I've never used a sulfate-free shampoo before!
You’ve probably been getting your shampoo from the grocery store, or at a drugstore, or your salon or wherever you get your hair cut. The story goes like this: you get a new shampoo and at first it may feel a little funny, then you love it for a week or two – but then your hair seems dull and lifeless again. The first week it was stripping your hair of the old shampoo residue – then it begins to leave its own!
So you decide to get off that rollercoaster and use our ACV Herbal Shampoo Bar. You thoroughly wet your hair and apply that new bar to your head. You work up a surprising amount of bubbles and think about the vague scent… It’s nice – spicy? Oatmeal? Is that the apple cider vinegar? Whatever, you start massaging the lather into your scalp and then rinse thoroughly, like the instructions said.
From here it can go a few ways:
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Wow, I like how squeaky clean my hair feels. I use a wide toothed comb to comb through it and then I either air dry or style as usual. My hair feels so clean and healthy! Sweet!
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What IS this stuff in my hair?! It feels dirty! Why do I feel like I’ve got dreads?! It’s ok! Remember, this is a super gentle shampoo that doesn’t use sulfates and detergents to strip your hair. It’s having a difficult time getting all that residue off your hair. You may have to wash your hair a few times to get everything out OR you can use your old sulfate based shampoo one last time to strip your hair and then immediately use the ACV bar again to get its healing goodness onto your scalp to let the healing begin. :-)
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Hmm. That was cool, I like how clean my hair feels. But after drying my hair it feels dry and weird! Our shampoo bar doesn’t include hair coating materials like silicones or stearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohols which are waxy materials designed to make your hair feel more conditioned. Now you’re looking at your real hair – which is a good thing! Now you know what you’re actually working with and you can do whatever you need to do make your hair as healthy and beautiful as it can be.
Many people go through a transition period. It can be a short duration, or take longer. This is all normal. The next step to a healthy scalp is to regulate your oil production. Some people just sail past this phase without even noticing it. For others it takes a little time. The idea is that your old shampoo was stripping your natural oils which caused your scalp to produce more oil in order to make up for it… Please do not use a shampoo bar once or twice and decide you don't like it. You need to give the shampoo bars time to rid your hair of the old residues from your commercial shampoo. Now that you’re not stripping your scalp and hair of its oils your scalp might take a little time to get used to the new routine. You might notice your hair feeling oily faster than you thought you would. I recommend just washing your hair when you feel you need to. Eventually your scalp will get used to its new thing and you’ll need to wash less and less. Most people who have used the ACV bar for a while find they wash their hair 1 or 2 times a week. Some go even longer!
Should I use a conditioner? Everyone is different. After using the shampoo bar for a week or so I felt like conditioners were just weighing my hair down and making it limp and less voluminous. I was getting conditioning agents from the shampoo even though it didn’t feel like my old conditioner. Once my hair was dry it felt like I’d used a conditioner but there was none of that slick, coated feeling my old conditioner used to leave behind. Tangly hair is another story! I found that it wasn’t that hard to comb my long hair out with a big toothed comb. As long as I didn’t pile my hair on top of my head while I shampooed like they do in commercials I was ok. I did use a simple apple cider vinegar rinse for the first few months, as I liked how it made my hair shinier but then eventually as I cut off the damaged parts of my hair I didn’t need that either.
I don’t use any product in my hair. I have naturally curly hair but I make it straight with a blow drier and a flat brush. On the occasion that I do let my hair down, so to speak, and go curly I might put some oil on the tips of my curls. So I don’t have much of a problem getting product out of my hair. But if you do use a lot of product just remember to wash and rinse a bit more thoroughly afterwards.
Oh! I almost forgot! Try not to use hot water on your scalp. Water that is too hot can remove too much of your scalps natural oils, causing you to once again over produce your own oils and also encourages an itchy scalp! I recommend luke warm water if possible. Some people use cold water! (They claim the benefit is that the hair shaft closes and the end result is shinier hair)
This whole thing is about a healthy scalp and having the best hair you can have. Those old sulfates and silicones and alcohols were likely suffocating your scalp and weighing down your hair at best. At worst, the chemicals and additives found in commercial detergent based shampoos can actually cause damage to your hair and health. All to make cheaper bubbles that fool you into thinking your hair is healthy.
Once you go through that transition from sulfates to sulfate-free you’re never going to want to go back.
GETTING STARTED. IT COULDN'T BE SIMPLER:
Get your hair very wet and then massage the bar against your hair in a small circular motion until you work up a rich lather. Some of my test subjects (I mean friends) said it was easier to rub the bar between your hands to work up some lather, then rub your hands directly on your hair. Massage the lather into your scalp and rinse thoroughly.(Especially in hard water areas!)
You can use the natural shampoo everyday but after a while you probably won’t need to. Most people find that without sulfates, their hair feels clean longer .It cleans thoroughly without drying or coating your hair or scalp. Dry and style your hair as normal and then enjoy how shiny and clean it looks.
KEEP YOUR ACV SHAMPOO BAR DRY!
IMPORTANT: Keep the bar dry between uses for a longer lasting shampoo bar. Your shampoo bar WILL melt if you leave it in water.
IF YOU WANT TO TRY A SIMPLE VINEGAR RINSE RECIPE:
Mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (ACV) with 8 ounces of water. Experiment to find a dilution that works best for you. Thank you for your purchase and contact us if you have any questions.