You can experiment on it. Baking soda reacts with oil similar to the process of soap making. Therefore thick layers of grease in the kitchen can be cleaned up in no time. You just rinse it off.
On the other hand, baking soda dissolved in water does nothing to oil. This is a common fact that most things that dissolve in water or oil, do not dissolve in both at the same time.
Baking soda is completely opposite to soap and detergents that works on surface, and have a hard time to work on bulk grease.
So BK is ideal especially for oily hair. If you apply BK to your scalp even after a week of nature camping with no shampoo, any oil and grease and odour disappear immediately. Because the whole mass of hair has so many surface area, it's impossible to strip too much oil from the hair shaft, which can eliminate the need for conditioner.
Dry BK is messy and mildly abrasive. So I use wash/rinse bottles with enough BK and water in it. I keep shaking while applying to guarantee enough solid BK delivered to the scalp.
BK is pretty safe. On a pH scale of 1 to 14, BK is at 8, one from neutral 7. BK is used a lot medically and often to neutralize acids and maintain a near neutral pH.
BK is of course you can say "natural" and therefore biodegradable. It doesn't degrade much as some form of sodium salt will always be there, which is natural occurring. BK with hydrogen and carbon dioxide atoms could be safer than common salt with chloride atoms.
There should not be long term effects if you always rinse thoroughly. And avoid excess stripping off body oil. It may be a good idea to neutralize BK with organic acid. Harmless sodium salts will be left and excess organic acid will degrade into something simple.
As for any shampoo and body wash, you may need conditioner and moisturizer for your scalp and skin.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
The engineering approach to shampoo
After trying a lot of things, I recommend Nexxus or some other expensive shampoo with visible immediate results. I also recommend Dr Bronner's "pure liquid soap" as it seems to be gentle. Tresemme works for cheap. For the no-poo camp there is the baking soda. But use it carefully. Shampoo also depends on conditioner with different degrees. See, I'm totally unbiased.
Your hair type is critical, which explains that there are so many shampoos on the market. The scalp will produce body oil at the root carrying down to the shaft. After shampoo and drying, try fingering your scalp for a while and see how grease your finger tips feel. And try it the next day or longer if you don't wash your hair that often.
Do you need to disrupt the natural process that much? If your scalp don't produce enough oil for the long shaft, I would think it's easy to remedy, if you don't want to cut short your hair.
The problem with oily hair is that bacteria will feed on it, accelerate skin flaking and results in dandruff. I think that's from medical sources but that's not the universal cause for dandruff of course. That's not really a big deal as I have dandruff but I have great hair and they don't turn grey and they don't fall down. The other problem is that if you try fragrance free shampoo and not strong enough your head will smell weird. It could be all normal - that everybody's head will smell different and weird like without deodorant. But it's just not socially acceptable.
So be warned. If you go no-poo carelessly, you could get dandruff and your head can smell weird. It's hard to know if you have pre-existing conditions. If you wash your hair everyday with a normal fragrance shampoo, any flakes will be minute and you can't smell anything other than the shampoo.
People always say this is good if you have dandruff. But I really need somebody to say that I had dandruff, I used this, and dandruff never come back. A pharmacist say that you have to rotate with different dandruff shampoo to keep dandruff at bay. I have to wash my hair everyday so it makes little different whether I have dandruff or not. Nobody is going to split my hair repeatedly and watch and count the minute white spots floating down my hair.
Baking soda is many things to many people. If you use powder or paste, it can remove years of accumulated grease in your kitchen. If you use a teaspoonful or two per cup to rinse your hair, it may be too mild. Too mild that my head smells. My hair is great though. I will experiment some more. The stuff is just too convenient and cost next to nothing and so many people swear by it.
Never drop baking soda on your hair after oil treatment or vice versa. That's how to make solid soap. Your hair will be full of soap scum.
Dr Bronner's seems to be mild, even though it has lots of sud. But it's not very pure soap. I remembered it had some glycerin in it for moisturizer. But everything should be organic. As with pure soap for skin, if you don't have suitable conditioning, your hair can be messy. Whereas for Nexxus, if you hair type is one of those, your hair hardly need conditioning after the shampoo.
Whatever you use, you have to use it for a while to see the effect. For example, some conditioner coat your hair a bit. So if you change to some other systems, it takes time for the coating to disappear.
My great discovery is that, if you hair need detangling, and if you don't use conventional conditioner, it's a great time for detangling in the shampoo phase. Just use a detangling wet brush to comb your hair while there are lots of sud. In the following procedures, just don't mess up your hair again.
Your hair type is critical, which explains that there are so many shampoos on the market. The scalp will produce body oil at the root carrying down to the shaft. After shampoo and drying, try fingering your scalp for a while and see how grease your finger tips feel. And try it the next day or longer if you don't wash your hair that often.
Do you need to disrupt the natural process that much? If your scalp don't produce enough oil for the long shaft, I would think it's easy to remedy, if you don't want to cut short your hair.
The problem with oily hair is that bacteria will feed on it, accelerate skin flaking and results in dandruff. I think that's from medical sources but that's not the universal cause for dandruff of course. That's not really a big deal as I have dandruff but I have great hair and they don't turn grey and they don't fall down. The other problem is that if you try fragrance free shampoo and not strong enough your head will smell weird. It could be all normal - that everybody's head will smell different and weird like without deodorant. But it's just not socially acceptable.
So be warned. If you go no-poo carelessly, you could get dandruff and your head can smell weird. It's hard to know if you have pre-existing conditions. If you wash your hair everyday with a normal fragrance shampoo, any flakes will be minute and you can't smell anything other than the shampoo.
People always say this is good if you have dandruff. But I really need somebody to say that I had dandruff, I used this, and dandruff never come back. A pharmacist say that you have to rotate with different dandruff shampoo to keep dandruff at bay. I have to wash my hair everyday so it makes little different whether I have dandruff or not. Nobody is going to split my hair repeatedly and watch and count the minute white spots floating down my hair.
Baking soda is many things to many people. If you use powder or paste, it can remove years of accumulated grease in your kitchen. If you use a teaspoonful or two per cup to rinse your hair, it may be too mild. Too mild that my head smells. My hair is great though. I will experiment some more. The stuff is just too convenient and cost next to nothing and so many people swear by it.
Never drop baking soda on your hair after oil treatment or vice versa. That's how to make solid soap. Your hair will be full of soap scum.
Dr Bronner's seems to be mild, even though it has lots of sud. But it's not very pure soap. I remembered it had some glycerin in it for moisturizer. But everything should be organic. As with pure soap for skin, if you don't have suitable conditioning, your hair can be messy. Whereas for Nexxus, if you hair type is one of those, your hair hardly need conditioning after the shampoo.
Whatever you use, you have to use it for a while to see the effect. For example, some conditioner coat your hair a bit. So if you change to some other systems, it takes time for the coating to disappear.
My great discovery is that, if you hair need detangling, and if you don't use conventional conditioner, it's a great time for detangling in the shampoo phase. Just use a detangling wet brush to comb your hair while there are lots of sud. In the following procedures, just don't mess up your hair again.
The engineering approach to alternative hair and skin care
Alternative hair and skin is a big business. People sell books and sell stuff. Some use scare tactics saying that some common ingredients are very bad. Some just appeal to those organic people that what you don't eat shouldn't put on your skin and hair.
Those are long stories. The problem is, you find the same home made receipts all over. I bet most promoters didn't try it themselves, not to say if they ever rely on the alternative stuff long term. I bet even authors will use the most expensive shampoo and conditioner when they have to appear in public. Those with good results are hardly applicable to many other people.
By engineering approach I mean looking into cost, and time. Tell a man to do an oil treatment every few days! Also, what's the long term effect? What can go wrong?
Some receipts are hardly practical. A few dollar a bottle of shampoo and it lasts for months. No hassle. If you are afraid, try to buy expensive ones with mostly good ingredients. So I almost gave up. But I am interested in answering the question - are the skin and hair care company selling you a big lie? That you hardly need any shampoo, or at least much cheaper.
Those are long stories. The problem is, you find the same home made receipts all over. I bet most promoters didn't try it themselves, not to say if they ever rely on the alternative stuff long term. I bet even authors will use the most expensive shampoo and conditioner when they have to appear in public. Those with good results are hardly applicable to many other people.
By engineering approach I mean looking into cost, and time. Tell a man to do an oil treatment every few days! Also, what's the long term effect? What can go wrong?
Some receipts are hardly practical. A few dollar a bottle of shampoo and it lasts for months. No hassle. If you are afraid, try to buy expensive ones with mostly good ingredients. So I almost gave up. But I am interested in answering the question - are the skin and hair care company selling you a big lie? That you hardly need any shampoo, or at least much cheaper.
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