An Omnivore Avoiding Shampoo?

[chasingtides]

I seem to be having a sensitivity reaction to the SLS/SDS in my shampoo and soaps. I've had reactions before, but at the moment, it's unbearable, so I'm eliminating it from my beauty regimen. I've been thinking of eliminating shampoo from my life for a while and this could be push in the right direction.

I've got straight hair, so I skipped over curlygirls and went over to no_poo. However, I'm an omnivore who dreams of one day owning her own farm and who may someday in the near future have a service animal, so I'm not totally comfortable with the atmosphere there (with the "commodification" of animals being viewed as a moral absolute). Is there another shampoo-free community or do any of you have direct experience with no_poo?

Comments

[sgrio.livejournal.com]

I tried no_poo, and I basically just took the advice and skimmed past the politics. Can you do that?

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I can try.

However, I'm the first to admit that calling all farmers/meat eaters/whatevers bad and painting them with the animal cruelty brush is something that really, really gets to me. When I was younger, I knew the animals whose milk I was drinking and was friends with the girl who milk them. Even now, most of my milk comes in-county and so do my eggs. The idea that I'm morally bad because I consume milk and meat - or because I wear fur - gets me. I don't and wouldn't force a veg* to eat meat and I hate it when I'm told I'm a bad person because I don't behave exactly like something else.

[sgrio.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that. It looks like they went aggressively vegan since I was a member. When I used the comm, there were occasional debates/wanks over using animal products, but it sounds like it's escalated.

Good luck finding another comm! Maybe ask at naturalliving.

[lotus-bright.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried going shampoo free myself, although I have friends (with curly hair, mind) who have - and rave about it - but should it happen that going shampoo-free proves to be unbearable for whatever reason, I'm told LUSH, although a bit pricey, is pretty good about keeping SLS/SDS out of their products. It might be worth a look. I've also heard that baking soda is good pretty much from head to toe, but you may want to do some research on that one.

And I have acquaintances who have gone the natural route for whatever reason and have opted to raise their children vax-free or with delayed vaxing, which, more power to them, but they tend to whine about being judged in the same breath as they judge who aren't quite so... enlightened. ("I don't judge other people for putting toxic chemicals into their defenseless babies' bodies! Why do they judge meeee?!") XD;;

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I hate people like that so much. I mean, obviously I'm doing SLS/SDS free because having my waistline covered in angry red blotches and itching and being irritated from head to toe isn't exactly my idea of a great time.

On the other hand - health, man. Vaccinations are something I'm really passionate about. I'm considered in the at-risk group for a lot of vaccine-preventable diseases and their complications. Even though I'm willing to vaccinate because my immune system doesn't know what end is up, it will mean very little if there's no herd immunity.

But yes, unless you're actively putting me/my loved ones/large swathes of people at risk, I don't tend to try to judge (as in being veg* or omnivorous and all).

[paisleycat.livejournal.com]

The long hair oriented communities care about hair health without going all fluffy about animals.

[darkelegies.livejournal.com]

This isn't helpful to you, but I really don't understand that curlygirls community. They try to explain why you have to be a Protestant to join, but I still don't get it.

[lotus-bright.livejournal.com]

I am (really) loosely Protestant - albeit with Jewish and Catholic influences - and I don't get it either. If nothing else, that explanation pretty much entirely discounts the wiiiiiide range of what's considered acceptable behavior within all the different kinds of Protestantism.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

I recently switched to Lush because I've been having major issues with an itchy scalp (basically my only real cure is spironolactone, so obviously I'm doing everything I can do to avoid that....) and it's actually working pretty well this time, mostly because my hair is shorter this time around and because I used a better conditioner. I'm pretty sure we have similar hair types, so you might wanna check it out? Some of their shampoos are SLS free-- they tell you which-- and I love the green-ness of the solid shampoos.

I'd avoid no_poo. A lot of them are srs cray-cray, more so than the long hair folks, who are all about the OMG CONSPIRACY OF SHORT HAIRS. I'll never forget the lady who walked past a salon and imagined that the stylists and poor oppressed fools getting their hair cut were staring at her balefully and her long, luscious locks.... Or the way the comm cheered her on for sticking it to the short hair-o-cracy (okay, I made that term up). You can probably pick up some good advice from them, amid all the insanity, but... yeah.

ETA: I just checked out Lush's solid shampoo line, and they don't seem to be SLS free. Some of the liquid ones are though. Odd, because I definitely remember they advertised some of them as SLS free. That's why I picked them up a couple years ago in the first place.

[siyahsaclikiz.livejournal.com]

I've been toying with the idea of going shampoo free for some time, too. longhair can be a good resource for all things hair health related. It focuses mainly on long hair, how to achieve length, etc, as the name suggests, but one essential thing for having nice long hair is having *healthy* nice long hair, so lots of tips on different ways to keep it healthy, including no shampoo methods and SLS free products. Here is one: SLS free shampoo and conditioner, and here is a link I found in their FAQ that is super useful for going shampoo free. And the FAQ for the longhair community.

There are also shampoo free communities elsewhere on the internet (i.e. non-livejournal) that are likely to be more welcoming to meat eaters and animal products users.