This past weekend I was looking at a company that sells natural products online. The company stated that pH balance in beauty products did not make difference as it is not our skin that is acidic, it is the sebum which protects our skin that is acidic. Disrupting this acid mantle of skin can cause problems so I thought this was interesting that they stated otherwise. I also thought it was interesting that they never mentioned the need or lack there of with pH and hair since they also sell shampoo bars.
I believe pH balance is extremely important and decided to do a test just to make sure I wasn’t crazy.
For those of us who have decided to take a chemical-free beauty journey, it can sometimes be frustrating especially with no ‘poo hair care. We have our own unique transition away from commercial hair care products, and sometimes don’t know how long it will last or when we’ll ever arrived on the other glorious side. Over the past few years, I’ve done lots of research. I’ve also read the experiences of many others who decided to stop using commercial hair care and switch to using herbs and other natural ingredients. Over these past years I’ve learned so much, and shared as much as I can on Minimalist Beauty.
One of the most popular no ‘poo hair care methods is with two simple ingredients: baking soda and apple cider vinegar.
It is a very inexpensive hair care regimen which is extremely appealing. I’ve seen many different recommendations on how much to dilute each ingredient with water. Basically you use a diluted baking soda for shampoo, and a diluted apple cider vinegar for conditioner. Like any other no ‘poo hair care method, you will experience a transition period until your hair and scalp balances itself.
The no ‘poo hair care method can be especially frustrating if you have hard water!
Let me finally get to my point! Baking soda has a pH of 10 and when mixed with water about 8.2. The number or step in between each pH level is actually 1000 times more acidic or alkaline. Water is a neutral pH of 7. Anything above 7 is alkaline, below acidic. Healthy hair remains slightly acidic to keep the cuticle closed and intact. The typical soap, castile soap, or shampoo bar is a pH of 9-10 and very few soaps if any are lucky to have a pH as low as 7.
Shampoo bars are simply super-fatted soaps. They are still soap no matter how many oil and/or butter ingredients are added. The oils and butters do not greatly effect the pH although they can make the soap feel softer. When I’ve used shampoo bars in the past they have initially made my hair feel so extremely soft that I didn’t have to follow up with conditioner. With continued use my hair started breaking off. This was very upsetting since I loved the ease and travel ability of shampoo bars. I’ve never used baking soda followed by apple cider vinegar because of this experience.
High alkaline hair cleansers open up the hair cuticle and can make hair vulnerable and susceptible to breakage.
Opening up the hair cuticle may be helpful when using a deep conditioning treatment for low porosity hair or even a chemical hair treatment like hair dye where you want the treatment to penetrate into the hair strand quickly, but this isn’t good for daily/weekly hair care for most. One of my biggest mistakes was that when I was using shampoo bars a few years ago I never followed with an apple cider vinegar rinse. The apple cider vinegar rinse would have closed the hair cuticle and helped reduce dryness and breakage although I’m not sure how well it would have helped with continued weekly use.
It is one thing to use baking soda or a shampoo bar for a very infrequent clarifying hair cleanser. Yet on a daily or weekly basis you are risking scalp and hair dryness, irritation, and breakage by using drastic alkaline cleansers then following with acidic rinses.
I recently used a super rich yet alkaline cleanser on my hair to test the theory. My scalp felt clean, but left the ends of my hair feeling very dry. I followed with an acidic rinse, then even used aloe vera to continue with closing and sealing the cuticle. To create proper balance back into my hair, I had to spritz my hair with pure aloe vera daily and seal with and oil/butter mix, as well as do continuous deep conditioning treatments. I also had to wear my hair up to protect my dry ends until they softened up again.
To be honest it just wasn’t worth it! If you still want to go no ‘poo here are some much gentler and safer options!
What has been your experience with alkaline hair cleansers?
*Update ~ almost three years later. It’s all about finding the perfect balance of using alkaline cleansers in extreme moderation as well as incorporating moisturizing/strengthening techniques into your regimen.
(Image by Dawn Michelle)
Ebony Jay says
I have never tried alkaline hair cleanser I try really hard to use moisturizing shampoos on my hair but this was very informative! Great post(:
Dawn Michelle says
Thanks Ebony Jay! Have a great weekend!
tears says
Thanks for this informative post! If you’re interested in trying better shampoo bars, I’d highly recommend those at Henna Sooq – they’re pH balanced and have nothing but 100% natural ingredients. So far, I’ve purchased their Sweet Honey and Soapnut bars which have been just amazing for my transition to natural hair care! 🙂
Dawn Michelle says
You are so welcome Tears! I don’t think I will be using any shampoo bars myself for awhile, yet I truly appreciate the suggestion for future reference and other readers. It is so great when you find something that works really well for you. When it’s all natural that’s even better! I hope that you are having a wonderful day!
C. says
Hi Dawn,
This was something I debated with my friends earlier in the year. My friend swears by using baking soda with a lemon juice rinse and when I began my quest for natural and DIY products I had attempted to make my own shampoo and was discouraged from using aloe as a conditioner and recommended ACV for daily use (which I did not use past a disastrous trial and the principle behind it seemed too abusive to hair, the aloe did not solve my pH problem as the shampoo was disastrous!). Funnily enough, we are all in sciences and pH balance was still a huge debate. I am currently still on the hunt for the perfect natural solution to washing my straight/wavy hair. I do love the idea of herbs with saponins or clays (I’m currently experimenting with moroccan red clay on my skin and having difficulty with pH balance and oil production) that you suggest but I have a completely different hair type than you that tends to stay on the oily side and needs cleansing every 2-3days so I’m stuck with using Kiss My Face Whenever shampoo at the moment. Do you have any suggestions for how to find my individual hair care routine?
Dawn Michelle says
Hi C,
I’ve always had the idea that if your hair tends to be wavy or curly that the strands of hair can be very dry. At the same time if you have a lot of oil production from your scalp that brings another factor versus someone with less oil production. It can actually be a plus since those oils can be used to protect and naturally condition your hair. If you do have an oily scalp you can Google “scritching and preening hair” to learn to distribute the oils better throughout your hair in between washes. This is something that straight and wavy hair textures can do more easily than curly and coily hair.
No matter what your hair type is most people experience a minor or major transition period when they decide to no longer use commercial hair products. I spoke about my personal experience with this here. It takes time for your hair and scalp to find it own balance when you begin using natural hair care.
If you decide to continue to use traditional shampoo most likely your scalp will continue to overproduce oil as the oils are being stripped by the surfactants in the shampoo. Whenever the oils are stripped your scalp feels the need to produce more which continues the cycle. It isn’t a bad thing it just depends on what your goals are and what you feel comfortable with. The body does have the innate ability to balance itself.
Finding your own hair regimen is trial and error plus patience. I’ve done my best to give as many options to try and cater to different hair types and texture in this hair series but you still have to find your way. As for the Moroccan red clay, I’ve recently found that it is different from rhassoul clay in color and texture. It is rhassoul clay that I’ve spoken of so many times yet both are great. Bentonite clay is also really good for absorbing oils too.
Best wishes!
varsha says
dear dawn,
I’ve been natural and strictly no poo on and off for the past two years.After major hairfall with shampoo, I switched to ayurvedic powders recently.My mixture consists of aritha,shikakai ,neem,tulsi,fenugreek,jatamansi,brahmi ,bhringraj and sandalwood.I deep condition my hair with brahmi infused coconut oil before every wash day but still I feel my hair dry.I don’t use oils for styling as they tend to make myhair flat.I find it a bit inconvenient to use henna as I live in a college hostel.Please suggest a remedy.
BTW,my hair is wavy,high porosity,I face a lot of hair fall and is dry.
your website is awesome…<3 it.
yours sincerely
varsha
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Varsha,
Have you tried the herbs in your Ayurvedic mix individually? Sometimes it helps to know if a particular ingredient is drying out your hair. I give tips on how I mix my herbal hair cleansers in this article. Also you may want to add a deep conditioning treatment to your hair once a week. Some ideas for simple deep conditioners are here. You can also add a humectant such as vegetable glycerin or agave to your cleanser or deep conditioner to help hold moisture into your hair. Since you said you did not like leaving oils in your hair you can try aloe vera gel as a leave-in for moisture. I hope this helps and keep me posted!
Best wishes!
Sarah says
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for confirming my suspicions! I have been ‘no ‘poo’ now for a few months, and have been only using the baking soda and cider vinegar rinse…but my hair is so dry. I am considering going back to organic herbal shampoo – even though it’s expensive…
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Sarah,
Here are some other natural hair cleansing options too! Hope you are having a beautiful day!
Maya says
Hi Dawn,
Recently got onto your blog and love it. I’ve also started on a more minimalist life – decluttering, cleaning out wardrobe and also avoiding a lot of toiletries because of all the nasty chemicals. I started easy by making my own body wash but want to try an alternative for shampoo now. I read your article about baking soda and ACV not being so great for your hair and was hugely disappointed as I was keen to try this out. Your recipes all look fantastic but finding ingredients in South Africa is very hard and I don’t have access to much beyond what you can find in the super market and a few specialised oils (ie avocado, jojoba and some essential oils, although I have seen soap nuts sold here as laundry detergent). Can you maybe suggest a simplified version of your shampoo and conditioners? I have long straight hair, which can be oily at the base and very dry on the ends, if I haven’t washed my hair for a few days my scalp can also get a bit flaky and itchy so anything to sooth that would also be fantastic! I’m also prone to stress breakage which I am trying to improve mostly by managing stress levels but feel like I might also need an extra boost during stressful times to keep this loss to a minimal (seeing it all fall out when I’m already down is depressing). Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Maya,
You may want to try using soapnuts for shampoo. It is called aritha in Ayurveda and has been used as a natural shampoo for years. You can oil the ends of your hair prior to using if needed. Also using pure aloe vera or even a light oil such as jojoba oil both make a great natural conditioner. It doesn’t have to be complicated, you just need to find something your hair likes. Hope this helps some.
Best wishes!
mangomadness says
I have never used baking soda or shampoo bars on my kinky coily, Afro-textured hair because of the high pH.
I rarely use apple cider vinegar on my hair. When I do it’s diluted (1-2 tbsp ACV; 2 cups of filtered water) and I focus directly on my scalp (via a color applicator bottle).
Dawn Michelle says
Hi MangoMadness, Apple cider vinegar and water clarifies the scalp and hair really well! Another amazing combination for clarifying the hair is apple cider vinegar and bentonite clay. That combo is potent!
Deborah says
Hi Dawn, I enjoyed so much reading your blog. I have been looking for pH info on how to close the cuticle of my quite wavy, very frizzy hair, but I honestly don’t see that much out there. I am at the point of just using diluted apple cider vinegar in place of shampoo without rinsing in order to keep the pH at the acidic level. With this regimen, I see quite a bit of less frizz, but wonder if there is a good conditioner or recipe to “seal” the cuticle and make the hair a little softer. Keep up the good work, you are really filling a void. Like your modeling pics also, you are stunning.
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Deborah,
Thank you so much for the nice compliments! For sealing the hair you can also try aloe vera. You can try pure aloe from the plant or use aloe vera juice sold in stores. Aloe vera is amazing for sealing the hair cuticle.
Hope this helps!
Catherine says
Did you use any conditioner after shampooing with the bars?
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Catherine,
I don’t use traditional shampoo or conditioner. I don’t use shampoo bars either. You can see the updated products that I use for my hair care here which also share info on my skin care too. You can also see a series of article on 100% natural hair care here. I will share an updated article on my hair care sometime soon. Best wishes!
ShivaD says
I used to use Dr. Bonners an couldn’t figure out why my hair texture was so abrasive afterwards. A youtube vlogger put me on to pH and when I got my test strips I realized EVERY natural shampoo I tried was alkaline! While I do try and minimize chemicals I decided to go back to some commercial products for this reason. Even though there are bad chemicals out here I think it’s wrong how some completely dismiss the science behind commercial products. They have a lot of specialized equipment and spend so much time actually looking at how their formulations effect hair. Plus a lot of natural products contain chemicals. Yes they may put a pretty or botanical name to it but its still a chemical and natural does not automatically equal good or healthy. In the end I found balance and sanity using both. I make my own homemade concotions for some things, natural products for some, and commercial for some. I would love to try the Luv Naturals line as it is supposed to be more natural and the right pH for hair (need to just splurge and get it!). Now if someone could just come up with a natural acidic body wash I would be good to go!
Dawn Michelle says
Hi ShivaD,
Here is a series of article about 100% natural hair care if you are interested. Here is another article about 100% natural body care. It does take some time to figure out exactly what works for you yet it is so worth it. It is great that you are learning more about pH and own pH testing strips too! <3
Jen says
Hi Dawn,
I’m considering trying the Beautiful Hair-Blonde herbal mixes from the Bulk Herb Store? They state that horsetail has natural silicone that benefits hair. Do you think horsetail could compliment a cassia deep conditioning treatment?
Hope you’re well 🙂
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Jen,
Horsetail would be a great herb to add to your cassia treatments. Let me know what you think about it when you try it. Best wishes!
Tina says
I wonder what the pH of butters are. People use them to seal, but are they taking the hair further away ph balance? I also wonder what they pH of a baking soda rinse would be with aloe vera juice or honey added since they both have a pH of around 4.
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Tina,
You need to be able to dissolve a substance in water to get a pH reading. Oils and butters do not mix with water without a binding agent so it is challenging to test the pH otherwise. I have seen pH listings for oils before, yet I don’t know how they were able to get that reading or if it is accurate.
I don’t feel that sealing the hair to lock in moisture with an oil or butter would effect the pH of hair in the same way applying something acidic like lemon juice would cause problems. You would have to get pH testing strips to find the answer to you last question as I honestly don’t know. Hope this helps some!
Greg says
Hi. I’m a soapmaker producing vegetable soaps made by hand in small batches. I have done quite a bit of research and experimentation over the last few years. Always eager to learn. I would dearly love to produce and sell shampoo bars because of their convenience for the customer. However, I don’t intend to do this because – as Tina outlines above – all true soaps have a pH of about 10 or 11. Soap is a type of salt (sodium). Hence, on soap ingredients labels you often see ‘Sodium Cocoate’ (which is the salt of coconut oil), ‘Sodium Palmitate’ (which is the salt of Palm oil) etc. As Tina points out, using any type of true soap results in the hair cuticles being opened as a result of the high alkilinity of the bar. It is not possible to reduce the pH of soap to a level where this would not occur, simply because the soap would cease to be soap, and would disintegrate. So if you see the description pH balanced this would indicate that the bar is not soap. but syndet (synthetic detergent). The best thing for hair is mild surfactants (not SLS) because these can be manipulated to match the pH of hair. More expensive shampoo often contains these mild surfactants (they are more expensive and far less irritating than Sodium Laurel Sulfate. As a soap maker My two wishes from the soap fairy would be (1) please let soap be a lower pH than it is (2) please let me use palm oil without destroyng the planet. I did ask but was refused on both counts. That is why I don’t make shampoo bars or use palm oil. Aint life a bitch?
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Gregg,
Shampoo bars are definitely convienent yet they just can’t be made acidic which is sad. One of the best hair cleansers/clarifiers that I’ve tried to date is bentonite clay mixed with apple cider vinegar. I add essential oils to the mix to helps with the scent. Clays are best mixed with an acidic liquid to bring the pH to a healthy level for hair. Clays mixed with water is still alkaline. Thanks for you comment and have a great day!
Tiffany says
Hello,
I found your blog to be very helpful. It’s helpful because I am researching many products (cleaners and conditioners) to start my own hair product line business. My business will consist of shampoo bars, clay bars, conditioners and other hair styling products. The only reason I considered shampoo bars is because when I do hot oil treatments, Apple cider vinegar or baking soda doesn’t get the oil out of my hair. I was even looking at the ingredients listed in products by many business including Lush Cosmetics. Lush cosmetics use chemical detergents in their shampoo bars. To me, these chemical ingredients sounds worse than the lye in the soap. From doing research and talking to other soap making people, when you make hot press soap you are cooking out the lye water. Then some people test the ph levels. Also I have been washing my body with soap for years and my body hair has never been affected. I know one may argue that body hair and the hair on top of my head is different. But one thing they both have in common is that they both are hair. So my question for you is were your shampoo bars that you were using cold press or hot press?? What were the ingredients (was it water-lye-oil, or some type of chemical detergent)? Soap may be bad for our hair over time but so is other products, even clay. I know the benefits of bentonite clay (the only clay I have in possession-oh and kaolin clay). However, Bentonite clay leaves my hair dry and rough. My hair still felt rough even after the 7 day detox provided and suggested by Terressentials. It’s hard for me to treat my hair back to the soft stage without adding chemical products. I follow up with the apple cider rinse and my hair still feels hard. I also suffer from low porosity hair. I was doing the Max Hydration Method which consist of clarifying, co wash, detoxing, wash and go (the use of leave in hair conditioner and gel) to help my low porosity hair. When doing this method, I had to stay clear of parabens, silicones, and other harsh chemicals. We can’t stay away from preservatives that are in these products. I found that I have to stop the 7 day challenge because my hair is hard after the clay but soft during the clarify and cowashing stage. I’ll continue to do my research. I just wanted to ask those questions because I am curious. Lastly, do you know a way a beginner soap-maker, like myself, can add acid ph balance to the soap? Maybe add lemon juice, baking soda, or anything to balance the ph levels?? Thank you
Best,
Tiffany
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Tiffany,
I don’t think shampoo bars are good for hair just because they are too alkaline. When I used natural shampoo bars in the past they did not contain chemical detergents. Regardless of how many oils and butters were added to the shampoo bar it was the same thing. Both hair and skin are naturally acidic. You can read more on that here. Also even though when creating natural soaps the lye is evaporated by the end of the process, soap is always alkaline.
I am aware of the maximum hydration method for hair yet it is a lot of steps. I keep things simple as that has always been the best thing for me, my time, amd my hair. You can see my most recent hair regimen here. I incorporate water only hair washing so that I don’t strip away the natural oils which my scalp produces. These natural oils must first travel down the length of the hair with rinses, scalp massaging, and preening. Pretty much all commercial hair care strips away these oils including natural shampoo bars, conditioners, etc.
Hope this helps!
Tiffany says
Hello,
Sorry to flood your comments. I also would like to add that we are supposed to dilute baking soda and apple cider vinegar with water. I think 1 tbs or tsp to 4 or 8 ounces of water. That’s what the Max Hydration Method says. Also about the Max Hydration Method, it incorporates many methods, such as the curly girl method, tightly curly/coily method, cherry Lola method, the green house effect, L.O.C (leave-in/liquid-oil-cream)(LCO) method and the hair care rehab method (clays).
Dawn Michelle says
Hi Tiffany,
Natural hair care does not have to be complicated unless that is what you want. There are many hair methods that people follow to find what works best for their hair. And yes diluting Apple cider vinegar with water is important. I like to do 1 part ACV to 4 parts water.
Finding what works best for you is important. I also tried the Curly Girl Method and the Tightly Curly Method years ago. It mainly depends upon if you want to use natural products or synthetic conditioners. Some use a combination of both. I share how I’ve learned to care for my hair using only simple natural products that you can easily make youself in your kitchen. I am chemically sensitive so I do not use commercial hair care. You can see my most recent hair regimen here.
Best wishes!