Environmental Enlightenment #4 (Natural Shampoo/Conditioner)

When I first started looking into alternatives for shampoo I came across the no 'poo movement. Yes, there is a movement of people out there who don't use shampoo at all. Instead you can use 1 tbsp of baking soda dissolved in water until it forms a paste. This mixture gets rubbed onto your roots. Really you should only be washing your roots and only conditioning your ends. After rinsing out the baking soda then apply 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (mixed with water) onto your ends. And, that's it! I spoke with my hairstylist about this method and she said it would work, but it wouldn't smell nice.



My search continued and I came across the Burt's Bees natural shampoo and conditioner. I started by trying the Grapefruit and Sugar Beet shampoo and conditioner and they were great! Unfortunately I share my shower with someone *ahem* who didn't particularly like it so I moved on to the Pomegranate and Soy shampoo and conditioner. Which it turns out I liked even better! Getting used to a natural shampoo was strange at first. Until I made the switch I didn't notice how much of a film was left behind on my hair from regular shampoos. When using the natural shampoo there is no slimy film and you can actually feel your hair while shampooing, not just a soapy filmy mass of chemicals. The Burt's Bees shampoos lather like any other and my hair has never been healthier.

I just want to pause the shampoo talk for a moment and talk about skin. Most people don't take the time to think about the products being used in the shower. I know that I didn't. There was a time when I didn't know that our skin absorbs a lot of things in the shower. Chemicals in the water, shampoo and body wash get absorbed into our bodies through our skin. This was my main reason for switching to all natural beauty products.

There is another option for natural shampooing which is the solid shampoo bar. The bar gets rubbed on your scalp a few times and then lathers up. I recently had a friend take a job at Lush and I've tried out a few of their products, although not the solid shampoo bar. I really love Lush and their products so keep an eye out for a future post in which I will gush about Lush (did I really just type that?) Thus concludes my knowledge on natural shampoos!

P.S. Make sure to always recycle your empty plastic shampoo bottles!