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Have you ever thought about all the toxins you put on your body? I have wanted to change the products that I use for a long time. So almost a year ago, I started changing everything that I use. From deodorant to shampoo and toothpaste to cleaning supplies. My hair care journey has been the most emotional change. (Your hair can make you feel beautiful or terrible!)

I have been a Herbal Essence nightly shampoo and conditioner for probably 20 years! So thinking about not having the soft, smell good hair that I washed nightly was hard for me. Most natural shampoos don’t have that great lasting smell good scent. Simply because they don’t use the chemicals to produce those lasting smells.

If I skipped a night of washing my hair would get oily and feel gross. Which makes complete sense when you break down whats happening with “regular” shampoos. “Regular” shampoo strip your hair of natural oils, so your scalp goes into overdrive and mass produces oil, hence the having to wash your hair nightly. Now that I have switched to “natural” hair care products, I can go 3-4 nights without washing (GASP!). <—- This is still odd to me and I could probably go longer but can’t bring myself to do it!

The Detox

Now I will warn you, when you switch from anything that has chemicals that coat your hair to make it feel soft (which are plastics that coat your hair to achieve that great feeling) to something that has no plastic in it, it is a ROUGH transition! If you go with a shampoo that has a “lather” to it, it will be an easier transition. If you go real “natural”, there won’t be much lather and the transition is much more difficult.

Natural Shampoo

I read everything I could google about the detox process. I thought people were exaggerating about how long it took to detox! So I jumped in with a shampoo called Josh Rosebrook. I used a very small amount (which was odd, because I’m use to using a huge glob). It did not lather, which was a little difficult to figure out at first, but manageable. I fought the urge to add more shampoo because I didn’t feel like I was doing it right, or using enough. When I was done shampooing TWICE and then conditioning, I thought my hair didn’t feel bad…. Maybe I’m going to be okay.

Man was I wrong!! As the more my hair dried, my hair felt more and more DISGUSTING!!! I read about this…. I wanted to cry. Against my urge, I decided not to jump back in the shower and wash with my trusted Herbal Essence. (In fact I moved it out of my shower, so I wouldn’t be tempted.) How am I suppose to go to work with my hair feeling and looking like a grease ball?! The next morning I didn’t even fix my hair it felt so bad! I put it in a braid so I couldn’t touch it.

When you switch, your hair has to shed all the plastic build up that has been on your hair (for mine it will be 20 years of abuse). Yes, your hair grows and you cut it, but all the chemicals enter your scalp as well! So your scalp also has to be detoxed and relearn how to not produce as much oil, because you aren’t stripping the oil out anymore.

I washed my hair every other night for two weeks and even added baking soda and apple cider vinegar washes to my routine. (They didn’t help the gross hair feeling or the hair loss.) Then I had a hair appointment. Before my hair dresser even touched my hair I apologized profusely.

Monat

She was appalled! She was a new user of Monat. So, she washed my hair with Monat. (I had always been against Monat because of the price!) But, amazingly my hair felt SO MUCH BETTER after just ONE wash. I may have just drank the Monat kool-aid. So I quit my Josh Rosebrook and switched. After just two washes my hair felt amazing. Why did I go through two weeks of hell?

After about a month of using Monat 2-3 times a week, I was still shedding globs of hair in the shower and I started having sores that itched like crazy on the back of my head. Then I got TERRIBLE dandruff. (I had NEVER EVER had dandruff! Talk about embarrassing.) I googled my symptoms and they all said “Keep using the product, this is the detox period”. I felt like I may be bald before too long!

So I continued using my shampoo I paid so much for, because my hair felt amazingly soft and I could go days without washing. After another month or so, it didn’t get ANY better. So I decided to switch to a different Monat shampoo thinking maybe I was allergic to an ingredient in the shampoo or conditioner. (Then thought, if it’s “natural” how am I allergic to things in the shampoo.) The ingredient list is some of the longest I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, my symptoms did not change. So after investing way too much money, I was done.

Morocco Method

I wanted a product that I could pronounce all the ingredients in, so I bought trial size bottles of Morocco Method (MM). I bought all 5 shampoos and 4 (of the 5) conditioners. Yes, that is 9 bottles of product! After researching through the website and figuring out how to use their shampoos and conditioners (as they are raw, vegan, sulfate free, and gluten free, natural shampoos and conditioners) I dived in. Now being sulfate free these shampoos do not lather. These you have to dilute, talk about a new experience (the other ones I’ve tried at least bubbled a little). So to dilute their shampoo, I used an empty bottle and put a glob of shampoo in and a couple of ounces of water, then shook till it was mixed. I would flip my head over and squirt the shampoo all over and massage into the scalp. Then repeat.

You are to rotate the shampoos, so you get all of the benefits of each shampoo. I didn’t have any problems other than my hair was super tangly after use. I would use a wet comb in the shower to help with tangles. (But it didn’t seem to help the hair loss, as I was still losing what felt like clumps at a time.) If I used conditioner, my hair always felt oily when it dried. So I quit using the conditioner and I strictly shampooed twice each time.

After a couple weeks of this my hair started to feel dry, so I started to use conditioner every couple of washes, on the ends only. This made my hair much better and I was at a point where my hair was feeling pretty normal. When I reached the bottom of each shampoo bottle, I decided that I wasn’t in love with the process (although my hair felt okay, I honestly wanted something easier) so I didn’t want to invest in more product.

Acure

So again, I researched best organic, natural shampoos. I kept reading that Acure shampoo and conditioner ranked in the top 10 on ingredients and cost effectiveness. Thrive Market sells Acure Simply Smoothing Shampoo and Conditioner for $6.49 for a 12 ounce bottle! (Cheapest shampoo/conditioner I’ve tried so far!) So I ordered it. I honestly had no expectations. It was becoming a nightmare trying to rid chemicals from my hair products!

I am a month into using Acure. I’M LOVING IT! (So far…) My hair loss in the shower is very minimal. (Thank goodness! My hair feels so much thinner than it use to before I started this journey.) The Simply Smoothing smells like the beach. It does lather, it uses sodium lauroyl methyl isethionate, which is derived from coconuts and is one of the safest lather agents on the market. (I missed the lather after using MM.) My hair feels great. Its shiny, soft, manageable. I don’t have to wash but every 3-4 days (and I could honestly go longer, but start feeling weird about not washing my hair). It’s super easy on my pocketbook! <– probably the best thing in my opinion. I can pronounce all the ingredients and its not harmful. I plan on trying out some of their other shampoos and conditioners, as well as, some of their other products.

What I’ve Learned

My scalp is still recovering from my allergic reaction to Monat. I still use their oil and a few of their hair products, but probably only until they run out. My hair is much thinner then it use to be and I hope that it will thicken back up one day.

After almost 9 months of trial and error, I have learned so much about my hair. How it reacts to different products, that the detox process is real, not every shampoo will work for everyone and that my hair is very soft and fine (without using plastic to coat it). If any company tells you they can thicken your hair over night, RUN! If you have an allergic reaction, quit using that shampoo/conditioner. The oily feeling on your hair will go away, it does take a little time with true natural shampoos like Josh Rosebrook or Morocco Method, (Or the No Poo Method and many others!).

It is worth the switch to get chemicals out of your life. Just be patient and understand that the first product you use, might not be the one that you like or stay with.

Chiropractic

If you have questions about natural products, how to switch, or other natural alternatives contact your chiropractor! Now at our office, we can do allergy testing through blood work. So if you want to see if you are allergic or sensitive to products or foods, come on in and lets talk about it. Chemicals in products you use daily can disrupt your hormones, which can cause multiple problems after time. This includes medications (chemicals) that you take. Chiropractic is an all natural way of life. It helps your body work in the way God intended it to. The body is a self healing system! Let chiropractic help you.

~Dr. Lacey~
Carder Chiropractic Clinic, INC
El Reno, OK 73036

**** UPDATE on my hair care journey can be found here. ****