Has anyone tried sea salt as a shampoo?

[Eolan]

I just read an article in a Swedish paper about a guy who wanted to stop using so much chemicals on his skin and hair. He stopped using conventional products and made his own schampoo, wich consisted of boiled water and sea salt. He then went on to WO wich worked out great for him. I know some of you think salt on hair is the devil, but I know that my scalp gets so much better after I've been swimming in the sea during the summers. Just out of curiosity, has anyone here tried sea salt as a schampoo or rinsed with it or something? I'm interrested since I have a problem scalp and although my current schampoo does the job well it has alot of chemicals. It sure would be nice to find something more natural that works.

[Debra83]

I'm watching this thread for my son. He has a flaky scalp, and the conventional "dandruff" shampoos give it to him worse - I think they are too harsh for him. He won't do the oiling consistently (he's 18) - so I honestly don't know if that would even help him or not. I might be able to do something with seasalt though....

[Aer]

I can say I've never used sea salt as washing method, but thank you for telling us about it. I'm always interested in hearing about different washing methods. It sounds like it could work.

[Eolan]

Debra83: Salt can sting, as I'm sure you have experienced if you ever bathed in the sea with a wound. But as far as I have understood, it does help healing. (Not sure if it makes any eventual scars worse.) I think I might try the mixture that guy made, I just want to know if anyone has any experience with this.
The recipe is really easy, if you want it for your son: Boil some water, add some spoons of sea salt to it, stir. Put some cold water in it. Taste it (!): the taste is supposed to be similar to a sip of the ocean! Then rince the hair with it.

Aer: You are most welcome! Sharing is always good, especially in this lovely forum. :D

[Eolan]

Also, Debra83: if your son wants to try another conventional schampoo, I can really recommend the one I use. It's Goldwell Inner Effect Regulating Anti-Dandruff. Stuff has loads of chemicals, but still isn't harsh.

Okay, I think I just high jacked my own thread. *giggle*

[Gabriel]

I'm interested to know how this works out for those of you that try it! I use natural sea salt as a face scrub once in a while and thought about it for my scalp but haven't tried it.

[Eolan]

Gabriel: I'll be sure to let you know how it works out.

BTW, love your hair. Shiiiine!

[Fractalsofhair]

I'd think it would be a bit drying, but I doubt it would be harmful beyond that.

[Eolan]

Hi there you, Fractalsofhair, long time no talk. :)

Yeah, the drying part kind of worries me. Still trying to stay cone free and the frizz is all over the place. I'll think of some way to not put the salt on the lenghts. It's the scalp that needs it.

[Melisande]

Sea salt is definitely not from hell. It's an ingredient in the very highly concentrated shampoo BIG by Lush that I use ca. every six weeks for a thorough cleaning (I dilute it very much - a quarter of a teaspoon in 2 liters of water, and it's still strong! who puts that stuff undiluted on the hair???). My hair really likes it.

I used to put dead sea mud on my scalp and hair to make it stronger. I loved it then but I can't stand it now, it dries my aging skin.... but salt from the Dead Sea is very good for the skin and I think also for the skin. Maybe you should protect the hair (especially porous lengths) with oil, conditioner or both before you use salt. But I love sea salt also for body scrubs.

You may want to start with a weak solution, very little salt in much water. Or add honey if you want to make it gentler... and use an applicator bottle to get to the scalp.

And tell us the outcome!

[Arctic]

Many natural shampoos contain sea salt. I have one and my hair and scalp like it :) I have also used sea salt as a scalp scub, mixed in shampoo just before use. Doesn't dry my hair and feels wonderful :) Sorry, I have no answers to your questions though :o

[Gabriel]

Eolan thanks!

I was thinking about coating the ends of hair with conditioner too, Melisande. The idea of mixing the sea salt with honey I didn't think of and sounds like a good one.

[sally_neuf]

Ok. This isn't professional advice, but I have spend weeks at the beach, without washing my hair with shampoo, just 2 or 3 WO rinses.

I have such a fine hair, and it volumes A LOT, it also started to look kinda wavy, though my hair is really straight, but I think it was just the volume.

BUT, it wasn't itchy at all, and it didn't looked oily. (And I wasn't using only salt.. I was going the whole sand-salt-UV-sun package, and it still was pretty good. I guess a well prepared boiled water and salt, should be as double as good) I'll post a picture if I find one, so you can compare how my hair looked.

It didn't bothered me, but I wouldn't do it again, because my hair was just too.. voluminous!! (and pretty tangled too, but I thinks that's the wind and sand's fault)

[Elenna]

Wasn't there a post by Snowymoon (a while back) on salt trashing her hair!

Proceed with caution, salt may do good things for some and not so good for others.

[Tornerose]

Salt can be good for dry scalps, I guess. As for the lenght, I'm not so sure. I guess it won't hurt to try though.


I'm interested to know how this works out for those of you that try it! I use natural sea salt as a face scrub once in a while and thought about it for my scalp but haven't tried it.
Not to hijack the thread, but isn't salt alittle rough on the face? I've heard you should use sugar on face and salt on body.

[Flynn]

I'm watching this thread for my son. He has a flaky scalp, and the conventional "dandruff" shampoos give it to him worse - I think they are too harsh for him. He won't do the oiling consistently (he's 18 ) - so I honestly don't know if that would even help him or not. I might be able to do something with seasalt though....

Flakiness and dandruff are not the same thing, and a dandruff shampoo will pretty well always make an irritated, flaky scalp worse. I'd get him something nice and gentle.

There are plenty of cheap supermarket-brand sodium cocosulfate shampoos out there. SCS is the same as SLS, though a lot of people here have been finding that, possibly due to lower purity, or maybe even lower concentration in a lot of SCS shampoos, the SCS shampoos seem milder.





Eolan: As to the topic of the original post, nope, I really don't know. The ocean never really cleaned my hair, though it hasn't been doing it much harm, provided I'm careful to condition afterward. ^__^

(Also, how long have you been cone-free? It took me a couple of months of dull frizziness before my hair started behaving again... and oh boy did it start behaving! XD Stick with it. ^__^ )

[ktani]

This thread discussed salt and hair pretty thoroughly, See the last few pages, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=8437 .

Sea water contains minerals that can build-up on hair and cause problems. Salt added to shampoo and conditioner should not, IMO. But it depends on the amounts used.

Salt used as a shampoo I think it would have similar limitations. It would also depend on how long it would be left on the hair. I do not think it would be a problem but salt can be corrosive so I would make the solution fairly well diluted and the salt completely dissolved, so that it is not abrasive in crystal granulated form.

[Eolan]

Oh, wow, this is great! Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to answer everyone individually, but thank you all so much for the input! :cheese:

The link ktani posted is a good one, check it out!

[OhMyCurlz]

Have you tried neem powder or neem oil? It smells terrible but along with tea tree oil it works miracles for this kind of stuff.



I'm watching this thread for my son. He has a flaky scalp, and the conventional "dandruff" shampoos give it to him worse - I think they are too harsh for him. He won't do the oiling consistently (he's 18) - so I honestly don't know if that would even help him or not. I might be able to do something with seasalt though....

[aahavaa]

Id be so wary of using it regularly as a shampoo. My hair has lots a lot of its curl and is so dry after the swimming in the sea this summer.And the frizz ack!!
However as a treatment for dandruff or scaly scalp conditions I think it would be wonderful.My son has suffered from persistent cradle cap since he was a baby.The only time he is clear of it is in the summer when he wets it in the sea.This summer he hasnt wanted to go swimming..who can understand 14 year olds huh..but anyway his cradle cap thing is still there.Usually its gone in the summer.So definitely worth a try.

[Eolan]

Alot of you have expressed concern about getting salt on the lenghts. My idea is to do a sort of CWC with the sea salt solution as the schampoo. My problem has always been that my hair and my scalp loves very different things and I try hard to get them to work together. Therefor I shall protect my lengts, don't you ladies worry! But I think it's very nice that you all care. :crush:

Flynn: I have been cone free since July, but I cheated a couple of times so right now I guess I'm sort of starting over... Thank you for encouraging me! I just changed from one cone free conditioner to another and right now my hair is behaving so much better.

[Elettaria]

I have been struggling with fairly nasty scalp due to seborrhoeic dermatitis (which causes a lot of dandruff). I tried scrubbing my scalp with fine sea salt, but it just made it worse. Possibly salt would work for me used in a different fashion, but it didn't when I used it like that. Right now I'm doing well with neem, which I'm about to post about in the neem oil thread.

[Zindell]

I just read an article in a Swedish paper

I did a search and found the following article. Is that the one?
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/idagsidan/samhalle/artikel_251205.svd

It does sound interesting! :)

[RedStripe]

Lush has a shampoo with sea salt listed as its first ingredient:
http://www.lushusa.com/shop/products/hair/bottled-shampoos/big

I've never tried this, but a friend of mine used to like it. However, looks like it has SLS, so it may not be for everyone.

[Islandgrrl]

This thread is really interesting....

Personally, my hair never looks better than when it dries full of salt water after I've been surfing or diving. It seems salt water does AMAZING things for my hair. Shiny, full of volume (like I need that, but still) and super wavy. And even though my hair has a tendency toward dryness, the salt water doesn't seem to dry it out unless it's combined with lots of sun - which, where I live, doesn't really happen.

Darnit for being too cold to surf!

[Ash]

Way back before I ever found LHC I used to take frequent baths with a lot of sea salt in my water. One day I went to get a trim to get rid of splits and the hairdresser asked me how short I wanted to go. :( It was pretty bad. The salt however was good for my skin. It doesn't hurt to try though, things are different for everyone.

[Eolan]

Elettaria: I'm sorry to hear that! I have psoriasis, and from what I've heard, there is a big difference between what you have and what I have. I'm glad you found something that worked out well for you!

Zindell: Yes, that is the one. :) I liked that guy, he seemed really laid back.

Red Stripe: I have seen several schampoos that has salt in them, but unfortenately also have SLS and/or silicones. The whole idea of natural and less stressful for skin and environment sort of gets lost in that... Although I think that Lush has kinda good stuff, I often find them to be abit on the heavy scented side for my taste.

Islandgrrl: I think that's the reason some people use hairspray that containes salt water. I hope you can go surf soon! :)

Ash: Yes, that happends alot of the times to alot of people. My hair is rather strong and survived two weeks at the Medeteranian Sea this summer, but then I was careful with it. Sort of...

[Komodia]

i think it would work with someone with greasy hair. not for me, definitely, my hair or skin never get greasy, they're more on the dry-ish to normal side.

[clairenewcastle]

As a teenager I swam a lot in the sea - my hair hated the salt water. I couldn't get it washed out straightaway after I swam so by the time I did my hair would feel brittle.
I noticed Lush's sea salt shampoo. I for one will not be trying it for all it did was bring back memories of how harsh salt was on my hair.

[Debra83]

Also, Debra83: if your son wants to try another conventional schampoo, I can really recommend the one I use. It's Goldwell Inner Effect Regulating Anti-Dandruff. Stuff has loads of chemicals, but still isn't harsh.

Okay, I think I just high jacked my own thread. *giggle*


Thanks for the two inputs on that, sorry for the high jack!!! :o

[Eolan]

Debra83: You're welcome! And I was the one who did the high jacking.

I still have'nt tried the salt water solution. Have yet to come around to buy sea salt... :P

[Fethenwen]

I did a search and found the following article. Is that the one?
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/idagsidan/samhalle/artikel_251205.svd

It does sound interesting! :)

Wow, that article makes me wanna go water only again :p Or salt only.

Love the way the guy describes his visit to the hairdresser. When he got his hair shampooed, and talked about his simply hair regime the hairdresser goes quiet for a few minutes and then says: "but it lathered so much!" He meant that only clean hair lathers a lot when shampooed. It proved quite well that his hair sure wasn't dirty.

[Thinthondiel]

I'm watching this thread for my son. He has a flaky scalp, and the conventional "dandruff" shampoos give it to him worse - I think they are too harsh for him. He won't do the oiling consistently (he's 18) - so I honestly don't know if that would even help him or not. I might be able to do something with seasalt though....

Unless he knows it's dandruff and not just a flaky scalp, I'd recommend using regular shampoo, but diluting it a lot (or possibly going CO or WO, if he's prepared to go to such "extreme" measures). Before I went WO, I thought I had dandruff, but it turned out that my scalp was just flaky because it was completely dried out by shampoos. My scalp doesn't flake at all anymore now that I'm doing WO. But of course, if he does have dandruff (or some other scalp condition that causes the flaking), this probably won't help.

[Nevermore]

I used salt water when my hair was shorter. As long as I rinsed VERY well, it made gave me wonderful volume and shine. If I failed to rinse well, my hair felt coated, greasy and dry all at the same time. I suspect that you'd want to keep the concentration of salt very low if you were doing it regularly.

I should probably detail my routine here, actually. I was washing every other day, with probably a quarter sized pile of sea salt in 8 oz or so of hot water. I'd wet my hair well in the shower and pour half of the cup of salt water through it, do a scalp massage and work it into my hair, rinse with fresh water, pour the rest of the salt water through, then rinse again with fresh. I never added it to shampoo, however, Mane N Tail shampoo has sodium chloride as the 8th ingredient and imo, it's one of the best conventional shampoos ever.

[Zombiekins]

I went to town on my hair two days ago. A recent hennaing left it feeling coated so I oiled up, left for a while, washed with a 1:1:1 aritha:shikakai:amla + 1/2 tblsp hibiscus flowers (left the mix on my head for just under an hour), rinsed, vinegar rinsed (strong vinegar rinse massaged into scalp and hair then rinsed completely), applied a salt water mix (3tblsp to 400ml water - or whatever Ktani's measurements were), left for 30 minutes, rinsed for a final time, put a wee bit of coconut oil on the ends, dried (it's been too chilly here to leave the house with wet hair), and viola my hair stopped feeling coated (something I previously thought only sulfate shampoos could accomplish) and returned to its soft, silky, and slightly voluminous self. Tangles are also way down despite wearing my hair down in the elements. Yay!

I intend to incorporate salt water treatments into future hair stuff. :)

ETA - I used sea salt.

[Eolan]

Okay, so I guess I am what Dr Phil would call "a slow learner" or something, since it took me like forever to actually try this, but now I have tried the sea salt "schampoo" I've been talking about.

This winter has been unusually long, cold and dry wich made my scalp go beyond bananas. Lately it has all been flakes, flakes, flakes and itching, itching, itching. I doesn't look good and it sure doesn't feel good. So I guess it was desperation that drove me to try this. I have been using this really harsh medical schampoo lately, wich worked okay and made my hair greasy near the scalp. Since you're not supposed to use it to often and I tend to work out a couple of times a week and get all sweaty I FINALLY got around to try the sea salt schampoo. And now I FINALLY get to my point! :silly:
Okay, so here's what I did. I boiled some water and put alot of sea salt in it, like I don't know - two hands full? I then added some cold water until the mixture had a pleasent temeperature. I poored the mixture into an old pet bottle wich has a good sort of squeezy lid/top/whatever - you get my point, I hope. In the shower I wet my hair, slathered conditioner on the ends and then squeezed/poored the mixture on my scalp and gave it a good scalp massage. Rinced, and put some moore conditioner on the lenghts. I also did a light oiling.
The result today: No flakes! No itching! Great succes and peace on earth! (Well, not really, but anyway!) :cheese: My hair still feels a little funky around the scalp, sort of greasy, but I think that's due to the previous used harsh schampoo.
My plan now is to continue with this routine for two weeks and see how my hair and scalp respondes to this. If I keep getting this wonderful result, I'm sticking to it and cutting the schampoo!

Okay, so this has been the longest post in history, but I'm just so happy about it and I wanted to tell you guys since I know there are a few of you who has the same problem as I do. Hope this workes! Fingers crossed! :cloud9:

[LadyJennifer]

Have you tried neem powder or neem oil? It smells terrible but along with tea tree oil it works miracles for this kind of stuff.

I thought the neem powder smelled pleasant, just a bit green.

[Eolan]

I used salt water when my hair was shorter. As long as I rinsed VERY well, it made gave me wonderful volume and shine. If I failed to rinse well, my hair felt coated, greasy and dry all at the same time. I suspect that you'd want to keep the concentration of salt very low if you were doing it regularly. -snip-

Aha! I'm taking notes, since I sorta recognize this. Less salt, more rincing.