Shampoo-Free Tea: Result!

[teaberryblue]

I know, I know, I said you would get results after about a week, but there is a good reason why it has taken me so long to tell you how the whole shampoo-free thing is going!

It is called, I MADE A COMIC ABOUT IT.

Shampoo-Free Tea

Enjoy! This documents the process from start to end of the first day of shampoo-freeness. Click the image to read the comic!

It has been nearly three weeks and I have got to say, I do not feel like my hair is dirty, and I don’t miss shampoo at all! In fact, I am happy to report that when I went down to my grandmother’s house for the weekend, I brought down all my silicone-rich conditioners and all but one bottle of sulfate shampoo. I kept one bottle of shampoo in case I have an awful hair emergency. But other than that, my haircare regimen now consists of silicone-free conditioner, water, and castor oil or vegetable glycerin (I like to alternate what I put in my hair).

It was slightly greasy at about the two week mark, but other than that, all the warnings that it would make my hair look worse before it looked better? Lies! It has looked great from the first day on. I mean, I still have some bad hair days, but my hair is softer, shinier, and healthier overall. The softness is amazing– you can really tell that there are no products in my hair.

When it got greasy, I massaged my scalp with baking soda and then poured vinegar in– a recommendation I got from Destiny and several other sources. I was hoping it would make my head into a kiddie science project volcano, but it did not. Woe! It made my scalp feel a little dry for a few days, though, so I’m not sure if I will do that again.

But generally, I am very pleased with the results and I would happily recommend this alternative to icky chemicals to anyone and everyone– my mom picked it up already.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Comments

[crissykitty.livejournal.com]

Any advice on how this would work with very fine, straight & blonde hairs? My curly-headed friends always look great if they go a day without shampooing, but not me. I look all greasy and flattened after 18 hours. :(

[misshatter.livejournal.com]

I was pondering this myself. If I wash my hair at night, by the next afternoon I look like a greaseball. My super fine, short, straight and dark blond hair looks totally crazy if I don't shampoo it. (I've tried just rinsing it with water before, and that's a no go.) I would like to try a less harsh option than shampoo though. Some hair types don't do well without regular washing :(.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I posted a comment to Crissy that should address your questions too! There are a lot of options for non-sulfate shampoos that would be less damaging, or you can use natural ingredients like baking soda or vinegar or lemon juice.

Also, I am using conditioner as a hair wash. That is one of the recommendations I found-- to use non-silicone conditioner as if it is a shampoo to massage and scrub your scalp! You may want to try something like that as well.

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

I have straight red hairs. I've been shampoo free for months now. The thing is, shampoo as we think of it has only been around since the 1930s. Before that, people used oils and herbs and massage and cloth brushing... in some areas of the world they still do. If you look at old pictures, you'll see lots of images of fussy white people who didn't use shampoo!

Your hair is looking greasy because every day you are stripping all of the oil out of it, and then your scalp freaks out and overproduces oil to try to replace it all. Basically, you're caught in a vicious cycle.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Like Destiny said, the main reason straight hair gets greasy is because your scalp will overcompensate for the oil you are removing from your hair. This, combined with the fact that the silicones in conditioners coat your hair to protect it (thus also "protecting" in from the natural oils you WANT your hair to have and keeping the oil from soaking into your hair shafts), will make your hair look greasy. If you wash the silicones out and then stop using silicones/sulfates completely, then your hair *should* re-balance itself after a few weeks to a month and stop producing as much oil. The same thing holds true for skin-- I also started washing my face with oil and washing my face with oil has cut down my face's oil production in a matter of weeks! My skin feels a lot more smooth and hydrated and I am getting a lot less really nasty acne.

My hair looked a little greasy around the 2-week mark. I scrubbed my scalp with baking soda and then rinsed it with vinegar and that decreased the greasiness pretty much completely.

There are also non-sulfate shampoos and shampoo bars available, made of natural herbal ingredients. I have seen some people recommend those for people whose hair remains greasy after going shampoo-free.

[crissykitty.livejournal.com]

Thank you both for answering my question! Veeeery informative.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

No problem! There is a ton of other information you can find if you google "Shampoo-Free" "no 'poo" or "Curly Girl." There is definitely more than one way to do it, it is just that the main goal is to stop using harsh chemicals on your hair however that works best for you.

[themis.livejournal.com]

I like how it could conceivably be published as a children's picture book.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks!

[kittehkat.livejournal.com]

It was all good until the end. FREE HAIRS??? *HIDES*

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I AM SORRY! I MEANT TO PUT UP A TRIGGER WARNING FOR YOU.

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Awww that is an adorable comic.

Also, I would be pondering the same thing myself since my thin, straight hair sucks in all regards, but my problem is that I colour it. So any natural defense is probably dead already.

I do know that never wearing makeup (apart from occasional corpsepaint and mascara) has really helped my skin a lot...

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Natural defense probably is dead if you are using bleaches or chemical colors! But that is a good reason to stop using sulfates, too-- sulfates strip hair color and make it not as long-lasting. I made some recs up above to the other straight-haired ladies who commented back, you might want to look at those.

I don't really wear makeup either unless it's to parties and I normally only wash my skin with water. I just started doing oil washes every other day, too, and those are amazingly fun and help clear my skin up a ton.

[astraevirgo.livejournal.com]

Yay! My hair is not as massively curly as yours (I have no ringlets, I am more wavy bordering on soft s-curls) and I have been dabbling at curly-girl style shampoo free for several months now, and I have to say I am kind of failing. Not hardcore, but kinda. I think, first of all, I still have silicone in my conditioners. Second of all, still using towels to dry my hair. I would think that oils on my hair, since it is not as ringlety as yours would be a bad idea (as the curlier hair is, the more dry it is, I think I read)... anyway, I'm glad you've made it work! I'm trying to make the same thing happen, on my much less curly head.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Have you checked out http://www.naturallycurly.com? The regular site is a bit too geared toward buying products for my taste, but the forum is a bit more friendly and helpful and you might be able to find a specific "recipe" from someone with hair like yours.

You can't really do shampoo-free if you are still using any products with silicones, so that is step one. Get a list of products with no silicones here: http://ladylonghair.googlepages.com/'cone-freeconditioners And you will need to use a lauryl/laureth sulfate shampoo the first time,especially on your scalp, to get rid of the silicone buildup.

Once you have done that, make sure you just don't use any products with silicone. There are a lot of ways to go shampoo-free; you don't need to do it an exact way. Destiny has only been using oil intermittently (I think once, on her scalp, early on). You might only want to use oil on the very ends of your hair, which are usually the driest bits. The key is to keep out the silicones and sulfates and let your hair's natural oils do the hydration. Beyond that, I think you can go in a lot of different directions.

[astraevirgo.livejournal.com]

<3 Thanks for the resources. I had gathered them myself, and had been considering them. I'd been pondering a change, but I would rather like to use what I have, first. I don't have much, due to the previous attempt at simplfying.

[cacophonesque.livejournal.com]

I've still got a bit of shampoo and random other ends of hair product in my bathroom cupboard. Will have to decide whether to hold on to it (in case of emergency/for guests) or get rid of...

Same goes for my facewash now that I'm on the OCM.

[astraevirgo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've only got the oils under my sink now b/c of OCM. It's so lovely.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I *heart* OCM. I'm going to do a write up on it (or possibly a comic) next. It is so much fun!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I gave all of my old hair products away to my relatives this weekend! Most of them can't afford to buy the kinds of hair products I had been using so they were all excited to get to try them.

[corolya2010.livejournal.com]

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