Natural curls were not a popular style which caused some of us naturals to go.. well unnatural. Getting rid of those harmful chemicals could make you second guess that you'll never get back those curls God gave you. Don't fear, no poo is one of the ways to get what you want!
Many of us curly girls grew up not knowing how to manage our hair, so curly hair became an ugly hair style and straightening your hair was the way to go. I was one of those girls, and ended up doing a straightening perm in Brazil which was called a "progressiva". A progressiva is a stronger method of a keratin which people do to minimize the frizz and straighten your hair for a short time. The method I used lasted a good year and another to wear off, the second year mark I decided it was time to chop off the chemically treated hair. During the year that the perm was wearing off, my hair would fall out a lot; my hair was trying to curl again but the chemicals made it hard to do so.
I started to do extensive research on what I can do to reverse the treatment. Now of course it wasn't going to be easy. I came across the chop method and the no-poo method. I already kind of did the chop method since I cut off my hair to above shoulder length. So I gave the no-poo a shot.
The no-poo is basically avoiding all chemical interaction with your hair as much as possible; including moose, gel, conditioner, and shampoo. Yes, shampoo. Sounds gross, and your probably thinking "yeah right, that's dirty", I thought the same, but trust me when your hair is at it's worst you would try it too. And so I did.
•What is no-poo?
No-poo is basically switching your shampoo for baking soda. So NO conditioner, NO shampoo, NO store bought hair products what-so-ever. You're cutting all your products cold turkey. All articles that I have read instructed to wet your hair as you normally would when you wash your head, then adding baking soda the same way you would shampoo. The baking soda dissolves and you scrub your scalp until it feels clean (meaning not oily). They also instructed to replace your conditioner with apple cider vinegar. I tried this step, but didn't like it because of the smell. So what you can do is replace your conditioner with a 100% all natural oil, you might have to buy it online.
I preferred placing the baking soda in a small spray bottle with a little bit of water and spraying it on my scalp. This is much easier because handling a powder when your hands are wet is pretty annoying.
•How does the no-poo actually help?
When you wash your hair you are essentially stripping your hair from dirt and oils, water doesn't do a good job on it's own so you use shampoo (plus it smells good). However, shampoo has a lot of chemicals to do the job. Therefore, the shampoo strips all of the oils that your body produces that are needed for your hair to be healthy. Conditioner then coats your hair with silicon replicating your natural oils. So in the end you are adding a lot of unneeded chemicals to your hair and your body is producing more oil than needed to replace the lost ones. Baking soda only strips the dirt and unneeded oils.
•So why even use this method?
If you have damaged your hair by either chemically processing it or straightening it too much or both, everyday products could be harming your hair even more. Your hair becomes too weak to handle anything else you put into it; then making you feel uncomfortable with uncontrollable hair. See for yourself! Look at the ingredients that go into your products; I was shocked to see that gasoline was in my hairspray. I recommend this to be just a transition to the way your natural hair should be; a lifelong commitment is not necessary. Now remember, your natural hair isn't bad it just means you have to find the best ways to style it and the healthier products.
•How long do I do this method, and what do I do after?
I used the no-poo for 6 months, then afterwards I found the most organic hair products I could use. Disclaimer: you will never find 100% organic products to buy, let's be real they are on the shelf for a while, they need some preservatives. So test some products before you settle down to one. All hair types are different, I recommend reading up on the companies that make the products and trying them yourself. You'll eventually find one don't worry. When you feel that your hair is becoming recognizably stronger, it will be safe to say you can stop using the no-poo method.
You're going to want to give up the no-poo as soon as you start it. It's inconvenient and your hair will look a little crazy at first. My hair was stringy and weak, but that's only because I was taking it to rehab from all my products. Your hair will not be used to the transitioning method at first, but don't give up it's only the beginning. Your hair will be much healthier and you won't regret it!