My 'No Poo' Experience

'No Poo' is basically 'No Shampoo' and what it is is pretty much self-explanatory. It is intended to make your hair silky soft and lustrous and restore its natural shine which was stripped by the harsh chemicals that are used in shampoos. I have come across this during a conversation with a close one and thought, hmm..., maybe I should try it out.

My hair is horrible. It is rough, it is brittle and I suffer from a lot of breakage. Luckily though, my hair is really thick so the sight of it appearing as if it is thinning is impossible to notice. The tips of my hair is coloured therefore I couldn't avoid the dreadful dead ends that came with it. My hair is always frizzy. My scalp is painfully itchy, dry and flakey. It is just horrible overall.

I've struggled with this hair since I can remember. I would tie my hair up in a ponytail everyday just to hide the frizziness however my baby hairs would come out and it was just so annoying. I've tried many shampoos and leave in treatments said to give me 'silky shine'' and 'non-frizz' hair but it never seemed to work. From time to time I would straighten my hair but it takes FOREVER to completely straighten it. Straight up (no pun intended), one excruciating hour - sometimes two - because of the density of my hair (or just how badly damaged my hair already is).

I resorted to home remedies. Using a small amount of unrefined coconut oil to de-frizz my painfully stand out strands - and this was before I even dyed and bleached my hair twice. I showered every two to three days and blew dry my hair in low heat - pat drying with a towel beforehand. I stopped straightening my hair and only do it on special occasions. I showered my hair before I go to sleep and leave it to air dry overnight which resulted in a nice non-frizz, wavy hair that I liked.

The only wrongs that I can admit to is that I shower in extremely hot temperatures. I don't know if this is just a girl thing to do but I like feeling warm and relaxed. I also don't brush my hair... which is another major problem that has ended up giving me tangled strands, BUT to defend myself, brushing your hair makes you lose more hair and it damages your strands which I feared. The one thing I did to combat this is to use my fingers to detangle instead of using a brush. I feel brushes are really rough on my hair and creates static, causing my hair to frizz out.

I've been trying to revive my hair for so long and thought it would be the perfect time to start now with the 'No Poo' method during my time in quarantine.

THE START OF MY HAIR JOURNEY

On the first day of not using shampoo, my hair felt a little bit oily and matted however it somehow felt quite moisturised so I was happy with that. Over a couple of days of not showering my hair it became really oily and itchy and a plethora of dandruff started snowing down across my face which is extremely gross. So I rinsed my hair with lukewarm water and after drying it out, it still felt oily and itchy and dry. I miss not using shampoo and feeling clean.

In the first week I just could not stand how increasingly itchy my scalp was getting and how matted it looked and due to this, I had to tweak my routine a little bit so I started to shower my hair every second day or whenever I felt my hair was really oily and itchy and left it to airdry. I also added a little cheat - I started using the 'Coconut Miracle Oil' by OGX (bought it from Coles for around $21) and used a small amount to spread it throughout my hair evenly to the tips. This is, in a way, breaking the 'No Poo' but I find that the penetrative abilities of the oil paired with the sweet floral aroma of tiare and vanilla essence smoothed out my frizz and made it a lot easier to detangle my hair once it is dry.

After finishing my second week of 'No Poo', I've noticed that my scalp was not itchy anymore. There's only a bit of dandruff and my hair became smoother and less tangled. There's still a bit of reasonable oils on the top of my head and on the other hand, the tips of my hair is still dead and rough (remember how I dyed my hair?). My hair is starting to feel and look promising.

HAIR AFTER 30 DAYS

I am writing this after 2 months on being on 'No Poo'. So far my strands feel stronger and healthier even with a little bit of oil especially near the top of my head, however, my scalp is a problem. Again it is painfully itchy and every time I washed my hair there would still be stubborn leftover flakes of dandruff. Looking closely at my scalp, I've noticed how it is really dry and if you were to smudge a bit of my scalp, there would be dandruff coming off it. At this point, the only thing I need to heal is my scalp.

ANOTHER MONTH LATER

My hair was still the same as the last month. I felt like rinsing my hair with water isn't enough to take care of my scalp but I still stuck with the routine anyways until I sat with my mum and she asked about my hair - "What shampoo do you use?" To me, it sounded like she was asking -"What the hell did you do to your hair?" Obviously I told her what I was doing and she criticised me and said "Why not use shampoo once a week or once a month?"

I thought to myself - that's actually a good idea. Maybe all I needed to do was use an anti-dandruff shampoo once in a while and my scalp wouldn't feel so irritating. I was a bit hesitant at first because I've been loyal (questionably loyal considering I used the hair serum) to this 'No Poo' method that I didn't want to break the cycle but subsequently, I went shopping and bought myself a Palmolive Naturals Anti-dandruff 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner with tea tree oil and eucalyptus. I bought this product because one - it is cheap ASF (around $2 to $4 in Coles) and two - tea tree oil is my all time favourite ingredient that is antibacterial and is relieving.

I used this product in the shower, it's not foamy so I had to use a fair amount all over my scalp and I just left it in for a good 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes, I did notice some coolness of relief on my scalp and that felt heavenly. After rinsing it off and pat drying my hair to massage the Coconut Miracle Oil into my strands, I blow-dried my hair in low heat. Now the outcome...

I'm actually amazed. With only one time use, the dandruff is gone, my scalp doesn't feel itchy or oily at all and my hair is extremely SOFT. I've never felt my hair this soft in a long time.

FINAL WEEK

So I tried another week of implementing the shampoo and noticed a discrepancy between using it and not using it. When I used the shampoo with the hair serum, my hair is incredibly smooth and soft. On the other hand, rinsing with just water and adding the hair serum after didn't give me the same result as the shampoo did. My hair just felt a bit more clumpy and oily. I can imagine that I'd be given the same result if I didn't add the hair serum, considering how I started off the experiment, however, my scalp wasn't too itchy and there wasn't much flakes.

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?

Considering what I have told you so far, we both know what my thoughts are on the 'No Poo' method - I need shampoo. I felt like the 'No Poo' method for me was to give my hair a break and to heal from the damage that has been done to it, in order to prepare my hair to be taken care of properly. I still do lose a bit of hair, but not as much as I did before this experiment. I have noticed that my hair doesn't look as crazy as it used to be - frizzy and dry, now sleek and almost straighter.

I think what works best for me is to shower my hair at max three times per week and within one or two of those sessions I'll use the shampoo, just to help relieve my scalp and cleanse it.

I did hope at the end of this experiment that I would get that beautiful island girl hair but it was far from that. I don't think relying on 'No Poo' alone or even using shampoo would get me to that level. I believe a good healthy diet plays a big part in it such as getting enough collagen and biotin into your system to promote healthy growth not just to your hair but also to your skin and nails. Even including better habits such as sleeping on silk pillows and using a cotton shirt to dry your hair can greatly help in the process. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing too well in that part of my life.

It's time to fix that.

PS - I have realised now that I should have taken before and after pictures of my hair to enhance the credibility of my experience but your girl here has crappy camera quality and is camera shy so please forgive me.