There is a trend that started online called "no-poo," that is slowly spreading to real life. Although the term "no-poo" might sound like something nasty, all it really means is "no-shampoo." The trend promotes washing hair without the use of shampoo and soap. Even more weirdly, a lot of the followers of this trend seem to be flaunting some fabulous looking hair, which begs the question - how do they manage to get hair like that without using shampoo? Let's find out.
According to an anonymous user on Reddit, washing their hair without shampoo has resulted in virtually no difference to how their hair looks like after taking a shower. Ever since the user stopped using shampoo, she has had no problems any odors or stains appearing on her pillowcase.
According to other users from the same Reddit thread, using shampoo on your hair and skin is highly toxic and potentially dangerous, which is why they decided to stop using any kind of shampoo and conditioner in their daily washing routine.
There are people that have an oily scalp or hair, that fear that their hair is going to look even worse once they stop using shampoo. The answer to this question is that your hair is oily due to the use of shampoo - if you stop using these chemicals for a few weeks, it's going to naturally become less oily.
Another user posted that they washed their hair only with water for the first 10 months, and everything was okay. Eventually, they experimented with washing their hair with sodium bicarbonate (or "baking soda"), and they claimed this improved their results even more.
Some of the people that responded to the online thread about not using shampoo, said that they skipped using sodium bicarbonate, and actually tried to wash their hair with an apple cider vinegar. They claimed the results of using vinegar were even better.
Some people are not willing to make choices - they want to have everything at once. Luckily, there is a solution for those people as well - just use a 1:1 mixture of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and apple cider vinegar and you will be all set.
An important aspect of going "no-poo," is to massage your head. The proper way to do this kind of massage is to stand in a warm shower, and to move your fingers through your hair and scalp, giving a slight massage as you go through the different areas of your head.
It seems that the root of the "no-poo" movement originated in the backpacker's community. Due to the limited amounts of funds and space backpackers have, they had to learn to pack lightly. That meant that they only washed their hair soaps that contained natural essential oils.
According to many different users that replied to the original no-poo Reddit thread, once they stopped using a shampoo, nothing bad happened to the quality of their hair or skin. In fact, they reported no problems with itching or having a dried scalp.
Even if you decide not to go full no-poo, you must remember that many people use way too much shampoo on a weekly basis. For most people that don't sweat a lot, just washing your hair twice per week could be enough to keep your hair and scalp healthy.
There have been a lot of girls in the past few years that have undergone no-poo experiments. Take for example Aimee's experiment. You can see how dull and oily her hair looked like on Day 15, but once everything stabilized, her hair looked great again (without washing it) on Day 30.
Aimee (the girl from the previous picture) logged her results in a diary every week for the full duration of her no-poo experiment. For the first week, she wrote that her hair was very greasy, and even washing it with apple cider vinegar wasn't much of an improvement.
For the second week, Aimee eventually broke down and bought herself some castile soap (the bar, not the liquid) in order to wash her hair and better distribute the oils. She said that that helped tremendously, and even her husband noticed the results.
For the third week of her experiment, Aimee noted that she is 100% sold on the idea of going no-poo. She wrote. "I don't think I'll ever buy a bottle of shampoo again." This is a similar reaction to what a lot of other girls have felt once they tried washing with apple cider vinegar.
Lisa is another girl that went on a 30-day no-poo experiment. As you can see from her photos, she had similar results to Aimee. In her case, on Day 15, her hair didn't even look as oily or dull, which means she had an even easier time adjusting to this new washing routine.
