of shape while I dry it. And then use straighteners to sort the front out a bit. Give me electricity or give me death. One day I might be one of those people who lets their hair air dry, but not this day. As soon as my hair was dry I noticed it felt softer and more whooshy (scientific terminology) than usual and looked thicker. As I’m writing this a few hours later, it still looks much fuller than it normally does which is awesome cause my hair tends to flatten pretty quickly even when I’ve velcro roller’d and fibre putty’d it.
HOW IT LOOKS
The photos at the top of the post were not taken as soon as I finished drying my hair. They were taken after I’d been out at the shops and had completely forgotten to take my sunglasses off when I came back home. I realised when I looked at the photo that I was still wearing them but I quite like the little reflection so this is the photo I’m sticking with. I also took a close-up of just my hair to give an idea of texture and shine. The photos were taken with my phone in front of a window and haven’t had anything done to them so if I do stick with this and take more photos, I’ll endeavour to repeat those conditions.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Based on everything I’ve read and watched, no poo lulls you into a false sense of security at the beginning by making your hair look all beautiful and shiny the first time before it turns into a moody greasy mess for a couple of weeks. No poo wisdom also suggests leaving it at least three or four days between washes, if not longer. I tend to wake up looking like a emotionally scarring LSD induced hallucination of Sonic the Hedgehog to the point where even heat styling won’t help gravity win the battle with my hair, so three or four days between washes will be ‘interesting’. I suspect I might have to start making friends with hats or become better acquainted with those recipes for cornstarch dry shampoo I’ve noticed on Pinterest (I imagine shop-bought dry shampoo isn’t a good idea since it needs regular shampoo to wash it out). Onwards!
Have you tried no poo? How did it go for you? If you haven’t tried it, would you? Since I’m just discovering this world of home made hair care, feel free to leave links to any helpful resources you’ve found (or written).
FIND ME ONLINE
Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Medium | Ello | Tumblr | Bloglovin’
