If you haven't yet heard of the "No Poo" method, most likely you will soon. Very basically, the no poo method is to stop using shampoo. Many people replace shampoo with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. You might be thinking, "Hey, both of those things are natural, so this method is probably a good and healthy one." We at Shear Miracle Organics like to bring awareness to the fact that just because it is natural doesn't mean it is necessarily good and beneficial to your hair.
As professional hairstylists, we are against the no poo method. We witnessed some of the worst hair trauma, and have seen first hand the results of many heads of hair damaged by non-pooing. At first many of these girls were advocates- loving it and claiming that their hair felt cleaner than it ever had with "real hair products", but the results were always the same - Dry, knotty, coated feeling hair and dry, flaky scalp.
Over time, this no poo method will create long term damage to your hair, leaving it drier and more prone to breakage than products specifically made for hair - organic or not.
Want to know why?
Hair is delicate. It’s basically strands of dead proteins left over from the growth process that happens under your skin in the follicle. If you damage it, there’s no real way to un-damage it because it’s not actually alive and able to regenerate. It’s
natural pH level is between 4.5 and 5, which is important, because anything that you put on your hair that differs from that, is going to damage it. Even tap water, with its pH around 7 can cause damage to your hair, especially if your water is treated with toxic chemicals like chlorine. (But that's another story.)
Vinegar has a natural pH of 3. It’s pretty acidic. You could probably permanently alter your hair's texture with an acid like that. (Think perm)
Baking soda however, is on the completely opposite side of the pH scale with a pH of 9. What do we use baking soda for? Whitening, deodorizing... The problem with using it on your hair is that because the pH is so high, it will break down your hair leaving it dry and damaged.
(We use baking soda & apple cider vinegar in the salon on occasion when a client comes in with hair coated with plastics, silicones & waxes from traditional hair products because it has a stripping affect on the hair. We would never recommend using this on a regular basis.)
Why does this method seem to work for many at first?
Our philosophy starts with eliminate the bad and the toxic- the ingredients that cause damage & harm. When you do that, you will see positive results as your hair (& skin, body, etc) start to be able to thrive.
At first...
That's simply not enough to take care of your hair over the long term to keep it in the best possible condition. When you eliminate the bad you must replace with good healthy beneficial ingredients to achieve great results.
Basically, to best take care of your hair, it needs to be cleansed & conditioned. Some people only use conditioner rather than the apple cider & vinegar method. This still is not efficient. Cleansing with a gentle shampoo is necessary to remove dirt, grime, oils & toxins from the hair. Shampoo works by reducing surface tension. When you wash with shampoo what you are trying to do is dissolve the grease and oil that is on your hair and skin into the water. Water and oil don't mix, which is another way of saying that because of the surface where the water tension is - the water will just run off without carrying any (greasy) dirt with it. Shampoo (soap) molecules have two very different ends. One end likes to dissolve in water and the other in oil. When you add shampoo to water it happily mixes with the oil because the oil-loving part of the shampoo is on the top of the water surface facing out and the grease and dirt (toxins, grime & dirt cling to oil) will dissolve in the soapy water and get rinsed away.
Cleansing or shampooing is a very important part of maintaining healthy hair.
If you use an organic product to do these things that do not contain waxes, silicones & toxic ingredients in the first place, you won't have anything to fight against which is what people are trying to do using the no poo method. That's why we have specifically chosen ingredients that will promote a healthy scalp.
The moral of the story is to read your ingredient labels and know what you are using before putting anything on your hair or body. To read more about our philosophy, check this out. Shear Miracle Organics: Setting the Standard for Purity in the Beauty Industry
Want to try one of our shampoos? Here's an incentive! Buy any shampoo & receive 50% off any conditioner. Simply use the code: NONOPOO upon checkout.