Is Shampoo a Sham?
I've always wondered how shampoo got it's name. Well here is the answer from Yahoo answers:
The word shampoo in English usage dates back to 1762, with the meaning "to massage". The word was a loan from Anglo-Indian shampoo, in turn from Hindi chāmpo, imperative of chāmpnā, "to smear, knead the muscles, massage". It itself comes from Sanskrit/Hindi word "champā", the flowers of the plant Michelia champaca which have traditionally been used to make fragrant hair-oil.
Read more HERE: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071219080345AAhq6W8
Here is some more info on shampoo and what goes in it on WIKI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shampoo
Anyway, back to the No Poo movement... More and more people are taking up the movement to stop using shampoo in their hair.
Why?
Yes a very good question. Mainly because of the chemicals (sulfates) in shampoo that wash into our waterways. In Australia most sulfates and detergents are transported through drainage to water treatment plants and are not washed out into the ocean. That's not to say shampoo isn't environmentally damaging. There is the mass production of plastic packaging shampoo comes in, the pollution from manufacturing the packaging, discarding this packaging in mass quantities and how un-environmentally friendly the breakdown of such products is, PLUS the chemicals used in shampoo that we then apply to our scalps and bodies and absorbed into out skin. Not good!
What the No Poo movement claims is that shampoo is an unnecessary thing and we have all been duped into believing by the advertising giants who tell us we NEED shampoo in order to have luscious locks. The movement sports numerous people (with numbers growing) who have been going shampoo free for years and you would never be able to tell by looking at their hair. Their hair is full of body and bounce and doesn't look dirty or grubby or unhealthy (see the above video link to see for yourself).
The movement seems to be bigger in Europe than it is here. Maybe their sulfates are washed straight into their water?? Here is a blog written by a man in Europe about his move away from shampoo and I like how he says "I reckon that if everybody eliminated shampoo, that simple effort would single handedly save the planet."
Ok, so I've taken up the challenge and stopped washing my hair with shampoo just so I can share my findings with you. I started on the 3rd of September after being seriously ill and bed ridden for 4 days. When I finally got up and showered I didn't use shampoo to wash my hair and haven't used it since. I have to say there is a transition period where you hair will look greasy and limp and all sorts of yuk! And yes that is where I'm at. I swear I've had a bad hair day every day since then. I'm using lots of ponytails and buns to try and hide it. And yet I haven't needed to style my hair. My hair is just sitting naturally and if it wasn't so greasy looking it would be HOT with a capital H! After nearly two weeks of 'no poo' my hair looks better now than it did at the start. So I'll keep going with the experiment and see how things look in a couple of weeks time.
I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED!
To aid with this movement to stop using shampoo there are a couple of things you can try such as: making a blend of 1 cup of warm water with a tablespoon of bicarb soda to make a sort of green shampoo. This will help break down the oils quicker. Also use a white vinegar or apple cider vinegar rinse after washing to clean away oils and residue.
