How many hair products do you use? Shampoo, conditioner, gel, mousse, wax, hairspray? It might take ages, and cost a fair chunk, but the end look is worth it, right? Your hair is shiny and light. It looks like there is a perpetual wind flowing your long tresses back. When you step out of the shower, it is a Dove commercial.
But what did cavemen use before Dove Damage Therapy Daily Moisture? Did they just walk around with greasy scalps and dirty locks as they hunted dinosaurs? For that matter, what did people in the past century use? Modern shampooing only emerged in the 1930s. In its inception, women were recommended to wash their hair only once a week (hence the excuse: “I can’t go out, I’m washing my hair.”) It was only in the ’70s, with incredible aggressive marketing, that daily shampooing became the norm. Nowadays, if you tell someone you haven’t shampooed your hair in a day, you’re treated to a unique show where they simultaneously try to peer at your scalp while moving their body away from your griminess.
So if shampooing only really existed since the ’70s, what about all the film stars of the silent era? Men and women like Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe didn’t look like dilapidated cavemen. They had absolutely gorgeous hair.
Enter the No Poo movement. No Poo-ers denounce the use of shampoo. They claim that shampooing your hair is ultimately detrimental. The most radical followers do not ever use shampoo. Shampoo is not actually necessary. You’ve just been conditioned (hehe) to depend on it.
There is science behind this. Many dermatologists support the movement. When you shampoo, you remove the oils in your hair. However, this means your scalp must over-compensate, and secrete extra oils. So your hair isn’t really less greasy: shampoo just removes the excessive oils that it itself caused. Furthermore, the oils are actually good for you. They protect your hair and scalp. Over-shampooing may remove the oils, to the extent that your hair is damaged. Depending on the individual shampoo, it may also contain sulfates or silicone, which further dries out your hair.
You’ll need shampoo and photoshop to achieve this look
The most popular No Poo alternatives are listed:
1) Use only hot water to wash your hair. Conditioner is optional.
2) Wash your hair with a home-made concoction: one teaspoon of baking soda with a cup of water. Consider following that with another rinse in something acidic, like diluted apple cider vinegar.
3) Use natural oils with water, such as honey or coconut oil.
Be warned though, for the first two to six weeks of forgoing shampoo, your hair will look and feel terrible. This is the period where your body adjusts itself. Just put on a hat, and brave it through. But once that grueling trial month is over? No Poo-ers say their hair is thicker, shinier, and just feels healthier.
A quick google of No Poo shows near-unanimous satisfaction among those who have tried it. They are all complete enthusiastic, and eager to convince you to join their cause. While it is entirely possible that No Poo is a cult, scientific and anecdotal evidence really does seem to suggest that shampoo is not necessary.
Should you give it a chance? No poo? No shit.
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