I recently wrote a post listing some of the great things that have happened since I stopped using shampoo in March. But despite the rash behind my ears clearing up and my hair becoming more manageable, no beauty routine is ever truly perfect, IMHO, and I feel like I would be doing you a great disservice by telling you that washing your hair with mud is the be all and end all of going no ‘poo.
Truth be told, giving up chemical shampoos is not for the fainthearted; it requires a lot of hard work and willpower, along with a certain degree of letting go of the desire to have perfect, advert-worthy hair. Personally I really like my natural hair, you might end up hating yours, and that’s fair enough.
So before you bin your beloved SLS-laden salon brands, here are some things you might want to keep in mind:
1) You’ll lose days of your life researching. DAYS.
Oh my God, the researching. I wouldn’t be lying if I said I must have spent hundreds of hours by now trawling green living blogs, wellness websites, niche e-tailers and databases in search of answers, and I have a horrible feeling that all the contradicting information I’ve accumulated so far is only the tip of the iceberg.
Not only do you need to know your hair type and what no ‘poo method might be best for you because every head of hair is different, you’ve also got online forums to navigate filled with no ‘poo veterans ready to pounce on you with their recipes and touting their 4-day-minimum wash cycle rules, you’ve got bloggers linking to brands within ‘helpful’ articles as part of affiliate programmes, and there are of course the ‘organic and natural’ retailers stocking products that granted, they may not contain SLS or parabens, but aren’t exactly 100% wholesome.
There’s also a lot of scaremongering out there, which is something I steer clear of because I don’t know enough to tell you that what you choose to put on your skin is going to give you cancer or whatever - there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult to know which chemicals or natural products are actually good or bad for you.
The more I feel misled by brands both big and small, the more I want to learn and know so that I can stick my fingers up to their marketing teams and say I outsmarted them. Oh, that and cut out any potentially harmful chemicals, make healthy choices that are kinder to our bodies, planet and animals, while using products that actually work for me - of course.
2) The transition period
Also known as the ugliest days/weeks/months of your life. You’ll have more bad hair days than good, so depending on your willpower and your hair length you may find that hats and/or ponytails become your best friend. I even bought a fashion turban which, though I couldn’t bring it to myself to wear it in public, did bring me some relief at home in the evenings - all those ponytails start to tug at your scalp!
And you will end up with cupboards full of stuff you’ll never use - I’ve tried finely ground oats, rye flour and aloe vera jelly - on more than one occasion, all to no avail - and it’s not as if I already had this stuff lying around in abundance.
At least winter is coming and I like porridge.
It’s a really sucky time, you’ll need nerves of steel and deep pockets. Plus I don’t know whether you really “wake up one day and it’s suddenly all amazing”, but personally I just kept trying different things until something stuck and I’m glad I did.
3) Your hair’s needs will keep changing
Srsly, the researching never stops. Of course, it would be far too easy to find an all-green, all-glorious product to wash my hair with and it just work forever, right? Well I’m hoping I’ll reach my hair nirvana someday, but for now my hair’s needs change on a monthly basis so I’m constantly in search of ingredients and products that will work for me.
For me, egg was the only thing that initially helped me shift the waxy build up that I got during transition. But I have low porosity hair, I started overdosing my hair on the protein and it started going wiry so I couldn’t keep that up for long.
Then I was absolutely raving about rhassoul clay for a couple of months; more volume, less sebum, winner winner chicken dinner. But a couple of weeks ago I started to notice a lot of fall out. I think the clay was a fantastic option for the detox process, but I guess it’s just too drying for prolonged/regular use and I’m not one to bury my head in the sand, so I’m back on the hunt for something more pH balanced. Which brings me nicely onto my next point.
4) For me, one/two-ingredient shampoos aren’t really cutting it
This has been the hardest thing for me to accept in my no ‘poo journey. As much as I would love to just dump some clay/honey/porridge on my head and be done with it, no single ingredient or homemade concoction can seem to offer the balance of clarifying and moisturising that my hair needs.
For now I’ve resorted to low-chemical shampoos and conditioners from an organic e-tailer. Lots of lovely lather (boo hiss) followed by two days max of fluffy roots, so really not ideal for what I’d like to achieve - but I guess the upside is that my hair dries quicker and the routine isn’t giving me flyaways like my old chemical shampoos used to. That and at least Graeme will use the more conventional products so they won’t be going to waste.
UPDATE December 2015: Okay, so I kind of jumped the gun there. I’m back to proper no ‘poo again and have settled quite nicely into a routine - FAQs can be found here with a constant update of what I’m using now. Yippeeeee.
However
With all that being said, being no ‘poo/low ‘poo/whatever the hell I am right now is no more annoying than using normal shampoo and conditioner.
I also find the researching an incredibly enlightening and enjoyable process, and slowly but surely I feel like I’m becoming a more conscientious consumer as I switch more and more store-bought products for natural ones.
It may be baby steps, but all that Googling has led me to discover some amazing artisans who are truly passionate about sustainable living, and I believe that you’ll never know if their natural products will work for you until you give them a go, so I definitely have no plans to give all this up.
