Shampoo Free

[Eden]

So the "Brazilian Blowout" thread got me to try going entirely shampoo free.

Its been about 2 weeks now and I'm pretty happy with the whole experiment. I had been doing "shampoo light" - just a few times a week before this.

So far - I like the salt scrubs. It feels nice and it keeps my hair dandruff free. I have to take care to really rinse it out well or my hair feels sticky afterwards.

I'm still using conditioner - TJ's Tea Tree Tingle, just on the ends though. I've been keeping it off my scalp. I also got some leave in conditioner that completely water based -nothing that won't rinse out Uncle something or others.... its at work and I can't remember the exact name. It smells a bit odd - vegetably, but not offensive and it does a good job.

I have found I have to brush my hair. I do it before I go to bed and use a boar bristle brush to distribute the natural oils my scalp makes to all of my hair - otherwise the hair next to my scalp will start to look a bit icky.

I almost gave in and used shampoo today - but I gave it a good salt scrub for the second day in a row with a really, really good rinse and it came out looking very nice again - not oily at all, so I'm still in - no shampoo.

[TsPoet]

I've been shampoo-free for about 3 months. With shampoo I have extremely unruly hair, so unruly it's ruly . When I use shampoo I don't do more than run a comb through the hair occasionally to keep it from getting dreadlocks, otherwise nothing.
Without shampoo, it feels heavier and is less curly, so I have to comb it. But, no dandruff, and people actually have commented me on the looks of the hair. So, I'm happy.

[Eden]

I'm not sure I could get dreads..... before I stopped shampooing I never did anything more than run my fingers through my hair for the most part.... even now that's all I do to "style" it. Brushing and combing just pulls the curls out and makes it simply fuzzy - hence why I only brush it before bed.

[NbyNW]

Eden, what salt scrub are you using -- are you making your own? I would be curious to give this a try.

I can generally go with light shampoo/ every other day, except for this one part of my scalp that seems to flare up every now and again, ever since my ill-fated Guatemala trip (years ago). I have to use a tea tree oil or dandruff shampoo daily during a flare-up. Would be interesting to see what happens if I rotate in a salt scrub.

[Eden]

I've just been using salt I have - I believe its plain epsom salt - it might have once had a little lavender oil mixed in.

[moonfroggy]

i have been shampoo free for about 2 years. every few months i use some baking soda in water to rinse it if it seems actually dirty or greasy and if it is getting to tangled i rinse with vinegar but otherwise all i use is water. before i lived here i tried to go shampoo free and my hair always ended up so oily i would break down and use shampoo or just a bar of soap and vinegar rinse but i did sort of wean my hear and use soap or shampoo as little as i could manage. i think water quality and ph effect how easy it is to go completely shampoo free because as soon as we moved to this house which has very nice well water i found my hair did a whole lot better and just stopped needing the once in a while (maybe once a month or every 3 months) shampoo it was getting.