No more ‘Pooing Here!

…Shampooing, that is.

No Poo? Sounds Ew…

I know what it sounds like, “I’m not going to use shampoo and conditioner ever again!” When most people first hear of the practice called “No Poo” they think it’s pretty gross…not washing your hair with the very shampoos and conditioners that we humans have used for thousands of years????

No Poo is Not New!

In fact, the concept of washing your hair every single day with shampoo and conditioner (don’t forget to rinse and repeat!) is very new. No poo doesn’t mean you don’t wash your hair, you just don’t use the “traditional” shampoos and conditioners.

The concept behind No Poo is that each time you wash your hair with regular shampoo, it strips away the natural oils. This begins a seemingly endless cycle of greasy hair after 24-48 hours because your body produces excess oils to make up for the ones that would not naturally be lost. If you No Poo, you do not strip these natural oils away and the balance is restored, producing the bouncy, shiny hair that nature intended. Yes, apparently our ancestors were not all greasy and gross…as long as they took a dip in the river once or twice a week.

No Poo? What do you do?

Yes, i’m really enjoying all of these rhyming titles.

The typical routine for your average No Poo-er consists of this:

1. Mix 1tbs of baking soda in 1 cup warm water, but don’t thoroughly dissolve (definitely warm, I was an idiot and used freezing cold…I paid for it when step 3 came!)

2. Mix 1 tbs of Apple Cider Vinegar in 1 cup warm water

3. Pour baking soda mixture over your hair and scrub away as if you were ‘pooin (shampoo, folks!) then rinse

4. Pour the ACV mixture over your hair and massage through your hair as if you were conditioning.

5. Rinse thoroughly

VIOLA! You have successfully No Poo’d. You may have to tinker around with the mixtures to find what works best for you. I read somewhere for very short hair to sprinkle a 1/2 tbs of baking soda onto very wet hair.

Results

Yesterday was my first day of No Poo. I don’t think I got enough of the baking soda mixture onto my hair, so I’m going to tinker with that a bit. It was kind of hard to massage it in my hair, but I think that’s because I didn’t get it all on. The ACV mixture was nice, it massaged through easily and I don’t actually mind the smell…don’t worry, it goes away once your hair is dry.

For the majority of yesterday my hair looked freaking AMAZING! It was shiny, no flyaways, and pretty voluminous.

I went to bed a shiny haired godess, and woke up this morning to find…

DETOX!

Greasy. Flat. Looked like I hadn’t shampooed in 4 days because well, I hadn’t. Still has a pretty shine, though. I didn’t panic; i’d been warned on all the No Poo websites about the detox period.

Because of the years we Americans have been rinsing and repeating as often as every day (every other day for me), our hair’s natural oils are seriously out of wack. No Poo experts say that most everyone will have experience a “detox period” during which your hair adjusts and regains it’s natural balance.

AKA you’re hair might be really greasy and gross for a few days to a few weeks.

If you want to lessen the greasy phase, you can wash your hair with the No Poo mixtures every other day, gradually adding an extra day in between. Yeah, from what i’ve gathered the goal of No Poo is to only do it once or twice a week. That doesn’t mean you shower that often, you can still shower every day if you want…you just use water most of the time. Naturally, that’s all we really need.

As for me? I’m going for the slow detox, and if this first week i’m kinda greasy, I’ll braid it.

Why are you doing this?

It’s all about the benjamins, baby! I spend about $8 a month on shampoo and conditioner, almost $100 a year. It’s not much, but that $8 a month could buy a used diaper to fund my CD obsession!!! I jest (though it seriously could!). But hey, money is money and if I can save a little AND get amazing, shiny, voluminous hair…well that sounds awesome to me!

Now let’s see how long this lasts, shall we?