No 'poo help!

[lisap]

I have been no 'pooing for a week and it's been great, but I have a few problems. My roots are greasy and the rest of my hair is dry! When I tried putting a little EO in the ACV my hair was way too greasy. I love the honey in the hair wash, but I am afraid this is causing the grease! I use about 3 or 4 TB in a large water bottle with about 1 TB of honey. For conditioner I use 3 TB of ACV in a large water bottle. Please tell me what I am doing wrong!

[meemee]

i am v. new to this myself so my knowlege is not v. vast. if i remember right honey is greasy (not sure about that though). and so is ACV. so u might be doubly greasing ur hair. i wanted to answer ur question because it seems like we have similar hair and react similarly to the products.

the main reason i am replying to u is coz with bs and ACV it took me a while to get the right proportion that suits my hair. so i think u need to experiment with urself. i first tried a bs paste. but it was too strong. instead bs mixed in a lot of water and left in the hair for a while works better with half a tsp of acv in half a cup of water as a conditioner.

try bs instead of honey as a wash and see how it does. or try honey with no conditioner and see how ur hair does.

this is one of the things i want to do with honey at least once a month but havent done yet.

Deep Conditioner: Brush your hair and remove all tangles. Gently work in 100% pure honey into your hair, starting at the roots. Work in sections to ensure all of your hair is covered with honey. If the honey is too thick to work with gently warm the honey and place on the hair. Cover your hair with a shower cap and wrap a towel around your head. Let the honey sit on your hair for 30 minutes. Remove the towel and shower cap and rinse your hair in the shower with warm water. The honey will effortlessly leave your hair. The honey has left your hair full of shine and bounce.

i found this at another site so it seems u just need to use honey

Hair Shine: Clean and condition your hair as usual. Combine ¼ teaspoon of honey with 4 cups of warm water. Rinse this solution through your hair and style as usual. Great to use before a big date.

[lisap]

Thanks meemee! I guess I should experiment more with the proportions. I like the honey and could do without the ACV altogether! The hair shine sounds quite lovely I'll remember to use it before my next big date with DH !

[girlndocs]

Too much ACV makes my hair flat and limp. Also, greasy scalp but dry hair is a classic sign of a too-harsh cleanser -- because you overstrip your scalp, causing it to step up sebum production.

The honey recipes work very well for some hair types, but whenever I use honey by itself, I end up with terribly overconditioned hair -- limp and tangly. I have to combine it with some kind of protein, like an egg or some plain nonfat yogurt. Remember never to let honey (or egg) dry on your hair, because then it's very difficult to get out.

[lisap]

Originally Posted by girlndocs

Too much ACV makes my hair flat and limp. Also, greasy scalp but dry hair is a classic sign of a too-harsh cleanser -- because you overstrip your scalp, causing it to step up sebum production.

The honey recipes work very well for some hair types, but whenever I use honey by itself, I end up with terribly overconditioned hair -- limp and tangly. I have to combine it with some kind of protein, like an egg or some plain nonfat yogurt. Remember never to let honey (or egg) dry on your hair, because then it's very difficult to get out.

Thanks grindocs, when I added more BS I had very dry hair. I'm going to keep experimenting until I find a good mix! How often do you use egg or yogurt and how much? Thanks!

[velcromom]

It sounds like your acv rinse is a good strength, so I'd eliminate the honey first.

One thing you can try that works for me when I want to deep clean my scalp and sort of start fresh after getting really sweaty or dirt or just am feeling itchy, is a scalp scrub made of half bs and half salt. I wet my hair first and make a part, put some of the mix on, part again an inch over and repeat all the way around my head. Then gently rub it into your scalp. I love the way it feels so brisk and makes my scalp feel light and clean. I follow with the usual acv rinse.

I have gone from bs wash to using my own handmade soap as shampoo. I've been doing it several months now and really like it. I recently cleared out my bathroom cabinet and threw out a bunch of shampoos that reminded me how I was always buying a different kind trying to find one that didn't make my scalp break out in bumps. Yay, No Poo!

[lisap]

Velcromom, what are you using to make your no 'poo. My sis suggested making a bar of no 'poo, but I have no idea where to begin. I would love some suggestions. I really wanted to love no 'poo, but my hair is a mess. I don't want to give up, but I also don't want combination hair .

[girlndocs]

Meh, I try to do some kind of deep conditioner every 2 weeks, but usually it's once a month. I just use enough yogurt to thoroughly saturate my hair and usually I'll throw in whatever I have to hand -- honey, aloe juice, cassia paste, amla, whatever. If I use it after I wash and want to rinse it out, I take care that it's free of any oily ingredients. I leave it in an hour or so, covered with a plastic bag and then my turban towel or a knit hat (for the warmth).

Once every 2-3 months I make a mix of a leetle henna paste and a lot of yogurt and other good stuff, and do a henna gloss for conditioning and faint warm highlights, which is amazing. www.HennaforHair.com has all the info on henna. I hear it makes some people's hair less oily (it's very good for your scalp as well as your hair). I don't use enough of it, or often enough, to know.

www.chagrinvalleysoapandcrafts.com has some nice shampoo bars and they sell samples. I like the Nettle one, and the Cucumber Yogurt one (which is actually a soap, not a shampoo bar).

You might try using a single drop of jojoba or grapeseed (or other light vegetable) oil smoothed on the hair below chin level, for the dryness.

[velcromom]

Well if you really want to try soapmaking you could, but it's an addictive hobby, I'm warning you! I don't use anything fancy, just my regular bars, to wash my hair with - there's lots of rice bran oil and a bit of shea butter in my soap but some people's hair doesn't like butters I've heard... Shampoo bars, unless they are a solid detergent bar, (Lush has some, I've been told) are soap just like you use on your body, but many soapmakers add castor oil to their shampoo bars to give it a foamier lather that feels more "shampoo" like.

I'd get some and give it a try before you bother with the whole process of making your own.

I rarely use other hair products along with my no-poo routine, but with chlorine from the pool and the sun, I've felt as though my hair is a bit dry lately and I have been using some products from Jessicurl. (the owner is a member of the soapmaking board I visit, that's how I found them) They use simple ingredients that I am familiar with & understand, like flax seed, glycerin, avocado oil... so far I am liking them - keeps the frizzies under control and encourages my hair's natural waves too. I hadn't looked at their stuff til I was recommended there by users who said you don't have to have curls to benefit from their products,lol... I hate using stuff that weighs my hair down and just attracts dirt so something that was made to enhance curls, not drag hair down and kill the frizz, seemed like just what I was after. So now that I sound like an advertisement, maybe something like that would be helpful.

[dinade]

Just started no poo

3 days ago. This is my 2nd time trying it. I'm tired of having dry itchy scalp and that's why I'm giving it another try. Ugghh I hate my greasy hair. Here's what I'm doing. First two days no poo or bs. Just water and a dime size conditioner so I can get my comb through my long hair. Then today bs, scalp massage (loving this part) and dime size bit of conditioner. The comb is going through it great. Right now I have to wash daily to get rid of some of the greasies. I'm sure this is from using conditioner and shampoo daily for oh 30 something years. HOping my hair will look better today. I don't want to give up. I know I probably shouldn't be using the conditioner but I have a sensitive scalp and the last time I did bs and acv my hair felt like straw. So I"m experimenting I guess. Any advice? Thanks mamas.

[babybugmama]

Well I will give the advice girlndocs gave to me...if it's greasy on top and dry on the ends it may be too much bs. I use 1 tbsp of bs to two cups of warm water with about 1/2-1 tbsp of honey. I brush my hair from the crown out...When I used to wash my hair I held my head back letting the water run from forehead back. Now I hold my head straight letting the water hit the top of my scalp. I put the bs/honey/water mixture on it in concentrical circles. Then very gentlly massage my trouble areas. I follow up with about 1 tbsp lemon juice in 2 cups of water focusing more on my ends. It has worked wonderfully!

Good luck! It does take some experimenting. Keep trying and posting on what happens.

[girlndocs]

If it makes your hair dry, then you're using too drying a solution of BS. (Some people's hair also gets dry with too much vinegar, but not mine.) Add honey and/or use less BS.

If your scalp is greasy and your ends are dry you're using *way* too drying a solution of BS. You're overstripping your scalp, stimulating it to produce lots and lots of protective sebum, while stripping away the sebum from the ends that actually need it.

It's also a pretty good bet you're washing too often, since the sebum isn't getting a chance to travel down the hair shafts. Try to stretch it at least one more day between washing with your milder BS solution. Oiling the dry ends with a drop or 2 of jojoba or similar oil is a good idea, and the use of a soft boar bristle brush to spread the sebum further down your hair (maybe last thing at night) might help too.

Also remember you don't need to wash the length of your hair. The scalp produces sebum and needs to be cleaned; the length of your hair relies on accumulated sebum to moisten and shield it, and generally needs to be protected. Pour the BS solution on your scalp. Massage your scalp. The runoff from rinsing will be plenty to clean incidental dirt and dust off your ends, even if they're lightly oiled.

[dinade]

Well I've done...

two days of just water washing because I figured that it would be greasy and am trying to be able to stand my hair during this process. LOL This is why I quit the first time. I used bs today for the first time and only did my scalp. I have to say that my scalp doesnt' itch today!!!! YAYAY : I'm going to figure it out just will take time. I do think I used too much bs though because my hair feels a bit like straw...not quite as bad as it was but dry nonetheless. I'm working up to going more between days. baby steps baby steps.

[Silliest]

if you use BS without an acid rinse it tends to feel like that anyway :-)

Good job sticking with it ;->

[dinade]

It did that the last time I tried...

bs and the acv but I think I was probably using too much bs still. So I'm trying to work my kinks out. I'm loving that my scalp isn't itching today. Yay yay yay.

[lisap]

I may have been washing too often (twice a day : ). I'm going to try only washing my scalp with a milder bs solution. I'll add less honey and use avacado butter (burt's bees) on the rest of my hair. i was going to quit, but I feel inspired to give it another try. Thanks mamas!

[girlndocs]

Washing with the BS should leave your hair just like washing with shampoo -- clean, not greasy. You don't have to go through a greasy period unless you also start going way longer than usual without washing.

I don't know where this "greasy period" stuff came from ...

[dinade]

Go LIsa , Go Lisa..

we're in this together. Be strong and i"ll try to be too. LOL It's hard. Maybe I'm not supposed to have a greasy period I just assumed I would from using all those harsh products. My bad.

[Silliest]

the "greasy period stuff" comes from the people who have experienced it, I expect ;->

I started off with BS & ACV daily and got the greasies from something like day 8-15, then it was just kinda *gone* <shrug> some folks just got over-enthusiastic oil glands, I guess ;->

[girlndocs]

Weird. Maybe it depends on what products you're switching away from. Until you two I had never heard of anybody who washed with the same frequency as before and still got greasy.