Washing hair with egg?

[SopphireGem]

Hey everyone :)

About two months ago, I started washing my hair with egg (no shampoo, baking soda or anything else) and so far it always cleans my hair well (doesn't leave it oily or sticky at all), although it leaves it feeling a bit dry. I was wondering if anyone here washes/used to wash with just egg and how they have found using it?

I've tried mixing a few drops of olive oil with the egg, but it makes my hair really greasy again :( Whenever I use any kind of oil in my hair, no matter how little I use, I can't seem to get it to make my hair soft; it always makes it greasy.

I was using baking soda before this for about a year, but it was always too drying and I noticed that loads of hair would shed whenever I washed my hair with it!! My hair seems to have got dramatically thinner since using baking soda :( I don't want to use shampoo because of all the artificial chemicals it contains.

Thanks :)

[Firefox7275]

There are threads on this over on the natural haircare board. Egg contains as much fat as protein by weight so you shouldn't necessarily need to add any oil. Doing so may reduce the potency of the natural emulsifiers (lecithin and proteins) which you want to be mixing your sebum with water, not busy mixing the added oils with water.

It isn't any more natural to put egg in our hair than any other product, we didn't evolve doing that we evolved eating the eggs and likely not washing our hair very often. By all means continue if you are happy with the results, if not you migh consider soap nuts or soap wort extract, these are cleansers humans have been using since at least the Stone Age.

[spidermom]

You could end up with protein overload, which makes hair feel stiff and dry. Watch out for that.

P.S: All of life is made up of chemicals. If you saw the chemical makeup of an organic apple, the long chemical names would probably scare you, but that doesn't mean it's bed for you. There are many gentle, relatively natural products that you need not fear on the market.

[Anje]

I'm going to second the soapnuts or Indian herb washing using things like shikaikai and amla.

[Firefox7275]

Whole egg protein is not substantive as hydrolysed proteins are, it's far too large. If you get stiffness or dryness that is not protein overload but failure to wash or rinse effectively, or build up if something else (eg minerals from water).

[PrincessBob]

I like to occasionally wash my hair with egg yolks and yoghurt. I used to use whole eggs, but after my hair got really dry I started separating the white (albumen) out and just using the yolk. I think it's great for taking down the greasies without SLS shampoos.

[SopphireGem]

Thanks everyone :D

I'm still not sure about using artificial chemicals; I try to avoid them whenever I can and use what people have used for centuries rather than stuff that has only been used in the last few decades and may cause health issues or something :p

I would love to try soap nuts, but I have no idea where to get them! Firefox, I see you live in the UK, right? (I live in the UK too); do you know which shops sell them here?

PrincessBob; how many egg yolks and how much yogurt do you use?

Thanks! :D

[heidi w.]

I tend to stick to the basics of using shampoo and conditioner. I buy really good shampoo and conditioner, and have never had dry hair. I would never recommend doing a Baking Soda hair wash as your usual shampoo. That is extremely drying to the hair. I ONLY recommend to use it as-needed to clarify the hair.
heidi w.

[HintOfMint]

I haven't tried this, but maybe adding some honey to your egg yolks will help. Honey is a humectant and it attracts moisture from the air into itself.

[ExpectoPatronum]

I'd just like to drop in and point out that a lot of artificial stuff are derived from natural ingredients. In addition "old fashioned" ingredients weren't always so good either, especially in cosmetics where poisonous chemicals like lead and arsenic were used. While there are some questionable ingredients out there, not everything artificial is bad.

Have you tried doing an apple cider vinegar rinse? I know that's usually done in conjunction with baking soda, but it might help with the dryness from the egg too.

[Naiadryade]

I've washed with egg plenty. I like it well enough, though I agree that it left my hair dry--the same as shampoo without conditioner would. Perhaps adding a little aloe would help with that some. Oddly enough, I found that mixing egg with clay made for a less drying wash (and a more pleasing consistency to apply!) despite clay on its own also being drying--you may want to read the thread I made about my experiments with that here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=110609). And yeah, definitely do an ACV rinse after to bring your hair and scalp's pH back into alignment.

I also steer clear of synthetic and/or toxic chemicals. After experimenting with various DIY washes (never tried Indian herbs though), I've settled on an all-natural yet store-bought line of products: Shea Moisture, specifically their Moisture Retention Shampoo and their Deep Treatment Masque (as conditioner). Now my hair feels moisturized and conditioned, whereas it always felt dry when I was doing totally DIY hair care. You might like to try it, though you may find it too heavy. If you want to stick DIY, you might want to consider trying to make a "conditioner" to use after your egg wash. I haven't really experimented with trying to make a DIY all-natural conditioner, but the Shea Moisture DTM is primarily shea butter mixed with oils. That would be a good place to start. Though the one time I used the DTM after an egg wash, it left my hair a little greasy and heavy. :shrug: Good luck, and happy experimenting! :stirpot:

[woolyleprechaun]

I've tried quite a few times to use eggs to wash my hair... It usually results in slightly crunchy hair, for me :(
However, I've found I can mix eggs with other things and get decent results; I make a thick amla and shikakai paste and let it rest, and a bit before wash time I'll add an egg and a dollop of yoghurt or something. I find the egg helps to make herb pastes that bit more 'slippery' and nicer to apply.
By the way, I understand your need to find alternative hair washing methods ;) For me, it's not so much an aversion to commercial products, more a need to make and 'discover' things myself... call me crunchy if you wish! I just like to mess around with stuff for my hair, sort of like a hobby :)

[PrincessBob]

I use about one yolk to 3/4 cup yoghurt ratio.

[SopphireGem]

Thanks everyone!

I think I'll try using just an egg yolk (not the whole egg) and adding yogurt to it and/or ACV :)

[chen bao jun]

I've been curious about egg-washing, too.

I think what we 'evolved' doing is sort of difficult to generalize about (if by 'evolved' you mean the different products humans have used in different places to wash their hair at different times, as they discovered that one or the other things works) but I do know that washing with egg was one of the things popular in the 19th century. Empress Sissi of Austria washed her hair with egg and brandy and she had amazing hair.

I know my grandmother washed her hair with something related to an aloe plant that she had in her backyard (no one seems to know the name of the plant in English and I can't find it on the internet under the word they are using for it, but I know its very similar to aloe). she had rainwater, of course too (in the rainy season, anyway). I'm curious about alternative methods since discovering how very bad sulphate shampoo made my hair feel and behave for 50 years. conditioner is much better, but I am curious about alternative methods (though not, 'sebum only' or 'water only').
I am not anti-chemical, but I do think women of the 19th century had great looking hair in photographs and I know my grandmother had great looking hair, so I'm curious.

[Firefox7275]

Thanks everyone :D

I'm still not sure about using artificial chemicals; I try to avoid them whenever I can and use what people have used for centuries rather than stuff that has only been used in the last few decades and may cause health issues or something :p

I would love to try soap nuts, but I have no idea where to get them! Firefox, I see you live in the UK, right? (I live in the UK too); do you know which shops sell them here?

PrincessBob; how many egg yolks and how much yogurt do you use?

Thanks! :D

You would likely have to order the soap nuts themselves or the extract (just boiled up and evaporated off to concentrate AFAIK) online, unless you have a really good health food shop, the type sometimes run by alternative types as a cooperative, locally rather than a chain store one peddling supplements.