No-pooers with fine, straight hair...

[quelindo]

What's your routine? What has your experience been?

I have the kind of hair that if I don't wash it every day it looks stringy, flat and greasy. I've tried no-pooing in the past, and it was okay, but only if I did it everyday. And I thought one of the good parts of no-pooing was that you could stop washing your hair every single day. At least that was one of the draws for me. I only shower once or twice a week, but I wash my hair in the bathroom sink once a day, and I'd like to cut back on that.

So how do you do it? Anyone with this kind of hair had success with no-pooing?

[Taedareth]

I think I qualify. I started out by no-pooing twice a week and just dealing with the oiliness in between, because I really wanted my scalp's oil production to normalize. It did, after just a few weeks. Now I wash my hair maybe once a week and it's only moderately oily by that time. (Note that my hair is really long and I wear it up, so oiliness really doesn't show, anyway.)

I just take about a tablespoon of baking soda (or no-poo balls containing made with a bit of honey and chamomile tea and lavender EO) and dissolve it in a cup of water, then pour this over my head and massage with fingertips. Leave in for a couple minutes and rinse out. Then either follow with a diluted vinegar rinse or take a spray bottle with diluted ACV and spray it on. HTH

[Spastica]

Note: do not put ACV all over your head if you are prone to stringiness, just apply from ears down - you may want to do all over your head during winter months, but it's probably too much for summer and fall. Too much honey can also overmoisturize or weigh down hair. Chamomile is also moisturizing and is wonderful for light colored hair. You have to play with the amounts as the previous poster did.

To cut down greasiness you can use lavender, tea tree oil, any minty type oils (eucalyptus, mint, spearmint, etc), or citrus oils like grapefruit, lemon or orange oils. Cedarwood and some other earthy EO's are also very astringent and cuts grease.

[phroggies]

I've got straight, fine and blond hair--so dirt shows, for sure. I did the same thing as Taedareth, waiting for it to normalize, with the same results (i.e., it did). I usually take about a TBS of baking soda and dissolve it in roughly a quart of water, scrub, then rinse pretty thoroughly. Sometimes I put a little dab of honey in because it makes my hair softer, but I don't bother most of the time. Then I put a hefty squirt of lemon juice (I've used ACV; it's just I'm trying to kill this bottle of lemon juice) in about a quart of water and pour it over my head--though, as Spastica suggested, I try to pour most of it on the lower 2/3rds of my hair.

I've also had to tinker with this formula as conditions change--i.e., weather, hormones, being pregnant, not being pregnant. . . .

[quelindo]

Phroggies, how often do you wash your hair now?

I haven't washed my hair since Tuesday (when I used regular shampoo & conditioner) and I can't BELIEVE how greasy it got after one day. I don't think I've ever skipped more than one day. I'm sure using the boar-bristle brush just made things look worse, but I know the oil is probably good for my hair.

I'm going to hang on until tomorrow and wash with BS & ACV then, since DH will be home and I'll get to take a shower. Guess I'm wearing a bandana to the library today!

So things really, truly normalize at some point?

[Spastica]

Well, be sure you're doing a proper scalp scrub. With detergent shampoos, you're relying on the suds to get the oil and dirt out. With no-poo, you have to use the pads of your fingers to scrub your scalp. If you're not firmly scrubbing (like how salon professionals do when they shampoo your hair, almost raking and scrubbing at the same time, like you do to a dirty dog's coat/skin), your scalp won't get clean. Pay special attention to the back of your neck, sideburns and crown of head (the top/back of head where you would perch a small crown). When oil collects in those areas, hair looks greasy and looks limp.

[phroggies]

New Mama, I'm guessing it averages out to once a week. This will show you how little attention I've been paying to grooming lately. . . .I just do it when it starts to look gross. I do think when I started that it was at least twice a week and perhaps three times. I wish I could remember the details, but I've now been doing this for about 3-4 years and my brain is getting OLD.

Spastica's advice about scrubbing the scalp is spot on in my experience. If you're freaked out by the greasies but you're trying to wait, you might just try scrubbing your scalp with just water--no BS, no ACV. That will rinse out some of the dirt even if it doesn't dissolve the grease.

Do you find that your hair *looks* greasy, or *feels* greasy? Mine had a strange stickiness for the longest time, but it looked just fine (and yes, I was paranoid as heck about it, so I repeatedly asked my sisters, who have no difficulties telling me when I look like crap). I think the stickiness was a rinsing/too much "conditioner" issue, but I haven't had it for ages, so I'm not sure.

[Spastica]

I always tell people to use baking soda with existing shampoo and get a new cheap, silicone free conditioner and just use more and more baking soda and less and less shampoo. The gumminess and stickiness could be what you're talking about (not rinsing enough or too much conditioner - you need to rinse more with no poo) - but it could be old product and silicones coming out. If you were an avid Pantene or Garnier Fructise or some other brands user, they all have silicones that wrap around your hair to make it stronger. However, most of these silicones eventually dry out your hair and make it snap off. At any rate, when you use some baking soda (it clarifies hair, especially with shampoo), those bonds of silicone start breaking down and you're left with some sliminess, gooey-ness, and some overall oily looking sludge as the silicones try to come out of your hair.

I think it took me a few weeks to get all that crap out of my hair and my hair was clean but looked flat for a few months until I got my no poo method right. I found that conditioner and baking soda worked for me and that if I didn't have enough moisture in my hair, my hair looked flat and greasy. I did the baking soda and conditioner paste for a while and then found that diluting it cleaned my hair and scalp better. No poo is really a live and learn process that is really unique to your hair, environment, humidity, etc. So no no poo regimen is the same from person to person. I can use a little bit of baking soda and another lady on this forum can use a huge glob of baking soda for her long thick hair. It just depends.

I also had to downscale on how high of heat I was using on my blow dryer. When I was shampooing, I had to use the highest heat setting for my hair to look good. Now I can use medium or cool for it to retain curls and for it to look nice. If I use the highest heat setting now, my hair gets too flat and it dries out my hair.