This method to wash your hair naturally without shampoo works wonderfully. I made the switch years ago & it’s been great – no shampoo & no greasy hair! Learn my exact method plus how to make your own natural shampoo bar.
Anyone who has attempted to go no ‘poo (no shampoo) will tell you that the transition from shampooing daily to not shampooing at all isn’t easy.
Your hair will look greasy and dirty and you might be embarrassed when your friends ask if you’ve showered lately.
Or you’ll be equally embarrassed if they ask if there’s baby powder in your hair… just in case you try to cover up the grease as I did.
But making the decision to go shampoo free has had great benefits! Now that we’ve been ‘poo free for over a year, I thought it was time to share my secret tricks with you!
Is it good to wash your hair without shampoo?
I don’t have anything personal against shampoo per se, but I choose to not use shampoo for two reasons:
When you think about how often you wash your hair (every day for most people), it’s a lot of chemicals that your scalp and skin come in contact with on a regular basis. And since it’s relatively easy to avoid these chemicals, then why not do it?
Quality shampoos also come with a higher price tag. I’ve seen some bottles cost upwards of $8 or even $12 each. One regular-sized bottle won’t last long in our house, and buying in bulk will help reduce some of the cost, but it’s still really expensive.
To me, it’s an expense that can be easily reduced by using a different method to wash my hair.
How I Wash My Hair Without Shampoo – Ways to Wash Your Hair Without Shampoo
A lot of people swear by the typical method of no ‘poo and use baking soda, but that just didn’t work for me. Instead, I found amazing results by using a bar of soap (goat milk soap, to be specific) instead of shampoo.
Going from typical shampoo to washing your hair with a bar of soap still comes with a learning process though. After all, I’m used to 30+ years of fake lather and suds, right?
It took about a week to figure out the best strategies for washing my hair, but once I figured out “the trick,” it was smooth sailing. While I was figuring out my own version of no ‘poo, my hair never LOOKED greasy. Which means I did not need dry shampoo, or a hat or a ponytail.
My “secret tricks” to using a bar of soap were working so well, we now wash my daughter’s hair with soap too. It was fantastic even on her super long and prone-to-tangle hair when we first started, and still now as her hair grows long again.
My Favorite Soap for Washing Hair Naturally
Switching to soap alone doesn’t make your hair care routine any better. You have to choose a soap that doesn’t contain junky ingredients.
- You can make your own herbal shampoo bar or even liquid herbal shampoo.
- Use goat milk soap from Bend Soap Company. I already use it on my face and body (and for laundry and cleaning the tubs!).
- Or you can use any soap you’d like.
Just know that the only ingredients required to make soap are oil and lye, so read the labels to avoid the icky stuff!
How to Wash Your Hair Naturally
- Get Your Hair Wet.
- Scrub Your Scalp for 1-2 minutes. Scrubbing your scalp is absolutely vital to washing your hair without shampoo because the ingredients in shampoo are designed to strip your hair of their natural oils. If you don’t scrub your scalp, your hair will be greasy and going no ‘poo will feel like a failed attempt. Be sure to get the crown (the top/back part of your head) and your hairline in front.
- Rub the soap over your scalp and massage. With wet hair and the soap in your hands, simply rub the soap against your hairline in circular strokes until you start to feel bubbles, then massage the bubbles all around your head just like you would as if you used shampoo. When you’re done washing, rinse!
- Use a natural conditioner. A homemade conditioner will make your hair soft and pretty, but more importantly, it will do the job of a traditional conditioner and prevent the “stuff” from everyday life from building up inside. It also eliminates tangles!
- Brush your hair. When your hair is wet, comb through with a wide-toothed comb. When your hair is dry, use a brush with natural bristles like boar hair. These bristles will pick up and distribute the naturally occurring oils at the scalp throughout your hair, helping your hair to be shiny and keeping the build-up of oils at the scalp at bay.
Between using soap and homemade conditioner, I can easily go two full days without washing my hair AND not having to pull it back. A far cry from my old routine where I had to wash every day otherwise my head was topped with a big pile of grease!
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Can you wash hair with just water?
You could but I wouldn’t recommend it. I personally have loved the soap method. It is toxin-free and I feel like my hair is clean.
How do you get rid of greasy hair without shampoo?
Simple: scrub your scalp! This is key to getting your hair to not feel greasy. Your scalp has natural oil production, and scrubbing helps cleanse your hair. You cannot skip this step.
Can you wash your hair without shampoo, using only conditioner?
I personally would not recommend this. Conditioners are meant to close the cuticles of your hairs, making your hair soft, shiny and manageable. Washing your hair with soap helps get your hair clean. Using the conditioner process alone would probably leave your hair extra greasy.
Hacks for Washing Hair Without Shampoo
The method I outlined above works, so here’s my straightforward troubleshooting guide:
- Greasy or oily hair? You didn’t scrub well enough.
- If your hair is tangled, use conditioner.
- Does your hair feel like it has build-up? Scrub well AND use conditioner.
- If your hair felt fine for a few days and suddenly it feels dirty, you got lazy in your scrubbing.
That’s it, folks! That’s all it takes to wash your hair without shampoo!
What I learned from years without shampoo
Going without shampoo, I’ve noticed my hair is stronger, softer, and has natural volume!
Grass-fed collagen is known to help your hair and nails grow long and strong, so I recommend including this as part of your natural hair care routine if you struggle with thin, breaking hair. I added one scoop each day to my natural hair-care routine and my hairdresser couldn’t get over how much my hair had grown in just 12 weeks! I thought the extra length was just in my head, but her comment was proof that collagen really does work!
Thanks to phthalates, you’ve likely become used to the smell of shampoo. You might even buy your shampoo BECAUSE of the way it smells. Don’t feel guilty if you do – I’ve done it too!
Recognize the natural feel, smell and texture of your hair. It could be soft or it could be coarse. It could be thick or thin, depending on your hair type. Your hair could have tons of natural volume that you never knew existed because shampoo and conditioner were weighing it down (that’s me!).
If you like having a nice scent in your hair, you can add a natural smell to your hair by choosing a scented bar of soap. You can also make homemade linen spray with essential oils and use it on your hair when it’s dry.
Hello, I just jumped on this “no poo method”, and I wanted to share something. You talk about scrubbing, and the first and second time I tried this, made me really tired. I found a solution, which others might seem silly. Using a “zoom groom”, was SO nice, not only did this not tire me out, it felt really good! Now this “zoom groom” is mine, and I don’t use it on my pets.
So I’m curious, should scrubbing be a usual thing to do, to help the oils in your head? I just jumped on this bandwagon, and I used the bar of soap I had, and it really made my hair feel much fuller, but my hair is fine and flyaway, and screwed it up, and put olive oil on the ends, and made it look greasy. Although everything said my hair looked great. This morning I pulled it back, because the ends just didn’t look like I wanted them too. I’ll try to wash it out with my bar of soap, and use the diy conditioner, as well as an coconut oil spray.
Hi Melissa,
It depends on how oily your hair normally gets. Some people can scrub more often, because they have more oily hair. Others who have more dryness, should do it less. Hope this helps!
Hi There,
I just wanted to write to thank you for this blog. I decided to ditch shampoo this last spring. I bought an $8 “shampoo bar” with no SLS or chemicals and my hair did really well with it but it stunk like Patchouli and the scent gave my boss a migraine. I tried another $8 shampoo bar that didn’t work well. Then I decided to try Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint bar with ACV rinse but my hair still felt heavy, stiff, and nasty dirty. I’d use baking soda on it every few weeks but didn’t want to continue and risk more damage. My hair is really long but grows extremely slow and I have had some breakage through this process, I think from trying to brush through all the yuck and from the baking soda, plus the hairs are fine. I was concerned that I had soap scum from our hard water but didn’t want to cough up $40 for a shower head softener. Then I read your blog and wondered if perhaps I just wasn’t scrubbing enough. So the next time I washed it twice in the shower, scrubbing really, really well, and voila, that solved all the issues! For the last 3 weeks or so, my hair (aside from the broken pieces that now stick out all over my head), my hair is light, shiny, and clean feeling. My boars hair brush is no longer coated with gunk after brushing either. I can now go a week between washes, I just use a little cornstarch in it to absorb the oil (brushes out with a small boars hair brush) about mid week.
Thanks so much, your blog is the only place that talks about scrubbing enough to get the oil out (and I’ve searched…A….LOT!).
Holly,
Thank you so much for your kind words. We are so glad to hear that you’ve found the solution for your hair. We are always thankful for your readership! <3
Great tips to wash hair without shampoo. But what if there are some good and nourishing shampoo available?
I have tried some organic shampoo and conditioners from Korea. They are very good and effective. I would like to recommend them.
Hello Tiffany, it might be a silly question but what do you mean by scrubbing? Do you mean using some kind of product (eg. sugar scrub) or a brush or maybe scrubbing it with my fingers (fingernails)?
Hi Emilia!
There are no silly questions. 🙂 It’s just using your fingertips with the water before using the soap. Thanks so much for touching in with us. 🙂
What Bend Soap did you use for shampooing?
For Skin?
Thank you so much.
Hi Barb! I am SO sorry about my delay in answering your question about Bend soap. I like to use a cooling minty ‘flavor’ of bar soap to wash my hear AND my skin. 🙂
When you say you use collagen, do you mean that you consume it or that you actually put it in your hair?
Hi! My scalp has gotten a bit dry and by day 3 it is showing signs of dandruff (or dryness). This is only my 2nd week in, do you think it will adjust or am I not scrubbing my scalp hard enough?
Thank you for this awesome blog! My hair feels amazing, lights yet thicker!
Hi JP! I’m glad you’re liking how your hair feels! Odds are you’re not scrubbing enough. And be sure to use enough of the homemade conditioner afterwards!!
Hi Tiffany, quick question. I struggle with really frizzy hair when it’s dry out and “regular” frizz every other day and usually need to wet my brush to contain it while I brush my hair in the morning. I’m assuming this counteracts the spreading of oils when using a natural hair brush, so any tips on how to counteract this?
Have you tried using essential oils on your hair Heather? I’d do a drop or two in the palms of your hands, run it through the middle to the ends of your hair, and then focus on the natural hair brush. I don’t have frizzy hair so this might not work, but that would be what I’d try next!
I just found your blog because i was looking for a better, natural, and biodegradable way to wash my hair. I started using a shsmpoo bar made in NH because its more local to me.
I just have a question about scrubbing your scalp. Do you use the pads of your fingers or your fingernails?
Welcome Kerri-Anne! I use the pads of my fingers. 🙂
Hi Tiffany! I was so excited to try this method- followed it to a tee (except I forgot the ACV when I got in the shower and used regular conditioner on my ends). How long is the adjustment period? My hair feels good except it feels like there is a residue. Soap? Oil that I’m not used to feeling? Did I do something wrong? I scrubbed for a while,..really hoping this works- I’ve been on the hunt for natural shampoo or no poo forever
Hi Laurel! When I ditched shampoo and switched to goat milk soap, it took 1 solid week of that weird residue (that looked fine, but felt weird) and then one more week of the residue slowly going away. For me, by week 3, everything was normal again. If you’ve already started, keep going! Continue to scrub every shower – before/during/after the wash – since that’s key. Remember that we’ve been using shampoo/conditioner on our hair for YEARS, so our hair is conditioned (pardon the pun) to having oil stripped daily. It’ll take several days for the hair to realize it doesn’t have to anymore and slow down. 🙂
Thanks! I won’t give up then! Love your blog by the way!! ❤️
I ordered Bend soapbecause of this post and it is nice soap and their customer service is beyond amazing! I’ve been washing my hair (every other day when I can, sometimes a bit longer between ‘cuz I’m a just mom), and after 2 weeks, I’m about to give up. I’m following your post exactly, using the ACV rinse, rinsing very thoroughly afterward, combing in the showe, everything I can think of, and my hair is so gunky! When I comb it with a clean comb, after 4 strokes the comb is covered with a white gunky residue. I’ve used it twice on my daughter and so far it hasn’t had this result on her. I’m so disapointed and frustrated. I can’t find a crunchy solution that works for me. The baking soda/vinegar method made my hair feel like straw. If anyone has ideas for me, I would be most grateful!
Tabitha – if your hair is gunky, it’s an issue with scrubbing. You have to REALLY scrub your head – almost to the point of pain (not that I want you to be in pain, but I definitely don’t mean a gently scrub here… imagine there’s a grape juice stain on your white carpet… you know how you’d scrub like crazy to get it out? Scrub your head like that.). Scrub before you wash, scrub while you wash, and scrub while you rinse. The strenuous scrubbing is what speeds up the process of your hair “detoxifying” from the shampoo/conditioner cycle. You can do this!!
Hi there, Tabitha,
Yes, this happened to me when trying to learn to wash my (curly) hair without shampoo. It was terrible. So, a weird thing happened recently when I tried again. I tried with baking soda. However, I did two things differently. 1) Like Tiffany has mentioned, I scrubbed. I was just sticky that day and felt like scrubbing! 2) Used more baking soda. A heaping tablespoon in about 2 cups water. Also, diluted apple cider vinegar as a rinse and then leave in conditioner.
I have tried since, using less soda, and the outcome was not so good. I always scrub now and it is a good feeling. My hair , in the shower after the soda and vinegar is squeaky and after it dries feels good. So perhaps, more soap and more scrubbing? Hope it works for you. Trial and error, sometimes. 🙂
I can finally use the goatsmilk soap/ACV rinse/some natural conditioner or coconut oil for deep conditioning periodically method, or what I like to call the “Crumbs” method 😊 This is what it took: a filtering shower head to filter out the hard water minerals, stripping my hair with a clarifying shampoo before starting the natural journey (it got rid of all the buildup that reacted with the goatsmilk soap to make the gunky/waxy buildup, deeply conditioning with a natural/no silicones or waxes conditioner, and then starting the Crumbs routine. I now use no commercial products except a Shea Moisture brand deep conditioner occasionally. I’m even making my own texturizing spray at home and using flexi-rods to make waves in my hair instead of a curling iron. Love your blog Tiffany! Thanks for the inspiration you bring me in so many areas of my life!
Wow! I’m impressed Alex!! Congrats on making this work for you!! ♥ PS – I love that you call it the Crumbs method, LOL – it makes me smile!
Tiffany, your comment just made my day!!! I have to tell you, I’m so missing all your recipes right now! I’m having to do Whole 30 to fix some health issues and find out if there are some things my body doesn’t tolerate well. I can’t wait to get back into the full swing of the Crumbs meal plans again 😊
I tried and scrubbed and scrubbed and finally gave up and am using the soap in place of body wash. No matter the ACV rinse and no matter how much scrubbing, the residue was so gross.