Hey, a public post. Possibly because I'm preachy about this subject.
So, it's been about a year since I quit washing my face with soap, and I stopped using shampoo and conditioner. I started OCM (the oil cleansing method, used on one's face) about a week after no 'poo, at Rosie's suggestion. Essentially, we both started at the same time, which was convenient because we had an immediate "Oh, have you done this, how's your hair today?" sort of way to trade ideas or mark progress.
First, I guess, I will talk about going no shampoo/conditioner. Throughout college, I'd been slowly working my way toward actually shampooing and conditioning probably once every four to five days. While in Japan last year, I stumbled across the no poo community here on livejournal and was intrigued. I decided to try it when I got home from Japan.
My reasons for going off shampoo and conditioner were not so much based on a conviction that my hair would look or feel better, but that it would be better for the environment. I don't know if everyone here is familiar with the term "voluntary simplicity" but it's a goal I like to work toward. ... as much as I can while being obsessed with technology and loving television. :P With this in mind, I stopped using shampoo and conditioner.
The original "no poo" method is this - get yourself a cup of water and put a tablespoon of baking soda (BS) in it. Work the solution into your hair and then rinse it out. Next, get another cup of water and put a tablespoon of a apple cider vinegar (ACV) and put it in this cup, and pour it on your head, like your did the previous cup. Rinse. Some say you have to rinse out the BS with warm water and the ACV with cold/lukewarm water, but I haven't found that it made a considerable difference either way unless I'm trying to go water only... but more on that later.
I made the mistake of trying not to use baking soda and substituted with sea salt instead for my first couple weeks. It was pretty awful. My hair looked greasy and I kept it up constantly. When Rosie looked at me like I was crazy and told me to just use BS instead of sea salt, all my problems went away. I don't know if the sea salt era hid my "detox" period or not, but I experienced no detox period and I've been going strong ever since. My hair looks, smells, and feels as good as it ever did.
That said, most people, I understand, seem to experience some sort of period where their hair is much greasier than it was while using shampoo/conditioner. Awhile ago, Rosie posted to the no poo community, the following tip that caught my eye - use the BS solution until your hair feels SLIPPERY! And then rinse it out ASAP.
I knew this unconsciously, because it's exactly what I had noticed, but I didn't actually realize it was something worth pointing out. My hair was only ever lank and terrible when I didn't use enough of the BS solution, so it dried looking dull. If your hair is turning out badly, perhaps this is the reason.
One of the goals of many people not using shampoo/conditioner is to eventually work toward "water only," which is exactly as it sounds, only ever washing your hair with water. I originally thought this was my goal, too, but even though I can go two weeks between a BS/ACV rinse now, I realize I'm always going to want to wash my hair with SOMETHING because the downfall of water only is that your BRUSH is what's keeping your hair clean.
That said, I do have a couple tips for water only people - I've tried water only and made it up to 15 days without washing my hair with anything but water. Two weeks is, for people curious, the usual crashing point for water only. Your hair gets really greasy at this point, so if you're unwilling to weather this through, don't try it. First off, RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO WASH YOUR HAIR EVERYDAY! This dries out your hair (ironically, all the water in the world, and yet...) and effectively strips your scalp of the oils you're trying to keep by not using shampoo! Secondly, you don't want to use scalding hot water. You want to use WARM water while your wash your hair and, once you think you're about done, you want to rinse your hair with as close to cold water as you can stand.
The cold water is CRUCIAL, especially so for girls that like to leave their hair down. Warm water rinses only allowed me to feel clean, but I have to tie my hair back, but cold water lets my hair look presentable while let down...
Anyway, I should make CLEAR that I'm not a water only follower, it's just something that I ALMOST am, since I've reached this crazy point of washing my hair with something other than water twice a month.
My current hair routine is as follows:
The solutions:
1 teaspoon of BS/250ML
1 teaspoon of ACV/250 ML with a drop of honey
It takes me about a month to go through 250 ML, so I use 1 teaspoon of BS and ACV in a month. It's kind of awesome.
Day 1: Wash thoroughly with BS and ACV rinses. Wash the BS out with warm water and the ACV out with nearly cold water. Put my hair up in my shower cap while I finish showering.
Day 5 or 6 or 7: When my hair starts feeling unbearble, wash my hair with water only, warm and cold water.
Every two or three days after this, I wash my hair with water only until I feel like I can't take it anymore and then I start over with day 1. The whole cycle is about two weeks.
The other thing I mentioned earlier is that I stopped washing my face with soap around the same time as I stopped using shampoo and conditioner. I've always had good skin, so once again, my main motivation in stopping using soap on my face was that it might be a more natural way of life that is also cheaper to live.
The OCM, oil cleansing method, is as follows: first, buy castor oil (CO) and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). MIX! Most people start with a mixture of 50% CO and 50% EVOO. The castor oil is supposed to do the actual cleaning of your face, while the olive oil moisturizes. Anyway, you take this mixture and rub it into your face, take a really hot face cloth and steam the oil off. When you're done, wash your face (gently!!!) with the cloth to catch any excess oil and splash cold water on your face to close your pores.
So, I started out at a 50-50 mix, but nowadays, I use a mixture that is 25% castor oil and 75% olive oil. After a year of this, I have discovered a few things.
#1 - I don't think CO is necessary to the OCM method. The truth is, water is drying to our skin overall, so people who use 100% EVOO tend to get the best results. I stick with using 25% CO because it makes me feel better, but I'm not sure it really makes that much of a difference.
#2 - Scrubbing your face is bad!!! I've never seen such a drastic difference in my skin as when I stopped rubbing my face with a wash cloth at all. Even "gently" washing it with a cloth is too harsh and I'll start breaking out. My face washing method now consists of lying a wet cloth on my face and pressing my hands over the cloth trying very hard not to move the cloth at all. Same thing when drying, I try not to let the towel move across my face because this ultimately damages my skin. When they say gently wash your face, they mean it! Even if you don't quit using soap on your face, consider not scrubbing quite so hard. Even with my clear skin, I saw improvements.
#3 - This should be obvious, but pin your hair back. Your bangs and flyaways will get unnecessarily greasy if you don't.
#4 - Like with no poo, OCM shouldn't be used daily. I now do OCM only on the days I do my no poo BS/ACV washes. I'm only using water on my face the rest of the time, and I see no noticeable difference in my skin.
As perhaps a natural extension of stopping soap usage on my face, I similarly bought JASON's non-SLS body wash, but ALSO I only use it once every two weeks (along with OCM and BS/ACV). For the interim between, I don't use any products, and I feel the same as I always have. By cutting down on the amount of product I use, never mind making an effort at voluntary simplicity, I feel like I'm really working to decrease my gigantic environmental footprint (damn you, technology and overseas flights and other such death!). At the very least, I'm proving that we really don't need to spend thousands on these stupid beauty care products we all use.
I think Ellen said it best, really, when I noted that while I shower briefly everyday, I don't use soap or anything, just water, and she said, "Well, water everyday is more than people have been doing for centuries." I feel just as clean as I always have, and I'm spending less than 1/10th of what I used to spend. Overall, I would count my case as a success.
This all said, I want to stress that you have to have an open mind about your state of cleanliness to go into this. If you go into it expecting it to fail, it will (though, of course, the opposite isn't always true), and if you just don't think water short of boiling is CLEAN ENOUGH, you'll have a lot of trouble adapting to the idea of not using something antiseptic (in which case, buy yourself some tea tree oil and stick a few drops of it into everything, but BE CAREFUL as with all things antiseptic, it's very drying!). But if you're willing to say, "Okay, so I've used soaps and shampoos my whole life, but I could be wrong," I highly recommend these methods. I'm not making the claim that you'll look fantastic, that you'll feel healthier or that your life will be dramatically improved, but I am saying that you'll help the environment by using less products, and that you'll probably feel around the same level of clean as before if you're patient and willing to adapt.
[later] dur, I can't believe I forgot to mention, but if you have HARD WATER you're going to have try something else. Most people opt for salt water and ACV, but I have no personal experience on the subject... The baking soda makes your hair unbelievably gunky, though I'm not sure how hard water + OCM does. Virginia, as a state, though, seems to have pretty good water for these methods (with varying degrees of water hardness), though, as someone who's experimented in NoVA, Charlottesville, and Richmond.
P.S. COMPLETELY UNRELATED but I saw Stardust the movie for the first time on my plane flight over to America and it was good, up until the end, which was just a disaster, but the real point is I about fell over laughing when Ricky Gervais' character said "Is he 'avin' a laugh???" That was classic. XD
First, I guess, I will talk about going no shampoo/conditioner. Throughout college, I'd been slowly working my way toward actually shampooing and conditioning probably once every four to five days. While in Japan last year, I stumbled across the no poo community here on livejournal and was intrigued. I decided to try it when I got home from Japan.
My reasons for going off shampoo and conditioner were not so much based on a conviction that my hair would look or feel better, but that it would be better for the environment. I don't know if everyone here is familiar with the term "voluntary simplicity" but it's a goal I like to work toward. ... as much as I can while being obsessed with technology and loving television. :P With this in mind, I stopped using shampoo and conditioner.
The original "no poo" method is this - get yourself a cup of water and put a tablespoon of baking soda (BS) in it. Work the solution into your hair and then rinse it out. Next, get another cup of water and put a tablespoon of a apple cider vinegar (ACV) and put it in this cup, and pour it on your head, like your did the previous cup. Rinse. Some say you have to rinse out the BS with warm water and the ACV with cold/lukewarm water, but I haven't found that it made a considerable difference either way unless I'm trying to go water only... but more on that later.
I made the mistake of trying not to use baking soda and substituted with sea salt instead for my first couple weeks. It was pretty awful. My hair looked greasy and I kept it up constantly. When Rosie looked at me like I was crazy and told me to just use BS instead of sea salt, all my problems went away. I don't know if the sea salt era hid my "detox" period or not, but I experienced no detox period and I've been going strong ever since. My hair looks, smells, and feels as good as it ever did.
That said, most people, I understand, seem to experience some sort of period where their hair is much greasier than it was while using shampoo/conditioner. Awhile ago, Rosie posted to the no poo community, the following tip that caught my eye - use the BS solution until your hair feels SLIPPERY! And then rinse it out ASAP.
I knew this unconsciously, because it's exactly what I had noticed, but I didn't actually realize it was something worth pointing out. My hair was only ever lank and terrible when I didn't use enough of the BS solution, so it dried looking dull. If your hair is turning out badly, perhaps this is the reason.
One of the goals of many people not using shampoo/conditioner is to eventually work toward "water only," which is exactly as it sounds, only ever washing your hair with water. I originally thought this was my goal, too, but even though I can go two weeks between a BS/ACV rinse now, I realize I'm always going to want to wash my hair with SOMETHING because the downfall of water only is that your BRUSH is what's keeping your hair clean.
That said, I do have a couple tips for water only people - I've tried water only and made it up to 15 days without washing my hair with anything but water. Two weeks is, for people curious, the usual crashing point for water only. Your hair gets really greasy at this point, so if you're unwilling to weather this through, don't try it. First off, RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO WASH YOUR HAIR EVERYDAY! This dries out your hair (ironically, all the water in the world, and yet...) and effectively strips your scalp of the oils you're trying to keep by not using shampoo! Secondly, you don't want to use scalding hot water. You want to use WARM water while your wash your hair and, once you think you're about done, you want to rinse your hair with as close to cold water as you can stand.
The cold water is CRUCIAL, especially so for girls that like to leave their hair down. Warm water rinses only allowed me to feel clean, but I have to tie my hair back, but cold water lets my hair look presentable while let down...
Anyway, I should make CLEAR that I'm not a water only follower, it's just something that I ALMOST am, since I've reached this crazy point of washing my hair with something other than water twice a month.
My current hair routine is as follows:
The solutions:
1 teaspoon of BS/250ML
1 teaspoon of ACV/250 ML with a drop of honey
It takes me about a month to go through 250 ML, so I use 1 teaspoon of BS and ACV in a month. It's kind of awesome.
Day 1: Wash thoroughly with BS and ACV rinses. Wash the BS out with warm water and the ACV out with nearly cold water. Put my hair up in my shower cap while I finish showering.
Day 5 or 6 or 7: When my hair starts feeling unbearble, wash my hair with water only, warm and cold water.
Every two or three days after this, I wash my hair with water only until I feel like I can't take it anymore and then I start over with day 1. The whole cycle is about two weeks.
The other thing I mentioned earlier is that I stopped washing my face with soap around the same time as I stopped using shampoo and conditioner. I've always had good skin, so once again, my main motivation in stopping using soap on my face was that it might be a more natural way of life that is also cheaper to live.
The OCM, oil cleansing method, is as follows: first, buy castor oil (CO) and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). MIX! Most people start with a mixture of 50% CO and 50% EVOO. The castor oil is supposed to do the actual cleaning of your face, while the olive oil moisturizes. Anyway, you take this mixture and rub it into your face, take a really hot face cloth and steam the oil off. When you're done, wash your face (gently!!!) with the cloth to catch any excess oil and splash cold water on your face to close your pores.
So, I started out at a 50-50 mix, but nowadays, I use a mixture that is 25% castor oil and 75% olive oil. After a year of this, I have discovered a few things.
#1 - I don't think CO is necessary to the OCM method. The truth is, water is drying to our skin overall, so people who use 100% EVOO tend to get the best results. I stick with using 25% CO because it makes me feel better, but I'm not sure it really makes that much of a difference.
#2 - Scrubbing your face is bad!!! I've never seen such a drastic difference in my skin as when I stopped rubbing my face with a wash cloth at all. Even "gently" washing it with a cloth is too harsh and I'll start breaking out. My face washing method now consists of lying a wet cloth on my face and pressing my hands over the cloth trying very hard not to move the cloth at all. Same thing when drying, I try not to let the towel move across my face because this ultimately damages my skin. When they say gently wash your face, they mean it! Even if you don't quit using soap on your face, consider not scrubbing quite so hard. Even with my clear skin, I saw improvements.
#3 - This should be obvious, but pin your hair back. Your bangs and flyaways will get unnecessarily greasy if you don't.
#4 - Like with no poo, OCM shouldn't be used daily. I now do OCM only on the days I do my no poo BS/ACV washes. I'm only using water on my face the rest of the time, and I see no noticeable difference in my skin.
As perhaps a natural extension of stopping soap usage on my face, I similarly bought JASON's non-SLS body wash, but ALSO I only use it once every two weeks (along with OCM and BS/ACV). For the interim between, I don't use any products, and I feel the same as I always have. By cutting down on the amount of product I use, never mind making an effort at voluntary simplicity, I feel like I'm really working to decrease my gigantic environmental footprint (damn you, technology and overseas flights and other such death!). At the very least, I'm proving that we really don't need to spend thousands on these stupid beauty care products we all use.
I think Ellen said it best, really, when I noted that while I shower briefly everyday, I don't use soap or anything, just water, and she said, "Well, water everyday is more than people have been doing for centuries." I feel just as clean as I always have, and I'm spending less than 1/10th of what I used to spend. Overall, I would count my case as a success.
This all said, I want to stress that you have to have an open mind about your state of cleanliness to go into this. If you go into it expecting it to fail, it will (though, of course, the opposite isn't always true), and if you just don't think water short of boiling is CLEAN ENOUGH, you'll have a lot of trouble adapting to the idea of not using something antiseptic (in which case, buy yourself some tea tree oil and stick a few drops of it into everything, but BE CAREFUL as with all things antiseptic, it's very drying!). But if you're willing to say, "Okay, so I've used soaps and shampoos my whole life, but I could be wrong," I highly recommend these methods. I'm not making the claim that you'll look fantastic, that you'll feel healthier or that your life will be dramatically improved, but I am saying that you'll help the environment by using less products, and that you'll probably feel around the same level of clean as before if you're patient and willing to adapt.
[later] dur, I can't believe I forgot to mention, but if you have HARD WATER you're going to have try something else. Most people opt for salt water and ACV, but I have no personal experience on the subject... The baking soda makes your hair unbelievably gunky, though I'm not sure how hard water + OCM does. Virginia, as a state, though, seems to have pretty good water for these methods (with varying degrees of water hardness), though, as someone who's experimented in NoVA, Charlottesville, and Richmond.
P.S. COMPLETELY UNRELATED but I saw Stardust the movie for the first time on my plane flight over to America and it was good, up until the end, which was just a disaster, but the real point is I about fell over laughing when Ricky Gervais' character said "Is he 'avin' a laugh???" That was classic. XD