DIY Natural Substitute of Shampoo
Dear readers,
It's been months since I began leaving a lot of commercial skin & body care products. I substitute them with natural-DIY-products. The first product that I left was shampoo. I had problems with my scalp for years, there were many big bumps in my scalp which made me very hurt. Probably those bumps were similar to acne (I don't really know, just my guess). Even if I changed my shampoo brand, they would still appear after sometime.
One day, I read an article about living happily without soap. The writer said that he had been living without any commercial cleanser for years, and still doing fine. There were a lot of comments saying that they felt better after substituting their daily cleansing products into natural cleanser. I was interested, especially since I was desperate about my scalp condition, so I looked into the "No-Poo" movements where prople stopped using shampoo and began using natural cleanser for their hair.
I was experimenting with my hair until I found some of the best cleanser for my hair from the recipes out there. Remember, while a treatment is suitable for someone, it doesn't mean that it will be suitable for you too. Even natural products can cause allergic reaction on you.
Here are the hair-cleansing alternatives for those out there who wants to leave their shampoo:
Water only cleansing has been quite popular among the people who left commercial shampoo. Water by itself is the best cleanser for our body. It's PH is neutral, thus will not change the PH in our body. I have tried using only water to cleanse my hair, and my hair became very clean & soft.
But, problem will emerge if the water we use is not clean. During my vacation, I stayed in my hometown, Bali. The tap water there was very clean. Using it to wash my hair results in a soft and clean hair. But, after going back to my current city, Surabaya, where the tap water is very dirty, using water only to cleanse my hair results in disaster. The dirt from the tap water trapped on my hair. Instead of cleansing, my hair become dirtier and very greasy. The bumps that already disappeared when I was in Bali came back onto my scalp.
So, be cautious if you want to use water-only cleansing method. Make sure that the water is clean and clear. If you cannot use water-only-cleansing, don't worry, I still have several DIY shampoo subtitute.
Our skin's natural PH is a little bit acidic (around 5). The acidic PH will help kills several harmful bacteria, thus protecting our skin. So, using slightly acidic cleanser will also help retaining our skin's natural PH. Beside, using slightly acidic cleanser on our hair will help closing the cuticles on hair and makes it super smooth.
Vinegar is known as additive in food that gives sour taste in it. In Indonesia, vinegar is used to make preserved sour vegetables called "Acar", usually consisted of cucumber, carrot, etc. Vinegar can kill many bacteria because of its acidic behavior and known to be used as cleanser in several parts of the world.
But, if vinegar is used directly on our scalp, it will be too acidic and can irritate the skin. That's why, if we want to use vinegar on our body, it has to be dilluted on water beforehand.
I usually dillute 1 tbsp of vinegar in 2 glasses of water. It might be too mild for several people, on other websites we will find that people usually dillute 1 tbsp of vinegar in 1 glass (200 ml) of water. But, I have tried soaking my vegetables on 1 tbsp of vinegar dilluted on a glass of water and my hands were irritated. Maybe my skin is too sensitive. Thus, I decided on dilluting it in more water if I want to use it as cleanser. You can dillute it in any amount of water suitable for you.
How to use it as shampoo? Just take the dilluted vinegar, pour little by little on your head while massaging your scalp and hair gently. Then let it sit for several minutes while washing your face and body. Rinse off with plenty of water.
The result? My hair become very soft. Besides, I'm free of those hurting bumps that were appearing on my scalp. One more thing, vinegar is known to get rid of dandruff in Asian culture. Maybe it is true, based on my experience. Well, it doesn't completely dissapear at once, but little by little the dandruff were reduced. Perhaps long term use will make the dandruff completely disappear from my scalp.
Tea, one of favorite drink all over the world is known as source of anti-oxidant. There are many kinds of tea, which have distinct scent and flavor. Even the same kind of tea might have different scent based on the way of brewing, water quality, and the utensils. That's why enjoying the scent and flavor of each tea has become a hobby for many tea lovers around the world.
Not only good for our internal body health, tea has been used as beauty treatment since long time ago. It is believed that washing your skin with tea will make your skin become soft and smooth. Some culture in Indonesia also use an overnight-fermented-black tea (called "Teh Basi") to wash face, resulting in oil-controlled, blemish-free, and smooth skin.
The black tea is brewed and left overnight in room temperature, letting it ferment. In the morning the tea can be used to wash face. Naturally, tea has anti-bacterial property. While letting it ferment overnight will make it a little bit more acidic and will act better in getting rid of unwanted bacteria in our skin. But, beware, fermenting it overnight will make the tea lost a lot of its anti-oxidant property. So, if you want the anti-oxidant effect, don't ferment it.
Apparently, the anti-bacterial fermented black tea can also be used to cleanse hair. It will kill unwated bacteria from your scalp and hair. Sometime, if I am tired of vinegar (I don't really like the smell of it), or if I feel like vinegar is too acidic, I will switch to black tea to wash my hair. For me, the cleansing effect is slightly milder than vinegar, but the scent is different (and I love the scent of tea)
Rice water has been used in Asian culture as beauty regime. The Asians believe that washing your skin with rice water everyday will brighten your complexion and gives smooth skin. Rice can be considered as main food in most of Asian culture, thus washing face with rice water won't be a problem for the ancient Asian people.
Making rice water is quite simple. Take a cup of rice (or more if there are more people in your household to eat the rice with), put in a big bowl (or anything else that can contain the rice and water), lightly wash it to remove any impurities, throw away the first washing water. Pour water to the rice until it covers the rice (the water should be about 1 inch taller than the rice). Stir the rice and the water, then let it sit for 1 - 2 hours. Then, stir again before separating the water and the rice. The water can be used for beauty regime, while you can cook the rice.
Actually, I already know about using rice water as face wash since long ago. But, I just found out that rice water can actually be used to wash hair just recently. Women from a tribe in China (Yao ethnic, from Huangluo village), usually wash their hair using rice water. The women in that tribe is known to have beautiful-long-black hair, and rarely have any gray hair until the age of 80. From the pictures, their hair are indeed very beautiful.
Then, I tried to use rice water as a shampoo substitute. Well, you know, I am a fan of fermented stuff. So, this time I tried using rice water that is left to ferment overnight in a room temperature. After leaving it overnight, the rice water will smell a little bit sour, but still pleasant. The rice water then can be used to wash hair as usual. By the way, I also use it to wash my face and body :)
The result is amazing. This is currently my favorite shampoo substitute. Not only cleansing, this water also makes my hair super soft and smooth. For me, it's even better than vinegar. It's slightly acidic PH helps balancing my scalp's PH, while also helps closing the cuticles and makes my hair smooth. The ancient wisdom of the tribe is totally amazing!
Beware of leaving the rice water fermented. Always check the scent, if it is sour but still pleasant, then it is fermented well by Lactobacillus bacteria. But, sometime, when I left the rice water too long, the scent will change to be unpleasant. In that case, I will throw the water away, suspecting that unwanted bacteria other than Lactobacillus is growing in the rice water.
==========================
So far, those are my current successful shampoo substitute. I have tried several other ingredients, but doesn't work as well as the methods above. Well, DIY products doesn't always mean that it will do no harm for you.
There is a shampoo subtitute recipe that I often found on the internet (truth is, I always find it everytime I google about natural shampoo substitute). But I totally don't recommend it, in fact, I am completely against it.
As I explained before, our natural skin PH is slightly acidic to protect it from some unwanted bacteria. What will happen if we put things with basic PH on to our skin? Won't it affect our natural skin protection mechanism?
Many of shampoo subtitutes articles out there mentioned we can use baking soda and vinegar as substitute of shampoo and conditioner. And many people said that it works well on them. I don't mean to insult the people who are using this method. In fact, their action of leaving SLS on commercial shampoo will help reducing water pollution. But, regretably, I have to say that I am disagree at the usage of baking soda as hair cleanser.
Baking soda has very basic PH (around 9), which have very big gap from our skin's natural PH. Even if we dillute the baking soda in water, the PH will still be too basic for our skin. If the PH of our skin became too basic, it can affect the natural defense of the skin. Some people argue that they use vinegar afterwards, so the PH of the skin will be back to acidic. Well, it might be true, but I personally think that drastic change of PH in such a short time will still affect our skin condition, in this case our scalp and hair.
I have tried using baking soda and vinegar as shampoo and conditioner substitute. At first, I thought that it was great, my hair felt clean, soft, and very smooth. I planned on always using baking soda and vinegar as my shampoo and conditioner substitute. But, about two days afterwards, I felt something wrong about my hair. My scalp is very dried and my hair become very weak. The day after, my scalp become itchy and flaky (probably the skin peeled of), it was also irritated.
I tried to google about what might be the cause, then found out that the culprit might be the baking soda. Some people said that baking soda is not good and she realized that her hair become a mess after more than a year using baking soda + vinegar combination. I was lucky that I immediately found out the dangerous side effect just after one usage of baking soda. Since then, I stopped using baking soda in any natural DIY products. I still use vinegar though. But, I dillute it in a lot of water, so it is still safe.
Since then, I become more careful before making any DIY products. First I will do a research about the side effect of the ingredients. Or, I will make DIY products based on ancient wisdom in any culture. Better safe than sorry, right?
If, you're still not sure about the DIY products that you make, I have heard that you can use litmus paper to check the PH of your products. It can somehow reduce the risk. Also, make sure that you don't have any allergic reaction to the ingredients. Well, sometime topically applied ingredients will show it's effect faster than the digested ones.
That's all my experience with natural substitutes of shampoo. Sometime, we need to do experiments for DIY products, right? I hope that somehow my post will provide helpful information for you.
Have a nice day! :)
With love,
Lynn
It's been months since I began leaving a lot of commercial skin & body care products. I substitute them with natural-DIY-products. The first product that I left was shampoo. I had problems with my scalp for years, there were many big bumps in my scalp which made me very hurt. Probably those bumps were similar to acne (I don't really know, just my guess). Even if I changed my shampoo brand, they would still appear after sometime.
One day, I read an article about living happily without soap. The writer said that he had been living without any commercial cleanser for years, and still doing fine. There were a lot of comments saying that they felt better after substituting their daily cleansing products into natural cleanser. I was interested, especially since I was desperate about my scalp condition, so I looked into the "No-Poo" movements where prople stopped using shampoo and began using natural cleanser for their hair.
I was experimenting with my hair until I found some of the best cleanser for my hair from the recipes out there. Remember, while a treatment is suitable for someone, it doesn't mean that it will be suitable for you too. Even natural products can cause allergic reaction on you.
Here are the hair-cleansing alternatives for those out there who wants to leave their shampoo:
Water
 |
| Water |
Water only cleansing has been quite popular among the people who left commercial shampoo. Water by itself is the best cleanser for our body. It's PH is neutral, thus will not change the PH in our body. I have tried using only water to cleanse my hair, and my hair became very clean & soft.
But, problem will emerge if the water we use is not clean. During my vacation, I stayed in my hometown, Bali. The tap water there was very clean. Using it to wash my hair results in a soft and clean hair. But, after going back to my current city, Surabaya, where the tap water is very dirty, using water only to cleanse my hair results in disaster. The dirt from the tap water trapped on my hair. Instead of cleansing, my hair become dirtier and very greasy. The bumps that already disappeared when I was in Bali came back onto my scalp.
So, be cautious if you want to use water-only cleansing method. Make sure that the water is clean and clear. If you cannot use water-only-cleansing, don't worry, I still have several DIY shampoo subtitute.
Vinegar
 |
| Vinegar |
Our skin's natural PH is a little bit acidic (around 5). The acidic PH will help kills several harmful bacteria, thus protecting our skin. So, using slightly acidic cleanser will also help retaining our skin's natural PH. Beside, using slightly acidic cleanser on our hair will help closing the cuticles on hair and makes it super smooth.
Vinegar is known as additive in food that gives sour taste in it. In Indonesia, vinegar is used to make preserved sour vegetables called "Acar", usually consisted of cucumber, carrot, etc. Vinegar can kill many bacteria because of its acidic behavior and known to be used as cleanser in several parts of the world.
But, if vinegar is used directly on our scalp, it will be too acidic and can irritate the skin. That's why, if we want to use vinegar on our body, it has to be dilluted on water beforehand.
I usually dillute 1 tbsp of vinegar in 2 glasses of water. It might be too mild for several people, on other websites we will find that people usually dillute 1 tbsp of vinegar in 1 glass (200 ml) of water. But, I have tried soaking my vegetables on 1 tbsp of vinegar dilluted on a glass of water and my hands were irritated. Maybe my skin is too sensitive. Thus, I decided on dilluting it in more water if I want to use it as cleanser. You can dillute it in any amount of water suitable for you.
How to use it as shampoo? Just take the dilluted vinegar, pour little by little on your head while massaging your scalp and hair gently. Then let it sit for several minutes while washing your face and body. Rinse off with plenty of water.
The result? My hair become very soft. Besides, I'm free of those hurting bumps that were appearing on my scalp. One more thing, vinegar is known to get rid of dandruff in Asian culture. Maybe it is true, based on my experience. Well, it doesn't completely dissapear at once, but little by little the dandruff were reduced. Perhaps long term use will make the dandruff completely disappear from my scalp.
Black Tea
 |
| Black Tea |
Tea, one of favorite drink all over the world is known as source of anti-oxidant. There are many kinds of tea, which have distinct scent and flavor. Even the same kind of tea might have different scent based on the way of brewing, water quality, and the utensils. That's why enjoying the scent and flavor of each tea has become a hobby for many tea lovers around the world.
Not only good for our internal body health, tea has been used as beauty treatment since long time ago. It is believed that washing your skin with tea will make your skin become soft and smooth. Some culture in Indonesia also use an overnight-fermented-black tea (called "Teh Basi") to wash face, resulting in oil-controlled, blemish-free, and smooth skin.
The black tea is brewed and left overnight in room temperature, letting it ferment. In the morning the tea can be used to wash face. Naturally, tea has anti-bacterial property. While letting it ferment overnight will make it a little bit more acidic and will act better in getting rid of unwanted bacteria in our skin. But, beware, fermenting it overnight will make the tea lost a lot of its anti-oxidant property. So, if you want the anti-oxidant effect, don't ferment it.
Apparently, the anti-bacterial fermented black tea can also be used to cleanse hair. It will kill unwated bacteria from your scalp and hair. Sometime, if I am tired of vinegar (I don't really like the smell of it), or if I feel like vinegar is too acidic, I will switch to black tea to wash my hair. For me, the cleansing effect is slightly milder than vinegar, but the scent is different (and I love the scent of tea)
Rice Water
 |
| rice water (source) |
Rice water has been used in Asian culture as beauty regime. The Asians believe that washing your skin with rice water everyday will brighten your complexion and gives smooth skin. Rice can be considered as main food in most of Asian culture, thus washing face with rice water won't be a problem for the ancient Asian people.
Making rice water is quite simple. Take a cup of rice (or more if there are more people in your household to eat the rice with), put in a big bowl (or anything else that can contain the rice and water), lightly wash it to remove any impurities, throw away the first washing water. Pour water to the rice until it covers the rice (the water should be about 1 inch taller than the rice). Stir the rice and the water, then let it sit for 1 - 2 hours. Then, stir again before separating the water and the rice. The water can be used for beauty regime, while you can cook the rice.
Actually, I already know about using rice water as face wash since long ago. But, I just found out that rice water can actually be used to wash hair just recently. Women from a tribe in China (Yao ethnic, from Huangluo village), usually wash their hair using rice water. The women in that tribe is known to have beautiful-long-black hair, and rarely have any gray hair until the age of 80. From the pictures, their hair are indeed very beautiful.
 |
| Yao village woman, coils her beautiful hair around her head (source) |
Then, I tried to use rice water as a shampoo substitute. Well, you know, I am a fan of fermented stuff. So, this time I tried using rice water that is left to ferment overnight in a room temperature. After leaving it overnight, the rice water will smell a little bit sour, but still pleasant. The rice water then can be used to wash hair as usual. By the way, I also use it to wash my face and body :)
The result is amazing. This is currently my favorite shampoo substitute. Not only cleansing, this water also makes my hair super soft and smooth. For me, it's even better than vinegar. It's slightly acidic PH helps balancing my scalp's PH, while also helps closing the cuticles and makes my hair smooth. The ancient wisdom of the tribe is totally amazing!
Beware of leaving the rice water fermented. Always check the scent, if it is sour but still pleasant, then it is fermented well by Lactobacillus bacteria. But, sometime, when I left the rice water too long, the scent will change to be unpleasant. In that case, I will throw the water away, suspecting that unwanted bacteria other than Lactobacillus is growing in the rice water.
==========================
So far, those are my current successful shampoo substitute. I have tried several other ingredients, but doesn't work as well as the methods above. Well, DIY products doesn't always mean that it will do no harm for you.
There is a shampoo subtitute recipe that I often found on the internet (truth is, I always find it everytime I google about natural shampoo substitute). But I totally don't recommend it, in fact, I am completely against it.
The danger of using baking soda
As I explained before, our natural skin PH is slightly acidic to protect it from some unwanted bacteria. What will happen if we put things with basic PH on to our skin? Won't it affect our natural skin protection mechanism?
Many of shampoo subtitutes articles out there mentioned we can use baking soda and vinegar as substitute of shampoo and conditioner. And many people said that it works well on them. I don't mean to insult the people who are using this method. In fact, their action of leaving SLS on commercial shampoo will help reducing water pollution. But, regretably, I have to say that I am disagree at the usage of baking soda as hair cleanser.
Baking soda has very basic PH (around 9), which have very big gap from our skin's natural PH. Even if we dillute the baking soda in water, the PH will still be too basic for our skin. If the PH of our skin became too basic, it can affect the natural defense of the skin. Some people argue that they use vinegar afterwards, so the PH of the skin will be back to acidic. Well, it might be true, but I personally think that drastic change of PH in such a short time will still affect our skin condition, in this case our scalp and hair.
I have tried using baking soda and vinegar as shampoo and conditioner substitute. At first, I thought that it was great, my hair felt clean, soft, and very smooth. I planned on always using baking soda and vinegar as my shampoo and conditioner substitute. But, about two days afterwards, I felt something wrong about my hair. My scalp is very dried and my hair become very weak. The day after, my scalp become itchy and flaky (probably the skin peeled of), it was also irritated.
I tried to google about what might be the cause, then found out that the culprit might be the baking soda. Some people said that baking soda is not good and she realized that her hair become a mess after more than a year using baking soda + vinegar combination. I was lucky that I immediately found out the dangerous side effect just after one usage of baking soda. Since then, I stopped using baking soda in any natural DIY products. I still use vinegar though. But, I dillute it in a lot of water, so it is still safe.
Since then, I become more careful before making any DIY products. First I will do a research about the side effect of the ingredients. Or, I will make DIY products based on ancient wisdom in any culture. Better safe than sorry, right?
If, you're still not sure about the DIY products that you make, I have heard that you can use litmus paper to check the PH of your products. It can somehow reduce the risk. Also, make sure that you don't have any allergic reaction to the ingredients. Well, sometime topically applied ingredients will show it's effect faster than the digested ones.
That's all my experience with natural substitutes of shampoo. Sometime, we need to do experiments for DIY products, right? I hope that somehow my post will provide helpful information for you.
Have a nice day! :)
With love,
Lynn
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ReplyDeleteHello There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly comeback. My Scalp Smells
ReplyDeleteNice blog. Thanks for sharing the information about the natural ingredients. Harshini Anti Dandruff Shampoo is used to treat dandruff and a certain scalp infection. It reduces itching, irritation, and redness of the scalp. Fenugreek a popular remedy for dandruff, Combined with hibiscus, Restores scalp health.
ReplyDeleteNatural Anti Dandruff Shampoo