Annie Jean Brewer - The No Poo Experiment: Can You Really Clean Your Hair Without Shampoo

BY

ANNE JEAN BREWER

PUBLISHED BY ANNIE JEAN BREWER

ANNIENYGMA.COM

SMASHWORDS EDITION

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY ANNIE JEAN BREWER

COVER PHOTO COURTESY OF MORGUEFILE

http://mrg.bz/3Y9gh4

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This eBook may not be re- sold. If you would like to sharethis book with another person, please purchase an additional copyfor each person you share it with. If you're reading this book anddid not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchaseyour own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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There is a large controversy surrounding the artof cleaning your hair naturally. While many claim that it can bedone, stories abound about people who tried--and stank.

Lets face it, the very thought of not usingshampoo on your head is disgusting!

In my quest for a simpler life I stumbled upon anumber of folks who claim that cleaning your hair without shampoois not only possible, but that it is better for your hair thanlathering it with all of those chemicals. In my opinion, however,many of those reports were biased. They saw what they wanted tosee, and didnt report any downsides to eliminating shampoo fromtheir lives.

I believe that the ones who reported that itdidnt work were equally biased. Many of them had never even triedthe method, dismissing it outright because it was disgusting!

In search of the truth I decided to perform myown experiment. I wanted to see for myself whether one couldsuccessfully clean their hair without shampoo, so for six months Iresolved to eliminate shampoo from my life.

The results were surprising.

In this book you will discover:

* Can hair cleaned without shampoo pass acleanliness inspection?

* Does the texture of your hair change when youeliminate shampoo?

* Can you clean your hair with just water?

* Does baking soda actually clean your hair?

* Can you clean color-treated hair withoutshampoo (and not hurt your dye job)?

* How can you condition your hair naturally?

* Benefits to cleaning your hair withoutshampoo

* Challenges to cleaning your hair withoutshampoo

* Dry shampoo alternatives

* And more

This book contains the unbiased account of how Iwent without shampoo for six months and reveals my personalconclusion about whether hair can be successfully cleaned withoutshampoo. As a bonus I have included the posts on my website thatwere written during this experiment.

If you have ever wondered about the possibility,this book is for you.

Due to the sue-happy nature of the worldtoday I am forced to offer this disclaimer:

This book is based on my personal experience andhas been written for educational purposes only. I am notresponsible for any loss, real or implied, that may result fromtrying the tips in this book.

Upon the recommendation of several websites atfirst I decided to try cleaning my hair with just water. Whenever Iwould bathe I would rinse my hair well but otherwise leave italone. It did well for a while; those I had inspecting my haircould not believe that I wasnt using shampoo! My hair eventuallybecame very itchy when my psoriasis went into overdrive, however.Between the itching and flaking, I became miserable.

The stuff I had read said that it takes a fewweeks for the natural oils in your hair to adjust to the lack ofshampoo, because of the fact that hair becomes accustomed to havingthe natural oils stripped from it on a regular basis. I tried towait it out but I gave up on this after just a few days because theitching was too much for me to bear.

In all fairness, it may not have been quite sobad if I didnt have psoriasis on my scalp. My hair was rathershort so it should have transitioned fairly quickly but Ive neverbeen able to tolerate an itchy scalp.

When cleaning my hair with water failed I mixedsome baking soda with water and used that to wash my hair. Thefirst time I did it my hair lathered up as much as it did when Iused shampoo! Apparently shampoo leaves a lot of buildup on yourhair and the baking soda works wonderfully to get all of that gunkout.

To use baking soda, I took about a teaspoon ofbaking soda and mixed it with warm water in a cup to make a thinpaste. I spread this on my wet hair and scrubbed well beforerinsing. When I was lazy I tried just mixing the baking soda andwater in my palm, but the mixture was too thick to distribute evenon my short locks. Mixing a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup ofwater did very well.

The baking soda left my hair clean--squeakyclean, in fact. My scalp didnt itch and my hair was light andfluffy. I didnt have to use near as much styling product on myhair after using baking soda, either.

When I washed my hair with baking soda on aregular basis it didnt lather up like shampoo did, but if my hairwas especially greasy (or I had previously used shampoo on it),some lather did develop.

I really like how well my hair did when I usedplain baking soda. Unlike with plain water, regular use of thebaking soda even kept my psoriasis under control. However, for thesake of the experiment I would try to stretch out the time betweenwashings. When I did, I would suffer flare-ups of my psoriasis. Alittle bit of tea tree oil massaged into my scalp helped to relievethe itchiness and flakes but I had to take care not to use too muchor too little. Too much made my hair greasy, and too little didntwork.

As a result, I started using baking soda asoften as I had used shampoo to clean my hair. This allowed me toeliminate the tea tree oil and still have clean hair. In time, Imade an odd discovery however.

An odd discovery

I discovered something odd when I began usingbaking soda on a regular basis to wash my hair. It didnt get dirtynear as quickly as it did when I was using regular shampoo. Part ofme wonders if this is because the baking soda doesnt leave aresidue on hair like shampoos and conditioners do, or if thereduced amount of styling products I needed contributed to thiseffect.

In truth, it is probably a combination of thetwo. The less residue combined with the fact that I need to putless product on my hair means that there is less to attract dirt toit. Im not a scientist, so I can only guess. Whatever the reason,it is nice to not need to wash my hair quite as often as I do whenI use regular shampoo. Nowadays, instead of washing my hair everyother day like I had to when I first started this experiment, I cango up to a week without any ill effects. I usually wash it abouttwice a week, though. That is enough to keep any itching from mypsoriasis under control.

One of the things I tried instead of commercialshampoo was natural dry shampoo methods. There are two main typesof natural dry shampoos, and you may already have both at home inyour pantry: oatmeal and cornstarch.

Oatmeal and corn starch clean your hair byabsorbing all of the excess oil. This oil is what attracts dirt toyour scalp. When they pick up the oil, they also attract all of thedirt that is on your head as well.

While oatmeal works well straight out of thebox, I found that it works a LOT better when you grind it up into apowder using a blender first.

Cornstarch is much easier to use because youdont have to prepare it first by turning it into a powder.

To use cornstarch or baking soda to dry cleanyour hair, take a teaspoon (more or less, depending on how muchhair you have) and work it into your scalp using your fingers.Massage it in well--this helps it to soak up as much oil aspossible, and then brush your hair well using a fine-bristled brushto get rid of the powder.