Ahh, a good shampoo. Is there anything quite so luxurious? The soft lather, the wonderful scents, the way your hair feels rejuvenated when it’s over… For me, it was too much to give up for the “no-poo” treatment. I love it too much. But DIY shampoo recipes are mostly soap based, castile to be specific, which dry out my hair big time. Mostly because castile soap pH levels are closer to 9-9.5 (too high for hair, which has a natural ph balance of 4-6.) Hair should be slightly acidic for it’s natural balance.
I found a blog with the idea of replacing the castile soap with something much gentler and a lower pH: baby wash. I opted for the Aveeno Organic Baby Wash because I like some of the other products I’ve used of theirs and they seemed fairly safe and natural. Not perfect, but I had to start somewhere.
I LOVED what my hair looked and felt like after the first few washes. The curls were lighter and tighter, my hair was super soft, and I didn’t even have to use product in it after conditioning it looked THAT GOOD.
Photo by Petr Kratochvil
One thing I have noticed, even with conditioning, is it can dry my hair out more than I like. As I’m reading more closely into this issue, it seems baby wash may not have been the best option. I thought that since baby wash was obviously more gentle it would be better, but since babies tend to produce more oil naturally it is meant to have more drying properties. The pH of the baby wash is somewhere between 6.2 and 7.2, which may still be higher than I want to continue putting on my hair on a regular basis if I can help it. So I press on.
I had also thought of adding baking soda to the shampoo mix to reap some of the benefits of this “no-poo” rage, but upon doing more research found out some interesting (and off-putting) information about using baking soda on hair, especially of the curly persuasion.
*The pH of baking soda is very high, as it’s an alkali, around 9. And yes, while using apple cider vinegar to balance the pH of your hair can certainly help, it can be damaging to your scalp over long periods of time by taking it up and down that pH roller coaster over and over again (go up to pH 9 with high alkaline “wash”, only to rinse out with an acid to get it down to pH 4 again, all within a few minutes.)
*Alkalines open the hair cuticles, but with curly hair our cuticles are naturally open (which is why our hair is curly and not flat.) So we don’t want to continue putting products on our hair that further exacerbate this extreme side we’re already on.
*While it may have shorter-term benefits of softening hair and promoting natural curl, it can actually have long-term damaging effects as it strips natural oils and results in very fragile hair. As it opens the cuticles of your hair strands, it goes in and weakens your hair from the inside. Not only that, but high alkaline treatments can actually cause fungus and bacteria on your scalp (ew!) as it strips these natural oils and anti-fungal fighting properties.
*If you rinse your hair after the use of apple cider vinegar (or any other acid) the water will counteract the vinegar and basically leave you back where you started with way too high an alkaline substance on your hair. So to actually get the pH balancing benefits, you’re supposed to leave it in and not rinse it out. Have you smelled that stuff? Gross.
Sigh. So where are we now? There are lots of recipes out there for extremely basic washes using just raw honey, or a combination of aloe vera gel and coconut milk. I’m not entirely opposed to either, but again – the goal is not to lose the luxury I love so dear.
So I have a new goal of a conditioner with a pH balance of 3.5-4, and a shampoo with a pH balance of 4.5-5.5. I’ve just ordered a set of pH test strips so I can test products at home before using them or complete the process of making them. Hopefully I can figure this out soon and report back with my findings! My hope was to share my homemade conditioner later this week, but now I am not so sure and want to do a little more research first. I also wanted to make a shampoo bar in hopes that the density of natural oils would be better for the drying issues I’ve seen starting. But now I’m so worked up about pH levels (thinking I may have cracked the code of something important with my hair) that I’m hoping to test the pH of that first as well before committing to regular use, let alone sharing it with you guys.
Stay tuned whilst I set up my science lab, friends! ;)
xo
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