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
Beauty Crucible 