Hair Raising

I'd like to share with you my experience of changing my hair washing routine to something a little less chemical-laden.


Way back in early August I decided that I would like to reduce my use of plastics in the bathroom and decided that I'd give solid shampoo a go. For my birthday I'd had a selection of goodies from the Ethical Superstore, one of which was this small Lamazuna shampoo bar. I found this bar worked quite well for my hair, but it did leave it quite frizzy, but it felt clean. it is quite pricey at £9.99 and I knew that it would be out of my budget to use this all the time.

At the end of August, I had attended a simple soap making course, which used melt and pour soaps and you added the essential oils and exfoliants. I thoroughly enjoyed this, but after a bit more reading I realised that the chemicals in these soaps are basically the same as the mass-produced ones and I became more interested in truly hand made soaps that are SLS free. I plan to do a course on making these at some point. This made me realise that I needed to buy a natural solid shampoo bar to use to wash my hair.

I tried the Friendly shampoo bar - It's a good price and I knew it would last. However, with just the first application, my hair felt claggy and looked awful. I had heard about transition periods for using this type of shampoo and thought that after a few washes it would be fine. It wasn't! Then I tried Alter/Native shampoo bar and conditioner bar. At first, this seemed much better. The conditioning bar left a silky smooth coating and my hands felt great after using it. However after just two uses, my hair felt clogged up and straw-like - my husband even commented on how awful it looked and I ended up wearing it up all the time. I heard I needed to rinse it out really well and used an apple cider vinegar rinse, but it didn't really help. After a couple of weeks of my hair feeling awful I was getting completely sick and tired.

I began to read more about the experiences of other people and how some found that the transition period could last up to 6 weeks and those with short hair had fewer issues - I considered cutting my hair. Further reading, however, shed more light on the issues I was having - it was all down to the hardness of the water.

I live in an area where the water is slightly hard. This can have a massive impact on the effectiveness of natural soaps. In a soft water area, the soap will lather easily and be washed away without leaving build-up on the hair. In a hard water area, the soap does not lather as well - this is masked in commercial products bu SLS which is a chemical that makes the product lather, but also strips the hair/ body of its natural oils - making you need to wash it more. Hard water areas typically have a build-up of limescale and soaps do not lather - or rinse out easily. So there was nothing wrong with either of the shampoo bars I used - it's down to the type of water.

Further reading led to hear about those who advocated the 'no-poo' method of washing hair. This seems a ridiculous term, but I liked the idea. Some used just water, others shampoo bars and others used just apple cider vinegar rinse. Some people also used Bicarbonate of soda. So before trying yet another solid shampoo that may or may not work in our area, I decided to go for the simple option and use what I already had in the kitchen.

I have settled on a Bicarbonate of Soda wash every now and again and apple cider vinegar rinses in between. I mix the bicarb with warm filtered water and apply to my hair. letting it sit for a few minutes before rinsing it out with clean water. The ACV rinse is simply 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water, also applied to the hair and then rinsed after a few minutes.

Initially, my hair became quite greasy within about 3 days, but after a couple of weeks, I could last a whole week without washing my hair - tying it up for the last couple of days. I even managed to continue the regime on my holiday in Spain. The water there was super hard and as it was warm I needed to wash my hair a bit more often. So I'm 4 weeks in. I'm not convinced it this will be a long term option for me but at the moment it's working and my hair is in good condition.

I'd love your advice if you've been on this journey and have any pearls of wisdom to share.