Just over a month ago I made a decision to do something I had been thinking about for a while: stop using shampoo on my hair.
I'd been thinking about it for a while because I was pretty convinced it would be a disaster. Even though I'm well passed my teenage years I have oily hair, and the thought of going more than one day without being able to soap my scalp clean was pretty daunting. I knew this would take about a month of iffy hair hygiene to know for sure if it was working or not, which meant friends, family, co-workers, and others I interact with on a regular basis would be seeing this through random stages of the trial.
Deciding the depths of winter would be the best time to carry out this experiment, I took a deep breath, told myself I wasn't so vain that I couldn't do this and survive, and plunged in with both feet.
I had done some reading, and had decided that this article on The Hairpin seemed the most sane, rational, and practical plan of many I had read. It acknowledged that there would be issues, that some flexibility was required, and was in a tone that just appealed to me on a gut level. Scientific it wasn't, but it made me feel more comfortable about this idea so I went with it.
The first part is switching from shampoo to a daily regimen of cleaning the scalp with a baking soda paste, followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse. I was surprised that this actually worked well. For the first week I didn't have any issues or qualms at all. My hair was fine, it was clean, and the smell of the vinegar rinse was pretty nice.
The second week of the experiment, my hair got a lot greasier, really fast. I cut the apple cider vinegar down to 1 tablespoon in 8 oz of water and that seemed to help. Keeping the rinse only on the very ends of my hair helped too. By the end of the second week I had my hair back under control.
After this came the really nerve-wracking part: Use nothing but water and a hairbrush on the hair to keep it clean. For two weeks.
I learned a lot about myself at this point. Mainly, that I do have some vanity stashed deep inside me, and it doesn't like when I have greasy hair. When I went out shopping it was cold enough that I could pull a hat over my head and no one would be the wiser. At the office, or for appointments, the hat had to go. It took some psyching up, and I almost did cancel a couple of times because I didn't want to go out looking like I was one of the great unwashed. In the end, though, I didn't. If anyone had a problem with it they didn't say anything to me.
Last Thursday was the long awaited day I could use baking soda and vinegar rinse again. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much I was looking forward to it. My head didn't feel awful or dirty or unwashed through all of this. On the contrary, the itchy scalp I usually get during dry weather was completely non-existent. My hair didn't look so great, though.
My hair cleaned up pretty well with the baking soda. I noticed right away that the ends of my hair weren't dry as they'd been all winter. My hair looked clean, and was incredibly soft. Losing shampoo has helped it tremendously.
I'm using the baking soda and vinegar rinse twice a week now. That's about as far as I can go without my hair looking too bad. In the summer I may need to up that to every other day, but we'll see how it goes.
The truly amazing part of this has been that my asthma has improved incredibly since dropping shampoo and conditioner, even with the cold weather we've been experiencing. I was using natural products, but apparently even they contained something that was irritating to the airways. I think this alone will keep me on the no shampoo regimin.
Things I've learned from this experience:
- I am vain, no matter how much I try to deny it.
- It is possible to go out with unshampood hair and not get shunned by other people.
- Not using shampoo doesn't make your hair smell bad, and the apple cider vinegar rinse doesn't make you smell like salad.
- Boar's hair brushes have to be cleaned regularly with shampoo. This still feels like I'm defeating the purpose of the experiment somehow.
- There is nothing baking soda can't do.
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