I stopped shampooing my hair in November last year. For a while I made Forest's shampoo bar (lsoap amde with coconut, olive and castor oils) but found that I still needed conditioner. I coudn't find a good way to make conditioner using everyday ingredients.

I started looking at sites that talk about not shampooing at all. With anything. Ever. Here are samples:


http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid40141.aspx

http://motowngirl.com/no_shampoo.php

http://www.greendaily.com/2007/10/08/do-you-no-poo/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=394226&in_page_id=1879

The theory goes that if you stop washing with anything it settles down and stops producing so much oil. This has been my experience too. I previously had very oily hair. I didn't mind the bicarb and vinegar routine but it stripped any kind of colour out of my hair, lightening the ends after a while. So I just stopped using shampoo.

The routine is simply to give my scalp and hair a good rub with my fingers (just like when you shampoo) but with just hot water running over it in the shower. After showering, I give it a good rub with a towel.

For a while it did go a bit nuts and my hair was very oily, so I tried just a very mild bicarb and vinegar solution once a week. This seemed to keep the worst of it at bay. I still spent a few days with my hair in a headband! There are some nice wide cloth ones around now that hide everything!

The bicarb wasn't good - it stripped the henna colour right out, even using it only once a week and my head was getting itchy between washings. I stumbled upon an old 'country wisdom' type book that suggested yoghurt for itchy scalp so I tried that. Works a treat!

Now my hair is 'washed' in hot water each time I shower and then given a good towel dry. Once a week (sometimes longer) I 'wash' it with yoghurt (1 tbsp mixed in a cup of warm water). I then rinse with a very mild vinegar solution (1 tsp in one cup of water) or a tea made of rosemary (smells nice, supposed to be good for brown hair). My hair has never felt better. It is really soft, not oily at all and I hardly use any product as it holds its shape really well. The yoghurt doesn't strip colour like bicarb.

I am not going back to shampoo - although in the first few weeks of this experiment I was sorely tempted several times!

Different hair reacts differently to the bicarb and vinegar routine. I have a mousy coloured brown hair and have found it to be getting darker. I havnt put a henna wash through for months as I am really happy with this shade.

Thanks for the links. With the drying out, I give my scalp a good massage with macadamia oil and leave it in overnight, when it feels a bit stringy. The oilyness has gone for me so I need to put a bit back every once in a while. I like the yoghurt idea and will give my hair a treat, might moosh some avocado in at the same time.

I love the shampoo soaps which are based on castor oil. I found that shampoo was causing my scalp to itch and bleed and would combat that with olive oil overnight. If thats too yucky, use a lighter oil like canola which washes out much easier. It soothes the scalp.

If you want a real treat, use shampoo soap and then for a conditioner, pour through your hair a litre of water in which you have simmered some rosemary and strained and added a good dash of cider vinegar. I don't rinse this out. Smells lovely and seems to stop all the nasty itching.

Think the yoghurt wash sounds nice. Years ago before the shampoo industry got big, egg wash was the way to go. You beat up an egg, massaged through hair and scalp and washed out followed by vinegar.

This I don't do because I'd rather eat the egg, your hair smells a big eggy and if you don't use very very lukewarm water to rinse out, you can set the egg in your hair.

I stopped using shampoo some months ago. I tried the bi-carb (worked ok but hair felt stripped) and the apple cider vinegar (made my hair manky and felt tacky and oily).

So then I tried this super creamy goat's milk soap that has coconut oil, sunflower oil and palm oil in it.
Since then my scalp doesn't itch hardly at all. I haven't needed any lotion from the Dr for eczema and any dry skin I had any where has gone!
I use natural instinct (totally natural) conditioner just on the ends of my hair when I feel I need something to de-fluff my hair if I want to straighten it that day or something.

DH has never "washed" his hair. Just water under the shower. Probably alot easier for men with super short hair

I stopped using shampoo in November too! I planned to use sodi. bic. and apple cider vinegar but have found my hair doesn't need it:tup:

I just give my hair a wash under warm water when I've done physical-sweating stuff, like mowing the lawn. Usually I give it a rinse in the shower every 3days or so.

At the same time I commenced brushing my hair morning and night, to help with the health of my scalp.

So, I don't use anything and its fantastic!!

Thanks for this thread. I am using the bicarb/vinegar regime one a week and do find it makes me a little itchy. :| I WANT to be brave enough to go completely 'no 'poo', but have not got there yet! Are you SURE, just washing under warm water is enough? :confused: See how brainwashed I am

Reading this thread, I am reasling how well brainwashed the marketing merry-go-round has got me! I think about how many soaps and shampoo concoctions I have been convinced to by to make my hair and body 'beatiful' only to read that you guys seem to be getting it all with very little at all! At first I thought...YUCK...gotta be clean and sparkly and gotta use shampoo, bla bla bla. But, I tried the bi-carb wash instead of my expensive 'hair cleaning shampoo' and it did a much better job! I think I have to detox my brains way of thinking as much as my hair!!!

I am so relieved to read about all these itchy scalps. For the past few days I have been convinced that I must have nits.

I've used bicarb to wash my hair and a rosemary vinegar rinse for a long time now and it has always worked really well but just lately my scalp has felt sore when I've been washing my hair and itchy in between times. So I'm going to chuck the bicarb and give your routine a try suz. I really like the thought of that soothing yoghurt wash.

If you are doing the yoghurt, make sure that you mix it with warm to hot water. If you use cold or tepid water it won't do the job (makes your hair smell a bit yoghurty all day:lol:).

I really do recommend giving it a try but it does take a bit of time for hair to settle down into not making as much oil, so be prepared to put up with a few bad hair days (headbands, hats, etc).

Have been no poo/bicarb no nufin for about a week I reckon. Am starting to feel like I need a bicarb wash. I don't no if I can hold out. I am having some special photos done today...Ahhh...give me strength. My hair feels heavy and stringy. I may have to start again, 'cos I am too vain to have the pics done looking like this

I didn't wash my hair last night and it is as oily as!! I am going to have a quick shower now and just wash it under the warm water and I'll see how it goes!!

I have always had itchy scalps but just lately I too have been feeling like I must have nits or something.... At work I just can't seem to leave my head alone because it is itchy all the time..

Not sure how brave I am though to give up shampoo forever!!

Well I have decided NOT to 'wash' my hair in bicarb. I will stick this out because it makes so much sense. I can always sick a scarf around my head if I can't get it to look reasonable for the photos. I think it feels worse than it looks ATM. Wish me luck

Go on, ELizabeth, tell us the results of the photos! I did the bicarb and vinegar thing about a month ago. My hair was great for the first few washes, then it was like steel wool. I have fairly frizzy hair, esp if its humid (it went absolutely mad when I was in the Wales a couple of years ago - was very excited at returning to the land of its Celtic ancestors. And you should have seen my eyebrows!). I'm back to shampoo - Freedom Body, which is lovely and detangles my hair while I'm washing it, which has never happened before (usually the opposite). But its still 'poo and comes from the supermarket. I'm still watching this thread with interest (I'm such a bloody whimp!)
D

Just reading this thread and have been interested in the no poo concept. I am intrigued. I shall have a look at the websites Suz put on and share them with a friend. She is very sensitve to all these chemicals and wants a shampoo that doesn't have anything in it. No poo sounds like the answer but I am not sure I can convince her with time to get used to it.

BTW if it works then my age old question of how they survived in the "olden times" has been answered. Umm am I brave enough?

Good luck, Elizabeth!

I guess if you are really worried about this, think of it this way. Try it for say, twelve weeks. This time of year, going into winter there are lots of excuses to wear things on your head. It does seem to get worse before it gets better but twelve weeks isn't a long time. If it doesn't work for you then you can go back to whatever you were doing before.

Chezza, give it a good rub down with a dry towel after you 'wash'. That will help but it will be oily for a bit until your scalp settles down. You can also try rubbing in downward strokes with a dry cloth when your hair is dry or using a brush to brush the oil from the roots to the ends.