By: Brianna Lowell  September 15, 2017

As someone with curly, textured hair I often feel the need to wash my hair every other day and sometimes more due to knots and frizz. After years of washing my hair this often I noticed that my hair would become oily very quickly after washing. It got to the point where I would wash my hair and then the next day it would already be noticeably oily and I couldn’t understand why. When I did my research it all became clear. Many of the shampoos we use today contain harmful chemicals which strip our hair of it natural oils. Our hair follicles in return produce more of these oils in order to add moisture to our now dry, brittle hair. This means that the more we shampoo our hair the more oily it will become.

After coming to the conclusion that the products I was using to clean my hair were in turn making my hair more “dirty” I decided to try something different. First, I decided that I needed to stop washing my hair so often and would have to deal with the oiliness for a little while. Second, I began to use baby powder in my roots as an alternative to dry shampoo and began wearing my hair up more often. Third, I started to use organic shampoos and conditioners that do not contain harmful chemicals.

The botanical materials in many of these organic hair products enrich and infuse skin cells and hair follicles with natural oils, vitamins, and minerals. This results in healthy, soft, glossy hair. Although the price of organic hair products are often times higher than conventional hair products the results are worth it. I have been using this method for about a month now and only was my hair every four or five days. As a result my hair is less oily, less dry, and in fact less frizz.

The whole point of the no-poo movement is to remove shampoos and conditioners from your hair routine all together. The idea is to use baking soda and apple cider vinegar as alternatives to shampoo and conditioner. As I was researching, I noticed that depending on people’s hair types this method works in two ways. For people with straight, thin hair this method works extremely well. It cleans their hair and leaves it less oily in the end. However, for people with curly/wavy, thick hair this method is less effective. Baking soda and vinegar fail to properly clean their hair but, it still makes it less oily in the long run. This is why I decided not to go through with using the no-poo method because I do not think that it would work effectively on my curly, thick hair.