Help! The no poo method on my very thick wavy hair has made it look revolting!

[carrielou2007]

What have I done wrong??

I have very very thick wavy hair, before having dc had it long/below bra strap length that weighed it down well. When dd was abour 12 months had it cut to just above shoulder length and is quicker but still wrestle with it every day. It is ijn good condition, I have it cut regularly and whilst can be drier on the ends is never greasy.

If I don't wash me hair every day it just feels vile, I can't re-straighten it as it just will not 'go right' and feels vile. I don't use a lot of stuff in it (product is that how you say it nowadays?) just a little serum on the ends or a few squirts of hair protection spray on the ends both work really well.

Well, not going anywhere today, no shampoo and just the condtioner today and wow, my hair looks disgusting! I hacven't used anything in it to dry and straighten it and it just looks and feels vile.

What have I done wrong? There is no way I could go outside where there are people with eyes do the school run and certainly not face people at work?? I am going to go and wash it again in a min and redo it as I just feel yuk but I hear it is so much better for your hair, help!

I have frizz prone, thick, rather course hair. I like Organix- you can buy it at Boots, and it's inexpensive, or Liz Earle, or Moroccan Oil.

in my experience the no poo method only works if you wear your hair curly, you have to scrunch it and twirl it and really encourage the waves into curls, absolutely NO combing or brushing whatever you do..

also ime it takes a while (maybe a week) for the hair to settle into no poo and you must make sure you don't have any silicones in your conditioner - use a really 'natural' light textured one. Silicones need harsh shampoos to get them out or they build up.

finally, i don't actually do 'no poo' i use a very light natural (no sls) shampoo about once a week and use a very light natural (no silicones) conditioner in between.

should just say again - it's the no brushing/combing that's key... just run your fingers through with the conditioner to get the knots out, then scrunch it over the bath to squeeze the water out, then wrap in a towel and scrunch more as it drys - do NOT rub with the towel or comb at any point.

Well it did make it look very curly!! If I go to bed with wet washed hair I wake up with full on corkscreww curls and I had a lot of that going on this morning. Obs made it bloomin hard work to ghd it.

Normally it will look like worzell gummage/stucmk my finger in electric socket before I ghd

Not brave enough to try it again

maybenow can i ask what shampoos and conditioners you use that are light and natural with no sls? all the ones fnd seem to have sls listed on them.

Iambooyhoo i get mine in a health food shop - but if you go into a really big boots there's a 'natural' shelf with stuff called 'naked' and similar... even tresseme make a 'low sls' one these days.

carrielou - i don't know why you're trying these methods if you're going to ghd anyway... generally these methods are called the 'curly girl' method and designed for people who want to wear their hair curly...

No no, that's exactly what I want to do!! Think I just need a lot more effort/prep to brave it more than once!

I just meant it made my hair feel horrible so thought well lets just straighten it and maybe try it again another time but obs trying to straighten corkscrews takes a loooooooong time and my hair even in full on wiggle-ness felt yuk.

I would love to be able to do this 'curly girl' so that rather than wash, dry, sraighten, walk 30 mins on school run then back to not look in the mirror like I have been dragged through a hedge backwards. Hoping that if I 'embrace' and 'encourage' my hair's kinkiness rather than fight it maybe that is what I should be doing?

ah ok. understand now...

so... what you've got to do is find an sls-free shampoo and silicone-free conditioner... then.. use a shampoo WITH sls for one last time to get all the residue out of your hair, shampoo two or three times to be sure... then put LOADS of the new conditioner on and leave for ages before washing out... then the next 2-3 times just 'wash' with the conditioner... or maybe start with alternating one conditioner-only with one sls-free shampoo for a bit... but really you've got to get the whole curl thing going first as if you straighten the gentle silicone-free conditioner will not be moisturising enough... and it will take a week roughly for your hair to balance out... make sure when you do wash with shampoo you concentrate on your scalp only and don't rub at the ends.

it doesnt work for everyones hair.

I tried it for a few weeks once and my hair looked and felt disgusting. Like greasy rats tails

thanks maybenow

yes dinah i treid no poo but ended up feeling disguting. i persevered for a few weeks but i never got to a stage where i felt happy about the way my hair felt or looked. it never felt freshly washed.

I use conditioner only, with fab results. My hair now grows down the way as opposed to being bouffant with crispy ends. It is never greasy now either, whereas before the CO method it would last 1.5, perhaps 2 days. After illness recently, I didn't wash hair for 5 days, and it still wasn't greasy - just looked unkempt and shite.

Maybe try the following: make sure your conditioner contains no methyparaben or propylparaben, no SLS as mentioned earlier (mind u, that is just for shampoo i think) also no "cones" i.e. silicone (this doesn't seem to affect my hair tho.

Also, you may need to downgrade your conditioner from dry hair to normal hair (for example). I use Alberto Balsam or Sainsbury own brand (88p) conditioners and find them both good.

I still need to blow dry my hair though (I don't use any styling products or serum) as it would look shit otherwise.

HTH

thanks mummypocpoc.