Hair Basics

Most of you know that I’m an alternative thinker.  For a very long time I have been searching out a shampoo and conditioner that would do for my hair what I wanted it to. Unfortunately most of the natural conditioners on the market are using an ingredient in their products that makes the hair feel like it has a coating on it. Feeling frustrated with the choices before me I have recently discovered a new (possibly very old) way of looking after hair without shampoo and conditioner!! I came across an article about 6 weeks ago that was more to do with finding a shampoo and conditioner that doesn’t contain palm oil – which seems to be rather an impossibility! It gave links to this ‘No Poo Method’, which uses 2 ingredients only, to take care of hair!!! Now this might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but is worth sharing.

The ingredients are bicarbonate soda and apple cider vinegar!!*

So I have been washing my hair with bicarbonate soda like you would a normal shampoo. Just add 1 -2 teaspoons of bicarbonate soda to 1 cup of warm water, pour it over your head in the shower and scrub your scalp as you would normally, then rinse.

For the rinse add about a tablespoon of cider vinegar to 1 cup of warm water. Because I have long hair I usually dip my hair into the cup first and then pour the rest over my head. Wow, it’s amazing how easily you can get a comb through your hair after doing this!! Leave in for a few minutes and rinse.

Now if you decided to take up this method of washing your hair, it needs to be noted that there is a detox period of about 4 – 6 weeks. But you can use this method of washing your hair as frequently as you need to at the beginning until you can just do it once a week or even less. On one blog I read, the lady washes her hair this way once a month and just with water at other times!!!

Personally I’ve been using this method for about 6 weeks. I made the mistake at the beginning of doing a hot oil treatment (with olive oil) on dry hair. It took me about 2 weeks to normalise my hair and not look like I had wet hair all the time. I still feel like I’m in the experimental part of this journey, but I’m happy to keep going with it. I would like to make a leave in conditioner with very basic ingredients just to smooth the hair out. I’ll let you all know how that goes.

For the most part I am really enjoying this method, but understand it might not be for everyone. For more information, just Google ‘No Poo Method’ or ‘Washing hair without shampoo’. Everyone who has blogged about this method has a slightly different experience, but most of them are positive. Please leave me your thoughts on this -  I am most interested in what people think.

*Herbs can be added to benefit the hair in the wash and the rinse as well. If you’re not keen on the vinegar rinse you can use lemon juice.

Rebecca Roberts.