How to wash your hair without shampoo (No poo!) And without losing the glamor
Thanks to the bicarbonate and the vinegar
The day has come to publicly share one of my greatest secrets: since July 2013, that is, 14 months ago, I do not use shampoo, but in case of emergency. What does not mean that I have gone dirty head but I have become accustomed to wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar . Exactly, with (almost) the same formula of the magic plunger , although I advance you that it has not served to unclog some ideas ...
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I used to use shampoo before. And many masks, gels, softeners ...
My hair is dry since time immemorial . For years I let myself be dragged by hackers hairdressers who convinced me that I had the ideal product for my hair after telling me with contempt or worry that I had a dry and frizzy hair or, that I needed more care . Inevitably, two days after I spent a fortune on hair treatments, my hair was exactly as dry and frizzy as before . Interestingly, I also needed to wash it almost every day because the roots got very greasy.
Over the years I fell into the friendly networks of ecological cosmetics and began to test how much mask or conditioner I found with renewed faith in its benefits, but the truth is that things did not change very significantly. Of course, I made the effort to lower a little the frequency of washes and little by little began to last more days clean.
The revealing reading that brought the "no poo" to my life
That's how it was when I decided to look for natural remedies for my hair. Then I found a post from the blog Eva bites the apple called This caveman does not use shampoo that, among other things, explained that the shampoo removes natural hair grease, which makes our wise organisms increase production to solve the problem. Result: at 24 hours you have to wash your hair again and your hair is terribly frizzy and electric. So you use a softener and the situation gets even worse.
Of course, I anticipate that as logical as it seems, you can also get articles that say the opposite (could not miss). Anyway, it seemed to me a good explanation of what was happening to me and, after reading many experiences in various blogs and forums, I decided to launch the test of the method of washing the hair with baking soda and vinegar .
How to wash hair without shampoo
The necessary equipment
- Two plastic bottles , like the typical American ones for ketchup.
- Between a teaspoon of dessert and a tablespoon of baking soda (the drier the hair, the less). This will be our "shampoo".
- Between one and five tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (the drier the hair, the greater the amount). This will be our softener.
- An essential oil of your liking (consult an aromatherapy manual to take advantage of its effects: I love it with lavender for its relaxing effect and pleasant fragrance).
The step by step
- Place the baking soda in a bottle and fill it with about a cup of warm water. You will have to choose the dose that you create best for your hair and then you will adjust according to the results. I have dry hair and use a teaspoon of dessert. More oily hair, more bicabonate.
- Do exactly the same with vinegar , only in this case you can use cold water and the effect of brightness will be even greater (the acidity of the vinegar closes the scales of the hair and the cold water increases this effect). I use three tablespoons. Fatter hair, less vinegar.
- Add the essential oil you have chosen to the vinegar and stir well (this step can be saved, because the vinegar smell will disappear quickly, but the truth is that this is much more pleasant).
- Wet your hair as you usually do.
- Proceed to the wash : with the bottle of baking soda, see spreading the liquid through your scalp while gently massaging your fingers, making sure to distribute it well throughout the head. Finally cover the rest of the hair, even the ends, and massage for another minute.
- Rinse the hair thoroughly with clean water.
- Distribute the vinegar solution as a softener throughout the hair, just as you did with the bicarbonate solution (and enjoy the softness).
- Take the opportunity to disentangle your hair and rinse it with water as always.
Coconut oil or shea butter: better than any hair mask
If your hair needs additional nutrition (or, what is the same, if there is no way to find the right dose of ingredients because the hair is still dry), you can use a little coconut oil or shea butter for an hour (or more) before washing your hair. Use very little quantity and distribute it in a homogeneous way. Another option is to use a very small dose after washing your hair, but you must distribute it very well so that you do not have greasy strands. I do it often.
Wash yourself less and less
From the beginning, go spacing your washes to let the hair look for balance. You will see that in days of little activity you can get to about five days or up to a week without washing your hair. And if you go to the beach or the pool, do the test of just rinse it very well with water.
Buy baking soda and vinegar
You can buy baking soda in one kilo and half pound packages in our store specialized in zero waste or zero waste, Use and Reuse . If you have them close to home, you can also buy sodium bicarbonate in bulk in Goccia Verde or in Sabons i cosmètica Marilò .
Apple cider vinegar, look at the stores of organic products: probably get some presentation in glass bottle.
If the experiments go, you can also prepare your own baking apple with this recipe .
Final warnings
- I'm not promising the pantene hair formula (because this is basically a lot of Photoshop), nor does it cure all your ills. For me the results were very noticeable at the beginning, but I have had ups and downs. Sometimes it is necessary to readjust the quantities and it is difficult to get the point.
- In many cases the beginning is hard , because the hair is resistant to change, but after a month at most the thing starts to walk well. It's what the "experts" say.
- After two months I gave away all my hair products and ended up regretting not having left a shampoo for the days of hurry . Now I do have an ecological one that I like a lot, but in almost a year I have not used half of the boat, and that girls also use it occasionally. I recommend you have an option for days of hurry.
- It is not a method for everyone. In some people it seems that it produces a lot of itching, and although some people treat dandruff with this method, others seem to shoot it. As in everything, you have to be attentive to the signals of your body.
- If you have a beautiful mane and you love the foam of the shampoo, maybe the n or poo method (without shampoo) is not for you. But even in that case you may want to do the test to reduce your expenses (a lot depending on which product you normally use) and, at the same time, minimize your footprint (which would be very good because you will save a lot of plastic on the planet , in addition of the CO2 footprint generated by the distribution of the product ). Think that if you dare to try, the most that can happen is that you discover that you were better before the invention and along the way you have saved some money.
When I left the no poo
- I add this warning to tell you that I stopped using the non-poo method after three years because my hair dried out over time. Sometimes I think I should try again with more attention to the coconut masks, because I think I had lost the consistency.
- If in spite of everything, you throw yourself into the pool, do not stop explaining it to me!