Science > Diet and Health
"no (sham)poo" movement
rini:
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!
Psalehesost:
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.
manitoban:
--- Quote from: tendrini on June 25, 2010, 04:16:49 PM ---
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!
--- End quote ---
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.
truth seeker:
--- Quote from: manitoban on June 25, 2010, 04:35:40 PM ---
--- Quote from: tendrini on June 25, 2010, 04:16:49 PM ---
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!
--- End quote ---
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.
--- End quote ---
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".
dugdeep:
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.
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