No-poo

"Every day is a new day in a curly girl's life,"

said stylist and author Lorraine Massey

ha.. bet you thought this blog would be about poop. Well, its not. Its about shampoo and how I have gone without it for the most part of four years. Yep you read that right neither me or my girls use shampoo!!

This system comes from this book that I love so much: Curly Girl - and if you have naturally curly hair or even just a little tiny bit wavy hair you should read it!!

me before curly girl with my straightening attempt - look at little Benjamin :)

To sum up my no-poo understanding - AVOID SULFATES -Sodium Lauryl/laureth Sulfate is the main ingredient in most shampoos and for that matter, handsoap, dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, basically anything that suds up! Its good at sudsing up but not so much cleaning hair - it may break up oil but mostly it adds build-up. (Its not cancer causing like some granola people like to claim)

Think of your pretty curls like a new sponge - ever put a squirt of dishsoap on a new sponge squish it up a bit?? Then how long does it take to really wash out that soap - FOREVER - and does it really all come out?? I doubt it. So that main ingredient in shampoo is doing the same to your curls...

building up, weighing down your hair, stripping of it its natural oils which fight frizz, and attacting dirt to what doesn't get washed out all the way.

I used to have this vicious cycle with my hair - I'd wash it... it's be a frizzy mess then for the next few days I'd avoid washing it until it started to look less frizzy and kind of ok, then I'd start to feel guilty "ewww I better wash my hair its been too long - conditioner and water isn't enough to get it "clean" and then I'd wash it - starting the vicious cycle over again. I even for a while bought "clarifying shampoo" the mother of all sodium lauryl sulfates and really washed the frizz right into town - thinking that would make up for the days when I only used water and conditioner!

Then Lorraine Massey and her AMAZING book gave me permission in a sense to do what instinct had already been telling me - DON'T USE SHAMPOO!!!!!

This system is known as no-poo, or co-wash for (conditioner washing) or CG method named after the curly girl book.

So how do you No-poo exactly?

Since her book came out almost ten years ago - this movement has caught on and there are many different ways to "no-poo" - some do wash rarely, some "wash" with vinegar or baking soda. I avoid shampoo almost altogether except after many days of swimming in the summer.

I do it this way:

1. Treat curly hair with respect - curly hair is actually very thin - which I didn't believe when I first read it - but its true my hair is thin there is just A LOT of it! and it breaks easily and frizzes easy. So I don't brush dry fragile curly hair. I only use my fingers on wet conditioned hair- no comb, no brush, no pick - If you wanted you could use a wide tooth comb but my fingers work best

2. Stand in the shower and let the water soak your hair completely.

3. Add a HECK OF A LOT of conditioner. Conditioner has some mild surfactants, that with friction do CLEAN your hair!!

I use so much I stick with the cheap stuff and its perfect - don't get swept into the expensive is better - I've used almost all of them and el-cheapo is just as good. I buy in bulk at Sally - do their survey online and I am paying after my monthly $5 coupon - almost nothing... (about every other month that conditioner is 1/2 off)

4. "Wash" your hair with that conditioner - scrub your scalp and run your fingers through getting out all of the knots.

5. rinse well

6. add a little bit more conditioner and just barely rinse this through - leaving some in. Wrap hair in old t-shirt when you get out not a towel - towels frizz up curls

7. Add gel when wet and gently, ever so gently scrunch up your curls - use clips to pick up hair on top of head and pin up to dry - to avoid triangle head:

Once your hair is the way you like it HANDS OFF - If you like it wet you'll like it when it dries - don't touch.

8. avoid products with silicone - like frizz ease - they just coat your curls with plasticky glue!!! - I If you have been using those products you will have to start this system by washing your hair with clarifying shampoo to get that stuff out.

And now for my rant....

I am so saddened by all the straight ironing, poisining our bodies with chemical straightners (did that in college)- hating our natural hair phenomenon.

Embrace your hair ladies - its like the bra burning of our day and age. How much time is wasted blow drying our hair straight - standing in front of the mirror with the flat iron - money wasted on the expensive chi appliances? Avoiding humidity, swimming pools, because of the time it would take to re-do your hair. Sometimes not even showering because you'd have to re-straighten your hair.

Many black women spend HUGE percentages of their income just on their hair. Money wasted in my opinion. I make a point to tell every woman I see who has embraced natural curl - I LOVE YOUR HAIR. And I do- Heavenly Father didn't make wavy, curly, kinky hair so we could spend hours and thousands making it look straight like everyone else's.

My hair may not always look perfect and I do think it ok to change it up once in a while - so I am not 100% against owning a straight iron - but for the most part I am rocking what nature gave me. It took me a long time to come to this curly nirvana - but I am glad I am finally here! Thank You Lorraine Massey!!!

PS. some of you will say/think, but only if I had "good" curls I wouldn't straighten them. Read the book, do the routine then talk to me - because I'm not buying it.