Wednesday, April 17, 2013

I'm Giving Up Shampoo! {Taking the #NoPoo Challenge!}


I am a huge Instagram fan! I already took a million pics a day but now Instagram makes it ok to! I follow a lot of people on Instagram too and I kept seeing posts with the hastags  #NoPooChallenge or going #NoPoo. The pictures were of women with gorgeous, silky, non-frizzy hair! So I checked out the hashtags and googled it and discovered that these women had given up using shampoo! I was shocked but interested so I did some more research and asked friends on Facebook if anyone had done this before!

After talking to some friends I realized that actually a few of my friends had already given up shampoo! So I asked them a million questions and did a lot of research for about a day and a half! Here's some things I found out:


  • Shampoo has all kinds of chemicals in it! Take a look at the back of your shampoo bottle! I don't think I recognized any of the names in the ingredients list! 
  • Shampoo strips the natural oils from your scalp. That is why your hair looks greasy and oily less than 24 hours or so after washing it. Your body is making more oil to compensate for the oil lost when you shampoo'd it. 
  • There are two main ways to wash your hair without shampoo- using baking soda and apple cider vinegar and using conditioner only
  • You can't just use any conditioner to wash your hair, but with the right kind, conditioner will cleanse and de-funk your hair, leaving it soft, clean, and less frizzy!
I wasn't sure it would work but I knew that all those women in the Instagram pictures had the most gorgeous hair so I decided it would be worth a try! 

It has been exactly one week since I stopped using shampoo and I am loving it! I decided to try the conditioner only method since I didn't have any apple cider vinegar at the time. Everywhere I read said to get a conditioner that was sulfate free, like Suave Naturals or VO5, which is awesome because both of these are super cheap. So I picked up a bottle of Suave Naturals and gave it a try! Now everywhere I read says you will go through a transition period, where your hair will be a little extra oily because it is making the extra oil like usual to compensate for the oil lost when shampooing. They say this transition period can last a few days or a few weeks and not to be alarmed if your hair is like that. I went through this transition period for about 3 days. I just had my sister braid my hair for me so it wasn't as obvious. 

After the 3rd day my hair felt so soft, not greasy at all, and not frizzy! I was so excited! 


I've continued to use just conditioner when washing my hair for the past week. It's been working great for me so far! A lot of people who go No Poo say they can go days without washing their hair and it doesn't get greasy, but I've had to wash mine pretty much daily, because I work out almost every day and get super sweaty. My hair feels healthy and soft and doesn't get tangles like it used to! I don't have to use any product on my hair like I used to to keep it tangle free and frizz free! I just wash, let it air dry as much as possible, blow dry it the rest of the way, and then style as I want to! 



I'm no professional on this and I'm still learning about it as I go. I've only been doing it a week too so I'm not sure how it will continue to go with summertime and sand and all the fun that comes with summer!  Here are some links I found helpful that you may also:

http://becomingpeculiar.com/why-i-ditched-shampoo-and-how-you-can-too/

http://www.beautyandfashiontech.com/2013/02/no-poo-shampoo-alternatives-for-dry-hair.html

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-no-poo-movement-conditioner-only-washing-5943688.html?cat=69

http://www.pistachioproject.com/2010/09/no-poo-troubleshooting.html



Have you given up shampoo? Or would you ever consider it? Tell me you thoughts! Like I said, I'm not pro but I'll try to answer any questions you have also! 





17 comments:

  1. Interesting! I switched to every other day washing after C was born and it was the right thing to do.

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  2. I could never give up shampoo. When I have long hair, I wash only every other day. However, with my super short cut, I must wash every night because I use gel.

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  3. You are inspiring me! This sounds great!!!! Although I am wondering if conditioner has some of the same chemicals? I know you said you use V05 or Suave Naturals, but aren't those brands that don't have all "safe" stuff? I guess cutting out at least half the chemicals (shampoo) is good though! I will definitely be looking more into this and hopefully trying it soon! Thanks so much for the inspiration! :)

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  4. I gave it shampoo, too! About a month ago, I think. I'll never go back. A lot of people think they can't do it because their hair gets oily if they don't wash every day, but using shampoo is the WHY their hair is getting oily! I've been blogging about it, too. Spread the word!

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  5. I haven't completely given up shampoo... but I do wash my hair rarely. I used to wash every day, but found that since I stopped the daily shampooing and just gave my hair a rinse and put in a fresh layer of product every day (conditioner, then mousse and gel on top), my extremely curly hair has been kinder.

    The conditioner "base" helps add weight to keep my curls tamer, plus it makes it more feasible for the product to just rinse out.

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  6. I would love to do this! I haven't heard of doing this before now and it sounds interesting! I have long hair right now and I work out regularly so I have to wash the sweat out of it most days. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I've been no-pooing or co-washing for awhile now.
    My husband does too.
    I've still got to try the ACV to get rid of the build up.

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  8. This is really tempting--I've gone for 10 days before with no shampoo, but it was also in the wilderness. So, as soon as I got home I washed! Haha! But your hair looks great! Mine is super thin and fine, so it turns greasy so fast! Plus, I need to use a really GOOD cream conditioner or I have a rats nest. Maybe I'll get brave though!

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  9. I'm not sure I have the courage to try this...but I'm definitely intrigued. Please keep us updated!

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  10. Interesting- I wasn't aware there was two years to do this challenge. I am definitely intrigued. I would like to green my beauty routine lol. I do use simply clean shampoo currently.

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  11. I've heard of this, but I've been too scared of the transition period to try it! All the chemicals in soaps scare me, but looking greasy scares me more I guess.

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  12. I'd love to give up shampoo, but I'd be super nervous. I have super long hair and wash it every day... I don't think I could go a day with it greasy or oily :(

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  13. I tried this before when my son was a baby. I don't remember how it went or exactly what I did. I'm going to have to try it again. I do remember my hair felt really nice.

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  14. Well, since you asked our thoughts ;) ...baking soda still strips the hair of its natural oils. That's why hair looks "clean" and non-oily after being washed with baking soda. I agree that shampoo is often full of harmful chemicals, so I suppose in that sense baking soda is a better option, and maybe it doesn't strip as much oil?? There are shampoos out there without sulfate, methylisothiazoline, etc. though. EWG has a great list.

    For myself, I wash my hair every other day generally. My hair was oily during the transition period (it actually seemed like months for me, not days), so I wore hats a lot. If it looks oily now, I use dry shampoo. I'm very curious to try "no poo" myself after seeing how your hair looks with just conditioner! (using just conditioner...like I said, I'm skeptical that baking soda is healthy for hair)

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  15. Mama on a Green Mission- you may be right, which is why some use the baking soda and acv I suppose. If you try it let me know!

    Ashleigh- I don't think you have to do it for 2 years. Most people who I've seen try it for 30 days at least and then decide if they want to continue.

    Elisibet F. - I didn't know that about baking soda. Right now I'm using just conditioner. No baking soda or anything else. So far, so good. :)

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  16. I use hubbys shampoo as my hair does NOT agree with the shampoos for women. Hubby has head and shoulders lol. I also only wash once a week and don't use products or straighten my hair etc. It is still a frizzy oily mess, but it always gets tied up and no one sees it lol

    Your hair is fabulous!

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