Today is day 7 without shampoo. Remember, under normal circumstances I shampoo religiously every 23.5 hours. This was hard for me.
Sunday I shampooed and conditioned as usual before church. My hair was soft and silky, and I ran my fingers through it to detangle. It took a sweet and admiring husband to teach me to appreciate my very straight, very uncurly-not-a-hint-of-waves hair. Now I love it.
Monday I just rinsed it thoroughly in the shower. I couldn’t run my fingers through soft, silky hair but it was alright. I didn’t expect to.
Tuesday I used baking soda & apple cider vinegar. The cider vinegar seemed to feel more like conditioner than plain white vinegar had when I tried this last. My hair was feeling a bit oily, but still OK. This wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Wednesday I was still feeling strong. I just rinsed my hair again rather than doing the baking soda/vinegar thing every day. From what I gather, a big part of the process is just getting your scalp to adjust to less washing overall, no matter what you use. I thought I might do it every other day, but…
Since we had a party to go to on Friday, I decided to skip Thursday as well. I rinsed it thoroughly in the shower and tried not to touch my hair once it dried. This was, I hoped, as bad as it was going to get. I wanted my hair clean for Friday.
On Friday, I washed with soda and vinegar. My hair felt almost sticky. Couldn’t run my fingers through it and could hardly brush it. And dandruff! Eww! My willpower was suffering seriously. Ick, ick, ick. We had a party to attend with people I had never met. I couldn’t very well laugh it off as a crazy new experiment. I very nearly jumped back in the shower at the last minute, but one of my daughters came up with a pretty headband for me. I pulled my hair up into a bun and used the headband to cover my hairline, and decided to go through with it.
Today, Saturday, is day 7. I used baking soda and vinegar again today, but used more and worked harder to get my scalp cleaner. I scrubbed so much my scalp was tingling. I’m pretty sure I took off all the dead skin, and maybe some live skin too. I’m OK with that. My hair feels better than it has in several days. I finished up with some conditioner, but it just doesn’t seem to work right now. My hair looks and feels clean, but not smooth and silky like it normally does. Oh well. Good enough.
I had nearly resigned to shampoo on Sunday morning simply so I could be presentable for worship, but I think I can do without for this week.
Questions:
- How long does it take to get as bad as it’s going to get?
- Do you use conditioner?
- When will it feel better?
- Does your hair feel soft and silky again once you’ve adjusted? Or does “natural” hair just not feel that way?
- Would it hurt to shampoo once or twice/week? Isn’t this more about adjusting to less frequent washing, than about adjusting to no shampoo? Am I torturing myself needlessly?
Speak up, friends. I need to hear from those who have gone before me. 
Just an opinion…I would shampoo Sunday and Wednesday so you are not feeling self concious at church and stick with the rinses the rest of the week. That way, you have still cut back on shampooing your hair quite a bit……you are braver than I !! *smile*
Kim,
You had a poster mention the “Curly Girl” method last time, and that is pretty much what I do. I’ve been MONTHS w/o shampoo, and my hair is much healthier for it–and looks better, too! That being said, it took a couple of weeks before my scalp stopped producing the extra oil it anticipated my hair needed. I don’t do baking soda/vinegar…..I either rinse w/ a good scrub of my fingertips, or scrub w/ a good conditioner and rinse gently. I learned the hard way that cheap conditioners make the process worse…… I’m not sure that I’m saving $$$ on the shampoo vs. conditioner argument, but I know I’m saving money on the other products I used to use to make my naturally curly hair behave. I now use little to no gel/mouse, etc. and no hairspray is needed for my curls to stay put :> Hang in there….give it a full month before you decide!
We have recently discovered castille soap and have fallen in love with it. I cannot believe the difference in my clothes. They are softer than they’ve ever been with our hard, hard (hard) water. I read you could use it as a shampoo but am afraid to try it on my daughter who has hair/scalp very similar to yours. So, I guess my question is, have you ever tried castille soap and, if so, what were the results?
Personally, I think that how frequently you can get away without shampooing depends on your hair type. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. My mom has thin poker straight hair that gets very stringy and she can’t so much as stick it in a pony tail. I have very thick wavy hair that I wash every 3rd day. I started out every other day and eventually realized that I could get away with an extra day. Four days and I’m an oil slick.
You could try getting a boar bristle brush if you don’t already have one. It would redistribute the oils accumulating on your scalp throughout the strands and I think leaves the hair smooth and shiny.
I agree with Alissa. Cutting back a little is still cutting back. Start out slow and work your way up.
Hi Kim!
I tried this for a bit but gave up just due to it being easier to use shampoo. I would like to give it another go though. I am blessed with pretty tough hair that only needs washed once a week, so my reasons for doing so are a bit different than yours (So I’m not much help there). My younger sister has kept this up for over a year and loves it! Her hair has grown quite a bit, is soft and beautiful and now has a bit of curl.
I think it is important NOT to use any shampoo when you are in the beginning stages at least ,since I think part of the goal is to remove all the leftover residue.
There is a very helpful thread here that might have the answers to your questions: http://www.welltellme.com/discuss/index.php/topic,429.0.html
We’ve tried Castille soap and no one here likes it. That’s 11 “No” votes for Castille and hair!
Everyone here thinks that Castille soap leaves their hair and body feeling “gross” as one daughter puts it. “Waxy” was another description. “It makes your hair feel like you’re running your fingers through dry, unconditioned hair.”
I am having a hard time coming up with the right descriptive word so let me give this a try: dry, sticky ~ as in NOT smooth and silky, squeaky, fingernails on chalkboard kind of feeling…..
Not sure if that’s the right way to describe it or not but I can say that though I’ve tried to use and like Castille soap on my hair and body, I just don’t. We’ve even tried diluting it with water and that didn’t help either.
We haven’t tried the baking soda/vinegar thing but I’ve been tempted to. I think I might have mutiny on my hands here if I asked everyone to try it!
You’ve done a great job going so long. I’m interested in hearing how it all turns out.
Mommaof10
http://PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations
I have super dry curly thick hair that is prone to dandruff so my results are going to be much different than yours, I would guess, but I never use shampoo- only conditioner. I condition my hair about every other to every three days so that I don’t unnecessarily strip it of moisture. It has helped a lot and I no longer have to use styling products to keep it in line. I used to have to use gel or mousse everyday to avoid frizz. I haven’t shampoo’d for almost two years.
I’m a curly girl, so my experience is a little different, but I remember it being about a MONTH before I felt like my hair was looking decent. After that initial period, though, it got DRAMATICALLY better!
Have you thought about keeping it in a slicked back bun, ballet style? That would disguise the greasies until it gets better.
Keep going! Don’t give up yet!
I can’t stand it….:)
Andrea and I do this…but slightly differently than what you’re doing. Andrea has telephone cord curls. I have wavy curls (that’s the nice way of saying I look like I was in a wind storm) She has normal to dry skin. I am an oil refinery. Her hair is thick. My hair is thin. We both have a lot of hair though.
We wash with baking soda and rinse with the lemon juice of one lemon (this can be the bottled stuff, it’s just quantity that they are referring to) mixed with 5 -7 squirts of conditioner. The longer your hair the more conditioner and lemon. I wash with BS more often (2 a week) because of my skin type. Yes, the oil production goes down.
Handy helper hair tip:
Use recycled yogurt cups. Fill one with BS and one with a little lemon. Let lemon juice warm up a bit since it was in the fridge. Tottle off to the shower. Mix BS with shower water and mix lemon with your conditioner. Rinse with cold water as cold as you can stand if you are curly. If you’re wavy it doesn’t matter, rinse with warm water.
After the shower:
We use a hair repair masque that we’ve made into a leave in conditioner by adding water to dilute it. We spray it on with a pistol grip spray bottle. It mists it on evenly.
If you are a curly girl:
Andrea does a hair marinade once a week with the hair repair mask. The curlier your hair is the more porous it is and the more moisture it needs to be curly.
Don’t touch this?:
You’ll be able to comb your hair, pick it apart etc. I know you’re not supposed to touch it but there’s more to that “rule.” If you have cork screw curls or hair that is supposed to turn into that…you won’t want to touch it because it will make it fuzzy. If you have wavy hair or hair that is supposed to be wavy after this experiment, than you will want to comb it and scrunch it. If you don’t it will be fuzzy.
Flakes are for your cereal bowl not for your head:
The BS and Vinegar are probably too harsh. Use a minuscule amount of shampoo just on the oily parts of your scalp rather than on all your hair. It greatly reduce the amount of shampoo you’re using. And you can still do a once-a-week with it like you did with the BS and Vinegar.
I’ve done that when we were out of BS and/or lemon…it works.
I guess i can’t help you, as I only wash my hair about twice a week! Ha! It’s just too much work! (I’ve actually always gotten the most compliments on my “day three hair”!) I have done this with very short and very long hair.
If it’s not working for you I would try washing the same frequency, only with baking soda and vinegar, while your scalp adjusts. It’s true that it still cuts the oil from your hair, but it cuts LESS than shampoo, so your hair will slowly adjust to producing less oil. Once it is producing less you could then space it out a bit more without as much of an adjustment period.
It’s so long since I’ve used shampoo that I don’t know if it is the same now, but my hands do slide through it easily.
I haven’t gone before you and, no offense, but, I’m not comin’ after ya! But keep us posted.
Don’t give up yet! A month is needed!
I find this very interesting as I’ve never heard of people being able to go without shampoo at all. It makes sense though when you think about the olden days.
I’m not any help though, sorry. I only wash my hair twice a week, and I use baby powder on it if I feel like I need to take out some of the oil (works great!).
I used to wash my hair with shampoo and conditioner every day without fail. My hair is very long, thick, and curly. After awhile I started using shampoo every other day, and now I only shampoo my hair about once a week. I realized that shampoo unnecessarily dried out my hair, making it frizzy and tangled. However, I still condition my hair every day. If I skipped on this I would probably pull out all my hair trying to get it untangled!
When I shampooed every day, my hair was definitely more oily than it is now. I would suggest that you wash your hair with the baking soda mixture every other or every third day for now, and follow Quinn’s advice about getting a special brush. That should really help in distributing the oil on the days you don’t wash it.
Hi I really enjoy your blog!
All I can say is that you are very brave!!! =) Not ussing shampoo for a week should definitly shock your scalp or do something. But perhaps it could just be the build up of oils and that it is freshly cleaned but thats just my opinion.
Maybe you can ask a professional so they can give you sound and wise advice as they specialize in the area of hair care. Getting a regular trimming seems to keep hair more healthier, even if it’s just a tad trip every other month. My mom in-law has long hair and she gets it trimmed just a bit regularly and her hair is very healthy especially for her age.
Otherwise if your having fun with the experiment then great! If you and hubby aren’t having fun with it then just wash your hair. =)
I think washing every other day or every other 2 days could be healthier and it will still smell nice for hubby.
But thats just my 2-cents!
I know what you are going through as I just recently began this journey myself and my hair is EXACTLY like you describe yours: straight, excessively oily (must be washed daily), and lots of dandruff. By the end of the first week, I almost gave up because the dandruff had gotten worse than ever before. But instead of throwing in the towel, I scrubbed the same as you and it did feel some better. The bright side is that I’ve been doing this for over three weeks and my scalp is doing much better. On the oily days when I don’t wash, I rub a little cornstarch in my palms and run my hands through the slick spots on my scalp. This helps to absorb the oil with no repercussions. This obviously would not work for black hair, and too much makes me look older ; ) But my hair is able to go longer now before the oil builds up, so I am highly encouraged by this. I’m glad you are doing this too!
I was so hoping that you would update on your progress! On a whim, without prior knowledge or desire, I decided to try this no shampoo thing when I read your blog…mainly to see what my hair would look like au naturale. Monday, I did the vinegar pre-rinse, baking soda wash, and white vinegar rinse on the ends. I also used conditioner on the ends (I have thick hair…I couldn’t part with the conditioner, plus I wanted a “pretty” smell). I was amazed at the clean feeling.–and I felt so “natural”!
I regularly use a little pomeade on my ends to keep frizz down and a little hairspray, so I was surprised that the baking soda worked. I already shampoo my hair every other day (out of laziness) so I kept with that routine with the baking soda/vinegar. Come Saturday though I was not liking the smell of my hair, and it wasn’t soft/”run your fingers through’ hair like you mentioned. Unfortunately, come Sunday morning I couldn’t wait to use shampoo again…so I caved! I almost went another week but I just wanted my hair to feel “normal” again. I just used a lot less shampoo than normally would….and I loved the smell and feel of my hair afterwards, more than when I shampooed regularly. So I’m thinking maybe I’ll just shampoo/condition once a week and use baking soda the rest.-?? We’ll see. Oh, I also used it on all 5 of my girls (ages 2-9), who I already only shampoo once a week. It seemed to work fine, but my oldest -who already had a dry scalp–had lots of dandruff come Sunday morning. We did an emergency, last minute wash in the sink with “dry scalp Head and Shoulders” (I think I just heard some of you gasp!) which helped. Maybe she should just do the conditioner wash…
Well, that’s my story. I know I’m supposed to give it a good month…maybe another time…I think I’ll try to check out that Curly Girl book from the library and see if that inspires me. Great job getting past Sunday services, Kim!! Nobody knew I was doing this except me, so perhaps I need to let someone know to help encourage me to keep going…maybe my own blog. ha!
I have hair like yours only shorter. I did this for a few months this summer. It started out pretty well. I had cut off my hair really short so I felt confident that I could go through with it. It seemed to start out pretty well, but as the months went on it didn’t. I started using BS every other day and washing once a month. The vinegar thing never worked for me. It seemed to make my hair more oily and since that was what I was trying to get away from I stopped using it. I’m not sure about the lemon juice, that might work better but I never tried it. On no wash days, if my hair was feeling oily I used cornstarch to soak up the extra oil. I probably used too much, I always looked a bit gray on those days
I got pregnant and it seemed it all came crashing down. I don’t know if it really made a difference but it just didn’t seem to be working. My hair always felt oily and think. If I ran my hands through it it would stick out everywhere! So I’m back to shampooing, but I do it every other day now. It seems to work pretty well. I might try the castile soap thing. If I do I’ll let you know my results. Good Luck!
Thanks for all the input and info. I might try the cornstarch trick, though I’m feeling surprisingly calm about my hair this week. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that hubby encouraged me to try this and stick with it, so I’m doing it largely for him. Somehow that’s far easier than doing it just for myself.
Slawebb,
I am very curious to hear from others who tried and decided it wasn’t for them. Thanks for telling about your experience. I can’t wait to hear about the castile soap. I have some in my cabinet and was thinking of trying it too, but I don’t want to strip my scalp too soon and undo what I’ve done so far.
Hi Kim,
I do a vinegar rinse that is talked about on this page: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/naturalhaircare.htm I don’t use baking soda at all cause I feel like it would dry my hair out too much. I have long wavy hair and it works for me.
My family (dh and two sons and now my daughter) all use my soap – which is primarily castille – for body & hair. I think it took a better part of a month for my husband. Now his hair is super soft! I love it! None of my guys have used any other product for nearly three years.
My hair, I have nearly three feet of it. I have never been able to make the switch to either just my soap, or BS.
Your scalp is an oil factory. Unless you wash very, very infrequently, the ends of your hair get little oil. Or if you brush with horn or boar’s bristles and redistribute the oils.
I wash my scalp with non-sulfate soap. Jason sells a body wash that I use on my scap alone – one pump bottle has lasted me two years. ($8) I like the pump; it helps me control the amount I use!
Then I was the length -the long part- of my hair with my soap, which is 80% castille*. I rinse everything with AC vinagar.
*Castille just means it’s 100% soap made with olive oil. I’ve made castille, but we think the bars are too squishy and use up too fast, so I use some other oils to make the soap harder.
Before I get out of the shower, I put coconut oil on the very ends of my hair, partly because I have some damage from some highlights still growing out, and partly because my hair is just super thin and brittle and needs it.
None of my hair is greasy this way. Each section of my hair gets the moisture it needs. The only thing that made my hair anywhere *near* this happy was $70 a gallon + more for conditioner!!!!
I love, love, love the way my hair feels. I can get it to “hold” a style for the very first time in my life. Before that, I was one of those people who struggled with ponytails. My hair would hold a curl about 20 minutes WITH hairspray IF I didn’t move.
I would keep looking if BS doesn’t “work”. There are other, cheaper, healthier ways to clean your hair out there. My next experiement is soap nuts. You might want to Google those.
Anyway, keep trying. Give it a month before you admit defeat, and then “tweak” it. DON’T just lurch back into shampooing every day. Try some of Jason’s or a castille soap or something. Get the feel you want, with something besides shampoo. Because you can. I know it!!!
I highly recommend the book Curly Girl. I scanned the other comments and it seems to have been mentioned already but it is a wonderful book. I use a yogurt container with about a tablespoon of baking soda. Then in the shower I fill it with water and pour it on my scalp and massage my whole scalp gently. I condition my hair with the juice from 1 lemon or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice from the bottle. In the shower I add 8 or so squirts of my conditioner and let that sit on my hair a while then rinse. Afterward I leave it alone as much as possible other than to “scrunch” it. You can also spray a leave in conditioner as well. I love this method. I thought I had STRAIGHT hair, but really I had a nice wavy head of hair that has been hidden by shampoo all these years.
My frugal compromise is to dilute the shampoo.
I have shoulder length, straight(!), blond hair. I live in France and just use some generic grocery store brand shampoo, but dilute it about 3 parts water to 1 part shampoo. (You have to be a bit careful when you pour it in your hand as it is an obviously much thinner liquid) I am still able to get a good lather (I wash about once every 3 days) and my hair feels clean. I condition about once/week.
I only pay about 2 euro/bottle of shampoo and that lasts me for at least a few months.
I’m still on and off with the baking soda thing- my hair does feel soft without it, but my scalp doesn’t feel as good as I like. I hated castille soap. Gunky is how it made me feel.
off topic- we’re talking about big families and small spaces again in response to a specific question- maybe you can add something?
How timely! I haven’t been visiting in a while–I have been using an all natural handmade shampoo bar I bought on Etsy and been struggling with my hair feeling waxy. Would this be castille soap? I will try a vinegar rinse the next time. I so appreciate this post!
Hang in there! I tried the BS/vinegar a few times and it wasn’t for me. However, I did find a shampoo bar that I like – Good Earth…http://www.goodearthsoap.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=30 – scroll down since the first 2 are for dogs. I found some of this at our State Fair and decided to try it. I have SUPER thick hair and never thought I could go w/o conditioner or gel, but I do. I cut the bars in half and keep them in a case. One bar lasts about 3-4 months depending on the length of your hair and when I bought them they cost $5. I just thought I’d throw my opinion in there…but what you are doing is pretty cool! Good luck and I hope you get to the good part soon =)
Thank you! I had never heard of this idea but tried it after reading your post. My hair is straight and gets pretty stringy looking if not washed every day. Since Monday I have been washing with just water and lots of finger scrubbing and my hair looks better than it ever has. I did use a tiny bit of shampoo but just on the ends and not the roots. One day I was too busy to shower and my hair still looked and felt great. It actually feels better as the day goes on; the opposite of what I am used to when shampooing. And brushing just seems to have an amazing effect now too, making my hair fuller and shinier. Thanks again – I never really liked my hair or knew how to work with it before. This has been such a nice surprise!
Sylvia,
I’m glad it’s working for you. Mine is still a work in progress, though I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’ll be posting an update again tomorrow or Saturday.
Try a shower water filter like Aquasana. I cost us approximately $80.00 and is comparable to the more expensive brands. Our hair is much, more softer and shinier…much less frizzier. We just moved and now have well water and it seems that the filter is less effective, plus I think it’s time to buy a new filter which need to be replaced every 6 months.
Otherwise when we first bought it the results were dramatic…Clean, shiny, bouncy hair. My 9 year old daughter’s hair went from dry and frizzy waves to downright beautiful, smooth, and shiny waves.
I used to only buy organic natural shampoos, but because of the cost I went back to buying the $1.00 shampoos like V05 from Walmart. I will try making my own shampoo and let you know what recipe I use and what the results are.
Thanks for this interesting post.
I don’t use shampoo on my hair at all. I have used coconut milk to wash my hair (this is good for those with dry hair) Just coconut milk. Massage i into wet hair like you would shampoo, leave in or a few minutes and wash off with warm water. Hair will be very moisturised, but use only a little though. Coconut milk is very rich.
I also massage my hair with organic, extra virgin coconut oil, when dry and after a shower on my skin. Beautiful stuff
I also just wash my hair with an egg. Love the full feeling i get.
I also use a wood bristled brush to brush my hair when dry a hundred times a night, but again only when dry.. i would not do it on curly hair though. Don’t want to spoil the beautiful curls, but my hair is not curly, more just wavy, straightish.
And I also wash my hair with just water too, in between my coconut milk and egg wash when my hair eels dirty. to. My hair is strong and feels good. It takes awhile though for hair to adjust, so at first your hair may feel icky, but then your hair actually improves after awhile. You can even rinse your hair in rosewater if you like