'No Poo' - Going No Shampoo SuccessfullyI decided to go 'no poo' during my 30 day 'no fat' trial. This means I stopped using shampoo. I had read about other people doing this successfully, and I was intrigued. I decided to give it a try. Some Hairy Background I have quite a lot of very curly yet very fine hair with a mind of its own. At the time of going 'no poo', I was washing my hair every day or at the very least, every second day. I was using expensive salon shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, gel and sometimes mousse too! All to keep my curls in check. Without these products, I had a wild mass of hair that frizzed more than it curled. Without conditioner I couldn't get a brush through my hair it would be so tangled, and even though my hair was also quite dry, I had to wash it very frequently as otherwise it would become a frizzy, unmanageable, unbrushable mess. When I went 'no poo', I also stopped using all gels, mousses and leave in conditioners. For a while I still used a little conditioner on my dry ends but I cut that out as well after a couple of weeks. The Greaseball Beginnings The first few days were a little....sleek. Within just two days my roots were very greasy. I preferred to use the word sleek at the time, but actually it was greasy. I covered up my sleek hair by putting it in a ponytail and wearing a bandanna. I also squeezed a fresh lemon into my hair after a few days and that temporarily washed the greasiness out. Hair Detox The greasiness, instead of getting progressively worse, got progressively better. And so did my frizziness. Without using any gel or mousse, I was able to just leave my hair to do its own thing, and it started to curl instead of frizz just as if it DID have a whole lot of salon products in it. It was really just the first couple of weeks that were dodgy, after that it just got better. Within a few weeks I had very good hair. I was able to swim in the sea and just leave it and it looked fantastic. In the past, if I swam in the sea it would feel hard and disgusting and I wouldn't be able to bear it. I almost couldn't get to the shower fast enough to shampoo and condition the sea right out of it. After going no poo I was able to swim in the sea regularly and there was no rush to rinse the sea water out. My hair felt soft and lovely and looked perfect straight out of the sea. I just rinsed it with water when I showered, no need to do anything more. Every 7-10 days or so I would do a vinegar rinse, which is two or three tablespoons of vinegar mixed with some hot water rubbed through my hair, or I would wash it with lemon and cucumber. If you would like ideas for making homemade hair shampoo, then click on this link to my article:
Homemade Shampoo Recipes
The Alison and Jaye Show Episode 1 from Alison Andrews on Vimeo. But WHY go No Shampoo? Shampoos and other hair products are usually laden with chemicals that would be very dangerous for you to swallow. Just because you use them on your body instead of eating them, and the chemicals don't go through your digestive system doesn't mean that they are not going into your body. They are absorbed through your scalp and go into your body that way. But the biggest reason for me to go 'no poo' was the idea that I could have BETTER hair not using ANYTHING. I mean WOW what a novel thought! It never did make a whole lot of sense to me that the more I washed my hair the more it seemed I NEEDED to wash my hair. And even though I have always longed for my hair to become super long, it could never get longer than a certain point, as it would always become so dry and brittle at the ends and would have to be cut, no matter how much money I spent on it. So clearly, the expensive products were not the answer. What's Her Secret? A few years ago I had a friend with thick, blonde curly hair swinging down by her ass cheeks and I asked her what her secret was. How the heck did she get such 'difficult' hair to grow that long and not get all dry and split before it got close? Her secret? She never washed or brushed it more than once a week. Every Sunday she washed it and brushed it and then left it for another week. At the time, impressed as I was by the logic of this - obviously the more you LEAVE IT BE the better for it - I thought I couldn't pull it off myself, since after a few days it felt like HELL. Of course I didn't realize at the time that you have to push through that and re-train your hair about the way it's going to be! So when I heard about going 'no poo' it immediately appealed to me as something to try. I would definitely recommend it. You think you are doing yourself a favor by buying beautiful products for your hair, but all you are doing is ensuring that you will always NEED more products for your hair. So why not give your natural hair a chance to show you what it can do? Go 'no poo' and see what happens! The pictures below were taken at two and a half months of 'no poo', after a morning spent swimming in the sea and not rinsing it out. 
The Dreaded Greys As much as I LOVED being entirely no poo, and remained that way for 4 months, due to having some grey hairs and a bit of regrowth that I couldn't ignore, I had to retox my hair when I dyed it at the hairdresser. As nice as it was to be minus the grey, I didn't enjoy the hairdresser experience and the chemical dye. I went back to no poo after that, but my aim of being entirely no poo is not congruent with my aim of NOT having grey regrowth! My hair is growing FAST these days, so ideally I need to dye the roots every month. So two months later I tried doing a home dye job using some store bought natural dye. The dye didn't take! Which made me realize that when your hair is protected by its natural oils and you are not stripping them away with shampoos, the dye cannot bind to the hair shaft! So it is a waste of time! SO, after going back to no poo for another few months and trying to ignore the grey hair at the roots, I am now washing my hair with an organic, vegan shampoo and dyeing it myself with Natural Henna Color. Click the link for a full article on how to dye your hair with henna. When you use dyes on your hair, even the natural henna dyes, you do have to use a shampoo to both prepare the hair shaft for the dye, and to rinse out the dye afterwards, as nothing else will get that dye rinsed out of your hair properly! However, being no poo for several months and detoxifying my hair so thoroughly means that I now have way better hair than before, it doesn't get greasy or need constant care, so I only use the organic shampoo occasionally. The rest of the time water is just fine!
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