My Hairstory: No-Sulfate Shampoo

The Short Version: buy  shampoo without sulfates and see if it helps your hair.

The Long Version: Shampoo without sulfates gave my hair volume and shine. Here’s my hairstory.

Over the past decade, I’ve tried  all the miracle shampoos, emulsifiers, and expensive blow dryers. They all delivered—at first. Right after blow-drying my hair, it was shiny, volumized, not frizzy.

But the shine and volume never lasted. My scalp’s natural oils were resting on my hair, like oil on water. I was spending way too much time and money for flat hair. Sulfated hair is flat hair.

Almost every shampoo contains sulfates. Sulfates are the same cheap detergents used in dishwashing liquid to cut grease. Shampoo companies use them because people love the bubbles and the squeaky-clean feeling of oil-free hair.

Sulfated hair is designed for a high-maintenance loop. You have to keep using sulphates to get rid of the oil resting on your hair. Washing strips your hair even more.

In the middle of these hair battles, we were spending lots of weekends in Galveston, which helped me discover even more about my hair. Galveston is so humid that no matter how many products I shellacked on my hair or how much time I spent blow-drying it, it  looked like this very quickly.

Crazy, curly, frizzy mess. While we were at the beach, I stopped fighting it. I skipped the blow-drying and products and just let it air dry. It looked okay. But more importantly than how my hair looked, I hadn’t spent an hour of beach time cramped in the bathroom blow-drying.

As I started to wear my hair curly, I found out the way to get rid of frizz was to use sulfate-free shampoo. When your hair CAN absorb your scalp’s natural oils, it’s naturally shiny and hydrated. Sulfate-free shampoo feels different when you use it. Not as much lather. But, oh my goodness, my hair was so soft. And thicker. And curlier. In fact, my hair looked a lot like it did when I was a kid, before I started using all those chemicals and heat.The same way I’ve learned less chemicals in my food makes me feel better; less chemicals in my hair makes it look better.

Try a sulfate-free shampoo and see how your hair feels. If oil weighs down your hair, or it gets greasy quickly, I think this will help you.

Or, if it only helps cut down on the time you spend blow-drying your hair in the middle of CRAZY December, that’s still a win.