Low poo - Week 3

I made the mistake of trying this no poo thing exactly 2 weeks before my boyfriend came to visit me from out of town. I guess I secretly hoped I would be the small percentage of lucky people who would go through the detox/transition period in 2 weeks…turns out, I wasn't.  I ended up washing my hair straight for 3 days just for that weekend so he didn't have to suffer during my crunchy journey.  I digress, on to what I did for week 3!

I heard baking soda was no good, then castile soap was no good. DOMME. I researched some more and settled on a pH balanced, low-poo, no junk-toxic-stuff shampoo.

Photo Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.com

I decided to try Morrocco Method shampoos, which are raw, wild-crafted and gluten-free shampoos. They're free of the nasty chemicals that are commonly found in typical shampoos SLS, phthalates, propylene glycol, etc.).  They have several different shampoos to try (5 of them), and they believe in rotating the different shampoos to ensure that your hair never gets used to any one shampoo and retains good results. I purchased the sampler kit, the Earth and Apple Cider Vinegar shampoos and a Zen Detox hair mask. I confirmed with them first that their shampoos are pH balanced--whew.

I started off with the Earth Essence shampoo. Let me preface with this: I was in the middle of my detoxing period where my hair was pretty gross and oily. My scalp wasn't regulating itself and the oil production was just straight gross. By the end of the first day, my hair felt like it needed a good scrub down--only, when you're trying to go no/low poo, you need to try to space out your shampoos less frequently. UGGGGH. Lots of bloggers will just put their hair in a ponytail during this dreaded phase to get over it, as they see the benefits of their scalp regulating itself as worth this short time of feeling dirty. I'm unlucky in this way because if I put my greasy hair in a ponytail, it looks like greasy hair in a ponytail. So I did end up showering every other day like normal, and this was my plan until after my hair got out of the transition phase. I was told the Zen Detox hair mask would help clean my hair during this dreaded detox, which is the reason for that purchase.

First, the shampoos don't smell THE best. They smell ok, not terrible, not wonderful, just ok. I'm willing to use shampoos that smell just ok for the benefits. Especially with this being pH balanced, contains natural products, and scores very low on the EWG Skin Deep website, the pros outweighed the cons. It seemed to smell like a not-as-good-version of a spa. More of a very earthy smell (which some of you may love).

Directions are to mix 1 tablespoon of shampoo with 1 cup of water (this helps to dilute and help spread the shampoo) and to shampoo twice--once to get the grease out and the second to let the good ingredients work in your scalp.

I did this for the first week every two days, and my outer hair looked fine, but hairs underneath felt gross. At this point, I decided to also buy a bristle boar brush (oftentimes labeled "BBB" on green bloggers sites--I had to look this one up, and bam, here it is for you) to help brush out and condition the rest of my hair. Sebum is a naturally occurring oil that comes from your scalp. This helps keep the hair from looking TOO gross closer to your head. Check out this post from Almost Exactly if you want to learn more about BBB-ing.

Still going through the detestable detox process, but I'm determined to make it though to the other side. I've been reading a lot about Henna so I decided to henna my hair in the middle of this detoxing process because I heard it was good for your scalp and makes your hair shiny and voluminous. And the best part? It's natural. I'll be posting about that experience soon.