Having been without shampoo for several months, I decided to try out baking soda, thanks to advice I found at life less plastic
My head was getting very itchy for some reason and I was scratching it a lot and didn’t like the wads of gunk under my fingernails.
So I tried using a couple teaspoons of baking soda. In France, baking soda comes in small paper envelopes, and I haven’t found the big boxes as you have in the states yet. I used one envelope which is about two teaspoons.
I just wet my hair and put the powder all over my head and then scrubbed away. There was a very pleasant tingling sensation which I enjoyed quite a bit, so I left it to sit for a couple of minutes. Then I rinsed and put some lemon juice on my hair (vinegar is smelly). That was it.
There was no extra sebum, but there was still some natural oil left. I read about baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, on wikipedia and found information which does indicate its history as a kind of soap. For whatever reason, it behaves on the scalp as a kind of emulsifier, and so is probably the perfect solution.
However…
My head was still itchy, which was the only reason I washed in the first place! So I did another wash with baking soda and then, one morning, my wife spotted a nit in my hair! My girls all had lice from school, so I must have gotten it from them.
I had to use some lice medication and then shampoo to wash it out (it was an oily lotion). So now my hair and scalp are dry as a desert I can’t wait for the oil to build up again.
So, my advice would be to treat baking soda as a kind of mild shampoo. I don’t see anything particularly different about it. My advice is still: don’t bother using anything unless you have to, and then, perhaps once or twice a month, try the baking soda and lemon approach.
