Life without shampoo: a hairy experiment.
My hair during the 'awkward stage.'
Disclaimer: since my hair curled sometime around puberty, many attempts have been made to ‘tame’ my ‘do,’ but I find them to be unsustainable (ie too much work or skill required, too much time, or too much money). In reference to my hair, my brother likes to quote the movie Pet Cemetery, “Sometimes dead is better.” So, you see, I have little to loose in throwing convention out the window in terms of hair care.
If you decide to go this route, keep in mind that your hair might look ‘ funky’ for a while before it returns to ‘normal.’ Reading up on the matter, I decided to use a combination of baking soda and apple cider vinegar to replace shampoo and conditioner. I know vinegar has antiseptic qualities, so I’m not worried about being clean, and I’m pretty sure my hair can throw nothing at me that will surprise me or turn me back. I stand to gain in simplicity, cost AND in avoiding all that gunk that I formerly put on my head. The only real fear I have in this undertaking is the prospect of more tangles–ouch!
Procedure: After some quick research and a little trial and error, I’ve decided that the best way to handle the situation is to put the solutions in a squirt-type water bottle for biking. I prefer to mix the solutions when I wash my hair because I can use warm water! Otherwise that cold water is just running down your back. It’s good to have 2 bottles ready before you start: I use one with about 2 tablespoons of baking soda to about 2-3 cups of water and one with two tablespoons of vinegar to 2-3 cups water. I then wet my hair, apply baking soda solution and massage it into the scalp. When I think my hair is clean, I rinse with water, pour on the vinegar solution and rinse again.
The results: The first few days were . . .interesting. My hair seems curlier with this method. I’m not sure why. Also, at first, my hair remained or became quite greasy between washes. I just told myself that there were plenty of women out there getting ‘hot oil treatments’ and that a little oil couldn’t hurt. Then I clipped my hair up with a clip and went about my life. After about 5 days, things returned to normal. Frankly, I’d read that the gross, greasy period can last much longer, so I was pleasantly surprised that my hair adjusted so quickly.
Unsuspected added benefits: my hair dries MUCH faster than when I used to use conditioner–extremely useful in the cold weather we’re having. Nobody likes frozen hair. I also have fewer tangles, which I find quite surprising. I’m curious if this will have any effect on static liftoff when I’m in the mountains this weekend. I usually get quite a halo of electric hair going on cold winter days in the mountains, so . . .we’ll see.
Savings: I paid about 1.60 euros for the baking soda and 1.80 for the cider vinegar (a 1 liter bottle). Since I dilute these, I expect they will last some time. Perhaps a month or two? I’ll let you know. I guestimate that this will be much cheaper than shampoo and conditioner, but I want to wait and see how much baking soda and vinegar I ultimately end up using. I’m not sure how often I’ll wash my hair with this method or if I’ll become more efficient in the quantity of soda and vinegar I use as time goes on.
Environment and health: I’m supposing that there is a health benefit to not applying so many ‘mystery’ ingredients to my head each day and an environmental benefit to not washing them down the drain. I’m also thinking that if I ever manage to have a house with gray water reclamation, that the vinegar and soda might be easier to deal with than soap. Does anyone have any experience in this department?
Convenience: For now, this is slightly less convenient as I have to mix my ’solutions’ but if I stop being such a wimp about cold liquids going down my back, that will become easier. There is also the added convenience that I cook and clean with both of these ingredients, so I tend to have them around the house. I’m wondering about travel, however. It might be annoying to go visit friends and family with this set up. I will have to think it through more a little more to see if I can come up with a ‘travel-sized’ solution.
Conclusions: It is still too early to know if I’ll break out in a rash or something, but so far appearance, smell and comfort are all good. I almost feel silly for using shampoo and conditioner as long as I did. I’ll give an update if anything interesting happens.
Questions: Has anyone out there done this long-term? AND does anyone know if dousing your head in vinegar can protect against lice? Just wondering. . .DH is a primary school teacher, so I have a healthy fear of lice.
Hi, congratulations on the no shampoo experiment, not everyone has the courage to consider such a radical departure from ‘normal’ hair care. 
I also stopped using shampoo and conditioner a few years ago, my hair and scalp are much happier with the change.
My method uses soap flakes disolved in a squeezy sauce bottle and a vinegar rinse. For travelling I put the soap flakes in the bottle and have a tiny bottle of vinegar that can be diluted in the squeezy bottle after the soap is gone. You might be able to do something similar?
For lice you could add a few drops of tea tree oil to your mixture to deter them.
If you haven’t been there already http://www.longhaircommunity.com/ has heaps of information on alternative washing methods.
I wrote a no poo post and there are a bunch of great comments on it! If you are worried about lice, I have heard tea tree oil and neem oil (separately) are good for them. I’d try that!
I second tea tree oil – that finally did the trick when my daughter had lice in 1st grade.
As far as the no-shampoo goes: I’ve heard of this, but I wash my hair only once a week anyway, so I don’t have a lot of incentive to change. I like baking soda on my hair – every month or so I rub baking soda paste into it after shampooing; it seems to prevent soap buildup.
I’ve been doing it for about a week. (I reverted back when my son got sick.) I do the procedure a little differently. I put the baking soda on my head dry before stepping in the shower. Then, I have the ACV bottle in the shower with a cup. I pour it in the cup while I’m showering, dilute it with shower water and go from there. I’m sure it’s not the “proper” way to do it, but neither is “no poo” in general. I hope you keep doing updates on how it is working, and I love that you posted a pic of yourself, sort of.
Tree–ok, great to know you’ve tried it longer term and that it also works with white vinegar!–I have lots of that around too. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who noticed more curliness and fewer tangles. As for flakes and itchiness, I sometimes have that anyway since I tend to be kind of dry-skinned, so I haven’t noticed a real difference there–except, obviously during the greasy days .
Pippa, thanks for the tips. I will try the tea tree oil. I hate even thinking about lice, it makes me itchy (although I’ve never actually had them, DH often has the lice outbreak at his school–shudder). I like your solution for travel as well–mine will probably depend on what kinds of containers I can forage up before my next trip. I suppose that in some respects transporting a powder (soap or baking soda) is easier than transporting a liquid . . .although baggies of white powder might raise suspicion on the airplane 
.
Mrs. Money, excellent. I will have to check it out–and scroll through the comments. By the way, I enjoy your blog in general!
Clisby, yes, I’ve heard of the paste-method. That actually might be easier than a bottle of solution. And I’d like to fall into a once a week washing cycle for the hair as well. I’m hoping that with this new method, I’ll be able to do that.
Emily–yes, sustaining the small extra effort of the BS/ACV method during crazy travel after DH’s accident is a concern that I have about this method, but I’m going to try to keep it up anyhow. And yeah, I think I like the no ‘poo idea because it works and is completely rational yet it is ‘improper’ which kind of cracks me up. Yeah, and as for the photo–I just don’t want too much identifying stuff online. As a former teacher, I really learned (luckily through others’ experiences!) that an online identity can lead to all kinds of complicating issues that I have no intention of dealing with at this time!
Funny … I just tried this last week. The first time, my hair seemed curlier. The second time it looked terrible. I made a paste of baking soda and water, but of course half of it fell in the bathtub. Maybe I will try the solution next time. I am not sure how much I’d save, if anything; I buy organic shampoos usually and they last for ever and I don’t use conditioner because it makes my hair too limp and I can’t stand it. Regular vinegar works too, I always used that as a kid, but since I left home, I “forgot”. No, vinegar does not protect against lice unfortunately …
Mona–it’s funny that you can forget really useful things when other, more convenient options become available–at least that’s my case. Too bad about vinegar not protecting from lice! Again, I think your hair looking terrible for a while with this method is normal . . .but only you can be the judge of that.
I stopped using any type of soaps/shampoo/conditioner about 2 years ago. My partner has been “blessed” with lots of allergies and I had to stop using ANY type of cosmetic products and soaps if I wanted to be around him. We bathe and wash our clothes with water only and are doing just fine.
I have very curly hair and have suffered a lot in the beginning – my hair was very dry, curly and impossible to comb. However, love made me stick to my “abstinence” from all cosmetic products. After a few months, both my hair and my skin became very soft and smooth and I never looked back (-:
My partner is in his late fifties and has not used soap and shampoo for at least 10 years. He has a full head of hair and his skin is amazingly smooth.
Disclaimer: this method only works if bathing in a tub, soaking in water for at least 20 minutes. I tried the shower method and it does not work.
Nurit–it’s good to hear from you! And, I have to say that I had no idea that you two bathed in this way–I remember talk of it, but didn’t realize it was this extreme! I’m very impressed because you’ve done it for so long. What this tells me is that we have a lot of really unnecessary ‘products’ out there. By the way, you both look and smell great! And have you ever tried the vinegar in your hair? I’ve noticed that it actually does help in the tangle department . . .or is it too allergenic?
I wash my hair once a month with baking soda water. I started slowly…every other day, then every third day, etc. It doesn’t really work to go without shampoo if you’re going to wash with the same frequency, b/c the baking soda can dry out your hair. You really should reduce the frequency. I don’t think anyone needs to wash their hair more often than once a week. I stalled at every two weeks for a while, and now I’m down to once a month. It’s so liberating. I just brush my hair out and put it in a pony tail or put a headband on. Every few days, I’ll wet my hair and just massage it without any product, just to loosen dead skin and whatnot.
Veganprimate–thanks for the tip! I was actually noticing this morning that my hair is feeling pretty dry. I’ve washed twice this week with baking soda water (yesterday because I went cross country skiing and had a sweaty head). I should have probably done what you do and simply rinsed my hair so that the oils will have time to build up. Once a month is a fine goal! It would be great for water efficiency. I was thinking of once a week, but now, I’ll have to see if I can stretch it longer. Thanks again, and yes, it is strangely liberating. Why were we using all that schtuff?
My 16-year-old daughter has been doing this for over a month now and swears she’ll never go back to anything else. She has a lot of body in her hair that can get pretty wild at times. The first couple weeks it was testing, but now she loves the way her hair feels and looks. It’s very shiny too.
Anita, thanks for the feedback. And it’s encouraging to see that the young are doing it too!
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[...] two ingredients: baking soda and bar soap (or rubbing alcohol). Heck, she could have use the baking soda once a week too to wash her hair, but I digress. I admit that while the false choice presented by the article annoys me, the topic [...]
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Hey Hey!!
I’m just checking out your blog, sounds interesting! I normally use styling gel in my hair, would anyone know if that makes a difference in using baking soda/vinegar for washing? Or perhaps is there a natural alternative to hair gel? Thanks!
Jonny–that’s an interesting question. I never used gel, but I used to sometimes put a balm in my hair to tame the frizz. I’ve really noticed that my hair is different with bs/acv, curlier, a bit less crazy etc. You might see what happens if you change the way you wash it–it may be that the changes will allow you to go without gel? Then again, if you keep using gel, I wonder if it would be hard to wash out–once again, I don’t have experience here, but I can’t see how it would hurt to try. . .
Gah. I’ve tried doing the WO method for the longest time. It just doesn’t seem to work for me. I used baking soda and wheat flour another time. Different amounts, but it just dries the hair out and leaves the sebum in the hair. I think my hair needs to be shoulder length for this to work. What do you guys think? Length matter?
Daryl, I have shoulder length hair right now, although I’m planning on letting it grow back out. I think the trick (for me anyway) is to use the baking soda less often (once a week or less) and not to use too much at any time. I also add a little coconut oil after I wash my hair each time to the ends. Maybe that helps? So far, so good for me, but I’ve only been doing this for a little over 3 months. I’ve heard of people with longer hair doing this, but it’s an interesting question.
I’m going to try using shampoo on the ends of my hair every few days. Seems to look healthy then. Until it gets longer. Thanks for the feedback
oh can i see a picture of u SIF with more light? It’s just my hair with a dim light looks great, but with lots of light, I can tell it looks thin.
Daryl–I don’t actually know if I have another picture with high lights-I’ll look around. I will say though, that that stage when I took the photo was when my hair was in the greasy, weird stage. It looks more normal now. Shampoo on the ends of your hair? Do you mean conditioner? And come to think of it, I’ve heard of people only washing their hair with conditioner–kind of an interesting concept.
Me and my daughters do this. Because we have hard water I have to pre-mix my BS solution. I have to boil the water and add the BS while the water is boiling. Then when cool I add it to the water bottle and go from there. We have been doing this for many months (lost track) and we still get the occassional greasy days (but nothing different than if we went a couple of days without shampoo).
Also for the girls because they don’t like the cold water running down their backs. I put the water bottle in a sink of hot water or place the botte in front of the heater (Just to take the chill off). If I use a sink of hot water I do a sponge bath when they are in the shower.
I still have some flakies (but no more itch) and I had the flakes when I tried every shampoo out there.
We have been using White Vinegar (as its what I had) but will be switching to ACV this week.
My daugthers love it, and the vinegar prevents tangles. A had some wave but now has more, and S had pin straight hair, but now we can style it and it stays.