If you're like me, you find yourself in the depths of YouTube on your Friday nights and come across some very, well, interesting content from time to time. Well, lucky for me, I landed on a life-changing video and what could potentially be the best decision of my life: not washing my hair. Not in the conventional way at least.
Before you shame me and say I'm gross and a dirty hippie, just hear me out. From what I've gathered from the countless video testimonials and blog posts about it, a lot of people have done this is and the results have been amazing. Faster hair growth, super soft and shiny hair, and less dandruff are just some of the benefits that this boasts. Shampoo is actually a pretty recent invention of the early 20th century. The shampoo we buy today was made to be commercialized and make money. We truly do not need shampoo and the chemicals that it contains to clean our hair. The scalp is no different than any other part of the body in the way that is an ecosystem designed to sustain itself with only a little TLC from the soul that inhabits it. Therefore, we need only rinse the excess oil and build-up from our head and voila! Beautiful hair that is gently nourished by our natural sebum and oil and cleaned by plain old water.
That's the goal of the no-poo method at least. Of course, it might not work for every hair type, but if you're willing to try it, the results can be great for your head and your wallet! You see, my fellow broke college students, you can stop buying shampoo. Once the transitional phase (which includes weaning your hair off shampoo by washing it less with shampoo and more with water) you are free of the chemical crap that is shampoo. Now, I'm not shaming natural hair care products; I'm simply talking about the junk that claims to tame, detangle, defrizz, and defunk your hair with it's crazy concoction of sulfates and unnatural smells.
For me personally, I just think the whole notion of this is interesting, because I'd seriously never heard of it until a week ago. I'm testing it out, and I'm still in the transitional phase, where my hair is getting used to no shampoo. I'm basically just washing with warm-hot water when it starts to look oily and that's essentially it. Five days in and so far my hair does not look or, most importantly, smell any different. My hair does feel a bit softer though. We'll see what this unconventional hair washing method does for me, I'm hoping it's a positive turn out and I can quit shampoo for good!