It’s been 2 years now since I’ve used shampoo, just been rinsing with water only since. I’m no cosmetologist but my hair feels perfectly normal and healthy, and without telling him anything’s changed, my barber hasn’t been able to tell a difference. The first few weeks after stopping using shampoo my hair did get pretty greasy, but it eventually settled down and now it’s totally fine. Instead of stripping away the natural oils with shampoo and replacing them with the synthetic oils in conditioner, just let your natural oils come back. Granted, this doesn’t apply to everyone, I am lucky enough to have a hair type that I’m able to do this with.
lol that’s true but I should’ve said that I asked him how my scalp looks (since I can’t really look at it closely myself), and he said “yeah seems fine, maybe a little dry.” That is one thing that I noticed during the winter that dandruff got a little worse since skin dries out during the winter, but when it warms back up the dandruff dies down again. So again just to be clear, not everyone can stop using shampoo/conditioner especially if they have some kind of scalp condition, but for those people with the right hair type, it’s totally fine and really not a big deal at all. You don’t stink, your hair doesn’t smell like anything at all really (as long as you are still regularly taking showers, I’m not saying to stop taking showers lol).
My scalp condition is that I have too much hair. Too dense and thick, it gets greasy after not washing it 1 day, so I don’t even dare to replicate your experiment.
I also used to have a cold weather dandruff problem, but that was solved entirely when I started always air drying after every shower. Thanks to a random tip years ago on reddit. My dandruff problem was apparently because of humidity.
The adjustment period is real. I was showering twice a day when I stopped shampooing, because my hair (lots of it, but fine and not coarse) got greasy quick. After a few weeks, it normalized. I can shower once a day now. I still wash it by running my fingers and water through it over and over, so it doesn’t smell. I still have a somewhat dry scalp though, it didn’t really fix that. Don’t really have dandruff, but if I scratch my scalp a bunch or use a comb directly on it several times, I’ll have to rinse the dandruff out.
Potentially part of your issue is that you use shampoo, particularly if it’s really strong. Shampoo strips oil from your hair, which is why you need conditioner to add oil back. Your scalp naturally produces oil to protect your hair. If you strip it, particularly if you don’t replace it, your scalp will go crazy producing oil.
Eventually going no-poo this dies down as everything normalizes. For a little while, it’ll be pretty oily though. What I did many years ago is I went from washing with shampoo daily to every other day, to once or twice a week, reducing until I hit zero. Wash with water daily though. I also recommend trying conditioner washing as an alternative to transition as well. The oil in your hair will bind to the oil in the conditioner and clean your hair, but it doesn’t strip it dry. That’ll probably help reduce how much your scalp needs to produce.
Obviously it’s your hair. Everyone is different. This may not be something that can work for you, but you can’t know until you do some experiments. I wouldn’t assume it’s the case yet.
its been so long so i cant say for sure, but i feel like when my hair gets really sweaty its really obvious to me now as well, it feels like it was less obvious when i did actively shampoo and condition, but i’d have to test that one to be sure lol
I’ve been no-poo for many years now. I’ve had barbers ask me what I do to keep my hair so nice.
People shampoo to remove oils and then use conditioner to add oils. It doesn’t make sense, except once you view it through the lense of capitalism and them creating a need to sell you another product.
I mostly just wash with water daily, and about once every week to a month, whenever it feels like it needs to be done, I do a conditioner wash where I just use conditioner to clean my hair.
The same is true for shaving gels/creams. I wasn’t really sure what the point of my shaving cream was, only that my skin started to itch the next day if I used it. So I tried to shave without it and lo and behold, it’s fine without. I notice no difference in shaving, but my skin doesn’t itch anymore and I use 1 less product
I shave with a double edge razor and don’t usually do a clean shave, just clean up the edges of my facial hair, but yeah I don’t usually use that stuff either. It’s mostly not required. When I do do a clean shave I do use shave soap, but it’s also nicer quality than the cream or gel you’d buy in a store, with lanolin, tallow, and/or other oils added. It’s slightly more effort but if I’m going through the effort of a clean shave anyway I like to enjoy it.
Same, although I’ve been going for longer than two years. Honestly, I cant really remember when I stopped use shampoo. But if I don’t shower for a day, it starts looking a little greasy. I have lots of straight fine hair, run the water and my fingers through it rigorously in the shower, and then I come out, scrunch it with the towel (dont rub, it will break the hair fibers) and then air dry. Get compliments on my hair all the time.
As for smell, it just smells like hair. It can get slightly more pungent if I dont shower, but otherwise it just smells like me. Every once in a while I ask my full-poo GF to check if my hair smells because my own noseblindness, and she hasn’t told me to go shower yet.
Definitely when you go from poo to no-poo, your hair is extra greasy. I don’t know the science behind it, but it seems to over produce oils and takes a couple weeks to normalize. During that period I was showering once in the morning and once at night, again running my fingers and water through my hair for ~2-3 minutes straight. After a while my hair didnt get so greasy.
When I use soap or shampoo, my hair loses all of its body and shine doesn’t go back to normal for a day or so.
I imagine for some people this works, but for others it doesn’t. I do feel a little weird when people ask me what my “secret” is and I’m literally like “yeah just don’t wash it lol”
I don’t know the science behind it, but it seems to over produce oils and takes a couple weeks to normalize. During that period I was showering once in the morning and once at night, again running my fingers and water through my hair for ~2-3 minutes straight. After a while my hair didnt get so greasy.
i think it might just be that it “feels” greasy, as you move from using shampoo, to not, but as you move from not using shampoo to using shampoo, you’ll notice how dry your hair is after using it, and if you condition you’ll notice how “greasy” it is as well.
It’s been 2 years now since I’ve used shampoo, just been rinsing with water only since. I’m no cosmetologist but my hair feels perfectly normal and healthy, and without telling him anything’s changed, my barber hasn’t been able to tell a difference. The first few weeks after stopping using shampoo my hair did get pretty greasy, but it eventually settled down and now it’s totally fine. Instead of stripping away the natural oils with shampoo and replacing them with the synthetic oils in conditioner, just let your natural oils come back. Granted, this doesn’t apply to everyone, I am lucky enough to have a hair type that I’m able to do this with.
Your barber probably wouldn’t tell you if they think your hair is kinda gross unless it was so bad they wanted to reject you as a client.
lol that’s true but I should’ve said that I asked him how my scalp looks (since I can’t really look at it closely myself), and he said “yeah seems fine, maybe a little dry.” That is one thing that I noticed during the winter that dandruff got a little worse since skin dries out during the winter, but when it warms back up the dandruff dies down again. So again just to be clear, not everyone can stop using shampoo/conditioner especially if they have some kind of scalp condition, but for those people with the right hair type, it’s totally fine and really not a big deal at all. You don’t stink, your hair doesn’t smell like anything at all really (as long as you are still regularly taking showers, I’m not saying to stop taking showers lol).
My scalp condition is that I have too much hair. Too dense and thick, it gets greasy after not washing it 1 day, so I don’t even dare to replicate your experiment.
I also used to have a cold weather dandruff problem, but that was solved entirely when I started always air drying after every shower. Thanks to a random tip years ago on reddit. My dandruff problem was apparently because of humidity.
The adjustment period is real. I was showering twice a day when I stopped shampooing, because my hair (lots of it, but fine and not coarse) got greasy quick. After a few weeks, it normalized. I can shower once a day now. I still wash it by running my fingers and water through it over and over, so it doesn’t smell. I still have a somewhat dry scalp though, it didn’t really fix that. Don’t really have dandruff, but if I scratch my scalp a bunch or use a comb directly on it several times, I’ll have to rinse the dandruff out.
Potentially part of your issue is that you use shampoo, particularly if it’s really strong. Shampoo strips oil from your hair, which is why you need conditioner to add oil back. Your scalp naturally produces oil to protect your hair. If you strip it, particularly if you don’t replace it, your scalp will go crazy producing oil.
Eventually going no-poo this dies down as everything normalizes. For a little while, it’ll be pretty oily though. What I did many years ago is I went from washing with shampoo daily to every other day, to once or twice a week, reducing until I hit zero. Wash with water daily though. I also recommend trying conditioner washing as an alternative to transition as well. The oil in your hair will bind to the oil in the conditioner and clean your hair, but it doesn’t strip it dry. That’ll probably help reduce how much your scalp needs to produce.
Obviously it’s your hair. Everyone is different. This may not be something that can work for you, but you can’t know until you do some experiments. I wouldn’t assume it’s the case yet.
its been so long so i cant say for sure, but i feel like when my hair gets really sweaty its really obvious to me now as well, it feels like it was less obvious when i did actively shampoo and condition, but i’d have to test that one to be sure lol
I’m saying stop taking showers. But over there where you are, not near me.
I’ve been no-poo for many years now. I’ve had barbers ask me what I do to keep my hair so nice.
People shampoo to remove oils and then use conditioner to add oils. It doesn’t make sense, except once you view it through the lense of capitalism and them creating a need to sell you another product.
I mostly just wash with water daily, and about once every week to a month, whenever it feels like it needs to be done, I do a conditioner wash where I just use conditioner to clean my hair.
The same is true for shaving gels/creams. I wasn’t really sure what the point of my shaving cream was, only that my skin started to itch the next day if I used it. So I tried to shave without it and lo and behold, it’s fine without. I notice no difference in shaving, but my skin doesn’t itch anymore and I use 1 less product
I shave with a double edge razor and don’t usually do a clean shave, just clean up the edges of my facial hair, but yeah I don’t usually use that stuff either. It’s mostly not required. When I do do a clean shave I do use shave soap, but it’s also nicer quality than the cream or gel you’d buy in a store, with lanolin, tallow, and/or other oils added. It’s slightly more effort but if I’m going through the effort of a clean shave anyway I like to enjoy it.
ironically i prefer shaving in the shower without cream, it’s almost like women figured out something mildly useful in that regard…
how do you shave your face without a mirror?
with my hands.
your fingernails should not be used as razors.
well no i simply use a razor with my hands
You’ve saved me a good chunk of typing, thank you.
Same, although I’ve been going for longer than two years. Honestly, I cant really remember when I stopped use shampoo. But if I don’t shower for a day, it starts looking a little greasy. I have lots of straight fine hair, run the water and my fingers through it rigorously in the shower, and then I come out, scrunch it with the towel (dont rub, it will break the hair fibers) and then air dry. Get compliments on my hair all the time.
As for smell, it just smells like hair. It can get slightly more pungent if I dont shower, but otherwise it just smells like me. Every once in a while I ask my full-poo GF to check if my hair smells because my own noseblindness, and she hasn’t told me to go shower yet.
Definitely when you go from poo to no-poo, your hair is extra greasy. I don’t know the science behind it, but it seems to over produce oils and takes a couple weeks to normalize. During that period I was showering once in the morning and once at night, again running my fingers and water through my hair for ~2-3 minutes straight. After a while my hair didnt get so greasy.
When I use soap or shampoo, my hair loses all of its body and shine doesn’t go back to normal for a day or so.
I imagine for some people this works, but for others it doesn’t. I do feel a little weird when people ask me what my “secret” is and I’m literally like “yeah just don’t wash it lol”
i think it might just be that it “feels” greasy, as you move from using shampoo, to not, but as you move from not using shampoo to using shampoo, you’ll notice how dry your hair is after using it, and if you condition you’ll notice how “greasy” it is as well.