How to part with your shampoo

Here are instructions for how to stop using store bought shampoo. You can also check out my other posts for more details on how my experience with this process went.

It seems like a bit of work at the beginning to wrap your head around the process (make that wrap the process around your head haha) and you may need to tweak a few things to get it to work best for your hair, but that means in the end you'll have a fully customized, cheaper, healthier (compared to chemical shampoos) alternative that takes less work and gives you nicer hair!

The idea is that if you don't strip all your natural oils from your hair every day (and then replace them with synthetic oils in conditioner so you can avoid tangles...), your body will stop overproducing the oils and after a few weeks should reach an equilibrium, and your hair will stay clean longer. People also say their hair is thicker, has more volume, is stronger, has a healthier colour and if you have curls or waves, these will probably become more pronounced and better formed with less frizz. Personally (I'm in my second week of trying this) my hair feels nicer, softer, thicker, more substantial. It also styles/falls nicer when its not as clean and fluffy.


The basic recipe for the "shampoo" is 1 tablespoon of baking soda to one cup of water, mix well in a spray or squirt bottle, use some on your hair every couple days, focus rubbing gently on the scalp not your ends, then rinse. If your hair is not clean enough, you can add more baking soda, if it's too harsh, use less.

If you want conditioner, (if hair is too dry/tangled) you can use 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar  mixed with one cup of water, spray on the ends of your hair and comb through, then rinse. When your hair is dry it will not smell like vinegar.

Do be careful not to get  either of these mixtures in your eyes.

The customizable part, other than the recipe ratios, is how often you wash and whether you rinse with just water in between washes, and whether you blow dry. Some people say that can make a difference so if your hair isn't responding well, you could try changing one of those.

I think I've hit upon a good schedule for me that lets me skip the maximum number of washes while still looking presentable for work/life. I wash my hair Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. Sunday morning I comb through a bit of corn starch to soak up oils, hair looks great but would start looking gross by late afternoon if I don't do this Sunday morning.

Let me know if you try it and what you think!
It's best to try it for 3 weeks to allow time for nice results to show, although I'm pleased already with mine.