One Writer Breaks Down The Real Deal On Ditching Shampoo

Recently, we learned that you all have serious opinions about washing (or, more accurately, not washing) your hair when we wrote about a blogger who hasn't washed her hair in five years. Jacquelyn Baers told The Huffington Post that, after giving up shampoo five years ago, she tried using a combination of apple cider vinegar and baking soda to wash her hair. But, after two years, Baers abandoned the DIY rinse for...nothing, as she felt that the vinegar/baking soda combination dried out her hair.

Well, writer Lauren O'Neal at The Hairpin is here to make a new case for "alterna-poo." O'Neal abandoned shampoo three years ago for a new routine: She rinses her hair first with apple cider vinegar, then with baking soda (she does this routine about once a week). The reasoning, as O'Neal explains, is scientific. Human skin needs to be slightly acidic to maintain its natural balance, so rinsing with vinegar (an acid) first and following with baking soda (a base) second is supposedly meant to maintain the natural equilibrium of the scalp. Basically, the scalp's natural balance of oils, fungus, and bacteria are all left to happily do their thing — leaving you with a healthy scalp and a pretty head of hair. Shampoo, on the other hand, has ingredients that strip the natural oils from your scalp, leaving things out of whack and actually encouraging overproduction of oil.

The result? O'Neal claims that her hair is healthier, fluffier, and actually blonder than ever before (she says the oils and gunk from the hair products she used to use actually darkened her hair). And — very importantly — she assures that there are no stinkiness issues, even after years of following this routine. So, the question remains: Is no-poo the hair routine of the future? Weigh in below, dear readers! (The Hairpin)