From No-Poo To Low-Poo: Washing My Hair With Bar Soap

Poo as in shampoo. 😉 Are you curious about no-poo methods? I was. I spent a year trying to go no-poo before I went low-poo. Since I transitioned to washing my hair with bar soap, I’ve been happy with my new routine.

Special thanks to Bea Johnson, who reassured me that you can use an ordinary bar of soap for both your hair and body in the shower.

It started off as an environmental endeavor, but I quickly realize there’s a lot more benefit to it.

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• A trip down memory lane
• Hairy experiments
  • The no-poo experience
    • What I learned about no-poo methods
  • Going low-poo: Washing my hair with bar-soap
    • How’s my hair now?
• Benefits of washing my hair with bar soap

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A trip down memory lane

I never had long hair until I was 17 years old and got vainer. Like everyone else, I chose products that promised to keep my hair silky-smooth and shiny. I explored dyes and cluttered my wardrobe with hair products. Thinking back, I don’t know why I thought I needed hair products. I DIDN’T. My hair was healthy. Stupid marketing.

In my early twenties, the real hairy problem began – hair loss! I still don’t know if it was stress from my depression, nutrient-deficiency or just weak scalp, but my sister made me do something about my hair after regularly sweeping up little bundles of them. “You’re losing way too much hair,” she warned.

Being the silly 20-something I was, I cried, afraid that I’ll go bald, and my sweet niece made me a purple card in the shape of a heart to reassure me that I won’t lose my hair. She was 8 or 9 years old but she comforted me. Some kind of “adult” I was!

Upon my sister’s urging, I went to this hair salon to get hair treatments. They weren’t cheap but I was so worried about my hair I had to spend that money. Apparently, my hair follicles were clogged or inflamed.

A couple of thousand dollars later, I saw improvements in my hair. I stopped the treatments when the shop moved from the neighborhood mall to a posh shopping center downtown. The cheaper package I was on was done and the new price of their new package matched their location…

Questioning hair products

Without the treatments, I spent my money on expensive “natural”, organic and sulfate-free shampoos to preserve what progress I made. I had the idea “mainstream” shampoos weren’t good for me since I was using them when my hair-loss problems started.

Around this time, I was also minimizing my possessions and cutting plastic from my life. With everything pared down, I turned to my bathroom routine.

Body soap was the first to go. My hair was trickier. I was afraid I’ll return to my hair-fall days, but I had a nagging suspicion that the good hair products out there weren’t that great for me either.

Hairy experiments

The first thing I did was stopped washing my hair so frequently because I think we wash it too often.

Look at animals. My cats run around, crawl into dusty spaces, and lick themselves after eating fish. We bathe them twice a year. Clyde, the border collie, runs around the yard, crawls under bushes and rolls around in the grass. He gets shampooed once every 3 months. They all have soft, full and shiny coats! Surely there’s something we can learn from them.

No, I don’t mean we should wash our hair twice a year. That won’t go well. I meant most of us are washing our hair too often. Our hair isn’t as dirty as we imagine it to be.

I know what some of you may say, “my hair gets greasy if I don’t wash it for a day!” What if that’s because our scalp over-compensates for the oil and moisture overwashing strips away?

Now, there are sites saying that this is a myth, but as someone who washed her hair once a day in the past, I think the over-compensation theory is true.

I went from washing my hair once a day to every 3 days, then every 5 days. Eventually, the goal is once a week.

The no-poo experience

From organic shampoo, I tried several things – baking soda solution with an apple cider vinegar rinse, diluted Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castille soap with the ACV rinse, washing with tea, and water only. Surprisingly, water-only worked best among the options.

Both baking soda solution and diluted Castille soap didn’t lather much or clean my hair properly.

It was difficult! But I was determined to do this since I couldn’t do low-waste groceries. For a long time, my hair alternated between dry and tangly when it’s freshly washed to greasy and matted after several days. My mom felt bad for me. Haha!

What I learned about no-poo methods

A lot of tweaking: Everyone’s hair and scalp work differently so what works for one may not work for another. I had to keep trying different ways to see what works.

I also found that depending on the water in an area, the effectiveness of my chosen no-poo method varied too. That’s another reason I switched to bar soap eventually.

It takes patience: It’s as they say, your hair and scalp need time to transition. It takes time. I don’t know why some sites say give your hair 2 weeks. I think two months is a better duration, but it really depends on what you’re doing and how your hair and scalp work.

If you want to shift from regular to shampoo to no/low-poo methods, make sure you give your scalp and hair a lot of time to adjust.

Nonchalance is required: I had to consciously give lesser shit about how I look. Transitioning toward longer periods of time without washing and trying different no-poo methods meant that my hair looked sad at times.

A good trick is to keep your hair tied/bunned up. If you live in a cold climate, a hat will work great. Some people swear by dry shampoo, but I never mastered it.

What’s that smell?: In all the posts I’ve read about no-poo methods, no one ever mentioned this. If you want to go no-poo, be prepared to smell yourself if you have a sensitive sense of smell. I don’t consider myself particularly strong-smelling but I did smell my hair.

This made me very self-conscious, I kept asking my sister if she can smell me. She couldn’t. My friends were still going out with me so I took that as a good sign.

The hardest part

My hair felt tacky and weird. I hated it and avoided touching my hair. I even avoid getting my hair touched. Haha! Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and started to wash my hair with bar soap.

Going low-poo: Washing my hair with bar-soap

Who’d have known that the best shampoo alternative was right under my nose all along? Bar soap worked better for my hair than no-poo methods. And it’s something I already use!

Washing my hair with bar soap felt almost as good as a regular shampoo when it comes to lathering, but rinsing the soap off results in squeaky clean hair that almost catches in your hands. It’s a small compromise.

I’ve since been washing my hair with bar soap every 4 days or so. I follow the wash with a diluted lemon juice rinse if I don’t feel lazy.

Basically, I froze lemon juice into 1/2 inch cubes and dissolve a couple in a cup of water to make the rinse. The acidity of the lemon rinse helps to restore the hair’s pH which is naturally a little acidic (pH 5.5) to reduce frizzing.

If your area has softer water, you may find that the diluted lemon juice rinse will make your hair feel baby-hair soft and smooth. Otherwise, it’ll still condition your hair but the effect isn’t as good.

Sometimes I use a couple of drops of lavender oil to smell pretty. When it’s dry, I use some jojoba oil on the ends.

How’s my hair now?

My hair is long, looks normal and feels soft. It’s not particularly shiny or silky smooth, but some imperfection in my hair is a small price to pay for the benefits this hair wash routine brings.

My hair smells fine. There’s a light scent from the soap that probably only I can smell. Like a cat, my hair smells stronger when it’s wet or when it gets dirty. Lol.

Did I lose more hair?

No. It can feel like I’m losing a lot of hair when I washed it because I wash my hair once every 4 or 5 days so there’s some accumulation of fallen hair. I didn’t lose more hair than when I used regular shampoo. Instead, I noticed more wispy baby hair growing out from the corners of my forehead.

I think my hair is a little fuller than what it was when I started experimenting with the no-poo method. Which isn’t saying much but it’s great news since I’ve just been doing lesser and lesser to it.

Benefits of washing my hair with bar soap

1 Reduced environmental impact

Using bar soap for both body and hair allows me to cut down my plastic use by a fair bit. No more plastic bottles of shampoos and conditioners! This is my main motivation throughout my no-poo-low-poo journey. We’ve been using shampoos since we’re babies, and there are so many of us here. That translates to a crazy number of plastic shampoo bottles! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the statistics for it, but please just imagine!

So this has lowered my carbon footprint and reduced the number of chemicals I release into the water. Naturally, fewer chemicals come into contact with my scalp and hair since I use simple bar soaps. This is always a plus!

2. No confusion

Because I no longer have to worry about what works and what doesn’t! No half-empty plastic bottles of shampoos/condition/cream laying around in the bathroom because I got seduced by another shampoo with better marketing.

My hair seems to be okay with all kinds of simple bar soaps like the ones I recommended in this post. It makes things really easy for me and I love it.

3. Hair confidence

In the process of simplifying my hair routine, I’ve gotten used to not worrying about the texture and shine of my hair too much. As long as it’s clean and reasonably neat, I’m happy. This is extremely liberating.

I understand it’s not possible for everyone but lucky for me, I’m not that into my appearance. If you love your hair, there are great shampoo bars out there for your hair that’s just as good as regular shampoos! Probably better!

4. Convenience and savings

Obviously, it’s also way more convenient to travel and store my toiletries. What’s more, I’ve saved 4/5 years’ worth of money I would otherwise have spent on hair products. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. #cheap

5. A nice reminder of my identity

It’s funny. Cats and dogs have their scent, you know what, humans do too. For most of us, we cover our hair with so much fragrance we hardly catch a whiff of that human smell. It’s not body odor, mind you. It’s just the way our fur hair or scalp smells.

Without fragrance-laden shampoo to mask that smell, I was more aware of the fact that I, too, am an animal. Albeit an animal that learned to use shampoos. The resulting effect of that awareness is not unlike the realization of our insignificance under a sky full of stars. Humbling.

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In conclusion

After trying different hair products, undergoing expensive hair treatment and experimenting with various trending no-poo methods, I came to settle on a humble bar of soap for my hair. Perhaps that’s what it is, simple’s best for this body of mine.

I didn’t quite succeed in employing the no-poo method, but I can wash my hair with just water if I need to. If you’ve had success with the no-poo method, please share your experience! I’m definitely loving my low-poo method. I can literally drink my conditioner, how cool is that?

If you’re thinking of switching from regular shampoo to bar soap or no-poo methods, remember, give your hair a lot of time to transition, keep experimenting, and it’s worth the effort for both you and the environment!

Do you use bar soap to wash your hair? Would you consider switching to bar soaps to wash your hair? Or do you prefer regular shampoo, let me know in the comments!