I went from shampooing every day to every other day as my hair got long. Takes too damn long to dry. For a while, Day 2 was a Bad Hair Day. My hair was limp, greasy, and yucky. Then, it got better. Now, Day 2 is just as good as Day 1, and I’m considering going to shampooing twice a week.
I usually wash my hair once a week.
The rest of the time I just rinse it out so I can fluff up my hair right for styling.
When I use a waxy product for my short coif, by the end of the week it is pretty sweet to manipulate the hair.
I have done the no shampoo thing several times - the first time about 15 years ago when I had mid back length hair. After 2 months of just using water and brushing 100 to 200 strokes with a natural boarsbristle brush morning and night, I had no dandruff, my oil production minimalized and my hair was fantastic. The only reason I stopped was I ended up in hospital and doing chemo and I simply couldn’t manage to maintain hair … the water rinses out the dust and dirt, and helps spread the oils evenly down the hair shaft. It works best on shoulder length hair and you really need to be in a position to start where you are not going to have to be out in public all that much until your scalp stops the overproduction of oil, the first month is the worst. The webpage isnt up any more and it isnt in the way back machine, but they recommended helping it along by using heavy blotting paper to soak up the excess oil and frequent brushing if you suddenly have to go out and are worried about greasing out.
I am now almost able to start again, my hair needs about another inch or so and I can start, I have backed off to where I am only washing it with castile soap once a week or so.
There’s a lady where I work who’s going the ‘no shampoo and my hair has never looked better’ route. She’s wrong. It looks like long, wet, greasy ass and it smells. Each morning you can see the brush lines through it and it’s almost stiff. Her jacket has a stain spreading out from the neck from under her hair. She washes it every few weeks, she says, but I see no evidence of it. Those of you never shampooing might want to ask someone who **doesn’t ** care about you what they think of your hair. My apologies if I sound harsh or mean, but no one here has the guts to tell this woman her head is stank, because she’s the HR manager and can make our lives miserable®.
Well, I wouldn’t employ you with hair like that…
I happen to know for a fact the OP hasn’t shampooed in years.
Of course, he has no hair.
Heck, for all intents and purposes, I haven’t used shampoo in years. When my hair gets longer than about an inch, it starts to look pretty gross, and I’ll use shampoo then, but that’s only about once every few months or so. At about 3/4" to 7/8", where I usually keep it, I don’t need any styling products or a brush, and it lays down quite nicely. And no, my head doesn’t stink.
I know several people over at a long hair message board (I’m tellin’ ya, they got message boards for everything) who go the water-only route. Their reasoning is, our foremothers didn’t shampoo every day, or even every week, and they managed to grow their hair to the ground, why shouldn’t it work for us? It’s not something that ever tempted me because you have to go with more mechanical methods of cleaning - massaging under running water, lots of combing and boar-bristle brushing - and I’m lazy. Going by their pictures they have long thick gorgeous hair, but there is going to be an adjustment period.
Others over there follow the CWC route (condition the ends, shampoo the scalp, rinse, and condition all over), the soap route (like me - lather up, rinse, comb, go to work), the CO route (conditioner only - seems to work best, oddly enough, with the cheapest conditioners - I do this sometimes when my hair’s feeling kind of dry), baking soda, vinegar, homemade concoctions; there’s a million ways to clean your hair, but we’ve been programmed to think only in terms of LatherRinseRepeatCondition.
I was staying at a hotel with no shampoo and I had no time to run out and get some, so I used the soap. My hair turned out somewhat greasy-feeling, yet stiff, as well. I didn’t like it at all.
I, too, have smelled the curiously rank odor of unwashed hair on pts. It smells greasy–not like grease, but greasy/sebum-ish. It looks bad, but that may be because they are ill enough to be bed-bound and so don’t really even comb it. We comb the hair of pts who cannot, btw.
Cleaning and grooming of hair is a very personal thing-I am not sure why there needs to be some kind of superior attitude from those who choose to do so in a less marketed method. It’s not a crime against nature or humanity to use commercial/retail shampoo. It’s also not immoral to do it the “natural” way. Pick a method that works for you and use it. If asked, then tell about it. What I don’t like is the recruiting.
FRT, I use baking soda mixed in with my shampoo about once a week, to remove any possible shampoo buildup. It works great. I have never rinsed in ACV–just the smell alone would nauseate me. I know someone with gorgeous long curly auburn hair who only uses conditioner and never brushes her hair–she finger combs it and leaves it. Works for her.
IOW, re this thread and the various practices: YMMV.
I’ve gone a month before without washing it, just for kicks.
And, right now I haven’t washed mine since last wednesday, and I work a regular professional job. I have a bet at work with a guy as to when my wife will say something to me. She still hasn’t.
It’s a bit greasy, but not disgustingly so, IMO.
I just like not taking the time to wash it and I like doing stupid shit for no reason sometimes.
What I don’t care for is the idea that it’s because hundreds of years ago people didn’t wash their hair much, we modern Westerners are automatically doing something inferior to wash our hair frequently. People didn’t bathe much back then, either, or frequently wash their clothes, or wear deodorant. In fact, I think the general historical consensus is that most people pretty much stank, but that body odor was more tolerated because it was so pervasive. But you don’t hear many modern people advocating for once-a-year baths, or for handwashing your one set of undies once a week and never washing the rest of your clothes. Just because people used to do something else doesn’t mean the old practice was necessarily better.
I have short hair for a woman, and it is fine (in texture). When I don’t shampoo it, it looks disgusting, like I dipped my head in a vat of grease. It may well be that it would look great after a month-long “transition period,” but I’ll never know because there’s no way on earth I could stand that month.
Well, I don’t “no shampoo”, but I only wash my hair twice a week. Considering all the compliments I get on how awesome my hair is and how they wish their hair was as shiny as mine (all of them wash their hair every day and then look horrified when I say to wash it less and it’ll be shinier), I’d say that I’m doing fine.
Well said. You posted just what I was thinking (if I thought more coherently). I only snipped so my post wouldn’t be unnecessarily long.
I will also agree that each individual’s experience will differ; that’s the definition of individual experience, right?
Must you continue this habit of saying what I wanted to, only better? It’s annoying. 
I am left wondering if any of these “natural” folk ever work out or sweat–my hair is disgusting after a day in the yard or after a run (when I used to run). No way would I not wash it with some kind of soap at that point…
(and weren’t herbs etc used to cover up the stench back in the day? And didn’t women use kohl and lavender and mint etc to either enhance their looks or mask foul odors. I’m staring to wonder if I should give up tampons and go back to rags–after all, that’s how women coped “back in the day”).
If I stopped using shampoo (or at least soap) on my hair, it would be a disgusting mass of oil (with some hair mixed in) in three days. Longer than that I wouldn’t care to think about.
Curly Girl recommends just this. Hair gets frizzy when it’s dry (well, that’s not the only reason, but I digress) so their method recommends you just condition.
So I maybe use shampoo one or two days a week. All the other days, I get in the shower, rinse my hair, and use conditioner (to detangle, make it manageable). I don’t think I noticed a difference in my hair necessarily, but that goes both ways. Why use a product that doesn’t really change what my hair looks like?
So now I buy shampoo a lot less often.
I was not reading that as just rubbing dry hair with a wet washcloth. If that’s what they meant, then no that wouldn’t work very well for me, either. I read it as washing your hair with plain water (scrubbing the scalp, etc) and then using a washcloth on your wet hair to help distribute the oils.
About 2-3 times a week when shower I just scrub my scalp with my fingers/nails and plain water, and only use shampoo once every week or two. I find this is plenty good enough and I’m considering reducing the frequency of the shampooing based on some of the stuff I’ve been reading. I don’t get nasty smelly greasy hair (trust me, I have a VERY strong sense of smell and I frequently scratch my scalp and sniff under my nails to make sure there isn’t an odor developing. If there is I go shampoo. That usually only happens after I’ve gone a while without rinsing and/or been doing a lot of activity that makes me sweat.
I moved here (Ohio) last July. I moved with a partially used bottle of shampoo (not a jumbo size, either). I finished that bottle sometime in the winter and bought a new one. I’m still using that one.
here is a picture I just took a minute ago to show what my hair looks like right now. I rinsed it on Sunday. Washed it probably last…Tuesday?
There was an episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike visited a company called Terressentials that produces a special mud you use on your hair instead of shampoo or conditioner. It’s described as:
And there’s a whole “detox period” off of regular shampoos and onto the mud. It sounds interesting, albeit insanely expensive.
If I ever grow my hair long again, I’ve thought of trying the no-shampoo route. Considering, however, that I just got my hair cut very short, I don’t know when that’ll happen. Probably in a few years when I’m sick of it short.
My only concern is for someone like me who has some dermatitis on my scalp. The only thing I’ve found that stops the itching is one of those shampoos with those poisonous chemicals in it. I don’t know if I could last long enough to see if it would clear up with the no-shampoo routine.
Vigorous scrubbing of the scalp under plain water works well even after sweating. Yeah, leaving it without doing anything at all would be gross.
And I don’t think the comparison in your second paragraph is fair, because those folk didn’t tend to wash their hair (or bodies) much at all, with or without soap. We are not advocating just letting your hair go manky (or at least I’m not), just washing it without using shampoo.
Seriously, though, the degree to which the oil production is reduced after the transition period is not to be understated. If I don’t even get it wet or do anything at all to it (which does happen from time to time for various reasons) it still takes about 7-10 days before it really looks obviously oily.
I’m not saying it would work for everyone. It’s also worth mentioning that I don’t use hairspray or other styling products, so I don’t get a buildup of other gunk in my hair to contend with, either.
Edited to add: and yes you should stop using tampons. Buy a Divacup! Tampons are downright primitive and uncivilized! 