Wednesday 2 March 2016

No poo and shampoo bars

No poo is not exactly what it sounds like. It's not using traditional shampoo to cleanse your hair in favour of more natural options. There are many options available from water only to washing your hair in honey. 

After moving onto a sulphate free shampoo I was loving the benefits my hair was reaping. But still, something still felt wrong. The shampoo may have improved my hair immensely in comparison to the silicone filled others I had used before but it still wasn't exactly 'natural' was it? Also I wasn't a big fan of the packaging I was still throwing into the recycle bin every other month. It also didn't help that it was almost impossible to find a brand that wasn't ridiculously green washed and bought out by a not so animal friendly company.

So where did that leave me? Was it possible to find a natural shampoo that was good for my hair and wasn't owned by a brand with some rather questionable morals? I'm glad to say that there was! I was soon transported to the wonderful world of no poo and all the experimenting that was to follow.


So that left me with the shampoo bar/Castile soap option or a clay mud wash. And these were the two I experimented between until I found what worked best for me. (I'm now an avid shampoo bar user with a once every two months clarifying clay wash)
Shampoo bars (not to be mistaken with Lush's sulphate filled shampoo bars) are made usually through traditional cold processed soap making methods however they are formulated with hair in mind. They come in many different scents and have many different formulations depending on your hair type so you'll be sure to find one for you. The best news is I went from having to wash my hair every other day to now barely needing to wash it once a week!

But if you've decided how you'll wash your hair have you decided how you'll rinse or 'condition' it? Most conventional conditioners have to go out the window when you start no pooing but you need something to replace it and also something to wash all that product out of your hair.

The widest used rinse is probably watered down apple cider vinegar but to be honest in the uk it is extremely expensive and near impossible to get a hold of in the uk but white wine vinegar and red wine vinegar do the job just as well. The only things I have against the vinegar rinsing is the smell. You can smell it in the shower and on your hair afterwards as it dries. Then the smell totally disappears! That is until you sweat or get caught in the rain and in England, that's a common occurrence
So being a little fed up with my rinse and smelling a little bit pickled I thought it was time to do some experimenting. Lemon juice! It worked pretty much the same and didn't stink, however there was one issue my naturally dark hair seemed to be getting lighter and lighter from the lemon juice. But I found a solution soon enough through the wonderful world of tea. In place of my water in the lemon rinse concoction I used tea which has appeared to pretty much have kept the hair lightening at bay for now.

Do you use shampoo bars or do you want to try them? Let me know!

Tina
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