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.