One day I ran out of my beloved Alaffia shampoo. I figured I'd try the No-Poo method before replacing the bottle. No-Poo method simply means washing your hair without shampoo and using just water, conditioner, or baking soda instead.
Why No-Poo? Many people find that shampoo leaves hair dry and frizzy, especially curly and kinky hair. Personally, I've never experienced this. I think it's because I don't wash my hair as often as most people do. I wash my hair once a week in the summer and sometimes just once a month in the winter. If it feels un-fresh in between, I just rinse and scrub with water. Why waste time removing the naturally perfect oils in my hair just to replace them with products that don't work as well?
It's been over 2 years and I have yet to buy shampoo. I love washing my hair with baking soda! It gets my hair at least as clean as shampoo. It might even be cleaner because baking soda is much easier to rinse out. Plus, there's no plastic bottle to recycle, no ingredients to investigate for safety, and each cleaning cost just pennies.
Here's how to clean your hair with baking soda instead of shampoo:
- Before getting in the shower, put at least 1 heaping tablespoon of baking soda in a small bowl or teacup. In very small increments, add enough water to make a thin paste.
- Get in shower. Rinse hair.
- Apply baking soda paste to hair-- the closer to the scalp, the better. If you have very thick and/or kinky hair like me, I recommend washing hair in sections to prevent tangling.
- Massage paste into scalp then work you fingers down to the ends of your hair.
- Rinse, condition, and style hair as usual. Pay extra attention to your ears when rinsing, as I've noticed baking soda likes to collect in the nooks and crannies of my ears!
Would you ever stop using shampoo?
Olivia Lane Lovejoy is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.
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