At 17 – rebellious and full of teenage angst, I bleached my hair platinum blonde and even though I was only blonde for a year, I am convinced that ever since I put my hair through that abuse, it had been falling out a lot more than before. As I found myself losing more and more hair than usual, I decided to ditch shampoo completely and see what would happen. I had nothing to lose, right?
‘No poo’ is short for ‘no shampoo’ and it follows the principle that you shouldn’t wash your hair with shampoo because it contains sulfates that are damaging to your scalp and hair health. Sulfates and other surfactants are the components in shampoo that make your hair squeaky clean because they bond with the grease and oil. However, sulfates are often found to be too drying on the scalp which can cause dandruff, itchiness and even hair loss. By not using shampoo, the aim is for your scalp to stop overproducing sebum which enables more days in between washes and better scalp health.
There are different ways you can approach the ‘no poo’ method: You can slowly ease your way in by washing your hair less frequently with shampoo, you can only use conditioner or you can water-wash only. I decided to go full cold-turkey and only wash with water. I won’t tell you the chronology of what happened because there are a lot of blogs online who document the whole process. What I want to do is share what I’ve learned from this 6-month experiment. This is my personal experience with shoulder to chest length, dark, thick, low-porosity hair and might differ from someone with a different hair type.
1. Once you’ve been through the ‘detox’ phase, it’s only going uphill.
The first month, and this is what you will find most people saying, was the hardest because my scalp had to get used to only water-washes. After having used shampoo all my life, I guess my hair was going through a sort of withdrawal phase where it just became overly greasy and itchy (yes, I know, gross.) This is the hardest phase because your hair is ceasing to overproduce sebum and it is also getting rid of the leftover chemicals from styling and cleaning products that you’ve used over the years. However, if you pull through the initial ‘detox’ period it gets a lot easier and I am so glad I was confined at home due to the pandemic when I was going through this phase. It was not pretty but it also wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
2. A boar bristle brush is essential.
I wasn’t using shampoo and conditioner, so my long hair had no way of supplying itself with moisture, especially towards the ends. After some research, I got myself a boar bristle brush that is supposed to distribute the natural oils your scalp produces along the lengths of your hair and it will also help your scalp appear less greasy. I used the brush once a day and it did help my hair to become more moisturised and less greasy. In fact, I have never had hair as soft and silky as when I used it regularly. Keep in mind though, that this step only applies to people with straight hair as you have to brush your hair at least once a day for almost 30 minutes with this method.
3. Water-only washing is difficult and time consuming.
Unless you love scrubbing and massaging your hair under the shower for 15+ minutes, water-only washing might not be the right method for you. I often found myself dreading the time I had to commit to getting my hair clean and I HATED that there would still be spots left that were not grease-free. Thus, after 2 weeks I found myself looking for alternatives.
4. Rye flour is not only for baking but is also a great shampoo alternative.
By lifting the grease off your hair with its saponins and slight abrasive texture, rye flour leaves no product on your scalp, making it extremely gentle and natural. My hair was always really clean after using it and my scalp stopped itching. I had never felt like my scalp was healthier than when I regularly used rye flour shampoo.
5. I wash my hair with shampoo again but that doesn’t mean I failed the experiment.
I don’t regret this experiment one bit. Needless to say, not using shampoo came with many benefits (after a tough transition phase): my hair was silkier than ever, my scalp was healthier and as a consequence, the amount of hair loss I experienced had decreased significantly too. Admittedly, washing my hair without shampoo did come with inconveniences, like having to prepare the rye flour mixture before, rinsing it out well, dedicating a lot of time to brushing and saying goodbye to lovely scented hair (mine pretty much smelled like nothing when it was clean). Rye flour is also not very practical to carry around or have with you and I haven’t found a non-shampoo product that is. So, I decided to use shampoo again. I learnt many valuable things about my hair during this experiment and will not use regular shampoo again. I now know what my hair needs and what ingredients to look out for.
Not all shampoos are made the same; there are bad ones and there are better ones. I learnt that the most important thing is knowing what your hair needs. For some, this might look like ditching shampoo altogether to have more defined curls. For others, it might be something as simple as using less heat on their hair. After all, the skin on our head is like the skin on our face and should also be taken care of.
You might wonder why anyone in their right mind would decide to ditch shampoo for good when we live in a time where there are shampoos in any imaginable variation, catering to every hair type. You could argue that I wasn’t in the right headspace being three weeks into the first lockdown and five weeks into a break up. I learnt a lot about myself during that time. Although I use shampoo again now, I am confident in the choices I make and I am educating myself on the ingredients. Ultimately, this experiment was a fun way to learn more about my hair and myself. I guess you could say that my unwashed hair was the quarantine haircut I’m glad I didn’t give myself.