The Dry Hair Saga: The Epic Struggle

Wow. I can't believe it took me this long to get another post up. But sometime it's okay to wait. Today topic is one that's been a pretty big deal for me for a long time.

I have dry hair. It’s been an “issue” for as long as I’ve cared about my hair. And although I’ve had my hair since birth (well, it’s probably safe to assume before birth, actually), I’ve cared about my hair in some form or another since a pretty young age. Granted, it hasn’t been until recently that I realized it was actually dry hair. I just thought of it as frizzy hair. Advisory: my dry hair does cause me to bias my opinion.

The “wet look” has always worked for me; perhaps because it’s been my comfort zone. Keeping my hair short has worked over the years too, but early in my twenties I realized that I had wonderfully wavy hair when I grew it out. The past ten years has since been an on again-off again battle to find balance between the frizz and the curls. It is noteworthy that I also RARELY visit hair stylists. As a vegetarian, they are my definition of butchers. And I have yet to meet one who has been up to the task of working with my longish hair (short hair stylists you’re excused from this allegation). Since 2004 I have shaved my head bald (or nearly bald) on at least 4 occasions and let the hair grow back naturally. I have been to two hair stylists in that time. One did an okay enough job, but by no means wowing me. The other I shaved off her handiwork within two weeks.

In my early twenties I tried to ‘tame the frizz’ with plasticky pomades, gels, mousses, and everything that the perfumey girl at Shopper’s Drug Mart told me to use. The objective being to “weigh it down” (as per perfume-girl’s suggestion). I went with it, but in my gut I always knew something was off about that motive. In my mid-twenties I starting noticing that my frizz started to be under control a lot more if I only shampooed once every 2 or 3 days (beyond that would be too greasy and my head usually itched from being dirty). That was progress but then there was that first day or so after I shampooed again... How to control that frizz? Sometimes I’d wear a hat, sure, but I’ve never really been much for hats either. Answer? They say that once it gets long enough the weight of my hair will be enough and control the frizz. But my hair was nearly down to my shoulders and still crazy frizzy as soon as it dried. How much longer am I supposed to wait? Oh screw it, shave it off again, I suppose.

And such was the sequence for years. In 2009 that was changing though. We were planning on (and apparently eventually did) opening pūr alternatives. And although I’m not sure I quite took in the level of my involvement until it was too late I saw it as an opportunity to showcase my beautiful curly locks, maintained with all natural hair products. But that was intimidating. I hadn’t been having a lot of luck with keeping my hair and natural products were different than synthetic ones. A bit sceptical.... but obviously gotta try. With the crap that’s in mainstream hair products, I’ve got nothing to lose (worst case scenario it’s back to shaving it off). So I started experimenting with some natural shampoos for a while, and trying my best with natural conditioners. Before we opened I wasn’t having much luck with styling products. But by October that had also changed. After we were open I learned I was not the only one sceptical of making the switch to natural hair products. Apparently a lot of you were as well. So the time has come to throw down some serious thoughts on the natural hair care products at pūr alternatives.

My hair was considerably shorter when we first opened due to a recent “buzz with futility”. The flip side of that though is that my hair now has never been touched with the chemical toxins you find at your nearest drugstore. But straight to the point: favourite kind of shampoo we carry? Big ups from me to the Dr. Bronner’s All In One with Shikakai Extract. It comes in 5 scents (4 essential oil mixes and one unscented) and 2 sizes of each. My personal favourite is a toss-up between the Spearmint-Peppermint or the Tea Tree, but to each their own. Why do I like that one best? Well, again, coming back to my dry hair, it’s the greasiest. Not too greasy, but it’s not short on moisturizing oils like olive, coconut, and of course the one that Dr. Bronner’s is most infamous for – hemp. Some have criticized Dr. Bronner’s though of the opposite: that it is drying. True too – it is a soap after all and even the best soaps have a tendency to dry (albeit not remotely comparable to the detergents you’ll find in other products) – however, the mixup there stems from the traditional Dr. Bronner’s blend, which at this time, we don’t stock at pur alternatives (only so much room for inventory). No, the kind we stock takes the traditional Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap and adds the Shikakai Extract.

Take this caveat though: Dr. Bronner’s All-In-Ones are exactly that. This means that they can be used as shampoo, body wash, hand soap, or even a household soap if you so desire. However, because your scalp has a different pH than your body (the scalp is more acidic... I think) they are slightly more tailored for soaps. This is why when most people (myself included) use soap for a shampoo, your hair goes insanely frizzy. Solution: naturally, the Dr. Bronner’s Conditioning Hair Rinse. It rebalances the pH of your hair and adds plenty more moisture. Call it whatever you want – “shampoo & conditioner”, “soap & hair rinse”, or whatever other name you may want to give it – it is the cure to my dry hair.

Now sure, that’s my personal preferences. Does that mean that the other products we sell are crap? Hardly! In fact the shampoo bars we carry from Bare Organics, Earth Elementals, and Rocky Mountain Soap Company all deserve honourable mentions. Particularly the first two, but Rocky Mountain is actually launching their all-new shampoo bar soon so I may revisit that one. No, actually these shampoo bars have at least three awesome things going for them:

 1)      They are great for traveling because they are small and are not liquids (curse you air travel regulations!)

2)      They are cheap, ranging from $4.99 (Rocky Mountain) to $7 (Bare Organics). Local purveyors of awesome soap Earth Elementals comfortably occupy the middle ground at a mere $6.

3)      Because they are “cold manufactured” they retain all the great properties of the oils used in them (i.e., olive, coconut, castor, etc.). That also means there is no need for a conditioner!

Regarding the last point if you are a fellow dry hair sufferer a conditioner certainly doesn’t hurt. I usually do what with my hair being a bit longer again, but when it was shorter I didn’t. So absolutely try it without a conditioner first. And if you feel you would still benefit, we’ve got two wonderful options by Earthsafe, a Canadian company that bases all their formulations on tree resins. The only way it could get more Canadian would be if you added beer to it too. But beer is not great for hair; I’ve been there but that’s a totally different discussion altogether.

Summary: hair care products are notoriously hard to come by with an ingredient commitment as strict as ours – unless you opt for the baking soda & vinegar rinse method. Which works for some but what we’ve found is smoother and smells nicer. And with my hair, smoother makes the difference. And smelling nice is nice too ;)