"no (sham)poo" movement

Has anyone tried going without shampoo? My daughter got me interested - she started washing her hair with a raw egg mixture and gradually moved on to just baking soda rinsed with vinegar. She's young and had oily hair, but after about six months it looks pretty normal.

I started with egg, too, and noticed that I could go for longer and longer periods without washing my hair at all. It started to feel thick and heavy, which was a nice change from dry and damaged from hair dye and washing every day. My husband says that the egg white acts as a detergent and the yolk adds oil.

Since I'm kind of old and grey, my hair doesn't produce as much oil as it used to, and I have managed to go for a month at a time without any washing at all, and no one seems to notice, not even my husband, which doesn't necessarily mean anything ;).

I've also found that rinsing with very strong black tea works almost as well as hair dye for covering the grey. Commercial hair dye has so many scary-looking ingredients and always made me feel a little poisoned when I used it.

If you look up "no poo" there are quite a few references. When I first encountered the idea I thought it was ridiculous. I'm realizing that I was just conditioned to believe that you are supposed to wash your hair daily with commercial shampoos and conditioners, just like I believed that I couldn't survive without eating wheat. Amazing what beliefs can do!

Re: "no poo" movement

I haven't used it since childhood. I can't say I see any need for it.

Some discussion about it (and other related things) that others had can be seen in the thread 'Glycerine soap'.

Personally, I wash myself by taking long, hot baths with plain old water. Works for me.

Re: "no poo" movement

tendrini said:

If you look up "no poo" there are quite a few references. When I first encountered the idea I thought it was ridiculous. I'm realizing that I was just conditioned to believe that you are supposed to wash your hair daily with commercial shampoos and conditioners, just like I believed that I couldn't survive without eating wheat. Amazing what beliefs can do!

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Hi tendrini,

I agree that the whole daily washing with shampoo is a bunch of bunk and it is exactly the same type of thing that permeates everything in this world - lies repeated often enough become "facts" in the minds of the populance.

Re: "no poo" movement

manitoban said:

tendrini said:

If you look up "no poo" there are quite a few references. When I first encountered the idea I thought it was ridiculous. I'm realizing that I was just conditioned to believe that you are supposed to wash your hair daily with commercial shampoos and conditioners, just like I believed that I couldn't survive without eating wheat. Amazing what beliefs can do!

Click to expand...

Hi tendrini,

I agree that the whole daily washing with shampoo is a bunch of bunk and it is exactly the same type of thing that permeates everything in this world - lies repeated often enough become "facts" in the minds of the populance.

Click to expand...

I agree with this as well. In fact, what I think most soaps actually do is create problems that ordinarily would never have happened in the first place. On a similar note, I don't necessarily agree that everyone's hair needs to be combed/brushed as much as we are led to believe. All of this probably varies with the type of hair an individual has.

I have curly hair and only wash it once a week. I'll brush down strays if I'm going out and moisturize with olive oil which my hair seems to "like".

Re: "no poo" movement

I generally wash my hair about once a month unless something happens that gets it quite dirty. I rinse it daily. Mind you, I'm a guy and wear my hair fairly short.

The way I think about it is that soap emulsifies all the natural oils out of the hair leaving it dry. We're told to correct this problem by conditioning it afterwords, but why not just leave the natural oils in there? I would expect that our hair is naturally able to take care of itself and doesn't need to be saturated with products, most of which are quite toxic.

I've heard that some people will find their hair is quite greasy when they first stop using shampoo, but I figure that's because our scalp is used to having to try to replace the natural oils in the hair stripped out by shampoo daily and so pumps out a lot of these oils. After a little while this greasiness is supposed to abate. I didn't find this happened with me, but those with long hair may have a different experience. I've been going without shampoo for a couple of years now and don't find my hair is overly oily at all.

When I actually do wash my hair I find it feels really dry afterwords. I rub in a little jojoba oil and it does the trick. Jojoba is supposed to closely resemble natural sebum and is apparently great for skin and hair.

Re: "no poo" movement

truth seeker said:

manitoban said:

tendrini said:

If you look up "no poo" there are quite a few references. When I first encountered the idea I thought it was ridiculous. I'm realizing that I was just conditioned to believe that you are supposed to wash your hair daily with commercial shampoos and conditioners, just like I believed that I couldn't survive without eating wheat. Amazing what beliefs can do!

Click to expand...

Hi tendrini,

I agree that the whole daily washing with shampoo is a bunch of bunk and it is exactly the same type of thing that permeates everything in this world - lies repeated often enough become "facts" in the minds of the populance.

Click to expand...

I agree with this as well. In fact, what I think most soaps actually do is create problems that ordinarily would never have happened in the first place. On a similar note, I don't necessarily agree that everyone's hair needs to be combed/brushed as much as we are led to believe. All of this probably varies with the type of hair an individual has.

I have curly hair and only wash it once a week. I'll brush down strays if I'm going out and moisturize with olive oil which my hair seems to "like".

Click to expand...

I also agree with this. Washing your hair every day is a no no. Of course, if you work in a dirty environment, then just rinsing with medium hot water will do the trick and then wash one or twice a week. I did use the 1egg 1spoon-olive-oil and a bit of lemon but I can't say if it did anything; I was just doing it for a change.
A plant that is very good for the scalp and hair is nettles. If you search at the local heath store you can find some good ones (), if not you could buy raw and make your own witch is the best.
The one I use now is called KLORANE and it is a treatment shampoo with no detergent. ( http://miraclemilebeauty.com/images/KloraneGreen.jpg )
I use it once a week and just rains my hair every other day if needed.

If you look on Youtube or search on Google, you can find plenty of info.

Re: "no poo" movement

Unfortunately, I have extremely fine, oily hair...have had this condition since childhood. Needs to be shampooed 2-3 times a week. If washed only once a week, it gets really flat and sticky. I use a natural shampoo that does not contain artificial scents, dyes, or petrochemicals. In a pinch between washings, I'd brush LuLu Organics Lavender and Clary Sage Hair Powder (no talc - made from cornstarch, white clay, baking soda and organic rice powder) through my hair.

Have to admit there was a time where I was suckered into the daily shampoo/conditioner routine...although I figured that the "repeat" in the wash, rinse instructions was a sales ploy. ;)

When I first read this thread's title, I thought it was about a digestive problem.

Re: "no poo" movement

NormaRegula said:

When I first read this thread's title, I thought it was about a digestive problem.

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Me too!

Tendrini, the thread mentioned by Psalehesost is full of great stuff. As we were saying in that thread, there are plenty of alternatives for traditional shampoo. After several years washing mine with natural shampoos, I must say I'm mitigated about the results: although my hair is nice (I often get compliments), it has a lot of flyaways that it did not have before, and it gets greasier quicker. So I use a mild 'normal' shampoo once in a while. My 'conditioner' is apple cider vinegar mixed with filtered water.
I've always thought the 'no poo' alternative was more suitable for thick, curly hair, but I may be wrong.
I have a lot of hair but it's really fine and down to my waist, so I need to feel some lather, unfortunately.

Re: "no poo" movement

I have been washing my hair with borax ( a tablespoon mixed with 1/2 cup of warm water) and it has never looked so good. I have very long hair and wash it once a week or two weeks in winter unless I get sweaty, then I will rinse it with warm water. The grey hair is starting to grow back brown again for some reason. I don't need any kind of conditioner and only brush it once a day. Before I stopped using shampoo my hair would feel dirty and sticky after two days and was very dry and brittle even if I used conditioner.

Re: "no poo" movement

Thanks Mrs. Tigersoap - the info on glycerin soap was enlightening. I guess this idea of ditching shampoo isn't so far-out after all, at least not with this group.

Now, when I walk through the hair products aisle at the store, I'm just amazed at the fact that I don't need to buy any of them. I also think about the amount of waste involved, the plastic for the bottles, the contents, even the energy used to get them to the store and the human labor to carefully stack them all up.

Since our success with our hair, we have also ditched our antiperspirant and changed to baking soda. No more expensive little waxy "bullets" to zap our underarms!

Re: "no poo" movement

tendrini said:

we have also ditched our antiperspirant and changed to baking soda. No more expensive little waxy "bullets" to zap our underarms!

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How do you get it to stay on? I would like to try this. Does it work well?

Re: "no poo" movement

I haven't used shampoo for more than two years. I just rinse thoroughly my hair and scalp with warm water every two to three days. I have pretty long hair I keep in a ponytail as my hair is pretty straight (although it has gotten a bit wavy) and in between fine and thick -- so the lowest maintenance, least time spent with it is to have it long and keep it in a ponytail, other than shaving it off which is still time consuming to keep doing. Otherwise, it would fall into my eyes as it gets a little bit long, so most of my life I've had long hair or, less often, a crew cut.

So not using shampoo works for me even with long straight hair. Another good conditioner is citric acid dissolved in water. And I've tried borax in the past instead of shampoo and it also works well. But I'm convinced, at least in my case, that just rinsing well with warm water is all that's needed. Leaves my hair a bit on the fluffy side and really soft.

Re: "no poo" movement





It has been over two years for me as well. I read somewhere that it was a nonsense to strip out all the oils with shampoo and then add them back in with conditioner, and expensive to boot - what a great money making scheme. So now I wash my hair with hot water in the shower, and it works fine. However I am a male with quite short hair.

Re: "no poo" movement

Since some of you seem to have had good experience with borax, I think I'm going to try that option.
I have a holiday coming, so, I will be able to experiment a bit more, should my hair look not so great. :D
Thanks!

Re: "no poo" movement

NormaRegula said:

Unfortunately, I have extremely fine, oily hair...have had this condition since childhood. Needs to be shampooed 2-3 times a week. If washed only once a week, it gets really flat and sticky. I use a natural shampoo that does not contain artificial scents, dyes, or petrochemicals. In a pinch between washings, I'd brush LuLu Organics Lavender and Clary Sage Hair Powder (no talc - made from cornstarch, white clay, baking soda and organic rice powder) through my hair.

Have to admit there was a time where I was suckered into the daily shampoo/conditioner routine...although I figured that the "repeat" in the wash, rinse instructions was a sales ploy. ;)

When I first read this thread's title, I thought it was about a digestive problem.

Click to expand...

Try rinsing your hair with rosemary water, it's the best for oily, thin, flat hair. ;)