Already 3 years without shampoo!

Lees dit artikel in het Nederlands: Al 3 jaar zonder shampoo!

Exactly three years ago I finally said goodbye to the shampoo.
Correction: I had said goodbye to the shampoo before, for more than a year I washed my hair with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

Three years ago I had my hair cut by a friend. I used that moment to go for the ‘no poo’ movement.

Since then I take care of my hair in this way: every 2 to 3 weeks I cut my hair with my trimmer. After that I rinse my hair with cold water. That’s it!
And if I feel my hair is greasy between two ‘cuttings’, I rinse it again with cold water. That’s all. No products needed. In this way, hair care has become a very simple and inexpensive matter: I don’t go to the hairdresser which saves me time and money, and I don’t buy shampoo and conditioner etc.
Please don’t think my hair is more easy to maintain than yours. You can go ‘no poo’ with every hair type. Before I used shampoo for dry hair, shampoo for colored hair, shampoo for greasy hair, shampoo for damaged hair and of course a whole bunch of conditioners.
Many people wonder if my hair is not smelly or greasy. Nope … Human hair does not smell like tropical flowers, that’s right. But it doesn’t smell bad either!
Those who want a specific odor can always apply some essential oil behind their ears. I sometimes spread a bit of my homemade body lotion based on coconut oil through my hair. You would think your hair would be very greasy, but that’s not the case.

Human hair always needs a specific degree of greasyness. When we don’t interfere, the skin of our head finds its own balance. But once we use shampoo, we deregulate this balance. As a result, the skin on our head will produce more oil and our hair becomes greasy. The more shampoo you use, the more greasy your hair getts… Once you stop using shampoo, the skin of your head will refind its balance and your hair won’t look greasy!

Besides the fact that you can delete an entire category of groceries, you also dramaticaly reduce the waste you produce. Think about all empty shampoo bottles and conditioner bottles … I no longer have to throw them away. And then there’s the important issue of the chemicals and even hormone disruptors that are found in such products. I’m happy to know I’m no longer using these!

For those who also want to go for ‘no poo’: how did I make the transition from shampoo to just water?
Initially I washed my hair with sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda you can find in any supermarket. Dissolve a large tablespoon of this soda in half a liter of water and you have your new ‘shampoo’. First wet your hair and then gently pour the water with sodium bicarbonate over your head and massage. Rinse with cold water after a few minutes. If necessary, you can massage some apple vinegar afterwards and rinse after five minutes; this will make your hair very soft. Once your hair is dry, the smell of apple vinegar is also gone.
Gradually you can reduce the amount of soda in the water. Until in the end you only have water left.
For me that slow transition didn’t work that well. So I suddenly stopped using the soda. If you do that, you should not wash your hair for 8 weeks. That is difficult … But because my hair was pretty short, it wasn’t that hard. After 8 weeks I washed my hair for the first time with cold water and what turned out: once it was dry, my hair looked wonderful!

 

For those who want to go for ‘no poo’: how did I make the transition from shampoo to water?
Initially I washed my hair with sodium bicarbonate. Baking salt that you can find in any supermarket. Dissolve a large tablespoon of this salt in half a liter of water and you have your new ‘shampoo’. First wet your hair and then gently pour the water with sodium bicarbonate over your head and massage. Leave it to smoothly and then rinse. If necessary, you can massage some apple vinegar afterwards and rinse after five minutes; that makes your hair very soft. Once your hair is dry, the smell of apple vinegar is also gone.
Gradually you can reduce the amount of salt in the water. Until in the end you only have water left.
With me that slow transition did not work that well. Consequently, I suddenly stopped using the salt. If you do that, you should not wash your hair for 8 weeks. That is difficult … But because my hair was pretty short, that was all very well with it. After 8 weeks I washed my hair for the first time with cold water and what turned out: once it was dry, I had a fresh cup!