Lessons from the no ‘poo experiment

After doing no ‘poo for four weeks (you can even read through the No ‘Poo Experiment log), I’ve come to a few conclusions about my experience with the method.

1) Reduced/eliminated dandruff: I have noticed a sharp decrease in flaky scalp, both large and small flakes. Even my husband noticed the other day, when I was wearing a dark brown shirt, “Hey, you don’t have any dandruff!”

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No ‘poo experiment: Week 2

WEEK 2: No ‘poo experiment

Day 1 (Sunday): Wash with A Wild Soapbar Cedarwood soap. Ingredients: Ingredients: saponified cold pressed olive, coconut, organic palm, & castor oils, distilled water, essential oils (fir needle, cedarwood, bay, orange), moroccan red clay, calcium bentonite clay, organic paprika, sea salt, wild cedar wood. Rinse with ACV. Lavender spritz. Hair looks OK. Soft, but curls are a little frizzy.

Day 2 (Monday): Water-only. Lavender spritz, a drop of jojoba oil. Hair looks OK, not great.

Day 3 (Tuesday): Water-only. Aloe 80 spray, lavender spritz. Hair looks OK, not great. Feels crunchy, dry.

Day 4 (Wednesday): Water-only. Curls on top layer look all right. Underneath layer is stringy, oily.

Day 5 (Thursday): Rinse with Pomegranate Goji Berry Green Tea. Eh. Still just “coated”, waxy.

Day 6 (Friday): I break down and use my Burt’s Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet shampoo (No sulfates, 98.8% natural, they claim). Spritz with lavender. Hair feels quite nice. Really tight curls.

Day 7 (Saturday): No wash. Wet hair in sink. Use Kiss My Face styling mousse. Hair looks pretty good, bouncy.

Go back to No ‘Poo Experiment: Week1
Continue to No ‘Poo Experiment: Week 3

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No ‘poo experiment: Week 1

WEEK 1: No ‘poo experiment

(Previous week had switched to conditioner-only Curly Girl routine, which left my roots too greasy and my ends too crunchy)

Baking soda and apple cider mixes are 1 T to 1 C water.

Day 1 (Sunday): Washed with baking soda mix, rinsed with apple cider vinegar. Spritzed with Aloe80 styling spray. Scalp feels very clean. Hair is normal (used a bit too much styling spray).

Day 2 (Monday): Warm water only. Spritzed with Aloe80 styling spray. Scalp still feels pretty clean. Hair seems dry, crunchy (maybe too much styling spray?).

Day 3 (Tuesday): Apple cider vinegar rinse, cold water rinse. A dab of grapeseed oil distributed through the hair (not near the roots), followed by lavender spritz (adapted from Curly Girl: distilled water w/ lavender essential oil). Once dry, hair is soft, curls are shiny. Feels clean. Overall, excellent. Even by late afternoon, little to no frizz or curl separation. NIGHT: Hair still feels a bit dry. Applied some Burt’s Bees Apricot Baby Oil to sleep in overnight.

My curly hair on Day 3 of the no 'poo regimen.

Day 4 (Wednesday): BS/ACV and lots of scrubbing and combing. Lavender spritz. Can tell I didn’t get all the oil out, but it still looks decent, a bit limp. Feels quite soft and untangled.

Day 5 (Thursday): Oops, I forgot to write down this day. Water-only, I think.

Day 6 (Friday): Water-only. Feeling pretty greasy and little bit limp, though the curls still looking pretty good and cohesive.

Day 7 (Saturday): No wash.

Go back to No ‘Poo Experiment: Introduction
Continue to No ‘Poo Experiment: Week 2

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No ‘poo experiment: Introduction

I’ve hated my hair. Until I was in 7th grade, I brushed it out daily. This is what my wavy-haired mom did, so I assumed this is what I should do too. But one morning before school, I washed my hair in the sink at my grandmother’s house and “scrunched” in a handful of gel. I sat motionless in front of a box fan (the poor man’s hair dryer)…and I was amazed. I had CURLS.

After the novelty wore off, I struggled against my curly hair. Cursed it. Brushed it. Flat-ironed it. Colored it. Cut it. As I approach 30, I’ve finally started to accept what people have always complimented me on: a mass of unruly ringlets.

A close-up of my curly hair

In search of hair salvation, I read Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey. Though I have tried a range of products (gel, mousse, wax, pomade, frizz serum), none has ever really given me the glossy, frizz-free curls I wanted. Massey, though, suggested something that I had never thought of: Stop shampooing my hair. I don’t consider myself an unwashed hippie (though I do have hippie tendencies), but this sounded doable.

Massey explains that the natural sebum produced by the scalp—what most of us would think of as “grease”—shouldn’t be stripped every day by harsh detergents in shampoo such as sodium lauryl sulfate or ammonium lauryl sulfate. What we think of as “squeaky clean” hair may actually be damaged hair.

Massey says she hasn’t shampooed her hair in years. She recommends using only silicone-free conditioner and alcohol-free gel, along with her recipes for hair treatments that are easy to whip up in the kitchen.

OK, so can I do this? Sadly, my favorite conditioner, Origins’ Knot Free, is not silicone-free. (Oh, well, I really shouldn’t be spending $30 on conditioner anyway.) I switched to another conditioner I had on hand, bioInfusion Rosemary Mint. This conditioner is thinner and not as rich as Knot Free, but it’s also cheaper. I “washed” my hair as suggested with the conditioner and followed with gel. Eh, pretty greasy.

And a week later, it wasn’t any better. The conditioner-only routine left my hair both greasy and crunchy. But by this time, I had started reading on LiveJournal about another method, called “no ‘poo.” Based on simple base/acid chemistry, the no ‘poo method relies on washing with a dilute baking soda mix and conditioning with dilute apple cider vinegar. Since I have both of those things in my kitchen, this should be even simpler than the conditioner-only method.

Continue to No ‘Poo Experiment: Week 1

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