I skip the baking soda when my hair starts to feel too clean, and just use the vinegar, or sometimes just water. I occasionally add alcohol into the mix- it seems to redistribute the natural oils- in any case it makes it easy to comb out my hair while it is wet. I suppose it could be a drying agent, but I haven't really noticed a drying effect.

You may think I'm crazy or stinky (I swear I'm not) but I don't "wash" my hair at all. I rinse it in the shower everyday and occasionally massage some conditioner through it but that's it. It works well for me but my hair is quite short so perhaps it would work as well if it were longer.

There are a couple of choices, you can use a little bit of oil on the ends (coconut is good, olive is too heavy to get out)

You can wash less often

You could switch from baking soda to a french clay rinse.

If it were me, I would try them in that order.

Oh and don't forget to brush to move the oils down the hair shaft, the longer the hair the more important brushing is

Before I opened this thread, I thought it was about people who don't take dumps very often or something. But in my defense, I just woke up 5 minutes ago.

Anyway, see this post of mine for a fairly detailed rant about shampoo. There's no need to replace it with anything. Just wash your hair with water. And don't worry about it still being disgusting. That's normal. You're going through oil-overproduction withdrawal.

EDIT: I just noticed that you said your hair is really dry, but it's usually really oily by the 3rd day without any shampoo. So wait. What's going on there? Also, have you been washing your hair at all? And if so, with what? Water? Something else?

Your hair is going to feel much more dry than you're used to but it will get better. A nettle rinse with a touch of ACV will help and it will help keep your hair strong while it's in this transition.

I've been poo-free for over two years and I wouldn't go back. I just shower every day with water as hot as I can handle it. I find this sort of melts the sebum/oil in my hair and it comes out clean but not dry. If the water isn't very warm, my hair tends to retain a lot of the oils so sometimes I'll do that on purpose if I feel that my hair is getting too dry. I also have a filter on my shower head that removes most of the chemicals in the water.

Everyone's hair is different (I'm of Italian and Jewish descent so I have pretty oily hair and skin naturally, which I think helps to keep it from drying out without conditioner) but pretty much everyone can agree that the first few days of no-poo are trying. Instead of combing I would brush it to re-distribute the oils, as others have suggested. Stick with it for at least a couple more weeks and see how you fare.

I may be one of the more extreme "No-Poo"ers... I have long (mid-back) extremely thick curly/wavy hair that has always been really frizzy. For the past 8 months I have not washed it once - no baking soda, no vinegar, no nothing. I don't even rinse it with water unless I've been in a chlorinated pool - when I take a shower I put it in a ponytail and don't get it wet, because it takes soooo long to dry. I just brush and brush it every morning with a natural bristle brush, for 5-10 minutes. I don't use conditioners or any products, except occasionally putting some coconut oil on the ends.

It's shiny and doesn't smell at all. My boyfriend actually could not believe it when we started dating 4 months ago that I didn't ever wash my hair.

A couple of weeks ago, I was brushing my hair and my husband said, "Wow - your hair looks nice! Have you been putting something on it?"

"Nope," I said.

"You've just been shampooing?"

"Nope."

He was astounded to find that I hadn't shampooed in about 3 weeks. When I hit perimenopause, my hair started to thin slightly and became very dry and frizzy; it was driving me crazy. After reading about going without shampoo, I decided to give it a try and after about a week, I was astounded at the results - my hair looks as sleek and shiny as it did when I was *cough*MUCH*cough* younger. Nor am I doing the baking soda/ACV route - just rinsing it in very hot water and scrubbing my scalp with my fingertips.

My husband came home from a week-long business trip last night and informed me he hasn't shampooed his hair all week, either.