Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

Ok, so, there's this whole thing about the beauty industry being bad, no one makes sure the ingredients in beauty supplies are safe, yadda yadda. And along with that are people who are now rejecting shampoo.

Whatever, I don't really care. It's your hair, do whatever you want with it, right?

Except, ok. My head itches. ALL THE TIME. I've been checked for dandruff, negative. I've been checked for lice, negative. I've been checked for fleas, even. Negative. There's no obvious reason why my scalp should be itchy. So I decided to detective myself, and realized that it's only my head, no where else. Well, what happens to my head that doesn't happen anywhere else? Shampoo and conditioner. I don't use any other products in my hair, no hairspray or mousse or spiky gel, nothing. I put coconut oil on it sometimes, but the itchiness doesn't seem to care whether there's coconut oil on it or not. I've tried several different shampoos, from Garnier Fructis to Herbal Essence to Suave. It itched with all of them.

So I started researching what ingredients in shampoo that I might be allergic to, or that might be irritating to some people. And the one that all the websites in the world are whining about is Sodium Laurel Sulfate. It's apparently Satan. So I decided to give sulfate-free shampoo a shot. Lo'real has a line of it.

So I went and got some of that stuff, and after a few uses, my hair is shiny, bouncy, healthy... and itchy.

The only other thing I could think of that's making it itch is the perfume in shampoos. They are all highly scented, and I have had problems before with perfumes. I would squirt some on my forearms and go to school when I was in high school, and by lunchtime my arms would be so red from me scratching at them that someone would think I got attacked by a rabid house cat.

So that makes sense, right? I have a history of having problems with perfume, and all shampoos seem to have a perfume of sorts in them. So what do?

Ok, so how to get clean hair without using shampoo? Shampoo didn't even exist when our great-grandmothers were alive, and their hair looks all right in all their photos. It's not like it was just hanging there dirty, greasy, and limp all day. There's got to be a shampoo-less way to clean it.

And there is! The No 'Poo method. According to the internet (and all its infallible sources,) to do the No 'Poo, you wash your hair with baking soda and water and then condition your hair with vinegar and water.

Ok, that would eliminate the perfume and the other chemicals and maybe stop driving me insane with this itch problem. But I can see a couple of other problems arising.

First and foremost, I HATE VINEGAR. My stepmother used to use it to clean everything, she used to drink it in a glass, and it made me so nauseous. That smell is positively wretched. Wretched and vile! No Poo sources all say that when your hair dries, the vinegar smell dissipates. (Except one source, the Pioneer Woman. She didn't go all No Poo, but she did do a vinegar rinse and she claims that her hair smells lightly of pickles.)

Second and secondmost, my hair and skin are naturally dry and sensitive, which means I have to sometimes use things to un-dry them. For my hair, this is coconut oil. It's very moisturizing. But I very much doubt that if I put coconut oil (or any other moisturizing oil) in my hair and then try to wash it with baking soda, the baking soda is going to be strong enough or clarifying enough to get the coconut oil out. Ick.

Third and thirdmost, there seems to be a period of time when you first transition into no poo'ing in which your hair is a greasy disgusting mess. Apparently, (again from "infallible" internet sources) this is because since shampoo strips out natural oils, your hair compensates by making more oil. Then when you suddenly stop stripping out the oils because you're using a gentle baking soda wash, your hair still overcompensates and makes too much oil for awhile. I've read people who claim it took two months for their hair to stop looking awful. Ok, if I was still unemployed, I MIGHT be game to try something that made me look like I hadn't bathed in weeks. But I actually have to go to work and see people every day. People would start getting suspicious if I wore a hat every day for two months. Besides, that's just one person's experience. What if it took me a year? Yeah, no.

Fourth and fourthmost, I never worried that my hair might naturally smell bad. Until now! What if shampoos are perfumed because hair is not a nice smell? What if people smell like wet dogs naturally, without a bit of help from the shampoo industry?

So anyways. Help.

Ok, so, there's this whole thing about the beauty industry being bad, no one makes sure the ingredients in beauty supplies are safe, yadda yadda. And along with that are people who are now rejecting shampoo.

Whatever, I don't really care. It's your hair, do whatever you want with it, right?

Except, ok. My head itches. ALL THE TIME. I've been checked for dandruff, negative. I've been checked for lice, negative. I've been checked for fleas, even. Negative. There's no obvious reason why my scalp should be itchy. So I decided to detective myself, and realized that it's only my head, no where else. Well, what happens to my head that doesn't happen anywhere else? Shampoo and conditioner. I don't use any other products in my hair, no hairspray or mousse or spiky gel, nothing. I put coconut oil on it sometimes, but the itchiness doesn't seem to care whether there's coconut oil on it or not. I've tried several different shampoos, from Garnier Fructis to Herbal Essence to Suave. It itched with all of them.

So I started researching what ingredients in shampoo that I might be allergic to, or that might be irritating to some people. And the one that all the websites in the world are whining about is Sodium Laurel Sulfate. It's apparently Satan. So I decided to give sulfate-free shampoo a shot. Lo'real has a line of it.

So I went and got some of that stuff, and after a few uses, my hair is shiny, bouncy, healthy... and itchy.

The only other thing I could think of that's making it itch is the perfume in shampoos. They are all highly scented, and I have had problems before with perfumes. I would squirt some on my forearms and go to school when I was in high school, and by lunchtime my arms would be so red from me scratching at them that someone would think I got attacked by a rabid house cat.

So that makes sense, right? I have a history of having problems with perfume, and all shampoos seem to have a perfume of sorts in them. So what do?

Ok, so how to get clean hair without using shampoo? Shampoo didn't even exist when our great-grandmothers were alive, and their hair looks all right in all their photos. It's not like it was just hanging there dirty, greasy, and limp all day. There's got to be a shampoo-less way to clean it.

And there is! The No 'Poo method. According to the internet (and all its infallible sources,) to do the No 'Poo, you wash your hair with baking soda and water and then condition your hair with vinegar and water.

Ok, that would eliminate the perfume and the other chemicals and maybe stop driving me insane with this itch problem. But I can see a couple of other problems arising.

First and foremost, I HATE VINEGAR. My stepmother used to use it to clean everything, she used to drink it in a glass, and it made me so nauseous. That smell is positively wretched. Wretched and vile! No Poo sources all say that when your hair dries, the vinegar smell dissipates. (Except one source, the Pioneer Woman. She didn't go all No Poo, but she did do a vinegar rinse and she claims that her hair smells lightly of pickles.)

Second and secondmost, my hair and skin are naturally dry and sensitive, which means I have to sometimes use things to un-dry them. For my hair, this is coconut oil. It's very moisturizing. But I very much doubt that if I put coconut oil (or any other moisturizing oil) in my hair and then try to wash it with baking soda, the baking soda is going to be strong enough or clarifying enough to get the coconut oil out. Ick.

Third and thirdmost, there seems to be a period of time when you first transition into no poo'ing in which your hair is a greasy disgusting mess. Apparently, (again from "infallible" internet sources) this is because since shampoo strips out natural oils, your hair compensates by making more oil. Then when you suddenly stop stripping out the oils because you're using a gentle baking soda wash, your hair still overcompensates and makes too much oil for awhile. I've read people who claim it took two months for their hair to stop looking awful. Ok, if I was still unemployed, I MIGHT be game to try something that made me look like I hadn't bathed in weeks. But I actually have to go to work and see people every day. People would start getting suspicious if I wore a hat every day for two months. Besides, that's just one person's experience. What if it took me a year? Yeah, no.

Fourth and fourthmost, I never worried that my hair might naturally smell bad. Until now! What if shampoos are perfumed because hair is not a nice smell? What if people smell like wet dogs naturally, without a bit of help from the shampoo industry?

So anyways. Help.