Tag: hair care

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Project No-Poo (Part 5): Staying on the wagon?

If you are just tuning in, read my previous posts about Project No-Poo:
[Part 1 – Why no poo?]
[Part 2 – Becoming a dirty, dirty hippie]
[Part 3 – Conditionally unconditioned]
[Part 4 – What happens when you put vinegar in your hair]

After all these experiments and my intense detox period, I noticed that I was starting to run really low on my Terressentials Mud Hair Wash. Should I buy more? Should I try something different? I looked at the pros and cons of the mud wash.

The Good

Surprisingly, the mud works as a cleanser. It takes a while to get used to putting mud in your hair (and more importantly, making sure you wash all of it out!), but it really does get the dirt and oils out, and even more importantly, it pulls out all the silicones and waxes and other synthetic stuff after a while. If you ever just want to go through a hair detox, I would recommend it highly.

At $1.28-$2.00 per ounce (depending on the size), it’s three times more expensive than my old shampoo ($0.40 per ounce); but since I only plan on using it once every 5-7 days, I figure I’d actually be spending less money in the long run with the mud hair wash.

The Terressentials product line is 100% USDA-certified organic, and it’s free of detergents, sulfates, or any synthetic chemicals. My tree-hugging conscience can rest easy because I’m not doing any harm to the environment, and I have to admit, I like watching people do double-takes when I tell them that I wash my hair with mud.

The Bad

As one might guess, washing your hair with mud does have its down side. My tub looked like I had committed the gruesome murder of a golem every time I used the hair wash. This was especially true during the detox period. I had to scrub the bathtub every day, which was a little annoying, to say the least. (I suppose if I’m only going to use the mud once a week, that’ll give me a good excuse to clean the tub when I’m supposed to clean it anyway, right?)

I also began having serious issues with my drain. My husband and I both have long hair, and he has a beard, so we have a heavy-duty hair catcher over our drain, which I empty after each shower. Clearly the mud was going down the drain and getting clogged on some hair that had made it through the hair catcher, so I had to get in there with a Zip-It and pull out some nasty stuff. I really didn’t want to use a harsh chemical drain cleaner for several reasons (primarily because this whole experiment has been about being all eco-conscious and stuff), so I used an earth-friendly enzyme drain cleaner, which worked just fine…but the plain fact of the matter is, the mud does clog the drain.

The Hairy

If I am going to continue with the Terressentials product, it was clear I’d also have to supplement my hair regimen with some sort of conditioner. The mud works by taking away dirt and oils, but it also takes away the natural oils as well (which is why you aren’t supposed to use it every day). Hence the frizz. The Shea Butter Curl-Defining Gel does a good job of post-shower styling, but one thing I noticed is that it is rather heavy, and I’m not exactly sure how good a conditioner it is.

Back to Coconut Oil

While I was at Whole Foods looking for shea butter, I also picked up a jar of coconut oil (organic, unrefined coconut oil, with nothing else added) to try on my hair as a natural conditioner. The last time I used coconut oil, I used some cheap petroleum- and wax-filled product, which didn’t work out so well…but this time I went for the real deal.

Applying the coconut oil

Everything I had read about coconut oil said that I should apply it about an hour before taking a shower, or even let it stay in my hair overnight. I guess this gives the oil time to soak into the hair shaft and makes it harder to wash out or something…I’m not entirely sure. Nevertheless, I diligently applied the oil to my hair, little by little, until it was completely covered.

Coconut oil is extremely easy to apply. It’s solid at room temperature, but once you get it on your hands, the warmth of your hands melts it right away. so I was using only a little bit at a time. I spent more time making sure my canopy curls got a lot of coverage, because they were the ones that needed the most help.

When I was done, my hair was super shiny! I looked in the mirror and this song came to mind:

It was also pretty greasy, so I didn’t want to keep it in overnight; plus, I worried about the oil going rancid if I left it in for too long. I opted for washing it out after an hour.

But here was my big problem: I had almost completely run out of mud wash by this point. I definitely didn’t have enough to get all this coconut oil out. Should I go back to shampoo to get the excess oil out of my hair?

Castile Soap

Sitting at the edge of my tub was Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Liquid Soap, which is about as crunchy-granola-hippie as you can get. I knew this was safe to put in my hair, for sure. I got in the shower and started to get my hair wet. The coconut oil started to take on a little waxy texture, which made it hard for me to run my fingers through my hair.

I poured a little bit of the liquid soap into my hands and began to distribute it through my hair, making extra sure to massage my scalp and work up a little bit of lather. I happen to know that with Dr. Bronner’s soap, a little bit goes a LONG way, so I went little by little until my hair was detangled enough that I could run my fingers through it again.

Success! The coconut oil made my hair really soft, and the castile soap washed all of the excess oil away. Since I didn’t need to style it, I did not apply any shea butter gel; I simply dried my hair and got ready for bed. The next morning, I wet my hair and styled it with the shea butter gel, and I was good to go.

My New Hair Regimen

I did end up buying more Terressentials mud wash. I am going to use it once a week to get rid of the dirt and build-up, but if I feel like I need to clean my hair more often, I will use Dr. Bronner’s. I’ll give myself a deep conditioning treatment of coconut oil every so often — maybe every other week? I’m not sure yet — and I will use the Beautiful Girls shea butter gel after each shower to activate my curls and hold the moisture in the hair so I can keep my curls all day long. I’m still on the hunt for a nice leave-in conditioner, but I want to keep the synthetics out of my hair, so it’s got to be something special. I’ve also ordered some of Terressentials’ Cocoa Butter Body Oil as a possible conditioner…I’ll report on that as soon as I try it out.

Throughout this entire process, I’ve gotten advice from all sorts of people on what to do and how to maximize my curls. Everyone has a different regimen because everyone’s hair is different, but most people I have talked to don’t think you can do it without synthetics. I aim to prove them wrong.

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Project No-Poo (Part 4): What happens when you put vinegar in your hair

If you are just tuning in, read my previous posts about Project No-Poo:
[Part 1 – Why no poo?] [Part 2 – Becoming a dirty, dirty hippie]
[Part 3 – Conditionally unconditioned]

After the detox period, I was still struggling with my frizzy hair, especially on the top layer (the “canopy curls,” according to Curly Girl: The Handbook). My “crouching curls” (the protected layers of tightly coiled curls found close to the scalp and underneath the canopy, according to Massey) were doing quite well, despite my recent abuse. But then again, the crouching curls have never gone away for as long as I have had hair.

An example of Early Music Hair. That's not me! I promise.

What I was really worried about was that top layer. When it gets dry and frizzy, the whole shape of my head looks weird, and I really didn’t want to develop EMH (Early Music Hair – that inevitable descent into truly looking like a hippie, especially amongst those who specialize in early music…which I do sometimes…yikes! See photo)

Apple Cider Vinegar

After my last bouts with less-than-all-natural curl solutions, I decided to go the apple cider vinegar (ACV) route; at least I knew that only contained one ingredient. A quick search told me that I should dilute 1-2 tablespoons of ACV in 1 cup of water. I had slightly more than 2 tablespoons of ACV left in my pantry, so I fudged the ratio a little bit…but I took my bottle of ACV solution into the shower with me to try it out.

Here’s the thing: ACV totally works. it seals the hair cuticle and keeps moisture in, which cuts down on frizz and makes your hair shiny. My hair felt and looked great. I could run my hands through my hair easily, without getting stuck or tangled. However, if you do decide to do it, I have a few caveats based on my own experience:

1. NEVER, ever, pour an ACV solution over your head in the shower after you have shaved. I did, and it stung! Ouchy. If I do it again, I’ll be using the rinse over the sink.

2. Make sure if you’re going to fudge the ratio like I did, err on the side of more dilute rather than more concentrated. After my little experiment in the shower, I thought I had rinsed all of my ACV solution, but I was plagued with the smell of vinegar all day long. I had to apologize to my colleagues for my Salad Head, and my husband told me (as he wrinkled his nose) that I smelled like boardwalk fries. NOT SEXY.

Shea Butter

I finally decided to take a trip to Whole Foods and see what kind of hippie hair products I could find that were über natural and synthetic-free. Whole Foods also sells my old conditioner, so I knew that just because Whole Foods carried it didn’t necessarily mean I didn’t have to read the labels. I had read quite a bit about the benefits of shea butter to seal moisture in the hair shafts, so I decided to look for plain old shea butter or at least something with no synthetics in it.

The only shea butter product that I could find on the shelves that had any kind of smell or consistency that I liked was Beautiful Curls, and of their products, the only ones that appealed to me were their Leave-In Conditioner and Curl-Defining Gel. I took a look at the ingredients:

Curl Activating Shea Butter Leave-In Conditioner: Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) Extract (aqueous), Arnica (Arnica montana) Extract (aqueous), Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera), Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Behentrimonium Chloride, Emulsifying Wax, Panthenol, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Coconut Oil (and) Raspberry Fruit Extract (and) Ylang Ylang Flower Extract, Citric Acid.

For the most part, these ingredients are fine. But cetearyl alcohol and behentrimonium chloride are synthetic chemicals, and magnesium sulfate, although naturally occurring, is one of those dreaded sulfates that people warn about when talking about how bad shampoo is for you. I put the bottle back on the shelf.

The curl-defining gel seemed to have more basic, non-synthetic ingredients.

Shea Butter Curl-Defining Gel: Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) Extract (aqueous), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) Extract (aqueous), Aloe Vera Gel (Aloe barbadensis), Agave (Agave azul) Extract, Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Panthenol, Coconut Oil (and) Apricot Fruit Extract (and) Ylang Ylang Flower Extract , Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid.

The Curly Girl handbook suggests putting a gel in your hair while it’s still wet, to seal in the moisture, so I figured this gel might be just the ticket. A quick search for Beautiful Curls on my iPhone brought up an explanation of their Fair Trade practices for the shea butter farming and production, and not only that, the package told me that 10% of my purchase would go towards benefiting their West African community empowerment projects. It wasn’t super cheap, but it wasn’t the most expensive thing on the shelf, either…and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use it on a daily basis.

So what happened when I used it?

Not too shabby.

[Coming Up: Part 5 (the final chapter) – Staying on the wagon?]

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Project No-Poo (Part 3): Conditionally Unconditioned

[Part 1: Why no poo?] [Part 2: Becoming a dirty, dirty hippie]

Day 4: the curls are slowly coming back

Throughout the week-long detox period, my hair continued to frizz, although some of the curls were coming back on their own. But it’s difficult to style your hair when you know that whenever you touch it, your curls are going to fall apart and become big old frizzballs. Luckily, the weather was helping me; I knew I was going to have to put my hair up every day because of the heat, so I kept my hair bound in braids, which I thinkhelped trap moisture in my hair.

I read through the Terressentials instructions again and saw that people with my hair type (wavy, coarse, salt & pepper) should use not the fragrance free hair wash that I was using, but one of the washes with some essential oils added. Luckily I had also bought samples of the Lavender Garden and Sultry Spice hair washes, so I started using those. Just that little bit of essential oil made it so much easier to run my hands through my hair in the shower. I was pretty amazed. And it smelled nice, too (although, as my husband pointed out, it still didn’t smell like me).

Day 5 - it's still too frizzy for my taste.

Still, once my hair dried, it would get frizzy again, and I was beginning to get a little skeptical about the whole process.

Morroccan Oil

I was talking over my hair woes with my friend Becky, who recommended to me that I use Morroccan Oil. “It does have some synthetic chemicals in it,” she said, “but it’s really great for my hair. I only use a tiny bit each day, and it keeps my hair from frizzing. I love it.”

She gave me a tiny bottle of it, just to try for myself and see if I like it.

At this point, I was willing to try anything to get rid of the frizz (because I’m impatient like that), so I put some in my hair the next day.

Bad idea! First of all, I started out with a very small amount and ran it through my hair with my fingers. The trouble is, I have a LOT of hair. That little bit may have made a few strands nice and shiny and moist, but did nothing for the rest of my hair. And the more I ran my hands through my hair, the frizzier it got. I tried using a little bit more oil for more coverage, but with no good effect. I gave up and braided my hair. Again.

Secondly, the smell was very musky, and not my favorite at all. It made me feel a little woozy and I was sneezing all day long, which makes me think I was allergic to something in the product. I checked the ingredients.

Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Argania Spinoza Kernel Oil (Aragan Oil), Linseed Extract (Linum Usitatissimum), Fragrance (Supplement), D&C Yellow 11, D&C Red 17, Coumarin, Benzyl Benzoate, Alpha Isomethyl Ionone.

Yikes! So much for being a tree-hugger. Then I read this blog about Morroccan Oil. I probably should have read that FIRST…but like I said, I’m impatient.

Coconut Oil

I clearly needed SOMETHING to moisturize my hair. After some research on the internet (and if you read it on the internet, it must be true, right?), I decided the next best way to control the frizz is with coconut oil.

This stuff is wildly popular, especially amongst women with really kinky hair. I easily found a small jar of really cheap coconut oil at my local drug store and tried it out.

My first impressions just opening the jar: the smell was much nicer. It reminded me of Hawaii and my dad’s coconut tanning oil. But I immediately thought of another friend who hates coconut…what if he stopped hanging out with me because of the way I smelled? I decided to take the risk and apply it to my hair.

This coconut oil was in a thick, solid, almost-gel form, which was easier to apply than the very thin Morroccan Oil. On the other hand, it was kind of goopy and got all over the place. My hair did not respond to the oil right away, but like most gels and mousses, it made my hair easy to style. I could create finger curls very easily. I was just hoping that my hair wouldn’t dry all crunchy the way it does when you put gel in your hair.

When it dried, my hair was nice and soft. I was pleasantly surprised! But the next day in the shower, it was really sticky and hard to get my hands through my hair. I had to go through two washings with the mud hair wash to get my hair back to its natural state.

Confused, I looked at the jar again. The front says “Pure Coconut Oil,” but the ingredient list says: Petrolatum, Coconut Oil (Cocos Nucifera), Jojoba Seed Oil (Simmondsia Chinensis), Paraffin, Mineral Oil, Fragrance, BHT.

Definitely not purely coconuts, and most of it not natural. The petrolatum and paraffin were probably what was making my hair so sticky.

Curse you, deceptive packaging! (I wish I wasn’t so impatient. I need to start reading the labels BEFORE I stick stuff in my hair.)

I did find out later that there are coconut oils out there that are purely cold-pressed coconut oil, with no additives. But you can’t get them at a drug store; you have to go to Whole Foods or the natural section of the grocery store. I might still try that kind when I’m done with the rest of my experimenting, but for now, my jar of Softee Coconut Oil has gone in the trash.

[Coming Up: Part 4 – What happens when you put vinegar in your hair]

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Project No-Poo (Part 1): Why no poo?

It all started when a friend of mine asked if I had read Curly Girl: The Handbook. This was a couple of years ago, and my friend started telling me about how this book was encouraging people not to use shampoo.

“No shampoo?” I asked. “That seems a little silly. How do you get your hair clean?”

The point of it all, she explained, was that most shampoos contained sulfates and detergents that stripped natural oils from your hair, which was bad for you and bad for the environment. You certainly don’t need to shampoo every day; she said she was only shampooing her hair once a week, and that kept everything plenty clean.

Intrigued, I started cutting down on my shampoo use and found that it didn’t make any difference at all in my hair quality. I asked my friend a little more about this Curly Girl thing.

“You’re also supposed to not wash out your conditioner,” she said. “And stop combing your hair.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You can use your fingers to get the tangles out, but apparently even combs can break the hairs. Plus, you don’t want to separate the hairs from each other once they have curled. The conditioner helps hold the hairs together.”

I started going through three times more conditioner than shampoo, with pretty good results. My hair, for the most part, retained a curl, or at least a wave. And I love the way my conditioner smells, so it was all good.

Or so I thought.

Then, several months ago, another dear friend pulled me aside and told me that he was highly allergic to something in my conditioner. He didn’t know what it was, but he asked if I could please use less of it.

I was stumped (and a little bit hurt). I knew my conditioner was fragrant, but I had gotten many comments over the years about how nice my hair smelled. Plus, I had been using the stuff since high school, and the shampoo/conditioner combination that I had been using was somewhat of a signature and a part of my own identity. Never mind the fact that I could only find this brand at Whole Foods Market — a sure sign that it was full of organic hippie goodness. How could he possibly be allergic to something so crunchy granola?

Just to make sure I was right about the organic nature of my shampoo, I went to my bathroom and checked the ingredients:

Nature’s Gate Herbal Shampoo: Water, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (Coconut Derived), Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine (Coconut Derived), Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate (Coconut Derived), Glycerin (Vegetable Derived), Panthenol, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Borago Officinalis (Borage) Seed Oil, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Prunus Serotina (Wild Cherry) Bark Extract, Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme) Leaf Extract, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Sorbitan Sesquicaprylate (Coconut and Corn Derived), Polysorbate 20, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose (Plant Derived), Sodium Hydroxide, Glyceryl Undecylenate (Vegetable Derived), Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance*.

OK, so there were a lot more multi-syllabic chemical names than I expected; there is clearly a lovely herbal element to it, with the jojoba and borage seed oils, yarrow and rosemary extracts, but only after the large amounts of cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine and hydrolyzed soy protein. These aren’t the worst things you could find in a shampoo, but the fact of the matter is that they are synthetically produced chemicals: not very crunchy-granola-hippie at all! I could have sworn that when I first started using this product back in the 1990s, I could understand the label a lot better, which signals to me that Nature’s Gate may have tinkered with the recipe over the years. Maybe it was a good thing that I wasn’t using as much of the shampoo anymore.

Then I looked at the ingredients in my conditioner.

Nature’s Gate Herbal Conditioner: Water, Quaternium-87 (Vegetable Derived), Cetearyl Alcohol (Vegetable Derived), Glycerin (Vegetable Derived), Polysorbate 60, Panthenol, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Borago (Borage) Officinalis Seed Oil, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Extract, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Prunus Serotina (Wild Cherry) Bark Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Extract, Arctium Lappa (Burdock) Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Root Extract, Lilium Candidum (Lily) Bulb Extract, Nelumbo Nucifera (Sacred Lotus) Flower Extract, Quercus Alba (Oak Bark) Bark Extract, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Phenoxyethanol, Glyceryl Undecylenate (Vegetable Derived), Citric Acid (Vegetable Derived), Fragrance*, Caramel.
*Phthalate free

So maybe one of those funky alcohols or molecules was emanating from my scalp and causing my friend to have an allergic reaction. I mean, what the heck was Quaternium-87 anyway? I decided it was time for a new hair regimen.

I decided to take the no-poo movement seriously.

[Coming Up: Part 2 – Becoming A Dirty, Dirty Hippie]