i think having no-poo hair is like keeping a cast iron skillet seasoned. you need to keep it clean enough to cook in, but you avoid washing it frequently with harsh detergents because the pan will lose the oil on its iron surface that makes it non-stick.

no poo was intended to help ppl dealing with dry, curly, hair. curly hair tends to be drier because scalp oil cannot run down a spiraling hair shaft as easily as it can with a straight hair shaft. if you shampoo curly hair too frequently, you can strip your hair of the litle oil that does manage to make it from your scalp, causing it to be frizzy, wispy or brittle. a no-poo regimen helps because it allows your scalp oil to make it down the hair shaft and moisturize your hair.

if you have straighter hair, you may be already distributing sufficient oil from your scalp to your hair through your regular brushing and styling routine.

i have curly hair, and my hair care provider recommended that I wash with shampoo and deep condition once a month but to wash with conditioner weekly. that keeps it from standing up all over the place like it does when it’s dry (and I shampooed every other day).

Hannah

Here’s the Amazon link, so you can see what book I’m talking about!

http://www.amazon.com/Curly-Girl-Lorraine-Massey/dp/0761123008

Hope that is helpful!

“The Christian does not think that God will love us because we are good, but God will make us good because he loves us.”- C.S. Lewis

Take one bar of ivory soap and grate it with your smallest grater. (You can also use a bar of castille soap, but I used Ivory because it’s cheap and it’s what I had). Put the grated soap into your blender and add 1/2 cup warm water. Whip this on high setting until it looks sorta like whipped cream. At this point, you can add some essential oils if you want. I added 1 teaspoon tea tree oil and 1 teaspoon peppermint oil. These are both supposed to be good for dandruff. If you don’t have dandruff, you will want to use something else. Lavendar oil is supposed to be good for the hair, but I didn’t have that. You can do a search for the different oils and what they are supposed to do for the hair. You don’t even need any essential oils. You can leave them out and add a couple of teaspoons olive or vegetable oil, or you could try leaving the oil out altogether if you have oily hair. Ok, so after you have the whipped cream consistency and you have added any oils you want to add, add some more water (with the blender running) until it gets to a consistency you like. I’m not sure how much water I added, but it ended up kinda thick and frothy. It’s not a regular shampoo consistency. Put it in an old shampoo bottle and use like shampoo. I follow this with an apple cider vinegar rinse, which is just a couple of Tablespoons apple cider vinegar and warm water. I just put the vinegar into an old cup and take that in the shower with me. When I’m ready to rinse, I fill the cup with water, and dump it over my head, work it in with my fingers and run my fingers all through my hair to get out any tangles, then leave on for a couple of minutes before rinsing out.

The first 3 days my hair felt not right…heavy and oily. Now it feels really nice. I am trying to go every other day now, so I didn’t wash this morning, just did the vinegar rinse, and it’s a little bit oily, but not too bad. Oh, and my hair is getting really wavy. I am hoping eventually to cut the washing to maybe 2x a week, but I’m taking it really slow, and we’ll see what happens.

I made a batch for my kids hair without the tea tree oil, and their hair is really nice, not dry or oily–just like normal hair. The vinegar makes my girls hair shiny and conditions it, but with the boys I didn’t use the vinegar rinse, just the shampoo.

Sorry so long…..

My hair isn’t really oily or dry–right in between. It is fairly thick, quite long, and not a hint of curl. Normally I would shampoo my hair every three or four days. The day after it was washed it would be very pretty, but “fly away.” I couldn’t style it at all. The next couple days would be nice, and the third/fourth day it would start feeling dirty.

I’ve pretty much kept to the same washing schedule since I quit using shampoo. I’ve used baking soda twice so far, and vinegar once (I’ll be doing both tomorrow or this afternoon). I’ve done a water only rinse 2-3 times.

My hair is manageable, though the texture is different. It feels more oily (except right after I use the baking soda, when it /almost/ has that “just shampooed” clean feel), but I’ve only been to the “put it in a bun and wear a hat” stage one day—and that was because I went too long between baking soda washings. It does feel very soft, and has a pretty shine. It is also less frizzy than it would be before (I guess that oil is good for something!)

The draw back is that it isn’t quite as manageable as normal. I think the oil stiffens the hair, or holds it together or something, so it tangles more easily (That wouldn’t be an issue with shorter hair, but mine is hip-length). The other drawback is the heaviness of the hair–it just doesn’t have that light, /just cleaned/ feel I love so much. I’m hoping that, as this is only my second week, the oil production will back off by and by. Another change is that it takes my hair longer to dry. I usually wash it at night and let it air-dry while I sleep. I’ve noticed that now it is still pretty damp the next morning, and takes a couple more additional hours to be completely dried.

Anyway, I just thought I’d drop in my two cents. This is such an interesting experiment! It never before occured to me that shampoo is a new innovation, and that God probably created our bodies to keep things balanced out on their own. Makes a lot of sense, though!! I don’t know if I will keep doing this or not, but I’ve certainly enjoyed trying something new out.

Sophie

Crayl,
I think you’re right, and I think I’m going to get back in the shower right this very minute with an egg. Thanks!