Has anyone tried the "no poo" (no shampoo) route for regrowing hair?

WILDSISSY · 08-20-2008, 02:54 PM

Just curious.. I had read about some people going the "no poo" route and they have said their hair is healthier & shinier.. I even read about one lady whose hair grew thicker after going "no poo"... ???

jeminijad · 08-21-2008, 04:30 PM

Yes, I did it for months. It worked, with a couple of caveats:

1- You are going to have to accept that there will be a transition period that your hair will look nasty. We have all spent years using harsh detergents (sodium/ammonium laurel sulfate) to strip oil from the scalp and the scalp has learned: produce more oil. This is why I chose a middle road-

2- I mostly did conditioner washing, with vinegar rinses. Sure, scalp massage & rinsing with cool water is probably best, but I couldn't deal with the sheer amount of sebum that was building up. Cheap conditioners, with no -cone ingredients (dimethicone etc) have a small amount of surfectant in them. If you load your scalp up with it (totally contrary to what every greasy headed, thinning hair girl has been told,) and let it sit, it will clean your hair. Let it sit a full 5 min+, lather, scalp massage, and rinse till you think you can't possibly rinse any more, and then rinse another minute, with COOL water, not hot. Every few washes, pour some apple cider vinegar over your scalp afterwards. You'll get shiny hair and mine certainly thickened a great deal.

3- this is kind of just backing off one cause of hair loss; giving your hair a fighting chance against the commercial grade grease strippers that are in most shampoo. It isn't going to singlehandedly solve hormonally induced hair loss, but if you are determined it will help.

GlitterStar · 08-22-2008, 05:53 AM

Hmmmm, weird...yet interesting. For years I did the hair replacement bonding so basically I had this hair piece attached to my head and although I "washed" my hair, I was only washing the hair piece. It had a rubber base so the water/shampoo didn't reach my scalp so my scalp itself didn't get washed but once every 4-6 weeks when I went to my "salon" to have it rebonded. So I guess in some ways I actually did this and didn't know it, LOL. But they shaved my head (what few measly strands there were) to fit the piece on each month so there was no way I could tell if "no-poo" worked for me.

But if I had hair to try it with, I don't think I would be able to. I think jemini's description of being able to accept the nasty period just wouldn't cut it for me, lol. I'd be dying to wash my hair.

mommy2two2000 · 09-13-2008, 06:15 PM

I'm a hairdresser and my local distributer carries a professional brand called DevaCare. It is a cleansing conditioner, similiar to the Wen products I see on QVC.

I had normal everyday hair loss before using it (few strands in the shower).
After using it a couple weeks, my hair was falling out like crazy. I also started taking Spiro at the same time so I didn't know which was causing hair loss. I stopped the no-poo about a week ago and have gone back to having normal hairloss again. I never had hairloss issues like this besides after I had my kids.

Maybe it was because i scrubbed so vigourosly with the no-poo to make sure my scalp was clean. Maybe it was just a fluke???

I might try the no-poo again in a few months to see if it happens again.

Deva also makes a line called DevaCurl that is for Curly hair...I bet that works really well for all those with frizzy frazzled hair!

soonermomma03 · 09-14-2008, 01:11 AM

So the "No poo" means no shampoo?

I actually don't shampoo my oldest daughter's hair. I haven't since she was 2.5 years old. She's got curly hair, and I have a book called Curly Girl, it reccomended to not shampoo.

People are seriously shocked when I say her hair hasn't been shampooed in over 2 years. They can't believe it's not greasy and disgusting looking. I guess I'll have to try it as well.

soonermomma03 · 09-14-2008, 01:11 AM

You know, maybe if I would read the title better I wouldn't feel like such a moron right now.

Lisa11 · 09-17-2008, 06:14 PM

I guess there are a couple of schools of thought on that one:

1) harsh detergents in shampoo contributes to hair loss so don't shampoo
2. shampoo every day because the sebum that clings to the scalp contains androgens that speed up hair loss

Confusing.

mama2ak · 09-21-2008, 11:15 PM

interesting! Lots of my organic-eating, tree-hugging Whole Foods-shopping mommy friends go the no-poo route but I never thought of it as a way to avoid hair loss! My hair seems to get mega greasy if I miss a day or two without washing!

Vlal · 10-31-2008, 06:44 PM

I just started the no poo method - I am using baking soda to wash my scalp and apple cider vinegar as a conditioning rinse. I normally have extremely oily/greasy hair, but I have done this for two days and so far my hair is in great shape.

I think it helps that I was using a no-poo 'shampoo' on and off for a while without even realising it http://www.houseofmistry.com/shop/te...oner-p-19.html and so my transition might have been made easier by this.

My hairloss is currently like this

so I will be monitoring it to see if it improves. Either way, it will be nice to save money and know I am putting less chemicals on/into my body.

Vicky-Louise