After revealing a few times on the Internet that I don’t use shampoo and conditioner, I occasionally get random emails asking what I do with my hair. Natural haircare is Coming Back In, whether for reasons of ecology, thrift, fear of deadly chemicals or just general hippieness. So for reference’s sake, here’s my basic spiel.
Natural haircare comes in many forms, and I’ve written a few Suite articles about various kinds. Here they are:
Different Kinds of Natural Haircare
Reasons to Use Natural Haircare Methods
Hair Feels Sticky After Water-Only Washing
Baking Soda and Vinegar Hair Washing
How to Prevent and Treat Split Ends
I’ve also written several about braids, one on traction alopecia, one on post-partum hair loss, a few on hair growth and length, a couple on Amish hairstyles… I have a Thing about hair. Obviously.
I came across natural haircare a couple of years ago on the Long Hair Community forums (a place I highly recommnd for all sorts of hair-related advice, long or otherwise). I’d been using extremely expensive salon products after my wedding hairdresser browbeat me into buying them by lamenting the condition of my hair. Not just shampoo and conditioner, but masques and leave-in treatments… the lot. And not only was it not doing much for my hair, but it was costing the earth. Still, my main motivation to try water-only washing was the geeky experimental factor of it. So I switched to WO without skipping a beat.
WO works better for some than others. Some people find it makes their hair thicker (probably due to a reaction to SLS in hair products) - Helpdesk Man does, although I can’t say it did the same for me. I found the regime fairly labour-intensive, as it involves a lot of grooming with a boar bristle brush; and if I neglected my hair for a few days it quickly went yicky. As a result, after I had the snortlepig and barely had enough time to shower, let alone sit mermaid-style on a rock and finger-comb my hair, WO just became too much of a pain. I have sittable-on hair, which doesn’t help - long hair needs more brushing to spread the sebum from roots to tip. Besides, I was getting sick of cold showers.
Having gotten used to not paying for shampoo and conditioner, I didn’t want to go back to regular products. So my current system is baking soda and vinegar washing - easy on the former, plenty of the latter. It requires more frequent washes than WO (although still less than regular S&C), but the washing process is quicker and it cleans the hair more thoroughly, meaning it’s lower maintenance between washes.
Sadly, I don’t think I’ve yet arrived at the natural haircare nirvana of some of my long-haired friends, who have managed to concoct the perfect alchemy that keeps their hair bouncy, shiny, healthy and happy. (Sometimes these alchemies are surprisingly complex, incidentally, and involve rotating several different products or washing techniques over a three-week period, combined with spritzes and moisture treatments. You know the law of the Internet: “No matter how into something you are, there’s always someone more into it than you?” Yup.) My hair isn’t as moisturised as it should be, and it tangles like a fiend. Which is almost entirely due to laziness on my part, as I know there are things my hair likes which I keep forgetting to do.
So last week, after an inspirational discussion with a friend who has nicer hair than me, I spent two nights with plastic bags over my head, soaking my hair first in henna paste and then in a mixture of yoghurt and honey. My hair feels softer than it has for months. Note to self: pay a bit of attention to your locks every once in a while, lest they flutter broken from your head like so much shredded wheat.