I’ve really been wanting to try this, and actually have ordered a book called “Curly Girl” as i have curly hair… I forget the author right now, but it’s all about no pooing and she has a lot of different recipes and the like. I’m looking forward to it.

2 questions…

1. Do you have a filter on shower head to keep out chlorine & fluoride?

2. I have heard this works better with long, curly hair. I think your latest photos show you with short straight hair like mine…I’d love an update and if it goes well for you I’d gladly try it out :-)

I dunno, I’m a little leery. I have super thick hair. Straight on top and super wavy underneath. I wash and condition every other day; and I have to have some sort of conditioner in order to be able to brush my hair. Seriously, it’s so thick it becomes a complete mess if I don’t brush it for a day or two. Apple cider vinegar might not be enough.

Why vinegar?

Been doing it for a while – works as well as anything else!

I’ve been doing no-poo for a few weeks now and chronicling my progress on the blog. I’ve seen girls of all hair types rave about doing no-poo. I’m still figuring it out for myself, but so far, I’m loving the results!! Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be getting consistent results!!

My friend and I took on the no-poo challenge awhile back (say a month or so). So far, I love the results. We both have straight hair – her hair is thick and mine is fine and thin. We’ve found a few “tricks” that have worked for us: we put the baking soda and water solution (thin paste) in an old shampoo bottle and dilute ac vinegar in an old conditioner bottle. Both of us don’t use the ACV on our roots – I think it makes my hair even more oily. I’m so glad that you’re trying this! I’m excited to hear how it works for you!

I’ve been doing this for a while and can confirm that, yes, there is a transition period. Well worth it though!
To make the application of the vinegar conditioner a little easier, I put the vinegar/water solution in a spray bottle. :)

Huh!? Self clean? like in… you never clean your hair again? uhh >.> I dont know… sounds… nasty… will I look like those guys that never bathe and their hair looks like dreadlocks, only not nice?

I mean at least it would seem to work in my type of hair, by the comments of @christa, @kate and @tenise, but I’m sure as hell my GF wont let me get away with never washing my hair ever again… and even so, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with the idea of not washing my hair.

Interesting mission, tho. How about a little more info, Sayward? (please?)

To those who would like more answers… if you have a live journal or not you can check out this community that I am a part of.
http://community.livejournal.com/no_poo/
They are answering questions all day long about different hair types and have mucho info.

Sayward,

I read about the somewhat negative effects of shampoo in May and soon after started experimenting. I haven’t washed my hair with ordinary shampoo since June and only started using a home-made version last week (so several months with just water).

The first 7-10 days, my hair obviously got extremely ‘greasy’. I became a believer one morning when I woke up, my hair totally dry. It appeared, my sebaceous glands (which produce oil in the hair & skin) where starting to regain control.

My hair definitely went through phases after that. There were a few weeks where dandruff was a bit of an issue, but that passed on its own for the most part.

At the moment, my hair looks extremely healthy to me and in general I am just preferring the way it grows (I’m a guy with very thick, medium length hair, btw).

It *does* have a very, very slight oily feel to it. I imagine this is healthy and maybe even ideal, but I am experimenting with some home-made shampoos to see if I can find a balance.

–

For those reading and wondering ‘WHY!?’ here’s what I’ve heard:

If you look at the first ingredient after water on any shampoo after you will see something like Sodium Laurel Sulfate. This is a common surfactant aka degreaser. It’s used all over the place, including most dish soap. It is 99% of shampoo is. The rest being colors, textures & smells that have nothing to do with cleaning hair.

Our hair doesn’t get that dirty, it gets oily by nature. It has done this for over a million years, obviously prior to shampoo.

The powerful Sodium Laurel Sulfate totally dries out our hair, so our sebaceous glands produce a large amount of oil to maintain homeostasis. We then perceive our hair as oily and wash it, so our body in turn produces even more oil and so on.

It’s up to you to decide if this is good or bad, but when I think about how much evolution has gotten right, I like to at least give it a chance.

–

So, as for my shampoo these days, it contains the following:

Water
A bit of coconut oil based shampoo (this is a surfactant, so I don’t use much)
Lemon Juice
Baking Soda
Borax

It makes my hair incredibly soft, which I hear is a result of the borax. Not sure how this will be long-term but it’s been pretty good so far so I will just continue experimenting. :)

-Nicky

I only wash my hair every few days anyway… I really want to try this one, but I JUST (as in, yesterday) had my hair colored, and I’m not sure freshly bleached hair can handle it. Hmm.

EroSan – I take offense to your comment on people with dreadlocks. Dreadlocks need to be cleaned and washed regularly just like everyone else’s hair. It’s HAIR. I consider myself a very clean person, and I have dreadlocks. Dreadlocks are the natural form for all hair to take.
Anyway, on no-poo: I’ve been using no-poo on and off, and many others with dreads really like it.

On days where you don’t shampoo your hair, do you still shower? I feel like I’ll accidentally get my hair all wet. :-P

I’m reluctant to try it, because I already use fairly crap-free solid shampoo from Lush, and what I think is fairly crap-free conditioner from Trader Joes. I have a somewhat persistent problem with dandruff though, I wonder if no-pooin’ might sort that out in time.

I’ll *probably* accept the challenge. :-)

@Kathryn: I’m sorry, but i didn’t meant to imply that guys with dreadlocks dont take baths… I was referring to the guys with hair that “looks like they have dreadlocks” after going without bathing for a long time (looks messy and irregular)… like this:
http://j.mp/I9teS

not like this (which I like):
http://j.mp/3iQwab

I think you can tell when someone is taking care of his/her hair and who is just plain dirty.

I’m sorry about the confusion.

For those who prefer lather, why not use a natural soap for shampoo? Lush sold shampoo bars use the same detergents that bottled shampoos do, btw.

Hmm. Like many things in life, I kind of half ass the shampoo thing. I’m pretty sure I would miss the lather and the smell of my favorite shampoo, but a while back I did start thinking that it was stupid to wash oil OUT of my hair and then buy products to put oil back INTO my hair, and I started doing this:

One old shampoo bottle, 1/3 full of water
plus
Two squirts of shampoo (about a day’s worth)

Shake until foamy, then use the foam to wash your hair. It still lathers and smells pretty, but doesn’t strip. One day’s worth of shampoo lasts about a week.

Perfect? No. Pretty good? Yes.

EroSan – No hard feelings. :)
Sayward – I like no poo, but I switch off and on a lot. I love Lush’s Squeaky Green Solid shampoo bar, but I can’t stand Dr. Bronners Castile Soap on my hair. I love the way it smells, and I love to use it as a body wash, but my hair feels gross after using it.
And no poo has def. helped lessen my dandruff.

something to keep in mind if you decide to use plain soap instead of shampoo: not a good idea if you have hard water! your hair will be coated with soap scum because the soap reacts with the minerals in the water. It will be even more difficult to clean. That’s why there’s detergent in shampoo instead of soap.

I haven’t expierenced this personally, but I thought everyone would like to know!

i might try this but not sure. over 70% of my hair is “regrowth” (lost it during cancer treatments) and the new hair is totally different in texture, color, curl etc. from the parts that were never lost. this results in the craziest rats nest ever growing from my head. it’s kind of high maintenance.

I tried no-poo, but I ended up with a greyish pastiness that never really washed out. I couldn’t really see it in my hair, but I could feel it and I could definitely see it on my brush. I suspect some of it has to do with our ultra-hard water here (I’m surprised it doesn’t come out of the faucet in chunks, hehe).

I use a shampoo now that doesn’t have SLS. It’s far from perfect, as it has plenty of other ingredients that I can’t pronounce and don’t know what they are. I have a hard time getting it distributed throughout my hair because of the lack of lather. I probably wash my hair every 2-3 days, which is an improvement, as I used to wash it daily.

@Homegrown Texan – I have a shampoo I like that I think is without SLS, but I’ll have to share other ingredients with you so we can learn what we’re using instead…

Sayward – Yeah, I diluted. A couple drops in a squirt bottle, the rest water. But I still felt icky. :(
Some people swear by it, so I guess it’s just not for everyone!

You’ve done it again, read my mind lol. I was just looking at the lowering quantity of shampoo/conditioner in our bathroom and thinking, do I REALLY want to spend $30 for another set of 8 oz bottles (we use John Masters Organics – couple ingredients I still take issue with, but overall good). I’ve been wanting try to make my own shampoo/conditioner, but really this is more logical, and I’ve never tried it long-term… I did this as a detox on my hair this spring before getting off traditional shampoo and conditioner so I’d like to think the transition period won’t be so bad. That and I only need to shampoo like once a week anyway. Supposed to get my color redone soon, like tomorrow soon, so we’ll see, but I’m thinking I’m in on this one.

–

FYI Warning to all with bleached/semi-bleached hair – if you choose to do this, your bleached hair will seriously wig out (lol). Because bleaching is essentially killing it, and you’re no longer coating your dead hair with waxy products, it turns into a matted mess. It can be done (I have bleached chunks so it’s a little odd) it’s just a little more work. Oh the things we do for style…

Kathryn thanks for the note on the castile soap… I had (kind of) been wanting to test it, but hadn’t for that reason. Now I know ;) Emily also had a good point; we have hard water here, so, ehh, think I’ll pass on that one.

And by the way, dreads are awesome. If I didn’t totally love my hair as is, and if I didn’t have a fear of all things high-maintenance, I would so dread my hair. Maybe someday.

Sarah – No problem! It’s a great body wash, just leaves a lot of residue.
And about the dreads…do it do it do it! Totally not that high maintenance. :)
If you have any questions ever, check the memories of http://community.livejournal.com/get_up_dread_up/
Okay, I’ll stop writing all over this post now!

I accept this challenge! This week went well. My hair and scalp are not dry anymore.

Sayward, I’m lovin’ your site again! This is a great thread!

There are a lot of raves for a different no-poo method on youtube (similar to the one in the Curly Girl book by Lorraine Massey) which involves using conditioner to cleanse the hair & scalp. I no-poo/conditioner wash my hair a few times a week between my weekly shampoos.

I have very thick, extremely coily/curly hair and alternate between all-natural products to cleanse my hair & scalp like: diluted castile soap, shampoo bars, African black soap, diluted baking soda, conditioner or ayurvedic powders like amla. Reading labels to avoid SLS, cones, parabens, etc. was the best thing for our hair & skin.

The key that made a world of difference to my scalp & curls was … applying whatever I’m using directly to my scalp first massaging thoroughly & then & gently working it through my curls (to avoid major tangling). I always follow with natural conditioner like diluted ACV, Aubrey Organics, Yes to Carrots, Yes to Cucumbers, etc. detangling my hair as I apply it. My ends need conditioner/moisturizer because natural oils don’t always make it to the ends of my tiny Slinky-like curls.

But, I am curious to try your no-poo method; but, am a bit concerned about my ends.

Much like I gave in to your deodorant, yesterday I gave in to trying no-poo! (half a month late, but better late than never!) Once again, my reasoning stems from the personal care products that I share with my husband… when I go out of town in a few weeks, once of us would have to be without our Lush shampoo bar or deodorant!

I also joined the no-poo lj community.

I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for this post. I read it a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it out. I had heard about no-poo before but you somehow convinced me to try it :D
It has already made my life so much better. I have very try curly hair and there’s really not enough of it. But the worst problem, for as long as I remember, has been dandruff. I have used all sorts of things, wasting huge amounts of money on it. Nothing helped.
Now, with the no-poo, it is so much better than before. It was worse for the first week because I did not use all the chemicals. I’m so glad I did not give up.
I don’t have any problems with oily hair or anything, probably because my hair is so dry.
Oh and also, my curls look so much better, they do not look like a big pile of hay without all the products i am used to use after a shower. So I use these less now too.
I absolutely hated the smell of vinegar at first but I am getting more used to it as time passes. Peeling an orange in the bathroom before showering helps a little :D

It never occurred to me that one doesn’t have to ‘wash’ ones hair! I’m in, starting this morning.

Interesting, very interesting.

What about using this on toddlers or small children? Has anyone tested or maybe could offer advice? I’m expecting in September and was curious about raising my child in a chemical free world.

By way of introduction, I’m a vegan guy with shoulder-length hair. I did the no-poo method a few years back without the actual measuring and pre-mixing and it was great for a few months. Then, out of nowhere, I got HORRIBLE dandruff and my hair would tangle SO BADLY after washing and rinsing! I dropped the method and went back to regular shampoo and conditioner. But I’m curious to try again and I like this idea of mixing things to a certain ratio and storing the results in bottles.

So I just bought my ingredients and accessories (spray, squeeze bottles) tonight. But upon mixing the baking soda I’m a little confused. You give the ratio 1 tablespoon baking soda to about 1/2 cup of water to form a thin paste. But there’s no paste about it. It’s 1/2 cup of water that is a tiny bit cloudy. To form a paste you would need something more like 1 tablespoon baking soda to 1 tablespoon water. Is the language (”paste”) incorrect or is the ratio incorrect?

Thanks!

No worries. Thanks for the response. I gave it a go the night I posted that comment and have rinsed my hair with water once since then. It’s now time for another proper washing. I’m glad to be giving the method another try!