no poo help?

[sprouthead]

I am new here, trying to grow my hair out again after a drastic "trim." In my intro post I said that I've been using baking soda and vinegar on my hair for close to a year and I got a lot of responses about how damaging that could be for my hair. Well, I don't want to do that, but I don't know what else to do! I really don't want to use shampoo and conditioner. I tried soapnuts yesterday but it really didn't do a good job cleaning my hair. I can keep trying it, but I want to use something that I can get away with only washing my hair 2x/week max. How long can people go between washings with soap nuts? What other methods are there that are easy to make and use? I've seen the threads about Indian herbs but there are no Indian stores around me now and I don't have the $$ to get a lot of herbs anyway.

Thanks for any help!

[GlebeGirl]

If you've been having good results with the baking soda and vinegar routine then I'd take the 'damaging' comments with a grain of salt. Often the people who speak out most strongly against it are people who haven't actually tried it. They just hear of those two ingredients and make drastic assumptions. Depending on the method you're using it can be harmless.

My method is to dilute up to (but never more than) two tablespoons of baking soda in two cups of hot water and use that as a shampoo. After letting it sit for a minute, massaging my scalp and then rinsing it out thoroughly I make a rinse of one tablespoon apple cider vinegar to two cups of water and pour that over my hair. I rinse that out thoroughly, condition my length with whatever conditioner I'm using, rinse that out and let my hair dry. This routine has NEVER dried my hair out, damaged it or given me bad results and I've used it for extended periods of time.

[PseudoScot]

A quick search offers some guidelines on natural ways to wash your hair, including the Indian Herbs thread you have found:

Natural Shampoo Alternatives (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=14703&highlight=soapnuts)

Yucca Vs. Soapwort Vs. Aritha/Soapnuts? (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=8449)

Soapnut Foam Washing (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=95)

That should give you more ideas, especially on soapnuts. Trying doing a search for natural shampoo, etc and you'll get some more good results. Takes some reading, but the info is out there if you search for it.

Welcome to LHC!

[lora410]

How oily your scalp gets depends totally on genetics. You could try adding some Tea tree oil to the soapnut mix. I can't usually go more then 2 days between washes and then I get itchy. Also with the soapnuts did you soak a few of them overnight first? You have to soak them overnight and then place them in a bottle or some people shake it until it turns to total foam. I told you with the BS to just protect your ends with conditioner prior to washing with BS and vinegar. That way you wash the scalp but protect the ends from drying out. then you rinse it all and conditioner the length again.

[Susana]

Hey!!
I use warm water only. Then, I "brush" with a towel to move the sebum from the roots to the ends. There is a transition period when your hair might look terrible (braids, ponytails, buns and hats might be your new fav do's), but eventually *knock on wood* your transitions should leave you with a "clean" looking scalp again.

My problem here is I have really really hard water, and for my hair, that really really sucks :( (If anyone's been there please help, sometimes the hard water feels "weird" on my hair)

Anyways, here are some articles that helped me a lot:

http://www.tinasark.com/natural_beauty.htm

(Scroll down to "no poo", they have a collection of articles, my fav are 3 and 4)

Good luck!!

[Susana]

Oh!! and by the way I also have really oily hair, but with this method, its gotten much better **

[cowgirllong]

I quit using shampoo and conditioner in July of 2008. First I used baking soda and acv rinses. After a while, I quit using the baking soda and eventually quit using the acv, too. Now I go water only and am no experimenting to see what kind of treatments make my hair look great. I am pretty happy going water only, but some people think you still need to condition. You could try oiling your ends if you are worried about them. If your hair isn't being adversely affected by the bs/acv regimen, I don't think you need to change. You know your hair better than anyone.

[justgreen]

I've been diluting my shampoo for over three years and have totally gotten rid of my greasy scalp. I wash 2 times a week, maybe three sometimes in the summer, only because of sweat, not oil.

I dilute about 1 tablespoon of shampoo with about 4-5 ounces of warm water in an applicator bottle with a nozzle. Shake well and apply to wet hair, the nozzle allows you to get the diluted shampoo right on the scalp. It rinses off easier and I have hard well water, so the less shampoo I use, the better.

I know some folks just try to experiment going without shampoo . Is there a specific reason why you shun it? There are shampoos out there with very gentle cleansers, and once diluted, become even more gentle on your hair. Much more gentle than BS. I use BS about three times a year, and ONLY on my scalp, added to my diluted shampoo. I only use diluted vinegar about twice a year, to help correct the ph of my scalp.

Before finding LHC, I had never been able to grow past bra strap. I haven't had my hair trimmed in 14 months and have very few split ends.

ETA: Oh , and I highlight and lowlight on a regular basis, and have no damage. I owe most of that to regular SMT's and homemade spritzers with distilled water, jojoba oil and sweet orange oil.

[Roseate]

I did BS/ACV for about 6 months, and my scalp loved it! The ends of my hair eventually got too dried out, though, and I went back to using commercial conditioner.

This was all before I found LHC, though, so I didn't yet know how to oil my ends. I think if I was going to go back on BS/ACV, I'd experiment with doing coconut oil on the ends before each wash, and make the ACV rinse with catnip tea for extra conditioning.

Oiling information (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=71)

Catnip thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=476)

Everyone's hair's different, though- if your natural oils are enough to protect your ends, well, stick with what works! Welcome to LHC!:)

[GlebeGirl]

I did BS/ACV for about 6 months, and my scalp loved it! The ends of my hair eventually got too dried out, though, and I went back to using commercial conditioner.

This was all before I found LHC, though, so I didn't yet know how to oil my ends. I think if I was going to go back on BS/ACV, I'd experiment with doing coconut oil on the ends before each wash, and make the ACV rinse with catnip tea for extra conditioning.

I definitely think that baking soda/ACV works much better for committed longhairs with an extra conditioning step at the end, be it oils or commercial conditioner. People who get regular trims or keep their hair quite short wouldn't need to think about it, but we always need to consider how best to protect our ends, no matter what type of washing method we're using!

I'm going to experiment with catnip as conditioner in combination with baking soda/ACV after my baby is born in May.

[HoneyMouse]

I have terribletrouble with greasy roots. Sometimes I have to wash it every day just to make it bearable. I sometimes get dry ends but not very often so after reading this I'm going to try the soda bic / ACV mix tonight and see what happens.

[sprouthead]

Hey!!
I use warm water only. Then, I "brush" with a towel to move the sebum from the roots to the ends. There is a transition period when your hair might look terrible (braids, ponytails, buns and hats might be your new fav do's), but eventually *knock on wood* your transitions should leave you with a "clean" looking scalp again.

My problem here is I have really really hard water, and for my hair, that really really sucks :( (If anyone's been there please help, sometimes the hard water feels "weird" on my hair)

Anyways, here are some articles that helped me a lot:

http://www.tinasark.com/natural_beauty.htm

(Scroll down to "no poo", they have a collection of articles, my fav are 3 and 4)

Good luck!!


I quit using shampoo and conditioner in July of 2008. First I used baking soda and acv rinses. After a while, I quit using the baking soda and eventually quit using the acv, too. Now I go water only and am no experimenting to see what kind of treatments make my hair look great. I am pretty happy going water only, but some people think you still need to condition. You could try oiling your ends if you are worried about them. If your hair isn't being adversely affected by the bs/acv regimen, I don't think you need to change. You know your hair better than anyone.

I really want to go water-only. Today I went for it and didn't use anything in my hair.. We'll see what happens :) I have a few questions about going water-only... How often do you rinse your hair? Do you oil the ends or just try to spread the sebum to the ends of your hair? Is there a water-only thread around here somewhere? I can't seem to find it.. thanks!

[sprouthead]

can i edit posts?

oh well, i just found the link!

[Twitter]

I like the washcloth method too. I don't do it exclusively but in between washes. I just stand with the water running over my hair and run a wet washcloth down the hair to move the sebum down. It works really well to distribute the sebum when I don't feel like washing.