I like to have clean hair, but shampoo and conditioner come in plastic bottles. Many moons ago I washed my hair with soap at Glastonbury festival and remember a tangled dry mess on my head for many days afterwards. Surely, there must be something better for your hair than soap?
Saying goodbye to my nice eco-friendly but plastic-wrapped bubbly shampoo!
First up to be investigated as a shampoo alternative is bicarbonate of soda, which I was super excited to find being sold in bulk. Not only am I using it as an ingredient for toothpaste, but it is meant to be a bit of a wonder-product for the household. It’s even supposed to be great for cleaning ovens (if I ever get round to trying that one, I will let you know the results!)
As bicarb has such wonderful cleaning properties it seems hardly surprising that it’s been suggested as an alternative to the usual plastic-bottled shampoo. So, I thought I’d give it a go. There are instructions for using bicarb as shampoo on this blog. Essentially, you add a little water to your bicarb of soda to make a paste and then rub it into your hair and rinse.
MY VERDICT:
BICARBONATE OF SODA SHAMPOO – It’s a bit awkward decanting the powder into your hand whilst in the shower; I was worried I was going to either get it all wet or drop the whole lot. I managed to create a paste without spillage and added a few splashes of water (not too much or else it washes away), then scrubbed it into my scalp and hair.
It definitely wasn’t as satisfying as the usual lovely smelling, creamy lather of shampoo bubbles, but I repeated as suggested, (although in hind sight, not as many times as per the instructions) and finally, rinsed thoroughly and dried it.
It seems that I should have applied and rinsed the bicarb shampoo a few more times as I didn’t reach the “squeaky clean, shiny hair” that was described. Apparently, the more you use it, the less you need.
Once dried, the front of my hair looked good and clean but the back and underneath still felt greasy. So, I’m not entirely convinced by this one yet, although it’s likely that I was too frugal with my application. I will give bicarb shampoo a few more goes but next up on the “no-poo shampoo” list, I’ll be trying out egg!
The Plastic Challenge 
Good effort! I have never done this but the other alternative is to let it go yucky and then after some time it doesn’t need washing again. I have never managed it! And bicarb is great for cleaning most stuff.
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I tried the “leave it til it cleans itself” method as a teenager and I remember getting to about day 4 and being worried that everyone I knew would disown me! But a friend of mine did it; he didn’t wash his hair for years, and I have to say it smelled a bit!
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