I stopped using shampoo. My hair and skin have never been better. Shampoo takes away the skin oils, so the skin needs to compensate by producing more skins oils, making your hair greasy. Stop using shampoo makes it worse for a week, then it gets better and the hair stops being greasy. Shampoo is just an unnecessary addiction.
I've tried using shampoo but my scalp feels super itchy after about a week. Is there an alternative to shampoo that don't remove skin oil or removes less?
For what purpose? Shampoo is for ungreasing hair. A great alternative is water. Any soap is for bonding with fats. You could start washing your hair with shampoo less often, like once every month or so. But imo it's fine with not washing with shampoo at all. Just water. I have to say, I do not have a job where my hair gets dirty. I wouldn't recommend stop using shampoo when you work in a coal mine or as a firefighter for example. Also, I do wash it with shampoo after I swam in open water or a swimming pool for example. Washing away chlorine and bacteria.
Oh yeah, any kind of dusty or gritty job shampoo is a requirement. Having natural hair oils is like inviting trouble in those situations. I tried to go the route of just water and my pillow slips noticeably suffered.
Yeah.... But mine started developing a ring of concrete dust and I got tired of looking like a dingy anime character. Bodily fluids were not my problem.
I've been using natron (backing powder) for a couple of years now twice a week. I had no need for shampoo ever since. You just mix one tablespoon natron with water in a cup and are good to go. To even out the ph of the hair use a teespoon of cider vinegar mixed with water in a one of those spray cans used to water flowers. Works well for children as well, as none of this burns your eyes. As a side effect I stopped getting red eyes from using shampoo.
If you want to get into soapmaking, you can regulate the lye to fat ratio.
I think the word is superfatted soap. You could search for that. Or soaps made from different fats (f.ex. olive oil or lanolin).
Lanolin is apparently the best oil for our skin, but it's expensive.
Hey, this wasn't my intention at all. I'm mixed race and don't have coily hair but need products. I was speaking from my experience- "no-poo" methods don't work for me. My scalp gets itchy from product build up.
Do you then ONLY wash the with water or do you wash them with something special from time to time? I use a little hair soap and apple vinegar maybe once a week, as they still tend to get a little "heavy" after days with just rinsing them with water.
Only with water (it stabalises after a while). I do use shampoo after swimming in open water or a swimming pool, or after it gets dirty by anything else. Which is almost never.