Pick up the average bottle of shampoo at your local drug store and you will be hard pressed to pronounce, let alone identify, the plethora of chemicals and compounds that compose its ingredient list. Add that to the fact that a great deal of hair cleaning products may or may not be tested on animals before they are washed down the drain by showering citizens each and every morning, and you have got a recipe for a hair care revolution.

The anti-shampoo faction has dubbed themselves the no ‘poo movement, and their message is slowly picking up steam. Converts to the cause do not eschew all hair cleaning materials—instead, a variety of natural and commercially derived products are used in replacement to the salon samples.

Going to Wash The Man Right Out of My Hair

The no ‘poo movement has strong political and environmental elements—but its personal aspects are a driving force as well. Chemical laden shampoos and conditioners support a commercial economy where products are expected to have immediate results—regardless of their possibly harmful effects on people’s skin and bodies. According to Jacqueline Krohn, M.D., in The Whole Way to Natural Detoxification: The Complete Guide to Clearing Your Body of Toxins by Jacqueline Krohn, MD, “caustic chemicals, such as alkaline solutions, can also penetrate the skin. Once a chemical has penetrated the stratum corneum (the most superficial layer of skin), it moves through the epidermis and into the dermis. Then the rich blood supply of the dermis readily transports the chemical into the bloodstream.”

Alcohol and isopropyl—which are included in nearly every commercial product on the market—strip hair of its natural oils. Unfortunately, they have the same effect on the scalp, and can eliminate healthy bacteria and needed moisture from the body. Many colour pigments in shampoos have been shown to act as carcinogens in small animals. Mineral oil—another main ingredient—is a petroleum based by-product that can block the skin’s pores and increase acne. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) are detergents and surfactants have been linked with serious health threats, but are often added to shampoo to pump up the foam.

If eliminating these nasty chemicals from your bathroom are not reason enough to join the no ‘poo movement, there’s also the vanity aspect. Testimonies abound from those with curly, uncontrollable hair, made all the more coarse by oil-stripping components of regular shampoo or lanky-locked individuals being weighed down by residue from standard conditioners.

Many people turned to a more sensible—and natural—routine involved the two base components of alkaline and acid. Baking soda works as the former, apple cider vinegar as the latter. The routine has been lauded as promoting healthy, shiny, chemical free hair.