No Poo!

I've been using the No Shampoo method of washing my hair for over a year now.  It works well.  It has only had two downsides.  The first was that my hair can end up being hard to brush out until it dries some.  The second was the result of weekly swimming in a public pool - hay hair.  And one really, really big positive - the severe dandruff, which has plagued me most of my life, disappeared in the first few months.

It might help to realize that my hair is really long.  It falls to my thighs.  And it's a crazy mix of textures and thicknesses.  And of course, because of its length, the top can sometimes be oily while the bottom is dry and brittle.

So, having said that, letting my hair dry for about 15 minutes or so before I brush it out is really not a big deal.  It does require that I remember to take the towel off of my head once I'm dressed.  And brushing my hair out before I shower helps a lot.

I really couldn't come up with anything to do about the effects of the pool except to wash again thoroughly immediately after getting out of the pool.  And rinsing with a lot of water.  This reduced the effects but didn't necessarily get rid of them.

And the dandruff.  Well if you've never suffered from it at the level that I do, there's no understanding the joy of it being gone.  I could create snow drifts just by scritching at the front of my hairline!  So having that gone has been wonderful.

But the number two problem tempted me to give in and use commercial shampoo & conditioner again when I was given some.  Originally I just put it in the swim bag to use on days we were in the public pool.  And oh what things I learned.  The first was that I had forgotten just how much fragrance was in those things.  Now that I don't use them on a regular basis I was highly sensitive to the fragrance.  The second was how much less I actually used since I had gotten used to not needing lots of suds.  A Lot Less!  And while it weighed my hair down, my hair was smooth and shiny!  And I could brush it wet!

So I used them when we went to public swim.  The fragrance overload was more than enough to outweigh the temptation to switch back.  Then we came to the summer break when we go use a much less chlorinated private pool.  I put the bottle in bathroom to use when we were rushed and I just didn't have time to measure ingredients.  In other words, when I was being lazy.

Well, I found myself making excuses for using the commercial shampoo & conditioner.  And therefore using it more often.  And yes, still on those original bottles because I was using so much less.  And then the dandruff came back.  Yup, less than two months using commercial shampoo & conditioner and my dandruff was back.  And not in small amounts.  I can create snow drifts again.

I knew it was happening so I tried just conditioning the middle and ends.  But it just didn't work.  The dandruff stayed and got worse.

So this past week I smacked my own hands and went back to the "No poo" methods.  And the dandruff is quickly disappearing.  I may explore and see if there are some natural conditioning methods that I can use for the shiny look and tangle issues but for the most part commercial shampoo & conditioner are now regulated to be used only after swimming in highly chlorinated public pools.

For those who want to try the recipe I use is simple:  1 tbsp baking soda to 1 cup of water for "shampoo" and 3 tbsp vinegar to 1 cup of water for "conditioner".  If you need more shampoo then make another cup of it don't increase the baking soda amount per cup.  No more than 1 tbsp per cup.  I typically make two cups.  Oh, and most people start out with 2 tbsp of vinegar.  I just find that the increase amount works better for my hair.

Hope you all are having a good summer!