For the last several years, I’ve tried to go as long as possible between washing my hair with shampoo. I figured instead of stripping out all my oils with daily washing maybe it’d be better to shampoo less. In all that time, I have never felt like my scalp has figured out to produce less oil. My hair though continues to look shiny, be soft and grow quickly. I often get compliments about how shiny my hair is or exclamations over how long my hair has gotten. Whether or not infrequent washings has anything to do with it, I don’t know. I used to color regularly, although now I haven’t for two years. Even then my hair looked great and my stylists were always surprised that my hair was colored. I will mention that I rarely heat style or blow dry my hair; that’s helped keep my hair healthy too I’m sure. I’ve also used organic or natural products as much as possible.
Lately I’ve been reading up on not using shampoo and I’ve decided to try it out.
The Challenge: ditch shampoo and conditioner
The Method:
1. egg yolk wash applied to dry scalp, using finger pads to massage in, leaving on for at least 5 minutes and rinsing with cooler water (to avoid cooking the egg) – done once a week or so
2. warm water-only rinses with scalp massage on non-yolk days
3. will evaluate for conditioning needs as I go along – may use apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, lemon juice or a concoction of these items
4. brush hair with a boar-bristle brush to massage scalp and distribute natural oils
The Recipe: egg yolk wash
1 duck egg yolk (I can only eat duck eggs so that’s what we have on hand)
2 T water
5 drops essential oil of choice
Why?: as an experiment (I like learning), to see if this keeps my scalp from being itchy during the changing seasons, to reduce costs, and to keep unnecessary product toxins off my scalp and out of my drain.
From what I’ve read it may take 4-6 weeks for my scalp to normalize to these new conditions. I’m anticipating some greasy hair that I may need a scarf or hat to cover up, but looking forward to good results. I’ll keep you posted. For the record, today is Day 2.