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I Went “No Poo” Overnight and Here’s What Happened

I Went “No Poo” Overnight and Here’s What Happened

I’ve decided to go “No Poo”. If you don’t know what this is, it’s where you stop using commercial shampoos when washing your hair. I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but I was nervous. My hair is naturally super greasy and I can’t stand for it to look or feel that way. Generally, I wash it every other day because it’s ridiculous.

I’ve always had issues with my hair. It’s super oily and my scalp is dry, flaky and itchy. No matter what I try (It runs in my family). So adding to any of that seemed implausible. It seems though, that no poo may actually be a cure to this. Maybe. It doesn’t hurt to give it a try.

Commercial shampoos are full of silicones, plastics, waxes and other synthetic, unnatural and damaging chemicals and substances. They strip all of your hair’s natural oils, leaving it over dried and unprotected. The waxes, silicones, etc fool us into thinking our hair is healthy and hydrated because they’re coating it to make it look shiny and good.

When harsh commercial shampoos strip away our natural oils, our scalp freaks out because the protection is gone and over compensates, producing more. This is what leaves the greasy, oily look and feeling that leads us to wash our hair again. This process repeats until we’re washing our hair every other to every day which can be really damaging.Thus, creating a vicious cycle that greatly benefits the shampoo manufacturer.

I haven’t already gone “no poo” because I’ve heard there’s a transition phase where your scalp over produces oils at first until it realizes they’re no longer being stripped and levels out. Walking around greasy and gross feeling for a month or two during this transition phase has just never been ok for me. So I wrote it off for a while.

No poo came back into my radar earlier this week (early September) and I looked up a few things about it and jumped in cold turkey right then and there. Without really knowing anything about what I was doing. I’m a “dive head first and learn to swim after” type of person.

Day 4

I’ve been learning on the fly though. I’m on day 4 and I think it’s going quite well. Today’s Saturday and the last time I washed my hair with shampoo was Wednesday. Even then, I used a very very small amount (Out of fear, hesitation, etc).

There are a few key components in making this work, I’ve found. The first and by far most important is a boar bristle brush (sorry vegans). Synthetic just doesn’t work. The boar bristles have a magical power. They’re able to pick up the oils at your roots are redistribute them down the length of your hair. A wooden brush helps too. Without this magical brush, I wouldn’t be surviving. But it’s really not near as bad as I thought it would be at this point.

As you can see, you can’t tell.

I washed it with just water last night and so far so good. It’s not near as greasy and gross as I expected it to be by now. It definitely has a different feel to it. It’s slightly heavier and thicker feeling but it’s coming along quite well.

The brush makes absolutely all of the difference in the world.

Day 5

Day 6

I washed my hair with water last night and it seemed good. When I woke up this morning, it was super greasy looking and I had stuff to do so I washed it again with a super small amount of shampoo and rinsed immediately. Enough to just make it look presentable but not enough to strip all of the oils.

I really think what happened was, I played with it too much after I got out of the shower the night before while it was still wet. I learned of “Preening” and “Stritching” which is where you use your fingers to pull the oils from the roots to the tips.

You’re suppose to do this BEFORE you take a shower but I didn’t have time because I had a screaming baby and was lucky to get the shower in the first place. But anyway, I sat and did this while I watched my husband play the new Black Ops Beta for about an hour just for fun and woke up to some surprisingly terrible results so, don’t do that AFTER your shower.

Day 7

There are various alternatives to shampoo that the no poo method advocates for. Baking soda and vinegar is the most common practice. Then there’s shampoo bars and various other recipes involving natural, in the kitchen found ingredients. 

I’ve been afraid of the baking soda and vinegar washing method because I’ve heard a ton of resources talk about the PH levels of the baking soda and your hair not mixing and how it can cause your hair to be dry and brittle.

I know nothing about the shampoo bars. I’m sketchy about trying them because I don’t know what they’re made of and to me it doesn’t feel much different that using regular shampoo. Of course, I could be wrong since I haven’t looked into them. 

The ultimate goal of no poo is to wash with water only so I decided to just bite the bullet and jump straight into that. In theory, the less time you spend trying to baby your hair in slow transitions, the quicker it’ll get it’s shit together and act the way you want it to. I’m looking for a simpler, healthier and more eco friendly way of hair washing. What’s better (and cheaper) than water!?

I have found this super simple honey recipe though that’s suppose to help with dry, itchy scalp so we’ll see. 

1 Month

I’ve been waiting for the super greasy transition phase to happen and it doesn’t look like it’s near as bad as people say or as I had prepared for it to be. It’s really no worse than it would be in between shampooings.

I have recently had a little bit of rebellion from the crown of my head. But it could be due to my constantly wearing my hair up (Mom bun and yoga pony) and the oils having no where to go. I dunno. I’m trouble shooting it.

I have 2 boar bristle brushes now. One wooden one and a plastic one that has plastic bristles mixed into the boars bristles. This latter one is my favourite since my hair is super thick and I feel it gets in there better than the wooden one. 

I clean them about every other day with soap and water and air dry. It’s super easy and only takes a moment. If you don’t, sebum (the white stuff) gets caked onto them and then they aren’t able to pick up any more oil and help.

I’ve fallen into a routine of washing my hair with the honey mixture (it really does help with dry, itchiness) on Thursdays and with water on either Sunday or Monday. 

It’s actually quite wonderful and I don’t know how I was finding the time to wash my hair every other day before. 

I plan on doing a more structured “How to No Poo” post soon. Maybe in another month so I can see what else pops up that may be informative for you. Please send me all of your questions so that I can make sure I answer them in the new post!

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Savannah Shea Blake Profile picture

S.S.Blake; Spiritual Life Coach, Yoga + Meditation Teacher and Founder of Earth and Water

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