Can anyone recommend a good natural but stripping shampoo?
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free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:10 pm

I have thick, coarse, wavy hair that tends towards dryness. I normally try to use really gentle stuff (currently trying out John Masters Evening Primrose and Best Bath Store shampoos) with very emollient conditioners that don't have silicone/buildup-causing ingredients most of the time, and I alternate in some Redken All-Soft shampoo and conditioner as well as some thick silicone serums/frizz balms for the styling boost they give me. I'm not willing to give up on my occasional silicone habit, because I would never have frizz-free straight hair if I did, but I'd like to find a shampoo that's at least somewhat natural but is strong enough to strip those buildup-causing products so I can take a few days off with my emollient routine. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:18 pm

ginnielizz, Avalon Organic's Lemon Clarifying Shampoo is really good for getting rid of those buildups.. I can't use it everyday as it would dry out my hair..

http://avalonorganics.com/?id=88&pid=27

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:28 pm

Ooh, that's a great idea! I'd kind of forgotten about them after discarding my Avalon hair products when I realized their conditioner I was using had dimethicone, but for a shampoo that would be perfect. Plus I love the smell, we have their lemony hand soap in all our bathrooms and my boyfriend loves it too. Smile

Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:39 pm

ginnie,

my dear wonderful boyfriend went on a hunt for chelating shampoos for me in nyc (they are illegal here in france!) and found this AMAZING shampp--it's a chelating, not clarifying treatment, though:
Itely chelating treatment shampoo with advanced color protection, sulfate free.

The blurb:
dual action clarifying-chelaating shampoo with ACP complex [whatever that is] and phytokeratin [again, hmm

m???], for color treated hair. removes excessive styling and buildup and chelates chcolrine and mineral deposits.

It has wasabi in it! and also coconut, sunflower seed oil, and olive. I used it to chelate the calcium deposits out of my hair, and now once a month to get rid of silicones (back on 'em) to prevent excessive dryness and allow my conditioning treatments to actually penetrate...
it works like a charm, and doesn't overstrip the hair.

--avalange

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:01 pm

Wow, thanks Lauren! Do you know if it's available in the US? The only sites I'm getting are European. I suppose I could add it to my order with you though, if you're game. Smile

I think I'm still gonna get the Avalon one too for less-intense stripping sessions (no pun intended) and I'll get this stuff for the occasional deep cleanse. What a weird but great find!

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:00 pm

totally weird, right?
my boyfriend found it in a beauty supply store in the states. I couldn't find ONE place in all of france that sold a shampoo like this. i ended up having to get my hair professionally chelated (it was no joke--my hair was breaking off and falling out) and now i use this and only wash my hair with spring water... i'm so obsessed with getting my lovely hair back!!!!

but i'll ask him where he got it and give you the info.
i think this kind of hair treatment is grossly underrated considering that almost every sh/cond have silicones these days!

by the way if you have frizzy hair, you MUST try some phytospecific!!!!!!!!!!! it's AMAZING...

--avalange

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:04 pm

Have you ever tried purchasing a shower filter? Maybe that's what you mean re: "spring water", but they're supposed to really help skin and hair, plus they filter out the toxic chlorine anyway. They're available here at health food stores and online - I'll ship ya one to France if you need - refills can be purchased here too. I know Aquasana is one good brand, but I recall having seen a less awkward (aquard?) contraption made by a company local to Seattle. Let me know if you want me to sleuth this one out. http://www.healthgoods.com/Shopping/Water_Quality_Products/Shower_Water_Filter_Systems.asp for some more info on it.

free skin care · Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:29 pm

I use the Neutrogena shampoo to get rid of the build up but Joico and Redken have good clarifying shampoo's.

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:32 am

ginnielizz wrote:

Have you ever tried purchasing a shower filter? Maybe that's what you mean re: "spring water", but they're supposed to really help skin and hair, plus they filter out the toxic chlorine anyway. They're available here at health food stores and online - I'll ship ya one to France if you need - refills can be purchased here too. I know Aquasana is one good brand, but I recall having seen a less awkward (aquard?) contraption made by a company local to Seattle. Let me know if you want me to sleuth this one out. http://www.healthgoods.com/Shopping/Water_Quality_Products/Shower_Water_Filter_Systems.asp for some more info on it.

oh ginnie,

oh, the EDS archives you could spend your day sorting through hearing my quandaries and complaints!!!!! My problems are unfortunately not addressed by ANY shower filter on the market. it's either a water softening system which costs thousands of euros or spring water. i have hard water, which means it is filled with calcium carbonate, and all the shower filter companies that i emailed confirmed that their filter doesn't work for that. Sad

I've since wondered that if they cannot filter out calcium molecules, what DO they filter out? besides chlorine?

Anyways, i'm really liking this water bottle method for the summer.

--avalange

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:49 am

Why don't you just do an ACV rinse? Can't get much more natural than that.

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:55 am

hi violetanne,

didn't work for me AT ALL. those minerals are VERY tenacious. i don't even wash my face with the water anymore because i got horrible dermatitis.

--avalange

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:02 am

avalange wrote:

hi violetanne,

didn't work for me AT ALL. those minerals are VERY tenacious. i don't even wash my face with the water anymore because i got horrible dermatitis.

--avalange

Hi Avalange! I was actually suggesting it to ginnielizz for her product buildup problem. I do one every couple weeks to get off product buildup. But I agree it doesn't work completely for getting minerals off hair. I have hard water and every couple months I do an at home clarifying treatment with heat to strip my hair of stuff-- I don't have calcium, but iron. My hair can start looking orange...

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:05 am

sorry violetanne!

i agree with your recommendation. i was crushed that acv didn't work for my problem. i have tons of iron, too. i have the maximum allowable amount in water for both calcium and iron. Sad

sorry to complain, i just went through a lot of pain and suffering to get where i am now--in a regimen that actually works, many many $$$ (and shower filters) later!

--avalange

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:12 am

avalange wrote:

sorry violetanne!

i agree with your recommendation. i was crushed that acv didn't work for my problem. i have tons of iron, too. i have the maximum allowable amount in water for both calcium and iron. Sad

sorry to complain, i just went through a lot of pain and suffering to get where i am now--in a regimen that actually works, many many $$$ (and shower filters) later!

--avalange

I understand completely about the calcium, though. My bf's parents have a house on a lake, with hard water and the calcium is awful! After a couple showers I can actually feel it on my skin and it SMELLS; my skin gets dry and itchy. I actually will avoid washing my hair there because if I do... well, YOU know. I'd rather wash my hair in the lake.

free skin care · Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:24 am

You two probably already know about this, but Lush does make a bar shampoo specifically formulated for hard water. I imagine it wouldn't meet our high standards, especially as I'm quite against many of the ingredients in most Lush products, but still, for what it's worth...

And re: ACV rinse, I already do those for my dandruff from time to time, just to keep my scalp happy, and I know I get some benefit from that! Mostly what I want in a "stripping" shampoo is just something I can use the next washing after I use silicone-based products, that'll get most of it off in one or two shampoos. Then I can take a few days off, use "real" conditioners and wear my hair curly or wavy for a bit, and then go back to the silicones for some straight hair for a bit. That's my routine and it seems to work well enough, but I wanted a shampoo that was up to the task and still not reminiscent of dish soap. I think what I may do is use the Avalon Lemon shampoo after silicone styling time is over, and get the chelating shampoo Avalange recommended for a once-a-month deep buildup-release. Maybe I can do my ACV and coconut oil at the same time as that - just layer on all the treatments at once, haha.

Lauren, your water sounds horrible, that sucks! How impressive you've found a way around it, but that's frustrating. Here's hoping they make a filtering AND softening device that's not insane to install someday. I'd love me one of those!

free skin care · Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:59 am

Last time I showered, my hair was all kinds of siliconed/dimethiconed up after using my normal combo of Redken All-Soft shampoo and conditioner, plus a silicone-based defrizzer in large quantities. I hadn't yet had time to go out and get the Avalon shampoo I've been wanting, so I did an ACV rinse (mostly for my scalp, but this time I tried to get it in my hair too), then rinsed well, and washed twice using Dr. Bronner's liquid soap. I find this stuff to be super-stripping, and I could literally feel where it had removed the build-up, as opposed to where there were still smooth and non-tangly patches of silicone product leftover. I just kept spot-treating until everything felt squeaky clean - not a healthy feeling for all the time, but I only do something that deep once a month or so. So anyone searching for how to "strip", this worked well for me!

free skin care · Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:29 am

Okay, I'm back, and desperate. I LOVE my new Paul Mitchell The Super Skinny shampoo and conditioning duo, but they DO NOT come out of your hair. I've never found anything that coats the shaft like this - it's crazy. I think I need something with, like, 50% SLS to get this stuff off. (OK, I jest, as that would burn my head off, but you get the idea!)

Sooo... screw natural. Anyone have a really good extremely buildup-stripping suggestion? So far I've tried ACV rinses, Avalon Lemon Verbena Clarifying (which is enough to strip NORMAL silicone-coaty-type products), baking soda, etc. as well as my arsenal of natural-ish products like John Masters and Aveda. Plus Dr. Bronner's. I'm about to wash my hair with diswasher detergent. Is Neutrogena still the best strip-it-off stuff? Or Suave, or Prell? Back in my drugstore days, I know they used to have some way harsher stuff on the market - I want something that has no dimethicone, no anything that'll tack to my hair.

Oh, and Avalange, as I understand it, a chelating shampoo is more for mineral deposits that come from the water, rather than stuff like this, right? Just to make sure that's not what I should be after for this particular issue.

Thanks in advance!

free skin care · Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:16 pm

Ginnieliz, you can add a little baking soda to any shampoo to make it a nice gentle clarifying shampoo. FRESH even makes a "Soda Shampoo" that is just that!
I also like Kevin Murphy's (Australian all natural company) Maxiwash shampoo. It does a good job of clarifying when I've gone wild with the gel!

free skin care · Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:45 pm

Fawnie, I tried the baking soda and it did NOTHING against this Paul Mitchell madness. Normally that's my first step, but this stuff is crazy. Apple cider vinegar did nothing too. It's like the most indestructible hair product I've ever encountered! I'm kind of impressed, or I would be if I weren't so frustrated - it's great for when I want it, but once I'm done with it, I'd like to remove it!

free skin care · Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:19 pm

Neutrogena is good and natural.

free skin care · Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:22 pm

Aveda Detoxifier

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