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5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair

5 Plastic-free Ways to Wash your Hair

Posted on November 21, 2016April 22, 2022

Shampoo. Some people use it daily, others once a week and some don’t use it at all (yes, really!). Most people buy shampoo in plastic bottles. So, for those people the following rule applies: the more you wash your hair, the more plastic waste. Luckily, this doesn’t have to be the case. Washing your hair can be done with zero waste! In this post I list 5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair.

Multiple plastic-free ways

This may surprise you, but there are a great number of ways to wash your hair without (plastic) waste). In this post I will tell you about the ones I know of. And yes, I have tried all of them. Here are the 5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair that I’ve tried myself.

‘Why create waste when you’re going to throw it away anyway’ – Loesje

1 Water only

This is my absolute favorite, no shampoo! It is possible, a life without shampoo. You might be thinking: heh? That’s what I thought at first too, but the more I read about it the more it made sense to me. People who don’t use shampoo wash their hair with water only. Just water. But this comes with a transition period.

At first your hair will become really greasy (you probably are familiar with this when you use shampoo). But for most people this goes away after a certain period of time. How long this takes, differs per person. It takes some people a months, others a year. If you’ll get through that period your hair will find its way back to natural and you’ll never have to use shampoo again. Unfortunately, I never managed to get this far. After three months, I gave up. It is a matter of dedication I guess. A big plus: zero costs too!

2 Baking soda

When the water-only method didn’t work for me, I tried something else. Baking soda! This method is also called the no-poo method. You take a bit (you’ll have to experiment with the amounts) of baking soda and mix it with water. I used an old shampoo bottle to do this. Shake it up and tadaaa, you can use it as shampoo! Baking soda is packed in paper, a renewable resource. A box of baking soda lasts me very long. This depends however on how often you wash your hair. Unfortunately, this method made my hair really dry (this differs per person) and so I went on to option 3.

3 Baking soda with apple cider vinegar

The baking soda part works the same as above. But now, the apple cider vinegar is your conditioner. This stops your hair from getting dry. You put the (preferably organic) apple cider vinegar in the ends of your hair (not on top of your head) and let it sit for a while. Don’t be scared of the smell, this will go away once your hair dries. You wash out the apple cider vinegar and you’re done! Organic apple cider vinegar can be found in glass, which is 100% recyclable.

4 Shampoo bars

I was quite happy with option 3, the baking soda with apple cider vinegar. However, there is still waste at the end with that proces. Paper and glass, both 100% recyclable, but I wanted better. I found zero waste shampoo! At first I bought it at Lush. They have shampoo bars online and in their shops. But then I found the shampoo bar from Zaailingen. She’s a fellow blogger who makes her own shampoo. Big plus: they are better than the shampoos from Lush because they don’t contain SLS (damages your hair) or palm oil (causes deforestation). Also, you’re supporting a local entrepreneur and the product you buy is from the Netherlands (less emissions).

Shampoo bars are really efficient, since they are pure shampoo. Liquid shampoo is 80% water and so water is shipped around the world for this purpose (which causes more emissions). I find a shampoo bar very easy to use. You rub it on your skull and then massage it further with your hands. Easy.

5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair
5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair
5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair

5 Aleppo soap

Recently I found out that Aleppo soap can also be used as shampoo. I have tested it and for me it works the same as the shampoo bars from Lush and Zaailingen. It’s great! However, I haven’t been able to find an Aleppo soap zero waste and so I don’t use it.

Since testing all these methods, I use method 4, the shampoo bar from Zaailingen. Currently, I wash my hair once a week with it. I have read multiple times that the less you wash your hair, the healthier it gets. I just stretched the period of not washing it slowly. First I washed my hair every day, then every other day and so on until I needed to wash it only once a week. If you do this your hair will stay clean for a longer period each time. You just need a little bit of patience. Good luck!

Did you know of these 5 plastic-free ways to wash your hair? And do you know any more?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

10 thoughts on “5 Plastic-free Ways to Wash your Hair”

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  2. セレネ says:
    August 14, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    5. Als je op vakantie bent in Marseille, kun je daar verpakkingsvrij allerlei Marseille- en Aleppo-zeep kopen 🙂
    Bij 1, 2 en 3 had ik dezelfde resultaten, maar 4 kan ik niet gebruiken i.v.m. parfumallergie. Voordeel van alleen Neutral gebruiken is wel dat je goed gebruik kan maken van aanbiedingen :O

    Reply
  3. Romee Hoeksma says:
    August 18, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    Helaas vind ik aleppo zeep niet zo lekker ruiken .. Gaaf dat je ook geprobeerd hebt helemaal zonder shampoo te gaan met alleen water, ik ben benieuwd naar je ervaringen! Hoe ging dat bij jou?

    Reply
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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Dit is de route van de interrail die ik maakte de afgelopen maand! Over die interrail staat vandaag het eerste artikel (in een reeks van meerdere) online op mijn blog. Ik deel daarin namelijk mijn ervaring én wat tips en tricks. Je kan het nu vinden via de link in mijn bio 🚞.#duurzaamleven #duurzaamreizen #interrail Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) naar Bratislava (🇸🇰) reisde. Dit was reisdag 3/6 van onze duurzame interrail reis. Ik ben vandaag 25 jaar geworden 🥳. Ik hoop heel hard dat dat betekent dat ik ongeveer op een kwart van mijn leven ben. En wat een verjaardag is dit! Ik mag het vieren in Kopenhagen met mijn favoriete persoon @casperchristiaanse , terwijl ik met de trein door Europa reis 🚃. Ik ben een gelukkig mens. Op naar de 50! Dit is hoe ik van Dresden (🇩🇪) naar Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) reisde. Niet een bijster lange, maar wel een prachtige treinreis, omdat je door het nationaal park Boheems Zwitserland gaat. Dit was de tweede reisdag van onze interrail (2/6). We zijn op de helft van de interrail. Terwijl ik dit typ zijn we onderweg naar Warschau (8,5 uur vanaf Bratislava). Nog twee bestemmingen te ontdekken, maar wat hebben we nu al veel genoten. Elke dag goed en lang slapen, nieuw vegan eten proberen, bijzonder lang wandelen, spelletjes spelen, weinig schermtijd, genieten van de mooie uitzichten en zon: deze reis is genieten 💜. Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Amsterdam naar Dresden reisde 🚃. De interrail is officieel begonnen! (1/6) Vandaag verschijnt er geen artikel op mijn blog. En de komende twee weken hierna ook niet. Dat is voor het eerst, in de 7 jaar dat ik schrijf. Een heel leuk onderdeel van duurzaam leven is tweedehands kleding. Hier zijn 4 tweedehands outfits die ik droeg in augustus 2023 🌞. Je zag het al in de reel van vorige week: ik ben op vakantie geweest naar Gent, in België. Het was een ontzettende aanrader, en daarom verscheen er vandaag een artikel op mijn blog over de leukste en duurzaamste hotspots in Gent 🌆. Check it out via de link in mijn bio

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