How To Peatarian Wash The Hair?

Beebop

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Jan 27, 2013
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Bicarb and vinegar works for me. I've never had oily hair so I can go about a week to a fortnight before washing again.

A few other observations based on several years of hair experiments.

Conditioning
Coconut and olive oils are too greasy for some people, including me, to use as conditioners. The finer your hair the less easily it will tolerate oil - instant greasy hair. If you have thicker hairs then oil will probably work for you. I can use just a tiny bit, and whatever I put on will stay for several days, even after bicarb washing.
(Note there is a difference between number of hairs on the head and width of each hair. 'Fine' refers to width of hair. You can have a full head dense with fine hairs, or a head sparsely covered with 'thick' hairs, and every combination in between.)

Egg works the best for me.
Banana is worth a try.

Protein for hair:
My current understanding (although I haven't double checked the science behind it...)
Protein helps heal the shaft of the hair. If you run your fingers along the hair and can feel bumps, that indicates the degree of porosity of your hair. If it's highly porous your hair needs extra protein. Egg is perfect - protein and fat combined.
You leave the mixture on for an hour and then rinse in cool water :!: with bicarb or vinegar or both (separately). A few of these done last year and my hair is in much better condition, haven't needed to do it since.

Hair Gel:
Some people may not want any hair care beyond "no poo", but in my profession I need nice hair!
Many natural gels for sale contain aloe vera and I've come to the conclusion that they do not work. They look like hair gel but they feel sticky and dull the hair.

Flax seed hair gel:
Boil a tbsp flax seeds, strain the gel and freeze (I decant into an ice cube tray). Defrost before use. Perfect hair gel. Avoid getting it on the scalp due to PUFAs.
(Maybe this is still a bad idea? Better than petrochemicals! Let me know what you think.)

Hair shiner/Lipbalm recipe:
Beeswax,
Coconut oil
Olive Oil
Vit E

Melt on a low heat in a pan, experiment with ratios.

I rub this into any dry top strands that need defining/shining. Works like a treat! :mrgreen:
 

Beebop

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The other thing I discovered about going 'no-poo' is you need to prepare the hair first by removing whatever previous shampoo you were using.

If you have been using any hair products with silicones in them you first need to wash the hair with a silicone-free surfactant such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Normally you would avoid these surfactants because they strip oil from the hair, but in this instance that is exactly why you use them - to strip the silicone from your hair.

Silicones coat the hair and won't let any goodness (coconut oil etc) into the hair. They make the hair look shiny because they are literally, a shiny coating. Once you remove them you'll see how dry your hair may be! At that point you may want some serious conditioning and that's where the oil or egg comes in.

Then you can proceed with the no-poo, happily silicone free!

Info about this with chemical names here:
http://livecurlylivefree.com/product%20ingredients.htm
 

Edle

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Oct 17, 2012
Messages
54
Thanks for all the ideas!

I have now lasted for more than a week. I "cheated" once washing it with the Gluten free savonnerie soap containing coconut / olive oil / jojoba oil AND sodium hydroxide (caustic soda - I think all cold processed soap use it i- turns into glycerin and foamy soap). Anyway, I want to avoid the soap also, so back to sodium bicarbonate and vinegar. My roots are okay, but the lower parts of my hair still looks very greasy. But I will stick with it.

jaa said:
I've found combing my hair when it's wet/damp helps a lot with the grease.

Thanks Jaa. I have to comb my hair both before and after washing, if not it just turns into a tangle mess. It would probably look worse if I did not comb it.

Beebop said:
A few other observations based on several years of hair experiments.

Conditioning
Coconut and olive oils are too greasy for some people, including me, to use as conditioners. (...)


Protein for hair:
My current understanding (although I haven't double checked the science behind it...)
Protein helps heal the shaft of the hair. If you run your fingers along the hair and can feel bumps, that indicates the degree of porosity of your hair. If it's highly porous your hair needs extra protein. Egg is perfect - protein and fat combined.
You leave the mixture on for an hour and then rinse in cool water with bicarb or vinegar or both (separately). A few of these done last year and my hair is in much better condition, haven't needed to do it since.

Thanks Beebop. Agreed - I have fine hair and coconut oil does not work at all.
I tried an egg - did not let it sit long though, before rinsing it with sodium bicarbonate. I felt it made my hair a bit more greasy, but I will try it again when I have been able to stick with the sodium bicarbonate/vinegar for a bit longer. Am sure it is good.

Jenn said:
Try soaking with baking soda water, let it sit. Message it. Rinse. Apply again. Let it sit. Massage it. Repeat as necessary. You should be able to run your fingers through your hair. if it's still sticking, Repeat.

Then rinse with diluted vinegar. The ACV or distilled won't make a difference with the hair stickiness.

Thanks Jenn. I put my head in a bucket of sodium bicarbonate water to makes sure my hair would rinse well. I think it helped a bit. Thanks!
 

HDD

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Nov 1, 2012
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My son told me I needed to wash my hair yesterday. Kids are so honest. I guess it is time for the bs and acv! :D
 
R

ratcheer

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I switched to baking soda about six months ago, then stopped using anything but water maybe three months ago. I like it better! It's not greasy at all, and has a little more 'body' during the day (and since I'm thinning on top, that's a good thing). The only downside is that the next morning my hair is sticking straight up and out all over; before I could skip a wash in a pinch, now I'm pretty much obligated to.
 

SheilaHelm1

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Day 27...... Anyone else had static since not using any shampoo/conditioner...?.. Tried the ACV but think I used too much, gonna try again this weekend. Will probably keep this up though x
 

4peatssake

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Have officially joined the "no poo" club!

I first went for about 2 weeks without washing it with anything and so far so good.

Yesterday, I washed my hair with baking soda and ACV and my hair is very soft today. I used a little coconut oil and this will work good for me I think because my hair tend to dry rather than oily and I need something to control frizz - I will look like bozo the clown if I don't use something to tame it.

I also use coconut oil on my body and make a skin lotion using coconut oil and Vit E.

If anyone has other ways to tame frizz and puffy hair I'd appreciate it.
 

Beebop

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4peatssake said:
If anyone has other ways to tame frizz and puffy hair I'd appreciate it.

To tame frizz I find that the beeswax plays an important role, namely it's waxy (holds well) and it's shiny :)
I only use a tiny amount between my fingers, although I have used more and that can work too. A combination of beeswax and other oils (see post above) works better for me than oil alone. (Beeswax on it's own is too hard).

What is beeswax?

Its main components are palmitate, palmitoleate, and oleate esters of long-chain (30-32 carbons) aliphatic alcohols, with the ratio of triacontanyl palmitate CH3(CH2)29O-CO-(CH2)14CH3 to cerotic acid[4] CH3(CH2)24COOH, the two principal components, being 6:1.
from wikipedia "Beeswax"
 
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I'm thinking about returning to "no poo". The best shampoo I could find at Whole Foods was Aubrey's and it has stuff like xantham gum in it. If I don't put that in my mouth I don't see why I would put it on my scalp.
 

4peatssake

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Beebop said:
4peatssake said:
If anyone has other ways to tame frizz and puffy hair I'd appreciate it.

To tame frizz I find that the beeswax plays an important role, namely it's waxy (holds well) and it's shiny :)
I only use a tiny amount between my fingers, although I have used more and that can work too. A combination of beeswax and other oils (see post above) works better for me than oil alone. (Beeswax on it's own is too hard).

What is beeswax?

Its main components are palmitate, palmitoleate, and oleate esters of long-chain (30-32 carbons) aliphatic alcohols, with the ratio of triacontanyl palmitate CH3(CH2)29O-CO-(CH2)14CH3 to cerotic acid[4] CH3(CH2)24COOH, the two principal components, being 6:1.
from wikipedia "Beeswax"

Thanks BeeBop, I'll try that!
 

Beebop

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You're welcome, let me know if it works for you or not... :) Hair can be very particular!
 

4peatssake

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Eureka!

My 14 year old daughter just joined the no poo club! :)

And wow does her hair already look and feel fantastic after her first baking soda and ACV wash and she is thrilled with it.

I didn't even suggest it to her but she loved the look and feel of my hair and asked me to tell her how to do it.

:woo
 

charlie

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Wow!

The no poo revolution is spreading.

Viva la no poo! :woo
 

Edle

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Oct 17, 2012
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I am in my third week now, and I am slowly figuring out what can work. I have found that I need a lot of baking soda and ACV. Since I have fine hair, but a lot of it and long, mixing in a little bit of baking soda with water was not enough.

What I do is that I wet the hair fully, then I take one tea spoon of baking soda at the time and mix it with a tiny bit of water, just enough to get moist. Then I massage it into my hair starting with the roots. I take about 5-6 tea spoons of of baking soda this way. I let it sit for 5 minutes, rinse, and do it all over again.

Then I take about 1/3-1/2 dl of ACV and mix it with 2 dl water and pour it slowly all over my hair. I let it sit for 2 minutes and rinse very carefully. The Braggs raw ACV did not work well. Now I use S&W and it makes my hair quite soft.
 

caroline

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Oct 27, 2013
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I have been doing no-shampoo method for a while now.

I departed from this recently, after reading about success with decrease in flaky dry-scalp using honey, I left it in for a few hours. My scalp is noticeably less dry and crusty (gross) now; however, it really really dried out my hair b/c I had to very thoroughly rinse it b/c honey got all sticky over my hair (couldn't avoid it although the point was to get it on the scalp). My hair sort of looked like a dry broom again after all this washing. I rinsed it with some apple cider vinegar b/c the honey was not coming out with just water.

Anyhow, I had gone weeks and weeks (and weeks) without washing and my hair looked completely soft, smooth, and shiny. It looked better than it has my whole life; no frizz, shine, and soft and great texture. However, I have lots of hair, it is not thin, and it is not prone to being oily. So for me, rinsing with baking soda, vinegar, etc. makes it too dry--from what I have read, people whose hair gets oily easily seem to do well with baking soda/vinegar, etc. Not me. My hair NEVER gets oily.

The best is doing absolutely nothing to it. I did think about just putting some coconut oil in, but decided that it will get greasier again--will just take a little bit. Not washing my hair regularly is the best thing I have done and I don't use any products any more. It never smells. It only did so when I used hair products. I figured this out after reading that someone else had the same experience--that her hair only smelled when not washing when she used hair products.

Anyway, just waiting for it to get greasy again so it looks good!
 

montmorency

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I don't know about Peaty, but I've been using neem soap lately. (Also use it to shave with).

When I don't have any neem soap, I basically just use water (for my hair).

I do also put coconut oil on it from time to time.
 
M

marikay

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So I guess the trick is to make sure I rinse with water every day if I am going to go with the no shampoo of any kind route. I've tried everything else and it didn't work. I'll post again after a week or so with rinse with water only approach.
 

charlie

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zooma

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Presumably it must still be going well for you, any tips?

I've tried it before and it seems fine mostly, but after a few weeks I wanted to use soap and particularly shampoo. Not that I smelt or was dirty or anything, but just that I would feel better if I used them. I did do water only so I'm not sure if there is some alternative that people use.
 

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