Going poo-less: No Shampoo/Soap in the Shower

Thyri Gullinvargr wrote:.... I'm experimenting with cutting  down on soap and am finding I can just do a thorough rinse with a fair bit of mechanical action (rubbing the pits while rinsing ) every day and soap every 2nd or 3rd day mostly. I work in an office, so going longer to see if my body acclimates isn't an option. I'm not convinced it's worth it since it's tending to take longer to get the sweat smell off, but I'm giving it a few weeks.

Hi Thyri. From my own experience I found out using soap less often didn't work. The reaction of my body on soap made my sweat smell. The only alternative was to totally stop using soap and wait till my body was used to it (washing with only water). If that isn't possible for you, I would advice to use an all natural soap daily.

I have spent periods of my life going poo-less by necessity (living out in remote backcountry locations for work) and stopped wearing deodorant about 5 years ago but I am having a hard time making the poo-less jump. I have fairly long hair that I have a hard time managing already. Dreadlocks form every week, even with me using shampoo and conditioner. What are others' experiences going poo-less with long hair? I am thinking I will not be able to make the jump until I cut my hair.

I have hair till my shoulders and been following the recipe from this site http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/
for over a year. I usually replace the vinegar with lemon juice or citric acid 'cause I don't like the smell of vinegar. It seems to work very well for me, I wash my hair daily and it's nice and smooth.

One of my internet friends who has been poo-less for a year has very long hair and she reports no knots. She says that her hair is now at a point where it really doesn't even need a conditioner. It's just naturally balanced itself out and though she does in fact use apple cider vinegar, she does so only because it helps prevent dandruff for her. As far as I can tell though she has very straight hair so that probably makes some difference as well.

I only recently heard of this from Paul's 2.5hr long video of the presentation he gave at the Southern California Permaculture Convergence but I'm very intrigued by it and plan to give it a shot. I came across that simplemom article as well and it looks to be a pretty good guide to start with.

We have a family friend that did it earlier this spring. She had about a good three weeks where she wouldn't go out of the house without some sort of hair wrap before she reported quality results. She's pretty happy with it now.

I have long straight hair. Occasional (and I mean like 6 or 7 times a year here) I use a goat milk based bar soap. Otherwise I rely on a good brush to keep my hair looking decent.

Sure wouldn't mind anything that would give me a little extra luster though - I've noticed that my hair is flatter. But I don't cut it or mess with it at all besides brushing it when it starts to get to full of pine needles and the like. going on what 8 or 9 years like this? I stopped buying shampoo as a poor college student and have not had reason to reintroduce it since. What with the basically living in dirt and generally not having access to a private shower.

Cutting out shampoo is a pretty small step that involves breaking a ritual habit. Hair brushes work for me (replacing one habit with another)

Hi Emily, the No Shampoo / Soap thread (which I just copied to this forum, btw) has four pages of conversation on the topic.

I think I used a guide like the one from simplemom as well, and have a few other tips, though I have to admit that my hair sometimes feels a bit waxy or rough, so I'm still working on the best routine for me.

Tips:

See Ben Alpers post in the No Shampoo / Soap thread. I wish I would have followed his advice on how to time the baking soda and vinegar when first starting out. Read his post. A good brush and lots of brushing does make a big difference.

Vinegar is a fairly decent detangler. In fact, when I first used it, it made my hair too limp. Almost returning my hair to its previously uber-fine, limp stringy-ness.

Dry clay works as a decent degreaser if the baking soda isn't working for you.

I'm lazy with my hair. I twist it up into a bun and put a stick through it to keep cooler and keep it out of the way, out of food, etc. When I brush it more with a good bristle brush, it does become softer and fluffier and less waxy feeling, but most of the time I don't bother much with that. And I use the baking soda and vinegar very infrequently these days (again out of laziness). When I take it out of the stick-bun-thing, it retains lovely curl and body that my poor fine hair could NEVER maintain when using shampoo and conditioner.

One thing I do struggle with sometimes is static electricity. A few drops of water seems to fix it, though I wonder if others have tips on that.

My hair would be less waxy feeling if I used the baking soda more frequently, so that's the part of the routine I'm still working out - how often it works for me. And less vinegar is definitely better for my hair type, though I imagine more would be better for curlier, drier, thicker hair types.

On the whole, not having huge, icky, itchy psoriasis scabs (leading to bald spots), plus thicker hair with more body, is such a huge benefit that a bit of waxy feel to my hair and static electricity is totally worth it.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:I'm lazy with my hair. I twist it up into a bun and put a stick through it to keep cooler and keep it out of the way, out of food, etc.

I meant to say that this hair-in-a-knot laziness also cuts down on the tangles that come from wind whipping hair into tangles. Plus, I think there was some wisdom in Mrs. Ingalls braiding her hair before bed each night - less tangles that way, too. Though braiding is more work to me, so I rarely do that.

I've been pretty much no-poo for the last 7 months, and my hair has only improved. I use a set of condiment bottles - white is for baking soda in water (about a tablespoon of baking soda and the rest is water), yellow is for vinegar in water (fill it 1/10 with vinegar, the rest with water) and the red one is for the times my hair is greasy and I need something to cut it (I use Dr. Bronner's liquid soap in water, 1:3). When I use the soap, I rinse with baking soda then with vinegar, rinsing with water between each step. As time has gone on I use that less and less. What works for me is baking soda followed by the vinegar rinse every other day, and the rest of the time I just use the vinegar. My hair doesn't tangle at all anymore and it's glossy and the curls are getting better. It does still puff some on humid days, tho, but here the humidity is 97% every morning and my hair doesn't get too bad.

I think some don't realize you HAVE to use vinegar after baking soda. The baking soda lifts the cuticle to let the dirt out, the vinegar flattens it back down. When the cuticle is lifted your hairs grab each other and get tangled; when the cuticle lays flat the hair is smooth and won't tangle. It may take some time for it to work really well if your hair is damaged, and blow-drying makes problems too (I let mine air-dry).

Hello everyone,

I have been off and on using no soap/shampoo in my hair for a few years now (thankfully fully off now for about 3 months) and I have long hair. Off and on because I never had the patience to deal with the in between phase. The one where your hair and scalp are adjusting out of the over production of oil.

I started with just rubbing baking soda through my hair followed by vinegar to detangle after. The vinegar worked great but the baking soda seemed to be doing absolutely nothing. Of course this was after coming off of shampoo which makes you smell like a flower garden and strips your hair of everything. In any case, I gave up and went back to soap/shampoo.

One day I came across someone talking about a cucumber lemon shampoo to degrease. I gave it a try and it worked well. There were a couple of problems though. One, you can't make extra, it will mold in about 2 days. So if I made a large batch I would refrigerate it and of course, about half the time I would start taking a shower while the "shampoo" still sitting in the refrigerator. And two is that there were often large chunks of cucumber leftover in my hair, making it look like I had just gotten into a food fight. So eventually, that was out.

Finally, and I am guessing this is the really big important step I was missing all the times I fell off the no-poo horse, I let my hair adjust. It has taken it probably a good month or more to adjust to not being bombarded by grease striping chemicals but I am now at the point where I do not need to wash my hair with anything but water. I still use baking soda from time to time (about once a month) along with some home-made ACV. My hair now is more manageable than it has ever been in my life.

Some recommendations for the journey to no shampoo:

be patient

keep your hair up (this helps you, and others, not notice how oddly greasy your hair is getting)

be patient

As for the braiding your hair at night, that does work excellently when you can remember to do it, which I often don't. Another one that works for me is to put your hair in a top bun (one on top of your head). It keeps your hair up and is not bothersome like a regular bun would be if you laid down on it, plus its much faster than braiding out two+ feet of hair.

I wish you good luck with your journey!

I dont use shampoo as in that liquid gunk stuff containing well mostly promises that you will be attractive to the opposite sex . Here in France I have been buying just a normal hard green soap that I use for the rest of my body and using that .
I am unclear why you would need a special soap other than to increace the profits of the manufactorers

David

I am about two weeks into my poo-less journey. Yes, I know I am newb. However, I'm training for a triathlon, so I sweat, a lot. Which tends to make me shower, a lot more than I used to. I can go days and days without showering if I am not working out everyday. Anyway, I was worried that since I sweat so much that my hair was still going to feel gross after I used just my little baking soda/vinegar concoctions. But that hasn't been the case at all!

I have been using the one tablespoon baking soda to a cup of water and one tablespoon of vinegar to one cup of water. I have yet to get some sort of bottle to make it easier to squirt onto my head and I kind of need to get something like that (the condiment bottles were a good idea) because right now I just have them in glass jars I had lying around and it's kind of hard to pour it on your head and try to rub it in at the same time because it's so liquidy.. Haha

but anyway, my hair hasn't gotten overly oily or anything and things seem to be going fine! maybe my hair just hasn't quite realized what's going on yet and it will over-oil later, or maybe I am just lucky. I also have really short hair. A little bit shorter than a bob. So that might be a factor. I also never really liked what happened to my hair when I used conditioner because my hair is wavy and when I used conditioner it loses the wave and just becomes lame..

Anyway I think one thing that is hard to get used to, is the whole my hair doesn't feel slimy/silky when i get out of the shower anymore.. Like I just have been so used to that slimy feeling of hair after it's been conditioned for my whole life, that I think my mind thinks it's not clean if it doesn't feel like that. it's just kind of weird to mentally get used to the fact that well that doesn't mean it's not clean, it's just not full of chemicals! And maybe if I used a higher concentrate of vinegar it would get back to that slimy/silky feel (I am talking about when you rinse your hair after you condition, but before you dry it) but I realized I just don't even want it to feel that way, and I never have. I just always kind of thought conditioner was necessary to keep my hair healthy..

Anyway, that's a lot of reporting. Just thought I'd let everyone know.

The oil has retaliated! I repeat, the oil has retaliated! Hahah after a few weeks of being poo-less, my scalp oils have finally said hey fuck you we are used to being stripped and so now we don't know what to do so we are going to overload just to be safe..! So my hair has been getting pretty oily even a day after I use the baking soda and water/vinegar and water solutions.. So it's kind of annoying, but I am not too worried about it. I have naturally really oily hair so I am sort of semi used to it, but it is kind of a pain. Anyway, I think I am just going to wait it out another week or so and then if it hasn't stopped, I might try to switch up some ratios or something.

I've been transitioning to pooless for about 6 months now. It's still not perfect. if the grease builds up too much, I will wash my hair with some residue free biodegradable soap. I used to do this about once a month. It's less often now.

Stick with it! And don't be too dogmatic about what you use on your hair. The important thing is the direction you are going, and to always wait one more day after you feel like you need to wash to actually do it.

Just you wait. The extra oil will end up catching all the dirt and dust from your flurry of gardening activities. I suppose I should amend my above comments. Get 2 good brushes. You will need the second brush to clear out the greasy dirty tangles that accumulate in your primary brush. Also, I use soap on my hairbrush or its gets an 1/8th inch of nasty built up on it quick. This little bit of soap may or may not make all the difference.

Also, just a guess, but you are probably showering too much. This will also make you body go 'oil oil oil oil!'
'

I do shower a lot, but that is because I am training for a triathlon and so I sweat a fuck ton and so unless I want to repulse all my friends with my stench, I sort of have to shower a lot hahaha. Oh, did I mention I am experimenting with deoderant-less-ness as well? Another reason why I am showering a lot. I haven't quite perfected the B.o. situation so a lot of the times it's just easier to shower.

Also, I don't brush my hair because it is super short and doesn't really need it, so that isn't a huge issue. But my guess is that the oil is just retaliating at the moment and I am not too worried about it.

Thanks for the tips though landon.

Excessive showering is something our culture has a problem with. Studies show more and more recently that too much soap is messing with our body's natural oil making processes and damaging our skin an hair, as well as putting more harmful chemicals (for most who use such products) back into the water tables.

I personally have done the "no-poo" dealeo in the past and have gone most of a year without using ANYTHING on my hair, while still frequently (3-4 times/week) showering, at the very least with water to remove sweat and dirt. After less than a few weeks of interesting hair changes, such as brief oiley/greasey feeling, my hair sort of got into a groove and adapted, changing oil levels. No more grease. I have long, wavey thick hair so still regularly brush.

Now, after 6 months or so my hair just got a certain "look" and maybe a feel as well, that did not feel right to me. Not quite greasey, but just strange texture.

However, plenty of very simple house-hold mixtures can be made, some as simple as using JUST baking soda and water as a cleaning paste.

You can also experiment with coconut oul, essential ouls, or stick to a simply made soap like doctor brauners.

I see no harm in going "poo-less," however, if you rinse with water regularly and comb out to prevent dreading.

-cheers, Christian

I think brushing hair regularly even when its short might actually help to distribute oils and keep things more manageable. I also do the Roman thing and will scrape sweat/dirt/oil off with a good flat stick occasionally when I have a good second skin going and I need to use a bus or something. Living the way I live it really doesn't make sense to shower more than once a week or so. I blow more dust than 'pig-pen' but end up looking and smelling only ever so slightly worn. I really think the dirt is a key part of smelling less god-awful though I think age probably helps as well.

Anyone have tips about poo-lessness and itchy, dandruff, flakey head?

I haven't used shampoo for close to a year now and it's going pretty well, no smell or greazy-ness but my hair usually seems too dry and I sometimes actually add a bit of oil but the wife hates it since it stains my pillowcase over time. The flakiness has been a problem my whole life and while I hoped going poo-less would solve it, it hasn't and has probably gotten slightly worse.

"David Whitlock, the scientist that doesn't shower" Transistor - Episode 11

Just listening to this podcast about (AOB) or ammonia oxidizing bacteria being spritzed on to eat the stink. Pretty interesting.

I actually tried the AO+ (ammonia oxidizing bacteria) mist stuff recently, and it didn't do much for me: maybe some improvement in skin texture/fewer breakouts (I'm 27 but I still break out on a, er, monthly basis), a little bit of improvement in armpit odor, no noticeable effect on hair--and the mist was pretty expensive.

But I don't use any soaps or shampoos except to wash my hands after using the bathroom or to scrub dirt/grease off my hands when needed, so maybe I'm already colonized with AOB. I use water on my body and nothing on my hair (unless I swim, in which case obviously my hair gets wet--but I've found that washing with water tends to make my hair frizzy and weird, whereas just keeping it dry and brushing it works great). I tried the baking soda/vinegar thing years ago and found it much worse on my hair than just not washing it.

My hair is long and wavy, and I do find that it tangles somewhat more than when I washed with shampoo and conditioner every day, but that is easily solved by brushing/combing (which I did not do before), which also helps keep it clean in the absence of washing. My hair is much shinier and less frizzy, and holds braids, buns, etc. much better. No split ends, either. The only downsides versus shampooing are a slight tendency to separate at the top (it's not visibly greasy, but it tends to form clumps in a way it didn't when I washed it all the time) and a certain flatness/lack of volume. I have very thick hair, but its volume decreased a lot (like, by half or more) when I stopped washing; on the other hand, I haven't had my layers redone in forever (I tend to go a year plus between cuts) so it would probably look less straggly with a decent cut. I am attaching some pics so you can see the results of not washing. I have not washed or rinsed my hair with anything for many months, including water for the most part, and I use no product and don't style it. I just brush it.



For the record, the darker color at the top is not from greasiness, the bottom of my hair is just sun bleached and the darker color is where it has grown out a lot over the winter. I did go through a transition period of a couple weeks of greasiness and some flakiness, but now it has evened out.

As for body odor, it is only a minor problem in my armpit area, everything else it taken care of by washing with water. I do use a natural deodorant sometimes if I notice odor or if I'm going into town, etc. Otherwise it's not really much of a problem. I will also sometimes grab some good-smelling fresh herbs like rosemary or mint or whatever and just rub the oils into my hair or skin or whatever if I am smelling not so great (like if I went swimming in the lake and my hair dried kind of musty).

I might experiment with a vinegar rinse (no baking soda) to see if it helps with clumpiness or volume issues, in case I want to go somewhere fancy and look spiffy at some point in the future.

Aaaaand pure apple cider vinegar rinse turned out to be a mistake. It did improve the clumpiness/tendency to separate toward the top of my head, but the bottom of my hair is kind of dead-looking and straw like, and it turned my natural wave into a weird crimpiness (why?) which I assume will change back after a couple days' brushing. I just poured generic ACV from the store over my head and let it dry without rinsing with water, so I may experiment with dilutions and/or rinsing the ACV out with water and see if results are better, but I feel like a weaker rinse will not help the clumpiness much, since the result of the undiluted ACV was noticeable but not stunning.

Jennifer Richardson wrote:Aaaaand pure apple cider vinegar rinse turned out to be a mistake. It did improve the clumpiness/tendency to separate toward the top of my head, but the bottom of my hair is kind of dead-looking and straw like, and it turned my natural wave into a weird crimpiness (why?) which I assume will change back after a couple days' brushing. I just poured generic ACV from the store over my head and let it dry without rinsing with water, so I may experiment with dilutions and/or rinsing the ACV out with water and see if results are better, but I feel like a weaker rinse will not help the clumpiness much, since the result of the undiluted ACV was noticeable but not stunning.

Hi Jennifer, welcome to permies--and that's some lovely hair you've got I've been no poo, water only, for seven years now, and I occasionally use vinegar on my scalp to deal with extra greasiness; I generally wet my hair only about once a month, or even less, and so a vinegar rinse is very occasional indeed. My hair is not as long as yours, but well past my shoulders. When I do so, however, I dilute it by about 1 part vinegar, 5 parts water, and I only use it on my scalp (generally the top of my head), not the ends. I massage it in, let it sit for a minute or two, then rinse it out. Oh, and I don't use apple cider vinegar; I use the cheapest vinegar possible, which in my case is malt vinegar. Maybe ACV does indeed have special qualities, but cheap malt vinegar does the trick for me, though one day I'd like to experiment using raw vinegar--but that's another subject entirely.

I have also read that hard water can cause a little extra greasiness; I noticed I was much greasier when I rinsed oftener.

Oh, and I've just remembered, though I don't do this myself any more: when I first started no poo, I would sometimes use cornstarch on my scalp to mop up the extra grease. Sprinkle it on dry, then brush it out very throroughly, and make sure it's all brushed out before you get your head wet.

Hello Galadriel--thank you for the welcome, the compliment, and the useful information! I had originally intended to apply the ACV only to my scalp, but there was a pouring mishap, haha. Perhaps I will try a spray bottle next time, as well as diluting it and rinsing afterward. I had never heard that about hard water causing extra greasiness--that may definitely be an issue with our well water here.

So I was just narcissistically staring at myself in the mirror moments ago and thinking about how great my hair looked. Then I realized what an incredibly long time it's been since I used shampoo. So I came to this thread and realized it's been about 9 months since I was regularly using shampoo! I have used it probably a handful of times since then, whilst visiting friends or something like that, but other than that, 9 frickin months! That's a long ass time. And I realized I've been showering a lot less because my hair doesn't get all super oily for quite a while.. About once a week, and my hair doesn't get gnarly until about 5-6 days after I showered. This makes me so happy. When I have had to use shampoo, it leaves my hair all frizzy and weird feeling. My little baking soda concoction works just perfectly.

Anywhoo, just wanted to share with you all because you encouraged me at the beginning.

I spent over a yr with no shampoo when I had long hair. I went in the sea pretty much everyday, and rinsed with freshwater afterwards. The reason I didn't use shampoo is because I live an outdoor lifestyle in a windy part of the world and my hair went mega afro if I used shampoo, regardless of conditioner, antifriz or whatever else was sposed to stop it from doing so. Last 5 yrs have had short hair but I'm toying with the idea of growing it again, and maybe going for the afro this time.

it's been a year since i went pooless!!! i'm never going back!!!



i hadn't showered for like a week when this picture was taken, by the way.

i posted this to my facebook with this caption:

"it's been almost exactly a year since I stopped using shampoo&conditioner and mah hurrr is lookin' boss as ever, as demonstrated in this here selfie delfie. only using baking soda+water and it's way less frizzy and way more wavy and voluminous! I sound like a hippie infomercial. You're welcome."

First- beautiful hair! Second, I went poo-less about a year ago too. I noticed a correlation between an increase in allergic reactions and sickness with scrub-downs. I try to reason the correlation being because of pro-biotics living on my skin...but I'm not sure. I unfortunately continue to have dry skin and eczema. I use a calendula-olive oil blend for the dryness, but all my research on eczema has turned up science not knowing exactly what it is or what to do with it. If anyone knows a cure, that would be awesome! I'm going to try some UV treatment...mostly because I need the vitamin D anyway. I've also thought of adding a stem of rosemary into my oil blend (but that could have some negative side effects, I think, so I haven't). That's all the ideas I got as of now.

Amit Enventres wrote:First- beautiful hair! Second, I went poo-less about a year ago too. I noticed a correlation between an increase in allergic reactions and sickness with scrub-downs. I try to reason the correlation being because of pro-biotics living on my skin...but I'm not sure. I unfortunately continue to have dry skin and eczema. I use a calendula-olive oil blend for the dryness, but all my research on eczema has turned up science not knowing exactly what it is or what to do with it. If anyone knows a cure, that would be awesome! I'm going to try some UV treatment...mostly because I need the vitamin D anyway. I've also thought of adding a stem of rosemary into my oil blend (but that could have some negative side effects, I think, so I haven't). That's all the ideas I got as of now.

I went poo-less about 3 years ago and very rarely now have to use anything on my hair but water. I wanted to comment on your eczema, because I had it for most of my adult life off and on, and like you I found some things helped short-term (UV light, salt water from the ocean) but I had it very bad about 8 years ago (had it everywhere but my hands, feet and face) I went to a naturopath, not really believing he could help, but I was desperate. As you mentioned they do not know what causes it, but the naturopath said your body is trying to tell you there is something wrong and instead of repressing it using cortisone cream (which is all the doctor ever gave me) he wanted to bring it out. Not knowing it at the time, but basically he lead me through a cleanse based on my blood type. Essentially there was no wheat, no dairy, some other food restrictions but the list of foods included foods that were beneficial, foods that were neutral and foods to avoid. Only drinks allowed were water, green tea and red wine (thank goodness!!) The first 2 weeks were hell without the cortisone cream as it came out very strongly and the next 4 weeks were uncomfortable but bearable. After the 6 weeks I was rash free and to be honest except for 2 small episodes over the years, I have never had it come back. You re-introduce foods back in your diet, and basically I went back to eating everything. I have a suspicion milk may be my trigger as I never went back to drinking milk but continued to use Almond milk all these years. I do eat yoghurt and cheese etc without issue, but a few months back I was going to go back to drinking milk but noticed after 2 weeks that old feeling in my skin, so I have decided to stick to Almond milk. Everyone is different, but I would highly recommend this approach and if a Naturopath is an option for you I would recommend it. Hope that helps

Thank you Kelly! I will have to try that.

I tried it, and since this is toxin-ectomy, I think this is still appropriate, though not poo or hair related (see next paragraph for return to topic). I did some experimenting and found my reactions were to monocot, grass family plants that are not organic. I am not a expert in toxic substances, but the research I did indicated a potential for 2-4D formulations mixed with other chemicals to be highly toxic. 2-4D is only used on monocots because it kills dicots. The exception being the newly approved GMO soy beans. Since I switched to organic, I have been rash free. I believe the body eliminates some toxins through skin pores, so that is why showering seemed to help.

Back on the hair toxins, another thing to consider besides the poo is the water quality. Up by the beautiful Great (algal) Lakes here there seems to be a strong interest in chlorinating the life out of water to compensate for the other toxicities. Since I have been rash free, I have had less need to wash off excreted toxins, so less bathing means now I notice. Me thinks that it would be nice to eliminate that toxin in hair washing, and to say the least not have it combine with a surfactant (aka soap) for further affect on the surfaces it touches. Including your orifices via hot steamy vapor. That's got to mess with your nasal microbial gate keepers.

I have devious plans for water collection, but not to be posted under this topic.

Thanks again Kelly!

I've been no-poo for about 1 1/2 years, I use baking soda and ACV about every 5-6 days and it has been working well for me until now. I have two questions/problems- 1. We moved from the city to a house with softened water and my hair has gone totally limp and gets greasy much faster, any ideas what tweaks to make? 2. Sunscreen, the bane of my existence. I'm very fair and need to use it, I make my own which I am super happy with but it's causing my hair line to be constantly greasy! I'm considering adding a diluted Dr. Bronners step to my routine just along these edges, has anyone tried this? Thank you

I am almost soapless, and do not use deodorant (more applications of hot water to my dermis helps during hot weather), but I have to give the hair a bit of something every few days or it turns very ugly greasy, and the scalp has psoriasis problems. I try to use a very mild bar soap to cut the oils and keep things manageable. Deimbrasion with a good washcloth and warm water will melt most of your evils away. Soaps and my skin don't get along. I am about to put the #2 comb on the clipper and buzz all the hair again, that does help some with both the oil and the scalp, though it mandates a HAT anytime I stick nose out the door. (once I convinced my friends it wasn't the Big C, just I got mad at my hair so it's history. Oh). That is one way of dealing with misbehaving greasy hair, cutting it off. You can wash it with a washcloth and the amount of soap you do need is very small.

I've been trying to do poo-less for the 6 past months or so. I'll be fine for a bit, then use shampoo, then start again.

I've found on my most recent trial that using the formula listed here: How to Detox your hair for one day, then just baking soda (I follow both with a vinegar rinse) the next has been helpful.

My hair is about to my mid shoulder blades and pretty fine. I actually love how my hair feels after a vinegar rinse.

*Edited for missing a word!

Good luck! One thing that I've learned is that the less you touch and brush your hair, the easier it was to maintain. (I have wavy-ish hair, so it doesn't knot too easily)

Oh wow, the title really threw me off.

Since 2005 I've donated my hair 5x. Previously I was conventional, cruelty free, shampoo and conditioner user. For the last year I've used Baking Soda and Apple Cider Vinegar, with occasional conditioner use, and I do not intend on changing that...loving it!

My work is *extremely* dirty work, wildlife rehabilitation, and I literally have no choice but to bathe afterwards or I'll repulse everyone around me, and myself, and I'd likely get some kind of disease...so, I have to shower and wash my hair regularly.

That said, I use vinegar or nothing 4-5x a week, just rinse my hair, and 2 days a week I use baking soda and then vinegar in my hair.

OH!

On frizzy hair days I use a tiny bit of coconut oil to restore the shine and add some weight.