photo by takot on Flickr

I haven’t washed my hair since Christmas, and it’s the beginning of February. Most of January was actually pretty good, with my routine of Aveda oil/tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar rinse. Baking soda a few times a week.

But now. My hair is consistently greasy and limp, no volume at all. At the same time, it’s frizzy and mostly composed of flyaways. The hair itself doesn’t feel dry, but my scalp issues (for which I’ve used medicated shampoos most of my life) have come back with a vengance, and much worse. Several times, I’ve had small sores or scabs on my scalp – GROSS! In addition, it takes more than twice as long to blow dry my hair. I rarely ever get it completely dry because I do not have 20 minutes to spend with my hair dryer while 2 kids wait for breakfast.

When I read about “no poo”, the successful users say their hair immediately got much softer and easier to manage, or that their natural curl came out and started to look amazing. Most report not having to use hair products at all anymore. I was really hoping for this.

The tenet of “no poo” is that your scalp will regulate itself without assistance from chemicals. This is probably true for most peoples’ scalps. It seems that mine might be an unusual case. I don’t know what the situation with the sores on my scalp is, but apparently it can’t regulate itself.

So, after 41 days of “no poo”, I went back to good ol’ Head And Shoulders original formula. It used to get acceptable scores on the EWG database, until suddenly one day they changed their rating. After one use of shampoo, my hair instantly got smoother, my scalp calmed down (still waiting for the sores to heal), and I was able to dry it in much less time.

I think my conclusion is similar to Calley’s, over at The Eco Chic – “no poo” is not for me, but it has taught me that I can probably go longer without shampooing than I thought I could. And, like Calley, I’ll also be on the lookout for a good scalp treatment shampoo. Maybe an alternative shampoo? I’ll keep you posted!

See all previous “no poo” posts