Moving Towards Natural Hair Care

Even before I had health problems and well before I was educated, I was adamant about avoiding white sugar, excess salt and food additives.  I really don't know why, just I knew this was ingredients to avoid in our foods.  Those ideals moved into household cleansers not only as a way of being frugal but also as becoming eco-friendly.  We began making our own 100% all natural, vegetable based bar soap for bathing back in 1995.  Within a year, my husband's psoriasis was completely gone and the patches have never returned.  The last stronghold was my beloved Pantene products.

I have waist length hair, worn straight.  It is prone to frizzing in high humidity.   I was told by one hair salon not to use Pantene products as they leave a build-up in your hair but since I don't colour or perm my hair, I wasn't concerned.  The main problem with a lot of hair products is they contain sodium chloride (drying, stripping), sulfates (strips hair of keratin making it prone to frizzing), sodium lauryl suflate (stripping, carcinogenic), alcohol (drying, stripping, increases frizzing), silicon (synthetic) and scents (synthetic, allergenic).  In short, the majority of hair product are not good for you so I decided to take a bit more natural approach.  

I tried the No-Poo method which is washing with a baking soda solution followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse.  This is the ultimate natural approach for hair care if it works for you.  It takes about three weeks for your hair to adjust but after that it is reported to work rather well.  The No-Poo method does work well but my hair really needed something else.  As hair ages, it loses the protein, keratin.  The loss of keratin results in more frizz so it make sense to replace the keratin rather than use a synthetic like silicone to control frizz.  I switched to the Organix line of hair products that are sodium and sulfate free so they aren't stripping my hair of keratin nor are they drying it.  Before blow drying and styling, I use Moroccan argan oil.  This is almost a miracle natural hair treatment that protects the hair from heat styling treatments, UV damage and frizzing while mending split ends as well as giving the hair a gorgeous shine AND it doesn't leave the hair oil feeling.  I use this a couple of times a day just sprayed on my brush then brushed through my hair.  I also use extra virgin olive oil just after styling my hair.  I don't use a lot, just a little rubbed between the palms of my hands then over my hair.  Olive oil is rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant that evens slows the greying of hair while darkening natural hair slightly as it controls frizz.