Going Shampoo-Free

'Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful', Indeed

By Marissa Sammy
April 1, 2007

Last year, I stopped shampooing my hair.

... Okay, let me back up a bit. When I was young, I used to have long, poker-straight hair, down to my elbows. When I was thirteen, I cut it all off; in their intense joy at no longer having to sustain all that weight, my hair cuticles went "Wheeeeee!" and instantly sproinged up into curls that have been with me ever since.

The problem was that my hair tended to get frizzy. I have thick, dark hair and so it would stand out from my head in a most unflattering triangle formation that drove me insane. Pulling it back resulted in a lot of breakage, and shorter hairs would slip free and make an awful squiggly halo around my hairline. It was a mess.

I longed for sleek, stylish hair that looked shiny and smart, but I am strictly a wash-and-go type of girl and never cared for messing around with blow-driers and straightening irons. So I decided to try defining my curls, which led to extensive experimentation with all manner of creams, lotions, conditioners, serums, and masques. None of them helped. They were prohibitively expensive or they gave my hair a horrendous oily, weighed-down look.

Compounding all this were two things: despite being dry and frizzy at the front, my hair tended to get greasy right at the crown; and during my X-Men phase, I thought Psylocke's hair was the coolest thing ever and dyed my hair purple. If you have dark hair, you know that you have to bleach it out first in order for any colour to take, so that's what I did. Multiple times. Which left me with a headful of thin, unbearably brittle and bushy hair that tended to form itself into a misshapen purple afro.

So this is the glorious state I was in last year — overprocessed, tangly hair that tended to lank greasiness in the back and unmanageable frizz in the front. Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf frizz (and for those of you unfamiliar with the show, let me just say that one of Rimmer's nicknames is "Old Toilet-Brush-Head"). Frustrated with my godawful hair and the array of conditioners and shampoos I owned, I decided to go shampoo-free.

I had already done this, in a sense, by taking the advice of a fellow curly-head and washing my hair with conditioner, which contains enough soap in it to get your hair clean while preserving moisture. This had worked for a while, but then my hair started feeling as though it was coated with shortening and I couldn't stand it.

But the new method offered what seemed like a good alternative: washing your hair with baking soda.

It seemed strange at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Baking soda had fabulous cleansing properties, neutralized odour, absorbed grease, and best of all was cheap and environmentally friendly. I gave it a go and from the very first wash, was impressed with the softness, thickness, and bounce of my hair afterward; it felt as though I'd just used a clarifying shampoo, but one that didn't leave my hair feeling thin and weak. I kept using the stuff, washing every other day, and my hair began to improve. My hair formed thick, perfect curls without any product, and the problematic limp hair at the crown of my head fluffed up of its own accord. Finally, my hair had body at the top and control near the ends, instead of the other way around! Plus, it air-dries beautifully, which is a huge plus.

A few of my friends and family have tried it, with mixed results; my sister found it didn't work for her longer hair, and my mother tried it because she's found her hair getting stiff as she gets older but was disturbed by the absence of lather. Some friends love it, some feel it didn't clean their hair enough. All of my friends with curls really love it, so I think anybody with problematic curls will probably find it beneficial. If you're black and have natural hair, it will probably make your hair more manageable as well (I'm ethnically Indo-Caribbean, so my hair is somewhat in-between) or at least be useful as a clarifying method, as detailed by MotownGirl.

If you're interested in the fine details of washing your hair with baking soda (with scientific talk about sulfates and alkalis, plus different suggestions for different hair-types and issues), check out this Shampoo-Free website.

For fellow curly-heads, I can't recommend this method of hair-cleaning strongly enough! I recently coloured my hair — with a regular drugstore brand, none of the strip-and-dye this time — and although my hair needs a little more moisturizing than before, the baking soda is still keeping it looking good. I'll finish off with my tried-and-true tips for dealing with curly hair without getting bushy:

- When cutting, be sure to angle the scissors/razor into your hair from the ends; uneven lengths form nicer curls.
- When drying your hair, scrunch with the towel instead of rubbing.
- If part of your hair gets greasy before the rest, wash just that part to avoid drying out other areas.
- If you're letting your hair air-dry, don't run your fingers through it! Pin it up if you think you might be tempted.

I hope this has encouraged some of you to try going shampoo-free; it won't cost you much, and if it works out for you, think of all the money, time, and energy you'll save in the future!