To this very day, it has been exactly one year since I started the switch to no ‘poo (or no shampoo, for those of you who are super appalled at me right now :D). It’s been a roller coaster ride of figuring a LOT of things out and making a lot of changes, and though I’m not where I thought I would be, I’m so glad I changed what I was doing.
If you’re wondering what on earth No ‘Poo is, you can read a couple of my intro posts:
A No ‘Poo Experiment – How to Clean Your Hair Without Shampoo
Shampoo, Low ‘Poo or No ‘Poo – The Dish on the New Healthy Hair Movement
In a nutshell, no shampoo is just that – no traditional shampoos. Switching from the chemical laden products to a natural product that isn’t a shampoo, but what do you know, cleans your hair like one?! It’s really quite intriguing and worth a read over!
I thought I’d update you all on where I’m at with no ‘poo, but first let me share what I’ve learned in the past year.
10 Things I’ve Learned About Switching to No Shampoo
1. Most if not all those benefits they bring up about switching to no shampoo are true.
Yes, my hair is stronger. Yes, my hair is shinier (mostly because, hello natural oils under control!). Yes, my hair grows stronger, higher, faster (heh, well, not higher, but definitely the other two!).
2. Know your hair type.
I thought I had fine hair. Turns out mine is medium density. And medium porosity. And medium brown. Obviously, lol. But it is so important to know what type of hair you have and how it reacts or responds to different things around it (heat, moisture, etc.) in order to know how and with what to wash your locks.
There’s a couple of easy ways to find this out – Naturally Curly has a hair texture “quiz” on their site, as well as the method for discovering your hair’s density and porosity (which is how well it does or does not absorb moisture – hair is quite fascinating!)
3. A Boar bristle brush is your friend.
When you’re fighting the over load of grease on your scalp, you NEED to brush your hair at least once a day with a boar bristle brush. It helps to distribute the oils evenly over your hair and actually in the long run, reduce the amount of oil your scalp is producing. It definitely makes all the difference!
4. Baking soda and apple cider vinegar does not work for everyone. And that’s ok.
I could not make it work for me. My hair was drying out ridiculously and I didn’t even like the way it “cleaned” my hair. And that’s ok! On top of that, the necessary apple cider vinegar rinse was making my head even greasier right after my shower, so it was back to the drawing board for me.
I finally landed on using rye flour for a wash, with a coffee rinse, which worked great for a while. But then I found my hair was drying out again – it all depends on the type of hair you have, so it is important to know this before
5. Hormones change everything.
You’ll be crusin’ along, lovin’ the no ‘poo life and flipping your hair around all over the place when WHAM! It’ll hit you. And hormones will drag your hair through the mud. I’m not joking! Everything was fine and dandy until hormones kicked in and suddenly my hair was a mess!
But here’s the good thing – hormone levels change! What goes up, must come down. So stick it out over those few days and things will go back to normal.
6. You will read. A LOT. About different methods and approaches. And you’ll want to quit. ALL THE TIME. But then you’ll remember why you’re doing this and be determined to keep on trying.
It’s the craziest thing. I don’t know how many times I came this close to quitting, only to resolve to research another option or method or way of cleaning my hair. I was determined. I did NOT want to go back to thin, weak, stringy hair, I was going to press on!
7. What works for one person does not always work for the next.
And that’s why it’s so important to play around with things and give them a good chance to work before making up your mind that it doesn’t. Some people hit the jack pot right away. Others it takes weeks, months, maybe a year! And again, sometimes our bodies change and we need to switch up what we’re doing again.
Getting advice and ideas from others is a great way to discover new (or old) ways to clean your hair and make the process work for you. But remember, you may have to play around with ratios of ingredients, length of time between washes, products and timing. A lot.
8. Hard water is a beast that is hard to tame.
Yes folks, we have incredibly hard water. And until I figured that out and that it was the cause for my no ‘poo frustrations, I very nearly threw in the Turkish cotton towel (Ahh! I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!!! :D).
Hard water reacts with a lot of the natural things we use to wash our hair – the chemicals in most shampoos are made to counteract and break down the mineral build up that hard water creates on our hair. BUT they also strip a lot of the natural oils our scalps create to make our hair healthy.
The minerals from hard water are not great and cause your hair to become heavy, thick with build up and generally just gross. It cannot be completely filtered out without a two-step filter shower head – which aren’t that expensive and are a better option if your house doesn’t have a water softener. There’s also a shampoo made by Aubrey Organics for swimmers which restores hair damaged or exposed to a lot of chlorine to it’s natural state. (It’s available in Canada at Whole Foods or online at Healthy Planet.) It’s considered “low shampoo”, so if you can’t get a filter and you have hard water, it might be a good option for you.
9. Sometimes all you need is an egg.
I kid you not. My favourite method and best obtained results have come from washing my hair with an egg. Just the yolk, mixed with a little bit of water. Instant soft, clean, not too dry, not too greasy hair. It’s amazing!
10. It isn’t easy. But it’s worth it. And when it works, you’ll {almost} never want to go back.
When you make the decision to switch to no shampoo, you typically know it’s not going to be an easy process, but deep down inside you kind of hope it might just click for you. For some people it does! And for others it takes a lot longer to find their no ‘poo groove.
I can’t explain it, but there’s something so exhilarating about knowing I’m washing my hair with less harsh, more natural products and it’s getting clean without all that junk going into my body or down the drain. Plus, I’m only washing my hair 2 times in a week and that alone also makes a big difference in the dryness or greasiness of my hair.
It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been worth every minute of research to cut out yet another way of exposing our bodies to unnecessary chemicals.
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As far as a quick update on me goes, every single person in my family has switched to no shampoo except for the hubby. I personally am using a “low ‘poo” product by Alaffia (mostly because of the hard water issue, and at least until we get a shower filter) but will be trying out the Aubrey Organics one in the next while.
I wash with an egg every 2 weeks and though I still fight some frustratingly greasy times in a month, in general I’m super happy with the process and where I’m at with my journey to healthier hair.
