Monday, June 8, 2009

Delaying my 'no poo' experiment


As you will see from my Plastic Tally (when I eventually post it!), I've used up 2 bottles of shampoo recently. I've been anticipating this for months, planning a "no poo" experiment. Going "no poo" means not using shampoo on your hair. Instead, you can use baking soda, or wash with conditioner, or even just rinse with water and scrub the scalp with your fingers. You can read about it here, here, and here.

My plan was to try the baking soda thing for at least 3 weeks. (My friends are already planning an intervention over this one.) Then, if I couldn't stand it, I would try a bar shampoo, like JR Liggetts or Lush. Another option to try would be just using conditioner, though if I'm substituting shampoo for conditioner, isn't that trading one plastic bottle for another? However, I might use less total product this way, meaning a little less plastic. Then, if all else failed, my plan was to reward companies like Aveda and Origins for thier recycling programs by purchasing their shampoo.

As it turns out, I don't need to try any of these things...yet. I found 3 more sample and partially used containers of shampoo in my under-bed toiletry stash. So for the time being I will continue what I have already been doing to use less plastic in the shower: wash my hair 2-3 times a week (down from 4-5 times), and use up what I already have.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about using bulk shampoos from a natural foods store? This doesn't completely eliminate the plastic, but a lot less plastic is used as you can refill the bottle over and over again.

Juli said...

If you know of a store in NYC that offers refillable shampoo, I'd love to hear about it. Granted my search has not been exhaustive, but I haven't seen any.

Anonymous said...

I've only been doing research online, as I'm moving to the city this summer, but it looks like the 4th street food coop has bulk body care: http://4thstreetfoodcoop.org/bin/wiki/foodcoop/view/Main/ProductList

Juli said...

Wow. THANK YOU. I've had the 4th Street Coop brought up before (hi, Cat!) but didn't look closely enough. Not only does it look like they have shampoo in bulk, but they have bulk pasta, too!

*heavens open, angels sing*

Seriously. THANK YOU.