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.  

A Bit of an Update on the No-Poo Shampoo Experiment

I recently posted about trying the no-poo shampoo as an experiment.  So far my husband has resisted trying this method mainly because he does not like the smell of apple cider vinegar.  On the other hand I am experiencing rather good results with the no-poo shampoo method.  I have two food grade plastic squirt bottles meant for salad dressings.  I used one for a 1:1 baking soda solution for washing my hair and another for undiluted apple cider vinegar.

Preliminary results:

One of my primary concerns was my scalp and hair would not look or feel clean.  I squirted on the baking soda solution then massaged into my scalp and gently worked through the full length of my hair.  I rinsed with clear water and my hair felt squeaky clean.  Then I squited a generous amount of apple cider vinegar over my scalp and worked it into my hair.  Let me tell you apple cider vinegar getting into your eyes is not pleasant.  That was the only negative other than the towel smelling like apple cider vinegar. 

I towel dried my hair then used the blow dryer and styled as normal without a problem.  My hair was shiny and soft.  I refrained from using my normal anti-frizz serum just to see what would happen.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Instead of problems with frizzing I experienced considerably less frizzing but an increase in fly away hair.  I honestly was surprised at how good my hair look and felt.  I will report back at the end of the experiment.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

The No-Poo Shampoo Experiment

I've made homemade soaps and toiletries for a number of years mainly as a way of getting healthier alternatives to the harsh, chemically laden commercial alternatives.  We found that switching from detergent based body cleansers to homemade, all natural vegetable based soap that our skin improved considerably.  As a result I am always on the look-out for natural and healthier substitutes for toiletries.  Well during my surfing a couple of weeks ago I came across the notion of no-poo shampoo.  The premise is by moving away from using shampoo entirely your hair is healthier, stronger and better behaved.  Then over the past couple of weeks I saw more bloggers blogging about this method.  It is getting rave reviews! 

The method is very, very simple.  Wash your hair with a 1:1 mixture of baking soda and water.  Rinse then rinse with apple cider vinegar.  That's it.  Unlike commercial shampoos that contain alcohols and salt, the natural cleansers do not strip your hair of it's natural oils.  There's no artificial scents or colourants either.

My hair is waist length prone to frizzing in high humidity, misbehaving just because but then other days behaves beautifully and my scalp is extremely sensitive.  I would never dream of washing my hair daily or my scalp would be a mess and my hair would be like a broomstick.  My favourite hair products are Pantene and Fructis but occasionally I use Aussi.  I have decided to give the no-poo shampoo method a try for a month.  It makes a lot of sense to me because baking soda is an excellent cleanser so getting my scalp and hair clean is not an issue.  Introducing cider vinegar that has anti-bacterial and detangling properties concerns be a little.  Of bigger concern is getting my husband on board with this experiment.  He is not fond of the smell of apple cider vinegar so this should be an interesting experiment all the way around.  Stay tuned.  I will report back on how well the non-poo shampoo method worked for us.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010