You don’t WHAT - ugh!
Well, I haven’t been 100% honest. I do wash my hair. I just do it differently from what most of the people think washing your hair is supposed to be. When I wash my hair I want to avoid shampoo - I want to avoid toxins and other harmful ingredients. I use natural products instead.
But WHY?
When I was about 14 years old my hair was very greasy. I felt uncomfortable and started to wash my hair more often using more products. It got worse and I ended up washing my hair every morning. And when I went to bed at night it was already greasy again. Whenever I left the house I made sure my hair was tied up to a bun. I went to the drug store trying to find the ultimate shampoo that helped me out of my misery - but it didn’t exist.
One day I asked google to help me get rid of my problem and I found a website about NoPoo - a method to wash your hair without shampoo. I also found a facebook group where women (and even some men) shared their stories and natural products they used. They shared pictures of their hair - at this point I was all in! I have never seen such beautiful hair before.
What is No Poo about?
The bottom line is: Do not use shampoo. The idea is to get rid of commercial shampoo products as there are multiple harmful ingredients and toxins in each and every shampoo we buy. There are different ways to wash your hair without shampoo. The most common ones are: hairsoap, soil, baking soda. Some people like to be a little more experimental and use honey, eggs and coffee powder. Another way is to use nothing at all but water. And for the hardliners there is only one way - not washing the hair at all!
But there is one thing that is essential when you use this method. You need a brush (most of them use hair of the wild boar but there are vegan alternatives as well). And you need to comb you hair. The longer and more often, the better. You have to spread the sebum from the head all along into the length of your hair.
What is sebum?
Our skin produces sebum. Even on our head. When we use shampoo, we wash the sebum off and our body starts producing more sebum. We wash it off again and there will be even more sebum produced. This is when our hair starts to look greasy. The sebum actually is a protection for our hair. When it covers the hair (with a natural amount of sebum), our hair will be soft and shiny but not greasy at all. So we have to stop our body from overproducing. It is a long and not very comfortable way to get there, because in the beginning our hair will look the worst.
How I stared with NoPoo
I spend a lot of time reading about this subject before I got started. But whatever product instead of shampoo you want to use in the long run, you always have to start the same way - stop washing your hair for a while. So I washed my hair with baking soda (mixed with warm water) one day and then tried to not wash my hair for as long as possible. I combed my hair twice everyday for a very long time (you should have seen my husbands face seeing me sitting on the sofa watching a movie while combing my hair for like one hour). After seven days I couldn’t stand the feeling of my hair anymore and I felt dirty and unhygienic. So I washed my hair again only with baking soda. It slowly but steady got better. And about three months after I started my hair was perfect. It was shiny and nice, not greasy at all and I could easily do 5 days without washing my hair.
How I wash my hair
I wash my hair separately, not while I am showering. I prepare my bowl of baking soda with hot water and another bowl with cold water and lemon juice. I wash my hair with water, then put the baking soda water on my head and rub it in my hair. I let it sit in there for a minute or two and then wash it off with warm water again (no hot water because this would activate sebum production). After washing the baking soda off, it is important to rinse the hair with the cold water and lemon juice mixture. You can use vinegar as well but I like the smell of the lemon better. It avoids that your hair gets strawy. I let my hair air dry because the heat of the hairdryer is not good for the structure of the hair and also activates sebum production.
Round number 2!
As I got pregnant in 2016, I first continued with my hair washing routine. But as my bump grew bigger and bigger, the whole thing got more and more exhausting to me. So (unfortunately) I got weak and bought a shampoo at the drug store. For almost a year now I used shampoo again and my hair looks worse then ever! I want to get back into my old routine of NoPoo and I know it is a hard way but the result is definitely worth it!
I washed my hair with baking soda yesterday. Today I braided my hair, this way you can’t really see how greasy it already looks.
What do you think about NooPoo? Have you tried it? Have you any experiences to share?