Check out Magdalena's "no 'poo" blog for a day by day account of her journey away from shampoo.

WASH THE MAN OUT OF YOUR HAIR

When I tell friends I stopped using shampoo more than two months ago, they recoil ever so slightly and shift their eyes toward the door. Shampoo wasn’t invented until 1930, but many people are convinced that cleanliness isn’t possible without it.

Those people would be extremely wrong about that.

I’m a witch, and I think Earth is a goddess, so I’ve always made efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I was seven years old when I began to shut the faucet as I brushed my teeth, to conserve water.

When George W. Bush achieved the presidency, I felt discouraged, disgusted, and powerless. I decided to engage in the extreme pleasure of sticking it to The Man: I stepped up my efforts to consume less.

Here are ten changes I made:

1. Used cloth grocery bags
2. Quit recreational shopping of any kind.
3. Learned how to crochet a tote from cut-up plastic grocery bags
4. Reduced meat consumption.
5. Bought the reusable diva cup instead of disposable cotton menstrual products.
6. Rejected plastic containers in favor of glass ones.
7. Stopped buying new clothes and started shopping at the Salvation Army.
8. Bought beans, grains, and teas in bulk to reduce packaging.
9. Used the library instead of buying books.
10. Switched to solid shampoos to reduce packaging.

It made me feel better, but it wasn’t enough.

In the shower, I began to hear the great mother earth moaning as I washed my hair and the products flowed down the drain, into the water supply and from there into the sky. It plagued me to envision billions of people flushing chemicals. Even if the shampoos used were organic and chemical free, I pictured mountains of plastic bottles in landfills.

Then Bust magazine ran an article about the No’Poo movement: people who’d nixed shampoo for natural cleansers like baking soda and vinegar. I was intrigued.

The theory is simple: shampoo is unnecessary. Sebum, the oil our scalps produce, is good for your hair. Before I started this experiment, my hair was so oily I washed it every day. Shampoo was creating the problem by drying out my tresses and tricking my scalp into overproducing oil! If I stopped stripping away the sebum, my hair would eventually regulate itself and I’d be able to wash with water only.

I won’t lie: There is a greasy detox period as the scalp gets rid of chemicals. It can last for a few weeks. I wore hats and hoped for the best. Then one day my hair was glorious!

Now I cleanse my scalp once a month with shikakai powder, an ayurvedic herb. Daily I use water or, if I want more scent, rinses with parsley, rosemary, rooibus, coffee, lavender, or tea tree.

Why stop shampooing? You’ll save time, money, energy, and water. Your hair and skin will look awesome. Your health will improve: I found my asthma was largely triggered by the detergents in body-care products; now I can breathe free. You’ll have the great joy of being a conscious consumer instead of a cog in the consumerist wheel. Go ahead and wash The Man out of your hair!