Welcome back to an other episode of my health tips and tricks! Today I want to write about the health of our hair!
Are you a shampoo user? Most probably you are. We grow up thinking shampoo is necessary for us to clean our hair. We don't question it.
We start with our children.
When I sometimes visit baths with my baby-boy, I always feel kind of sad when I see how the mothers rub shampoo in their children's hair and the children gets shampoo in her or his eyes, cries out loud from the pain. It is very hurtful to get shampoo in your eyes, I think we all can agree on that.
If you knew it wasn't necessary to use shampoo for your children's hair, would you continue with it?
Probably not.
Our hair produce natural oils too and as long as you don't disturb this natural balance for your hair, it will be just fine. I haven't used shampoo for my boy's hair. Not even once. And he has the healthiest and most beautiful hair possible.
What happens when we apply shampoo to our hair?
When we start to use shampoo, we literally damage our hairs natural balance. We think we do something good for our hair and that we need shampoo to get our hair healthy, good smelling and clean.
What happens? Our hair will produce more oils and some people gets dandruff or dry scalp and hair. We also get unhealthy and weak hair. (At least many of us).
The stronger shampoos you use (more chemicals), the more you will need these shampoos.
My hair is long and I always wanted it to get even longer.
My story. Why I stopped using shampoo and what happened.
First of all, I always wanted to have long thick hair. My problem was that my hair always got very oily and I needed to wash it every second day or at least 2 times a week. I used only natural and organic shampoos but however, I always had a dry scalp and oily hair.
I tried some different no-poo methods but didn't like them very much. Than I read about someone who only used water to wash her hair and I was like: wow, I have to try this out!
This must be the most natural way to wash my hair I thought. I was overwhelmed and started trying it out immediately. I didn't do must research in forehand (I should have done it though. That would save a lot of frustration.), and was shocked from the amount of oils my hair was producing.
No shampoo - only water. What happens?
So what happened when I stopped using shampoo was that my hair started overproduce oils.
**Our hair needs oil and when we wash it out we often add some coconut oil, argan oil or olive oil to get that healthy and good looking hair.
So why not to keep the natural produced oils in our hair to get that next hair level? **
It is all marketing guys. And cultural believes I guess.
Do we need shampoo with different kind of chemicals as sulfates and silicone? Sulfates takes away the natural oil our hair produces and cause dryness. And when the hair loses their natural oil it overproduce oils. And than we are back again with washing our hair with shampoo. And so on.
If you don't know what happens when we use conditioners containing silicone, make a small research and you will find it out.😊
When we stop using any shampoo, our hair will try to find back to it's natural state with a low amount of oil production and a normal scalp.
This may take some weeks. During these weeks you will have a challenging time with very oily hair. But it will get better soon. So just keep on believing and make your research on the internet how to practice this only water method in the best way.
What you need to get started.
- A good hair brush. I can recommend a vegan paddle brush.
- wide toothed comb.
- warm and cold water.
How to?
How I wash my hair with water only.
- I wait until my hair looks and feels to oily and I feel I need to wash it. Once a week most of the time.
- First I massage my scalp for a couple of minutes to activate the blood circulation and to lose dirt and oils from the scalp.
- I pull my fingers with some hair in between from my scalp to the hair tops, to get the oil from the scalp in all my hair.
- Than I start brushing my hair until all the dirt and lose hair is gone.
*I wash my hair with warm, almost hot water while rubbing and massaging my scalp. I make sure I wash my hair from the scalp to the tops to get out as much dirt as possible. - when I finish I wash my hair very quick in ice-cold water.
- To dry my hair I use a cotton towel or shirt (yea it is kind to your hair.) And than I let it air-dry.
- When my hair is still damp I use my wooden wide toothed comb, starting at the ends and working my way up (Be gently because your hair is fragile when it's wet).
- Style and done!
- I wash my brush every time after using it because it absorbs a lot of oils and dust. And I don't want to have that in my hair the next time I use the brush. Clean the brush with very hot water and maybe any soap, and than wash it out with cold water. I let it dry on a warm place until the next time day.
So simple and a easy way to bring your hair to the next level.
I have used this method for some years now ( I started before I got pregnant) and it works very well for me.
My hair is long, strong, healthy and smells good!
If you got any questions, please let me know!
I am looking forward to all your feedback on this method!
Love, Niina
I have given up shampoo but my hair is very thick and curly so I'm still using conditioner to get the tangles out but maybe I dont need it. Ill give it a try thanks for this.
You could try it out and see if it works for you. You may want to use some oil for your curls. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Love, Niina
Tried the no poo method before but it wasn't for me. Using natural shampoo now. Maybe I should give it another go!
Yea I know it is challenging the first week's and that can be kind of scary. But if you realky want to only use water it will work after a while! Just don't give it up!😉I have tried different no poo methods but tjis is the only one I really like.💓Happy sunday dear Amy 😚
very interesting method! I try to wash my hair max twice a week and only use "natural" shampoo but maybe I should give it a try with your way!
That would be great Ken! Give it a try, nothing to lose here;)
You do have amazing hair. I will definetly start doing this now :) I got so motivated after talking to you about it.
I will look up that brush and see if I can buy one.
Thank you for writing this. It really is a game changer in my hair care :)
Yea I hope I could inspire you to try it out some weeks and see how it works for you!
I sure will :)
My hair is really really oily, like "i have to wash it everyday"-oily, and because of that I do end up washing it every day. But I desperately want to break out of this cycle, so will surely give this a try.
How bad is the first week? and When does your hair get used to it?? Thanks for sharing :)
If your hair already is so oily and you have to wash it every day, it will not get much more worse than that the first weeks. Your hair produces a lot of oil because you are washing it to often, so it produces just more every day. I think this only water method could work great for you. I have a similar problem with my hair and not it is much better and I am feeling happy about my hair. Let me know if you have some more questions and if you try it out!;) Good luck!
Yay i love this and have always wanted to try. I never knew your hair had to balance out after quitting the poo. I am so bad at breaking my hair by brushing when wet i really need to look after it. I want to do this!
Wow thats great hun! I would love to get your feedback on this and tell me how it is going for you!;)There are so many things we dont understnad about our body, but we can re-discover a lot of knowledge we actually have!
It's the same when you start thinking about a lot of things & start wondering "why do we even do this" and begin to realize some of the things we do without thinking about them are really strange lol, like washing our hair with chemicals & having the chemicals go down the drain. Loads of un-learning to do :)
Yea so true! I also stopped with deodorant and shower gel and creams for my skin and so on some years ago for the same reason. We need to re-think our actions a lot sometimes!😉👌
I feel this is an article for women? I'm not but I did like your article, very well written!
Welcome!
I wish you all the best.
Feel free to check out my blog @maxdigi, this way we can support each other!
Cheers
maxidigi
Thank you so much! I have updated it now, this only water method works for men and women;)
Have a great weekend! Will check out your blog now!
Love, Niina
welcome to the club, vegan.niinja
Aww thanks for your warm welcome dear!💟Happy to meet you here!😊🙏
I've been hearing stories about people not using shampoo and having healthier hair than people that use shampoos but I never decided to try it myself.I use two types of shampoos one body and one for hair but after this post I need to be very careful.
Thank you for contributing to the Steemit Community.Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to your next posts.
Thanks for these words. I am always so grateful when I can inspire someone.💕You can make some research one the no poo movement if that interests you. I actually never use any soap or shower gel or deodorants. Maybe I should make one more blog post about that. And for my skin I only use virgin coconut oil. Nothing else. 👌💓Good night dear, have to go to sleep😉
You have my support if you ever decide to make a blog post about that.I'm so amazed on how you do all those things, its really impressive = )
Thank you so much! I am so glad you like what I do!;)
Have you ever considered lemon juice and baking soda for hair washing?
I have tried that a few times actually but it didn't work so well for my hair. I got a dry scalp and it was more like when I used shampoo. But everyone has to find a way for them self that works. For me it is the only water method! 😊
It is pretty funny how many things, the industry persuaded majorities about, that they need them. Shampoo is just most highlighted product.
Thats so true. Hope we all can change out belives about products like shampoo.
i missed this post but something i been thinking about for a while. I actually just wash my heair with organic shampoo once a week by the end of the week when my hair is oily its normally itchy and uncomfortable and i feel like i need something that is soapy to relieve the discomfort i really massage my head alot and then it feels fresh, i dont add much oils to my hair (sometime coocnut) but sometimes nothing because it gets too greasy too quickly after extra oil and my hair is normally balanced otherwise. it would save me money to try what u said so i'll give it ago!
I hope you do so! It really might work for you! But be aware that your hair probably will look and feel very greasy at the beginning, the first few days or even weeks. For me it tooked quite a long time to really find what worked for me, but now I have my ruitine and I am happy with the result. I now only wash my hair brush once a week as I have noticed that it works better than to wash it every day, and it saves me some time and energy. I just crean away the hair and dust from the brush before brushing my hair with it, and than clean it the same day as I clean my hair. To massage your head is great and important to keep your hair strong and alive. And oil for the tops if just needed sometimes if you dont have oily hair.;) Good luck with testing this only water method out!!