does anyone not use shampoo?

[everything_is]

just wondering if anyone else used the no 'poo method on their hair?
how have you found it? did it work out for you?

i've just started (day 9 today) and have used baking soda and apple cider vinegar wash twice since i started...ideally i'd like to be able to use just a water wash but my hair is quite greasy so i'm gonna keep using the baking soda and vinegar till it calms down....

my hair isn't in the best condition as i've already said, but i'm persevering because it was never that much better with shampoo (after a day it would need washing again)

anyway, i'd love to hear about peoples experiences with this :)

[Iria]

I've tried off and on for a year. It worked better when my hair was long--just a little bit of greasiness makes my short hair look awful, so I can't stick with it very well. Right now I'm weaning myself into taking longer periods in between shampoos.

I'm beginning to suspect that the ACV makes my hair oilier. I've read that that happens to some people. I'm not sure what to use in its place. I guess I'll research that over the summer.

I know there are a few people here who have successfully gone no 'poo. Hopefully they'll see this thread.

[lobsteriffic]

I've done the "no poo" thing on my curly hair. It actually works quite well for me. Sometimes I do give it a wash with a gentle shampoo from LUSH though, if I've used a gel or something that's hard to get out.

[Brandon]

I haven't used shampoo in so long I don't even remember. I keep my hair very short so it gets washed with the same bar of soap my body does. Paul Mitchell tea tree soap.

[MorningCalm]

I've got long, ridiculously thick, wavy hair and find no poo works best for me. I've recently switched back to baking soda and vinegar, after several months of using shampoo for convenience's sake.

Shampoo just doesn't cut it for me. It leaves my hair incredibly dry, makes it almost impossible to get a brush through, and causes it to split/break like crazy. After three weeks of soda/vinegar, my hair is starting to look half-way decent again.

[Jehote]

No shampoo here either....i shave my head every night. :) Bald By Choice!

[DMZdogs]

No poo here for me either.....for a couple of years or so minus a month of helping MorningCalm decrease the supply she'd built up before discovering she preferred no poo.

MorningCalm~ How's your little resident doing? :)

[MorningCalm]

MorningCalm~ How's your little resident doing? :)
She's break-dancing at the moment. Must have enjoyed the salad and spaghetti we had for lunch.

Of course, once she makes an appearance, I may have to get the hair I've been trying to salvage chopped off anyway. ... (Meh, she's worth it!)

[Badger_Lady]

I've been without (just using water) for about 4 weeks now. I've also got very long (hip-length) thick blonde hair.

I'm not sure at the moment - I seem to get a bit of dandruff, and I'm hoping some of this "greasiness" will sort itself out soon..? I've mostly been wearing a scarf or headband, or tying my hair up, to disguise it. I suspect the fact that I don't have a shower (only a bath) to rinse it in probably doesn't help :(

What's the AVC thing? Sounds interesting??

[Iria]

ACV is just short for apple cider vinegar. It's used as a rinse and is supposed to make your hair soft.

[Badger_Lady]

ACV is just short for apple cider vinegar. It's used as a rinse and is supposed to make your hair soft.

But what do you do with it? Use a capful like shampoo, or massage it in afterwards, tip the whole bottle over yourself?

Sorry, I've never come across this one before - anything to help my "in-between" stage :)

[Iria]

But what do you do with it? Use a capful like shampoo, or massage it in afterwards, tip the whole bottle over yourself?

Sorry, I've never come across this one before - anything to help my "in-between" stage :)

I dilute it in a big bottle of water. I don't have any actual measurements (if you google it you can find some) but I just fill up the bottom of the bottle to about half an inch or so with vinegar and then fill the rest with water. I tip it over my head in the shower and make sure that I flip my hair over so it gets everywhere.

People say you don't have to rinse it out (the vinegar smell goes away when it dries). I do, since I've been having issues with it. You can also do a vinegar rinse and then put your conditioner on right after. The vinegar supposedly helps the conditioner work better.

ETA: If your problem is greasiness, I don't know if the ACV will help. ACV is supposed to replace conditioner. You might want to try baking soda to combat greasiness. Make a paste out of baking soda and water, rub it into your scalp, and then rinse out.

[greenrunner]

I love not having to buy or use shampoo! It's one of my justifications for shaving my head (along with making me run faster - jks)

[raefactor]

I don't do this now, but I'm feeling crazy enough to grow my hair out really long and never wash it again. I have really thick, curly/wavy hair that I prefer to keep straight, so I don't know how that will pan out. Honestly I think I'm going Hippie enough that wavy hair is what suits me best. ^_^ Can you straighten your hair with a flat iron for special occasions if necessary? That's my only concern... stuff like my wedding and graduation. Do you put oil in the tips of your hair if it's very long, or do you just brush it a lot? I worry that without conditioner it would get really dry on the tips (though my hair is always oily at the roots, sigh) and hard to manage.

Well, now I have new motivation to keep random alters from cutting my hair because they can't stand styling it! "Don't cut our hair!!! If we just grow it out in a few months we won't ever have to wash it again!" Do you find you get less split ends, more, or the same amount now that you've gone no 'poo? Also, how do you get rid of odors? Just rinse it with water? I'm wondering if putting some perfume from black phoenix alchemy labs in the tips of my hair would be beneficial.

If I can make this happen it'll work out very nicely when I'm on the mission field in remote places. Or when my energy levels are really low. *nods* I mean, isn't this what people did before Shampoo was invented? It's not like I'm ever going to be a super model or anything. >_<

ETA: EW! I think this is disgusting. :( What if you get like lice or something? ew ew ew I can't imagine never ever washing my hair, omg. If it works for other people that's cool but I will throw an absolute fit if I'm expected to go for months without washing my hair!

[jenna]

i always show this article when these sorta discussions pop up

[Mrrple]

without a decent anti-dandruff shampoo, my scalp gets serious dandruff problems and my hair becomes more damaged. I blame it on the lice I had when I was 8. My mother used 11 different treatments of everything from flea shampoo for dogs to a lice-killing shampoo that smelled like a road. My scalp has never been the same since.

[lobsteriffic]

Wow, that girl in the article has gorgeous hair!

[DMZdogs]

raefactor ETA, Not washing your hair will not cause you to get lice. Instead, the most innocent of things can....I once got lice from letting my young students play with my hair. It was very long and they liked to drape it over their heads and pretend that they had foreigner hair. Well, one of them had lice and then I did, too.

When I first went without shampoo, I had long hair. It was way past my shoulders by the time I cut it short. No poo worked great when my hair was long and it works great now that my hair is short. My hair used to be very dry and frizzy. It still gets a bit frizzy in intense humidity, but nothing like back when I used shampoo. It's softer, has a healthy shine, far more manageable and NO ONE would ever guess that I don't use shampoo. Anyone I've ever told has always expressed shock because they assume that not using shampoo will mean dirty, greasy, lackluster hair and my hair is the exact opposite. I wash my hair with baking soda and use apple cider vinegar for a rinse. If you do some googling, you'll find that baking soda and vinegar are IDEAL products for cleansing, and they just happen to be all natural without nasty man-made chemicals messing with the natural beauty and health of your hair. I am so glad I finally stopped letting the ad industry determine how I care for my hair. Try it and see for yourself. :)

[Fritemare]

I usually just wash mine with whatever body wash I have in the shower because I always forget to buy more shampoo and the stuff my husband uses stinks. I've also used rinses before, but my hair gets really oily. Body wash or regular soap seems to work the best for me. I flat iron my hair quite frequently, which helps a little bit with the oil.

[journey]

I'm just starting to try the baking soda and vinegar thing. (long straight thin limp hair, greasy at roots). Do I have this right - paste of baking soda and water onto scalp, then rinse that out with the diluted vinegar? Do you use conditioner afterward?

I'm liking the idea of not having to use conditioner either, but my hair gets such awful tangles, and seems to get a little too dry from the baking soda - the conditioner seems to help both of those, but is there a way to accomplish this without conditioner?

[DMZdogs]

I rinse out the baking soda with just plain water and then add diluted vinegar and leave it on my head for a while (while I soap up, shave legs, whatever) and then rinse it off. If the baking soda is drying your hair out, use a little less of that, or dilute the vinegar less. You'll have to experiment around with it until you get it where you and your hair are both happy. ^_^

[LadyFaile]

after only a day my hair gets greasy and smelly and my scalp gets itchy, and i get dandruff. i'm not sure i could handle the no shampoo thing. sometimes i do go a couple days with just conditioner or just a water rinse so my hair doesn't get too dry but after 2 days i just feel so greasy and dirty.

[jenna]

i did the no 'poo thing for about 8 or 9 months last year. just WO (water only) and sometimes misting the lavender oil water i had. i kept my hair bunned up or in a pony tail so that helped a lot during the greasyfunky stages until my scalp regulated itself from being overcleaned from shampoo/conditioner.

i didn't go cold tofu, either. i was using shampoo/cond. then watered down the shampoo and used that for a while with the conditioner. then i cut out the S and used the C for a while and then weaned off of that and was WO for those 8-9 months. i think it would've worked better for me had i been WOing more, like rinsing my hair every day or every other day for a while. i was combing it every day to spread the sebum.

i definitely plan on doing the WO again. i'll probably start the CO (conditioner only) pretty soon. i had 7" chopped off my hair so it'll be a little easier this time i think.


the ACV (apple cider vinegar) is good as a rinse because it helps the ph in the hair. i ahven't read the whole thread yet so i don't know if anyone has mentioned that. i keep a bottle of ACV in the shower because its' a good hair rinse, good for splashing under the arms after your shower (smell goes away but it's a good deoderent. if oyu want you can add a couple drops of some essential oil - i've used lavender) and some people like it as toner for your skin as it helps with the ph of hte skin, too and it softens and also can help with breakouts. the ACV stimulates the hair follicles helping protect the hair and helping it be healthier/softer and i've heard it helps with keeping hair from thinning, too.

[LadyFaile]

if you don't rinse out the ACV it doesn't go sticky at all?
anyone notice any difference one way or the other with bugs? like mosquitos, blackflies, etc? when i'm outside i always have blackflies buzzing around my head, i'm guessing because of the smell of my shampoo.
i didn't wash it today, it feels soooo greasy and gross. but i'm thinking tomorrow i might try baking soda and ACV since i happened to spot some in the kitchen and see how that goes. i do have shampoo and conditioner to use up but i might try dilluting it and alternating using it and the baking soda and vinegar. right now i'm using organic vegan shampoo and it's quite expensive. i'm guessing a store brand bottle of ACV and baking soda from the bulk store would be much cheaper and last a long time.
good to know about it being a good deoderant. i hate being a slave to products like shampoo and bodywash and deoderant. they just seem so unnatural but i don't want to stink either :p
anyone have an alternative to bodywash? would baking soda paste be too rough or drying on the skin?

sorry i'll probably ask a lot of questions about this i find it quite interesting. it's come up a few times here and i've considered it quite a bit in the past but for some reason never got around to trying it

[jenna]

my lavender oil water mix that i have in the mister bottle does a great job of keeping mosquitoes away. i'll mist some on my hair, face, everywhere else that is exposed and they don't come near at all. it might work on the flies, i'm not sure.

with the AVC being deoderent - i'll splash some on and also use the all-natural deoderent solid that i have. they work nicely together. some people just use ACV by itself and it works great.

i've used baking soda as a body wash. as long as you don't rub too hard it works fine.

acv rinse - some people measure it out with water in a little jar or whatever and pour that on. i just keep the big acv jar in the bath with it already mixed with water and then pour it on. i've rinsed it out and sometimes left it in. the only difference that noticed was the smell took a little longer to fade when you didn't rinse. i think most ppl do the acv/water rinse as their -final- rinse before getting out of the shower. you could try it over the weekend and see how it does. it'd definitely help with the greasies, too, since you're in the beginning stages of that.