No 'poo - week 1

Mid-shower, on Sunday 11th March 2012, I made the decision to stop using shampoo. Rather than leaving it a while (i.e. putting it off) I decided to jump right in - no time like the present, wot.

Rather than post every now and again I've decided to write a journal, and post it as and when. From the discussions I've had so far, people seem pretty interested in this, so I thought I should share.

Should you wish to try it yourself I should give some background info and some caveats: my hair is dark, straight, thick but fine and shoulder length. I've been using shampoo bars for about 2 years, so my hair has had a mega detox from conventional shampoos. I also normally only wash it every 2 days. This is important as from what I've read, my understanding is that the more chemicals you've been using on your hair, the longer it takes to 'detox' from shampoo. So if you're using Pantene or Herbal Essences I'd recommend moving onto shampoo bars first.

So, without further ado - this is my experience of going "no 'poo"...

Day 1 (Sunday 11/3) - Following a henna session on Thursday, after which I failed to remove all henna/shampoo, and a swimming session on Friday after which I had a brief and pathetic hair wash owing to a lack of hot showering facilities, I decided mid-shower that I wasn't going to use shampoo after all. My hair hadn't had a proper was since Thursday morning, so technically I had a head start (no pun intended)

So I washed down, wrapped myself in a towel and went to collect bicarb, measuring cup and spoon and lemon juice from the kitchen. I made up a 1 cup water: 1 tbsp bicarb mixture, but having not read the instructions properly, I made  a 3 c mixture (i.e. waaay too much) and only rinsed my hair with it rather than massaging it in, and leaving it on for 2 minutes. I then rinsed with a water/lemon juice mixture - not measured properly as my head was wet and over the bath and I had water getting in my eyes.

I was very surprised that my hair dried nicely - none of that weird greasy feel I get when my hair gets wet but I don't actually wash it. Overall, a nice hair day.

Day 2 (Monday 12/3) - Hair feeling 'heavy' today, but when brushed it looks ok. Partially tied back for lab work. I think it looks passable. Lunchtime conversation veered onto my no 'poo experiment, and it was observed that my hair looks ok (i.e. not like I hadn't used shampoo for 4 days!).

Day 3 (Tues 13/3) – today would be my normal hair wash day, but I decided not to, the theory being that the sooner it gets used to not being washed, the quicker it will adjust. This is not however based on anything I’ve read, but rather the experience I had as a teenager when the more often I washed my hair, the more often it needed washing. At one point I got to where I was washing it every day, with the result that it more often than not felt greasy by lunchtime. It was then that I cut down to every two days. On a number of occasions I’ve tried to get it down to three, but I just didn’t have the confidence to take the risk of having greasy-looking hair. Recently my hair has been managing three days on occasion, so I’m happy to give it a go.

I twisted my hair around a bit and put it up, and think it looked ok. So far so good.

Day 4 (Weds 14/3) – Eeeeeuuuurrrgh!

I tried doing my hair properly in the shower this morning. I put 1 tbsp bicarb in a measuring jug and measured 1 cup of shower (i.e. warm) water to make a mixture. I poured this bit-by-bit onto my head, starting by massaging it into the roots around my crown, and then around the rest of my scalp, scrunching up the rest of my hair at the base of my neck to squeeze the mixture into my roots. I think I may need more mixture next time, as although my hair is only shoulder length and doesn’t look especially thick, it certainly soaks up the mixture!

I remembered to leave it on for a minute or two today, then rinsed it out briefly with some water. Next was on with the lemon juice mixture – I tbsp. in 1 c water, again poured on my crown and rubbed around my scalp, though not so thoroughly as the bicarb. I can actually feel my hair getting smoother when I do this, presumably the acid in the lemon juice neutralising both the bicarb and the hard Reading water. I had to dash out of the house as I was teaching at 9 am and didn’t have time to dry or comb it – my granny would have had a fit! I just towelled it made use of my side parting to make it look less scruffy and tied it up i.e. not just scraped back like I did when I was 11!

However. Ugh! Today had to be the worst day so far. It dried out ok, and I didn’t think it looked too bad until I got home and took some investigatory pictures of the back of my head. While the hair around the front, sides, and back looks ok – the crown was more befitting a teenage boy. A quick search online revealed very little about the dynamics of oil production in the scalp – possibly because so few people do what I’m trying to do (or I used the wrong search words!).

Hair at sides looking ok...

 Hair at the crown... apologies for the general grossness!

I did find quite a lot about women finding that around the age of 50-60 their hair suddenly went really greasy around the crown – and that washing it more only made it worse! Equally I found a few stories about people cutting down their shampoo usage, sometimes altogether, who found that when they had to use shampoo (e.g. away on conferences and they’d forgotten their bicarb) found that shampoos made their scalps dry, sore and itchy. The more I ‘think natural’ the more I’m finding the ‘normal’ practices most people use really are bizarre. We are constantly fighting nature, be it in stripping the oil off our skin and hair, or trying to grow hectares of a single crop plant when that happens nowhere on the planet. I wonder how shampoo caught on if it made your scalp so dry, and realise I know very few people who could fill me in on the details.

Day 5 (Thurs 15/3) – an expected greasy day. Psychologically my hair feels thick and a bit dirty, but aside from my exceedingly greasy crown it doesn’t look too bad. I can feel the oils moving down the hair shaft, so it’s not just the roots but about two-thirds of my hair looking suspect. It does feel soft though, not at all like the slick greasiness I was expecting – and which I would get if I left a wash too long. 

When I first read about “no ‘poo” I assumed it meant no-wash as well, and envisaged myself looking like, well, a teenage boy  who has decided to grow his hair, but not assume the added responsibility of cleaning it. I’d heard schoolyard rumours that if you didn’t wash your hair it would eventually ‘wash’ itself, but didn’t quite understand how that worked. I guess the simple answer is: it didn’t! What actually happens is that if you wash it with something to remove the dirt, the natural oils in your hair return to normal. When you shampoo you strip out all the oil and your scalp overcompensates, desperate to return the balance. The more you shampoo, the more oil is removed, the more your scalp compensates; hence the problem with increasingly regular washings.

Needless to say, today saw the first of what I imagine will be a succession of interesting head bands!

Day 6 (Fri 16/3) - on with the hair band! Tied my hair back and UP to try and disguise my disgusting greasy crown. I also tried using some bicarb as a sort of 'dry shampoo'. I thought I was doing quite well until Jon asked me what all the white bits in my hair were. Not doing that again!

 

Day 7 (Sat 17/3) - my first expense as part of this project, I bought a larger quantity of bicarb from a small shop whilst visiting my parents (500g = £3).

Today was going to be a shampoo day, but the man in the shop freaked me out by telling me that I should be careful using bicarb on my hair as it's very 'strong'. I wasn't so sure about accepting advice from an ageing (balding) Spanish man, but even so, it made me think. This said, I'm not convinced it's any worse than bleaching/ dying/ washing your hair with Pantene...

So endeth the week. 

So far, so good...