Shampoo Free

Oh, I had a lovely Saturday. I was at an environmental expo with my new workshop Happy Hair / Healthy Planet and basically spent the afternoon with a load of strangers feeling up my head, sticking their noses in my scalp and running their fingers through my locks. Oh yes! Surely if there is anything that can prove going Shampoo Free can give you healthy, shiny tresses it is getting up close and personal! I was pretty stoked that people actually went away and bought my ebook after rubbing my head like a genie – I have been selling stacks of them all weekend. YES!

Whilst cramming for my workshop I went even deeper into the chemicals present in our shampoo bottles and once again I was blown away by the fact that people wash in this unregulated carcinogenic concoction on a regular basis. If only people KNEW! And if only people realised they could stick those nasties in the bin, replace it with something from their kitchen and actually have BETTER, far, far, BETTER hair!

Well, I am on a mission now people>>>

Happy Hair/ Healthy Planet- on tour in the UK, NZ and USA!
I love writing, but I also love communicating face to face. Since finishing up my campaigning job with Oxfam, one of the things I have missed is the stream of workshops and presentations. I love meeting people and talking about stuff I am passionate about. So, why not start doing this with Happy Hair? My presentation involves looking inside the average shampoo bottle, all the alternatives, and the place of the No Poo movement within the wider, global environmental movement.

Happy Hair/ Healthy Planet will be on tour around NZ, the UK (in July, hoorah!) and San Francisco over the summer months.

Do you run an environmental centre or are you part of a group (such as W.I) that wants to host a workshop like this? I would love to work with you! Alternatively, please pass this on to any connections you have in those worlds! Get in touch through lulasticblog@gmail.com
My Six Weekly Hair Cycle
I have been No-Poo for THREE years now- can you believe it? And I think I’ve just entered a new stage of lovely locks. (When I say “lovely” I mean “recently hacked at by  a massive pair of sewing scissors and unbrushed”)

I’ve begun doing a regular avocado or hot oil treatment and I think it has given my hair the gloss and softness that I realise I have been missing for a while. I realise I am in a sort of six weekly rhythm. I’ve come to believe that hair thrives when we mix it up and use a variety of ingredients.

Week 1 – Henna. Henna gives my hair a good old nourish and deep clean. I pack it on, stick a plastic bag on my head, followed by a scarf and then wander around for the afternoon acting as if I don’t look absolutely bonkers. I wash it out four hours later with cold water.

Ten days later….

1 tsp of baking soda in a cup of water, rinsed out with 1 tsp of ACV in a cup of water.

Ten days later….

I squish an avocado on my head and leave it for an hour. Then I rinse that out and slather an egg yolk on my head for 3 minutes- the only thing really effective at getting the avo oils out. Hair after this session is shiny-glorious-gloss-balls.

Ten days later….

A tsp of bentonite clay in a cup of water sloshed on and rinsed off, followed by a herb (lemonbalm or rosemary) rinse.

Ten days later…

We are back to the Henna and my six weekly rhythm pings on again.

NoPoo on Hippyshake TV
I thought I’d do a little Youtube about our family’s motto “If you can’t eat it, don’t wash with it!” but it sort of ended up as a bit of a farce when Juno started putting herbs in her ears. Anyway, here it is. You’ll probably die, crunching out to that wee lass and her determination with that lemonbalm.

PS I got this comment from a hairdresser about my ebook, how cool is that?! “I’m a hairdresser and I have tried everything to make my hair grow and be shiny and healthy, every product under the sun! I’m on holiday at the moment and my hair was duller and more brittle than ever! The only things from the book I had to hand was lemon juice and eggs, tried it and can’t believe how shiny and soft it feels from one wash and got rid of the grease build up! I am definitely going shampoo and conditioner free and will tell all my clients with the same problem about your book!”

Join the people discovering beautiful hair and lessening their environmental impact with help from Happy Hair – the definitive guide to giving up shampoo.

I just opened an email that filled my heart with gladness! I get emails like this about once a fortnight and every single time I just about want to cry. In the last Chapter of my ebook, Happy Hair, I say something along the lines of how the No Poo movement is part of a wider movement – one that is standing up to the big corps that are flooding the earth with plastic and toxins and promising health and beauty to people that they just can’t provide. Emails like this are a reminder that this is so:

I read your Happy Hair book about 3 months ago, I was pretty desperate at the time having lost a lot of hair following the birth of my second daughter. I’d read The Modern Rapunzel before your book but although that book was helpful, your book addressed my problems; grease and dermatitis. 

Since then, I’ve had many awful hair days, it took a depressing two-and-a-half months to get there, and thank God braids were in fashion, but now I can get to 4 days fairly easily, it even still looks clean at the end of the 2nd day. This all feels like a major achievement after having been a wash-every-day addict since my teens (I’m 37 now). I use the shikakai shampoo you suggest too. I’ve even ditched having highlights and henna my hair now, thank you for giving me this idea, henna is very effective on my dermatitis, though I’m not sure whether its the lemon juice or the henna itself. I mix it with indigo so am now a very shiny dark brown. I even have quite a bit of new hair growth.

I wish I could tell my Grandma who died a few years ago, I have the same hair/scalp as her, she had very fine hair and I remember her saying how she would wash hers and the next day it would be flat and greasy. For many years I’d assumed this would be my future too.

Thanks for giving me an alternative.

I recently wrote up accounts of two of my favourite shampoo alternatives for Cosmo.

Eggs as an alternative to shampoo

This is my very, very favourite alternative. We had a hot day here yesterday and my hair was in need of a wash, I went into the garden, smashed an egg on my head, rubbed the slimeyness all over my head, grabbed a fistful of lemonbalm and squashed that into the mix too, and then hosed it off. I felt like a cavewoman, in a liberating kind of a way. And my hair looked like I’d stepped out of a salon, not a cave. 

Here is my Cosmo article all about that.

Soapnuts as an alternative to shampoo

And then soapnuts, argh. They ROCK. Get them in your cupboard right now because they clean EVERYTHING!!! Buy them from the incredible Ethical Superstore for a bargainous 1 kilo – these are my affiliate chums. Love them.

(Yes: FRINGE!!!!)

Here is my Cosmo article all about that.

And here is the Wonderthrift guide to using Soapnuts as laundry powder. MASSIVE SAVINGS TO BE HAD!

So, yes, I continue to be wowed by all the potential of No Poo. If you are unhappy with your hair I urge you to consider trading traditional shampoo for other alternatives- you may well find the hair you’ve always wanted.

(Buy my comprehensive guide right here, in two clicks. And tell your grandma about it!)

Let me know if you’ve tried anything wacky in your hair- or as a beauty alternative. I’d love to experiment with it for Cosmo. If it involves me acting tribal in my garden it a bonus.