Discover How to Wash Your Hair Without Shampoo

· July 26, 2015
Eventually, conventional shampoo can be aggressive for our scalp and can end up damaging it, so we should go without shampoo and replace it with natural products that respect our pH.

Our hair gets dirty easily, especially if it’s oily. When cleaning our hair, it may seem impossible to think to wash your hair without shampoo. However, we will see that it is possible.

Air pollution and excessive consumption of harmful fats increase the dirt in our hair and force us to have to wash our hair more frequently. These can be harmful in the long run, damaging the natural protective layer of the scalp.

This article explains natural alternatives to washing our hair without shampoo, using exclusively natural products, such as clay, vinegar or baking soda products. 

Why should you try to wash your hair without shampoo?

Women used to wash their hair once a week or once every two weeks. Old photographs show that their hair was beautiful and plentiful. What’s happened today?

It’s true that there are factors that make our hair get dirty more easily. These include pollution or a poor diet. However, there is a tendency to want to clean our bodies excessively with products that are really aggressive to our natural pH.

Most shampoos contain conventional substances that eventually damage the scalp, such as parabens or sodium lauryl sulfate. It’s true that we can use natural or organic shampoos free of these harmful substances, but they are often expensive.

In this article, we explain how you can wash your hair without shampoo, by using affordable natural products, while enjoying clean and healthy hair.

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Try to wash your hair without shampoo


Ghassoul, or rhassoul, is a type of clay used in some Arab countries for skin and hair beauty. We find it in powder form or small tablets that we mix with a little hot water to turn into a creamy paste. It is used as shampoo, gently massaging the scalp, and leaving it on for one or two minutes before rinsing with warm water.

The great advantage of ghassoul is that it acts as a sebum regulator, which is why it is recommended for all hair types, as it will never leave your hair too dry or too oily. 

It also deep cleans, and its continuous use allows the scalp to regulate itself over time so that we might eventually decrease the frequency with which we wash our hair.

Ghassoul is difficult to find in some countries. We can find it in Arab stores, some health food stores or online.

Ghassoul Henna is a way to wash your hair without shampoo

Baking Soda

Sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, is a multi-purpose product.

You can use it for cleaning hair, but we must adhere to the following steps.

We’ll dilute a tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate in a glass of hot water. Then, when it turns lukewarm, we’ll apply the liquid to the roots of our scalp, just the scalp, to avoid dryness on the ends. We can do this with the help of a dropper.

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Finally, massage well and wash out with water.

Use baking soda to wash your hair


Vinegar is another miraculous ingredient frequently used in old health and beauty remedies. In this case, it works perfectly as a conditioner, since it makes your hair shiny and soft.

We’ll mix three-quarters of a cup of water with a quarter of a cup of apple cider vinegar, and we’ll apply this liquid after washing our hair (with ghassoul, sodium bicarbonate or natural shampoo). Massage for a couple of minutes and rinse well with water.

If we wish to do so, we can add a drop of essential oil to this mix to improve its scent, though your hair won’t smell like vinegar once it dries.


Cornstarch is a type of flour we can use as “dry shampoo”. It’s not a cleansing product that can wash out our hair, but it’s useful for when we can’t wash our hair and need to make it look better by removing oil or dirt.

In order to use it correctly, we’ll directly apply approximately one teaspoon of cornstarch on our scalp. Then, quickly massage it, and comb it out to eliminate any excess, making our hair look less greasy.