GladRags’ Green Goal: Go No-Poo (Or Low-Poo)
Last fall, Alex and I stumbled across the Instructables guide to going no-poo and challenged ourselves to go without shampoo (‘no-poo’) for a month. Instead of shampoo, baking soda is used to clean the scalp, with a vinegar rinse in place of conditioner. Now why exactly did we choose to do this?
Think about conventional shampoo: it comes in plastic bottles, costs a little to a LOT of money, and contains some icky chemicals that you’re not only exposing to your skin, but are washing down the drain into our water. Not to mention the fact that using shampoo on your hair every day causes it to dry out and become damaged! Your scalp produces oils for a reason, and frequent shampooing can throw off your natural balance of oil production, requiring even more frequent shampooing. A vicious cycle!
Going no-poo means not only using baking soda and vinegar in place of conventional shampoo, but also washing your hair less often. During our shampoo-free month, I rinsed my hair thoroughly with water almost every day and washed with baking soda and vinegar only about once a week or less.
The first few days took some getting used to: my scalp was accustomed to daily shampooing and one of the side effects of going no-poo is increased oiliness while your scalp readjusts. It helps to brush your hair often to move the oil from your scalp down to the drier ends. There are a whole lot of green bloggers who have experimented with going no-poo — from The Crunchy Chicken to Life Less Plastic — with a variety of results.
Personally, I could only manage about two months of no-poo — and I even “cheated” once or twice when I wanted to wash my hair for important occasions. My hair felt super healthy without shampoo, and looked great — but only the day or two after using baking soda and vinegar. The rest of the time I looked like I hadn’t bathed in weeks.
In the end, vanity won out for me and I gave up my no-poo lifestyle. But I decided to stay “low-poo”: less frequent washing, and no shampoos/conditioners with harmful ingredients or excess packaging. Shampoo bars — often sold with little to no packaging — are a great option, and seem to last forever! I’m still using the same bar I bought almost six months ago. You can also find shampoos in bulk at most co-ops or natural foods stores. Just make sure you run a background check on the Skin Deep Cosmetic Database before you buy; with all the “natural” products out there, falling for a greenwashed shampoo is all too easy!
Your Green Goal this week is to take inspiration from the no-poo movement and reduce your impact when it comes to keeping your locks clean. Find a more eco-friendly shampoo, wash your hair less frequently, or even try out no-poo. And of course leave us a comment to let us know how it went!
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May 14th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
I tried no-poo twice, first time I managed about a week, but second time I managed two months, both times using this great post as a guide – http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html – but I never got past that ‘detox’ phase, so it just wasn’t for me (for the record my hair takes a hissy fit over anything and everything).
I now use Conditioner-Only washing AKA Curly-Girl Method – using [-cone free] conditioner only, hair is a million times better and not as much of the evil detox phase, your hair pretty much adjusts straight away. Cuts down on waste a little bit, and it’s easier to find conditioners that are hair-healthy and free from lots of nasty chemicals than it is with shampoo’s. My hair is a million times better; shiny, soft, clean, healthy, no split ends, grows faster, doesn’t get greasy as quick and isn’t a ball of frizz or dandruffy like with shampoo – yey!
There are other methods too, such as water-only washing; http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=50999 – for the hard-core among us
Skin Deep Cosmetic Database rocks, but I’d also say there is a lot to be said for home-made cosmetics, staying with the hair theme…you can make your own shampoo’s, conditioners, hair gel, hair tonics, oils to help condition hair rather than store-bought conditioning treatments, fruits to use as hair masks, and henna along with other natural ingredients (honey, rosemary, coffee, lemon juice, cinnamon, etc.) to colour hair. Better for the environment, better for health, and better for your hair
May 17th, 2010 at 10:26 am
And I often am too lazy to squirt the shampoo bottle and just use my bar soap on my short hair. It makes it a bit stiff but that’s a plus for my fine hair.
May 21st, 2010 at 9:24 am
I head two years ago that sodium laurel sulfate could be contributing to my hand eczema, so I decided to eliminate regular shampoo and hand soap which are full of SLS. I bought some organic liquid castile soap and two small travel bottles. I mix half water for “shampoo” and ¾ water for hand soap. It works, my eczema is not nearly as bad, and I don’t have to get rid of so many bottles.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I just discovered this place for shampoo bars: http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/
Their ingredients are pretty much what I would use if I had the time/motivation to make my own shampoo AND they give you the option of buying sample bars at a much lower price than the full-sized ones. Still using up my current shampoo bar (I can’t believe it’s lasted this long — I bought it in January!) but looking forward to trying out something from Chagrin Valley.
May 4th, 2011 at 6:00 am
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