In the spirit of being an all natural try anything type of person, I started thinking not only about what I put in my body but what I put on my body. I wanted to reduce the amount of chemicals I put on my body, as your body absorbs 60% of what you put on it, you want to think twice before applying some of those chemicals you cannot pronounce nor imagine. For me this isn’t a specific statement about feminism, animal rights or nature, though they are important things, it’s more a statement about my own self-worth. Not only do I have sensitive skin, I have curly unruly hair, another aspect of my being I chose to deny for a long period of time. It seems hilarious to me now that my morning ritual used to be covering my face with make-up and straightening my hair, as far from embracing what makes me, me as possible. Now, my morning ritual consists of oil pulling, tongue scraping, splashing water on my face and drinking a ton of water, before starting my Yoga practice with some cleansing Yogic breathing. Every one of these morning rituals makes my body feel good and stay healthy.

What you must be wondering is the no-poo method? Simply put you don’t wash your hair in the conventional way, now try not to freak out like people tend to, I stopped washing my hair when I was in Australia in May 2013. Believe me I haven’t told many people because I know they wouldn’t be able to deal with my loss, my loss of shampoo is a great one for other people. The funny thing is to begin with it was a bit greasy and then when my hair stopped over producing oils, because I was no longer stripping it of its natural oils every couple of days (a.k.a washing with shampoo), and so it became shiny, happy and healthy curls.

I keep having these discoveries which seem to disprove the ‘usual‘ way of going about things; ah if I eat more healthy fat and protein and less carbohydrates (the kind that are shoved done our throat as being so healthy) I feel better, or I’ll stop putting make-up and other skin products on my face that claim to be good for my skin and suddenly my skin is happier and healthier, and low and behold I stop washing my hair, and suddenly its not a frizzy knotted mess needing to be straightened but curly and happy. These discoveries infuriate me because basically we’ve been told we need all these things, but we don’t! Its really that simple. They want us to buy stuff we don’t need so they market it, we buy it and once we start using it, it creates the need; simple sugar carbohydrates make you crave more carbohydrates, make-up makes your skin need make-up and shampoo makes your hair need shampoo, it’s ridiculous!

There’s a few ways you can go no-poo, if you’re interested. One is to wash it with a mixture of baking soda and water, (mix a tablespoon of baking soda in a old shampoo bottle add warm water shake and leave for a couple of days), and then condition with apple cider vinegar and water (about 1/8 ACV to water in an old bottle), you can use these as you require. You’ll find your hair doesn’t get greasy over time and it will look healthier than ever. You’ll have the added bonus of just using natural things in your hair. Then to deep condition every once and a while you can use coconut oil (rub it in to your scalp, leave and then wash out thoroughly),  honey or mashed up avocado, all the things you find in your kitchen! No more random chemicals on your face, running down your body, or your hair and you look great – it must be a joke, but really it’s not! I don’t wash my hair with baking soda, I found because I have curly hair it wasn’t needed or good, so now I just condition once a week with coconut oil. And that’s it I get my hair wet, scrub it around, brush it and then it dries and it looks good.

The only proviso is when you first stop shampooing your hair will go greasy because your hair is so used to you stripping it of its natural oils, that when you stop it will carry on producing extra oil to begin with. The excess oil goes away after some time dependent on your hair type and how often you used to wash it, then it will self clean and look great.

Give it a go if your feeling like never having to buy shampoo again, I can vouch for this actually working! When I read about it I didn’t believe it but I was willing to try something new and I was so pleased with the result.

I’m going to be posting an article about other natural alternatives to self love and care.

 

 

 

 

Namaste,

 

Helen – WAP