no surfucants...

Yes.
I tried the Desert Essence shampoo which contains no sulfates. I did not feel it cleaned my hair or scalp well. However, maybe I was just used to the effect of having the natural oils stripped from my hair (lol).

Anyway, since then I have experimented with washing my hair with different substances and as illogical as it may seem, I now "wash" exclusively with a mixture of conditioner and essential oil.
It works really well and I am suprised and pleased with the results.

Uzma

Hi Turquoise,

Yes, the sulfates you listed are surfactant cleansing agents found in most shampoos. Note that they vary considerably in strength and harshness. These detergents fall into several categories:

Anionic, which contains negatively charged ions, is rather harsh; cationic: positively charged and much milder; and amphorteric, which cannot clean well and is generally used only in baby shampoos. You might well have been using a shampoo containing amphorteric cleansers, which really can't remove the buildup caused from adult styling products and oil production. Most cleansers beginning with "coca" (cocamidopropyl betaine, cocamide MEA
are too mild to thoroughly clean hair on their own, so they are usually present in conjunction with other cationic/anionic surfactants.

TEA-lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate are two surfactants to avoid as they can strip moisture from hair and scalp. Do not confuse these with sodium laureth sulfate, which is considered mild.

That was probably WAY more chemistry than you wanted, but I hope it helps! :-)

Here is one... Avalon Organic Botanicals. There are different "flavors" but the one I have on hand is the Lemon Verbena clarifying shampoo. No sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate. Ingredients include: Certified organic lemon verbena and lavender floral waters, extracts of calendula, echinacea, lemon balm, sage, sea kelp extract, olefin sulfonate, cocamidopropyl betaine (here's that ingredient Lyris was talking about) aloe barbadensis, panthenol, niacin, vitamin b-complex, soy protien, vegetable glycerin, citric acid, methyl/propylparaben, and lastly essential oils. I am not a chemist but I know I get good results with this shampoo and the conditioner. I mostly use Back to Basics Ginger Therapy shampoo and conditioner, it has sodium laureth sulfate in it and doesn't sound any where near as nice as the Avalon... but I get good results with it and it seems gentle too. I love the Ginger Therapy Masque. It all smells so great and the masque really softens the hair. After spending much money on hair products these are the ones I've settled on in the recent years. And my hair is happy.

My scalp is normal and my hair is thick, coarse, porous and dry.
I guess if you tried this method, you would be better off using a light conditioner well-diluted.

Others (on the LHC board) with oily scalp have reported that the first week of doing conditioner-only washes, their scalp felt heavy and greasy. By 10 day and onwards, their scalp had normalised and has given them no problems since.

Why not try it - you have nothing to lose - especially if you buy a cheap conditioner and experiment for a couple of weeks.

I do a Conditioner-only wash every alternate day usually.
However, when the weather has been extereme (we've had blizzards in the U.K last week) than I CO wash ever night to replenish the moisture that has been whipped out by the wind, indoor heating, etc.
As everyones hair is different I guess you will need to discover what suits you.

Have fun experimenting...I hope it works for you.

I tried the Avalon lavendar shampoo and conditioner duo after reading about it on this board. It works really great. My dryish hair feels clean afterwards and smells wonderful. It also feels beautifully soft.

The only down side is that on the day after, I felt like I wanted to wash it again, rather than skip the wash. I usually only wash and condition every other day.

I love the Avalon duo and will definitely continue using it, though. The price is decent, too. It was around $6 in Shop Rite.