The No ‘Poo Experiment
This face describes my exact level of enthusiasm for what I’ve been doing this week. The title and photo may give you the impression it involves bowels, but it doesn’t. So keep reading.
It turns out I’m the last lady in the world to still wash her hair every day. This past Tuesday my friend Julia gave me my first haircut in about a year. Shit was busted. She couldn’t seem to figure out why it was so gross and loaded with flyaways, and when I casually mentioned I shampoo and conditioner on the daily, she gasped and clutched her pearls. Apparently nobody does that anymore.
I sort of knew that already because this “no ‘poo” thing is really popular on the internet. Once it’s popular on the internet, you know it’s a thing. I just can’t get past the greasiness and never try hard enough, even though I keep hearing that once you get past that point, “you’ll never go back to your old way again!”
So I’m going to stick it out and try, because I’m tired of burning through shampoo and it fits in with my desire for a chemical-free life. This is day 3 of no ‘poo, and so far it completely sucks in every way possible. All I’m doing is rinsing it thoroughly in the shower and applying a dab of argan oil to the ends when I get out. It’s heavy and greasy and as you can see in the photo above, a little out of whack.
The biggest reason I’m writing this post about it is because I am really, really tempted to shampoo my hair today, but I want to stick it out a full month. I never commit to anything that lasts more than 48 hours and I’m using my blog to hold myself accountable.
So it’s May 4th. Lance Bass’ 33rd birthday. I’m doing it for you, Lance. I bet you appreciate a healthy head of hair.
UPDATE
No. Just no. I think I made it about a week on this and just… ugh. No. I can see how this might work for some people, but it’s not for me at all. First, my hair is quite long and thick so I can’t deal with the heaviness of it from even a small amount of grease. Secondly, I have mild scalp issues and if I go even one day without washing my hair, by the middle of the second day it’s insanely itchy and flaky. Gross, I know. I originally thought going no ‘poo and doing a daily rinse would help calm it because shampoo might be a big contributor to my problems, but it just made it really, really bad and because of this, I think I need to shampoo on the daily.
If you’re going to try no ‘poo, maybe take some ideas from this article and see if baking soda and vinegar work for you. They’re natural, cheap, and much healthier.
Fortunately, I found the best shampoo and conditioner I’ve ever used, which you can read about in this post. I’m still using it daily and would recommend it to just about anyone. I have also been letting my hair air dry almost everyday now unless I have somewhere to go and don’t have time beforehand, which has also made a big difference in the flyaways, split ends, and overall feel of my mop.
This entry was posted in Beauty and tagged no poo, no shampoo experiment, shampoo free.
You gotta condition in the shower that takes a bit if the dirt and excess oil out. Try biolage hydrating conditioner. the argon oil everyday with nothing else is gonna make it greasey/ piecey
You aren’t the last lady on earth who ‘poos and conditions every day. I always have. My hair is HELLA greasy and my scalp is all gross if I don’t; I can’t go to work like that. Plus I workout in the morning and get really sweaty so I feel like just “rinsing” my hair isn’t enough.
Whoa, way to jump right in the deep end!
I’ve switched to every other day. Not interested in a month yet … but I hear baking soda does the trick, too. Is that non-chemical-ey enough?
I need to try baking soda again. Last time I did it got super gritty and chalky no matter how much I rinsed. Maybe I’ll just do a weekly shampoo.
Weekly might be really good for you – it looks like you have much thicker hair than I do. The most (or, least) I can cut back to seems to be 3x week … but if you figure the baking soda thing out I’d be curious about an update.
I shampoo and condition mine every other day.. I dont think I could go a month.. Good luck to you girl!! If you can make it a month, at least you can say you tried!!
oops, if you CANT make it a month, at least you can say you tried!
oops I meant, if you cant make it a month, then you can say at least you tried!
Dude. Don’t even rinse your hair. Get some dry shampoo. We’ve talks about this a million times.
I knowww but it always gets so chunky and weird.
I still “poo” too. I shampoo every night, and condition every other day. Yeah, it’s probably unnecessary (except in the summer when I get sweaty and gross) but you know what, as far as I know it hasn’t killed anybody. So don’t go bad if you go back. Lance Bass will forgive you.
You know what, you’re right. It hasn’t killed anybody. Now I just want some shampoo even more. Sigh. Maybe I should give up something useful, like sugar.
I wash my hair every day otherwise it looks like a nasty grease pit. I’ve been kind of wanting to try this but I’m scared.
Lance better appreciate what you are doing for him.
Hey there,
I’m on day 4 of my no poo experiment. After shampooing everyday, hair needs more time to adjust than those who do it less frequently. So instead of quitting cold turkey, first I adjusted my hair to not being washed every day then I started my no poo experiment. It works quite well so far. My hair smells very nice and it’s not like I haven’t washed it for four days.
Hope this helps.
I still shampoo every day. My greater sin is a I rarely condition. My scalp is 10 different shades of messed up and my stylist told me to stop shampooing every day. So I did, and it didn’t really help my poor scalp. So then I went to the actual professional — the dermatologist — and she told me I HAD to shampoo every day. So I do. And I use really awful prescription shampoo that does nothing for my hair.
I think if my scalp weren’t this wacked out, I could probably get away with not shampooing every day. I wish I could. Don’t be me. You can totes do this! (Though maybe not for a whole month, that does kinda skeeve me out
)
You are very brave. I don’t think I could make it three days.
For what it’s worth, your hair looks lovely in photo, not greasy and disgusting!
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Everybody is different. If you have really greasy hair you NEED to keep it clean. Feel it and smell it to decide what is best for you. My hair is dry but the back of my head gets sweaty sometimes so I just rub it and sniff my fingers….any odor at all and I wash my hair.
One thing that helps if you have really oily hair is to get a highlighting weave but use no color or bleach. Just the developer. That makes the hair more porous and dries it out so that it does not get oily as fast. They should just do the area near the scap unless your hair tends to get greasy all of the way down…I knew someone who was blonde who did this as her hair would start to get yucky by the end of the work day….but the color was great just like it was….just like yours…
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Hows the experiment going??