Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Are You Going No 'Poo?

No, no, no, not that. I mean, that would be impossible.

Wouldn't it?

No, I mean are you going no shampoo?

In my never ending, lifelong quest to find a way to keep my long hair properly moisturized yet still nice looking, I stumbled across the No 'Poo "movement". Here's the link to a website that explains this in detail - No Poo Do. But the gist of it is, you stop using shampoo and your scalp will start producing less oil, and you distribute the oil that it does produce throughout your hair by just rinsing your hair and "brushing" it 100 times with a washcloth. Supposedly your hair becomes healthy, shiny and beautiful.

After reading this I DO think a major part of my "hair problem" is that I AM constantly stripping the natural oils from my hair which makes it dry and lifeless about 90% of the time. Seems no matter what shampoo or conditioner I try I have never found that "magic" one that makes my hair moisturized but still have body. Seems like every kind I try either makes it greasy, or else it's still dry. Can't find a middle ground.

Also, I truly didn't realize the kind of chemicals that are in shampoo. I guess I foolishly thought shampoo was just nice smelling soap. Apparently not.

Now I'm not seriously considering going no 'poo. But I thought it was a really interesting idea. However that "adjustment period" kinda scares me. You see, all this time you've been stripping your hair with shampoo, your scalp has had to work to produce a lot of oil (sebum, really) to replace all you are washing away. Once you stop the shampooing, for a couple of weeks your scalp still produces the same amount of oil (which I'm sure isn't pretty), but then over time your scalp starts adjusting and not producing as much oil since it's not all being removed. Eventually you get to a point where your scalp is producing a lot less oil and your hair "normalizes" and goes into basically it's "natural state" and supposedly looks great. Being an Avon rep I know a lot about skin care, and I know that with your face, if you have oily skin, you can actually make it more oily by washing it too much - your skin compensates for all that "cleansing" by making MORE oil and so then you're cleansing it even MORE and now besides cleansers you're spending money on trying to find the best acne treatments. So I CAN believe your scalp works in a similar way.

Anyway, here's another article about women in the UK who participated in an experiment to go no 'poo for six weeks with varying results: Could You Survive No Shampoo? It's really interesting and a little funny too. (I guess it's not nice to laugh at some of these ladies who were practically traumatized by this experiment, but I couldn't help it. I'd probably feel the same way.)

"No 'poo" is an interesting idea, but I don't think this method is for me... I guess my quest continues.

The end.
Posted by none other than Carole K at 8:49 AM
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7 comments:

  1. I have concluded that I like 'Poo.

    With great containment, I read the entire article-- I absolutely hate UK websites because they always have 'Oobs hanging out from the 'Resses of all the 'Irls in the sidebar... 'Uck. (The Brits can't have a linear thought without babes dangling their jewels every other paragraph?!) [See! I'm trying to control my Grumpy Comment streak for your sake, Carole, lol!]

    Anyway, it seems like it really depends on the woman, her skin type, perhaps her nutrition, and her way of life (does she work in a salon all day, or in the coal mines all day?)

    It's an interesting experiment. In the "olden" days, people did not wash their hair-- they believed that getting the head wet made you sick. So they powdered their hair or wore wigs. So the idea of no 'Poo isn't that old.

    That said, I do LOVE my VO5. :D
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  2. I am with you, I'd have a hard time with the adjustment period! But its interesting. I am too vain, I'd have to hide out for six weeks. Hmmmm, lots of time for scrapbooking and reading novels? LOL.

    Putabuttononit
    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't know about this, bit i'm gonna check it out. I have naturally VERY curly hair whicj is typicaly dry anyway and supposedly shampoo doesn't help. So we'll see what they say about it and i'll decide. It may be very bad, or very good lol. It'd be REALLY nice not to have to put all this other crap in my hair just to get it to behave.
    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm not ready to go without shampoo all together, but I have been trying to not wash my hair every day. Maybe that would be considered semi-poo?!

    I've tagged you, http://sewingmom.com/2008/08/05/the-quirky-tag/
    ReplyDelete
  5. I wash my hair every other day or third day depending on what I'm doing and the weather. I also use something called Aussie three minute miracle deeeep conditioner, and it works very well for me.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting!
    A friend of my actually did that, but being a guy it was a lot easier. I'd have to agree that his hair was a LOT softer and healthier. Not sure I could pull it off - I like squeaky clean locks!
    ReplyDelete
  7. I could not do the No Poo.. I'm not a hair washing addict by any means, but skipping altogether would just be too much for me.

    I wash my hair every couple days.. I use shampoo near my scalp - but not a ton of it (I used to use way too much at a time!).. rinse and then condition just the ends of my hair..

    My hair has been (until I cut it last month) very long, thick and never any split ends.
    ReplyDelete

I read each and every comment, and though I don't always get a chance to respond, I enjoy reading (and pondering) what you have to say. Thanks for your 2 cents! :-)

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