Playdate: Would You Go "No Poo"?
Here’s one way to answer the carcinogens in your kids’ bath products – Amy Graff at The Poop is going “no poo.”
As in no shampoo. Not a drop of Johnson & Johnson. Not a palm of Head and Shoulders. Graff, who is one of my favorite columnists over at San Fran’s main parenting blog, is making a leap that I have to admire. Or hold my nose about.
The “no poo” method has had its proponents for years, folks who say it’s better to let the body’s natural oils keep the scalp healthy and the hair “clean.” As Graff explains in her “no poo” mission statement, the idea is that a few weeks of greasy hair must be endured. But when the body takes over, word has it luscious locks take over.
The sort of fringe movement is jumping from granola crunchy greenies to parenting mainstream as reports on parabens, phthalates and 1,4-dioxane make more of us realize there’s a lot more to fear than a dirty kid. Take Graff – she’s always thought the whole thing sounds kind of “icky” . . . but her kids’ shampoo is on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics’ list of products loaded with carcinogens. For the sake of her kids, she’s willing to give “no poo” a try.
I checked out the CSC list, and took heart that my daughter’s shampoo isn’t on there (although a bubble bath we once used an entire bottle of was – eek). If it was, I’d obviously change – to another shampoo. Although it’s hard to trust the big companies, it’s even harder to fathom not using something relatively heavy duty to rid my daughter’s head of play-doh and play sand on a daily basis.
I’m going to follow Graff’s experiment, but I’m not that brave. What about you?
Image: Boon
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Baby Dreads? Yeah! Fight de power, mon.
There is no reason to use bad chemicals with so many alternatives available now. Thanks to the Internet and sources like this, an educated consumer market will continue to drive bad products out of production. It helps that concerned citizens bother to DO something about it. Thanks to all of you who do write and make the effort to SAY something on behalf of all those people who do not know (or cannot afford the pricer healthy products).
I found it interesting to learn that Native Americans could smell the Europeans coming a mile away by the stench. Water-upon-the-person was not a common practice until more modern times. Nor was washing clothes very common. Those pretty costumes you see in movies…were stiff and crackly with dried sweat and BO. Little nosegays (flowers to sniff) were in heavy use to mask the profound odors everywhere. Let’s not even talk about dental hygiene in the “good old days”. Barf.
But to each their own. Good luck with your own methods!
To the author of this article, um, what’s a “Bubble Bat”?
My problem with all of this is the practice of calling shampoo “poo.”
My daughter’s has lots of super curly hair and we wash it about once every 5 days. And then we use something gentle like California Baby or Burt’s Bees.
J and J was way too drying and made her hair snarl and brittle. We quit using it when she was a month old and haven’t looked back. Her hair is one of the things people always compliment.
I only use shampoo in my own hair about once a week. The other times I just massage really well with conditioner. It doesn’t smell and it actually is less prone to oiliness then when I was shampooing every other day. It also seems to make no difference whatsoever if we use shampoo on my 4 year old’s head or not.
My 2.5-year-old son has had shampoo in his hair maybe 4 times in his life. His scalp smells great. His long blond hair is light and shiney (not greacy at all). He showers with me every night, but I don’t see the point in using shampoo if his hair looks, feels and smells fine without it.
I couldn’t sleep at night if I didn’t wash my hair. My scalp would itch like crazy. Hair gets into everything, I can’t imagine not using shampoo. Makes me not want to get near anyone else’s hair.
I’m not sure if the name of the product, but J&J no more tears shampoo is no more tears because they put something into it to numb kids tear ducts, not because they took something out.
I imagine that way back in the day of covered wagons people still washed their hair. Not as often as we do, not with as much product as we do, but they washed it. Todays environment has so much more crap in it that I can imagine we need to wash with something more than water, but as a whole, I assume that we are overly concerned with cleanliness.
well, my daughter has very little hair. but she also has a tendency to smear any and everything she is eating through her hair. i dont think i would be able to get that out without shampoo. also she doesnt take many baths, because she has eczema that gets really bad if she does, so it took us over a year to go through a bottle of shampoo/body wash.
as for me, i have no hair left to speak of. i had my head shaved for a fundraiser. so i wont really have to worry about it for awhile.
My daughter has extremely fine, straight blonde hair that starts looking oily on the second day after a shampoo. By the forth day, it’s several shades darker and she starts looking neglected. I really can’t imagine not washing it, but then we deal with things that most parents don’t have to.
I don’t wash my kids hair nightly with shampoo, although I will to get mashed food, play doh or the like out. (I use a safe, natural baby wash for those moments.) They have beautiful, curly ringlets. Not greasy at all.
Honestly, my husband and I only wash our hair with shampoo once a week or less. Most of the time we just rinse it with apple cider vinegar.
Eh, my kid’s lucky if he gets a bath once a week, so I imagine I’ll use up the Johnson’s I have…he’s 11 months and I’m still on the same bottle I’ve had since he was born. He’s not being exposed to too much!
Especially for young kids, using only water might work well and cut down on adverse reactions to ingredients. For healthy kids that are mildly to moderately dirty, it’s probably fine. I make my own body products, so I’m good to go- unless olive oil proves to be harmful to kids in some way.
I asked my hair dresser about this greasy hair phenomenon. She said she learned in school that we clean our hair to keep down the growth of fungus, mites, bacteria and the buildof of dead skin cells that are breeding gound for all of the previously mentioned. In other words, it is healthier to clean your body and your hair. Besides, shampoo is harmless as long as you RINSE IT OFF! Its not like you wear it in your hair people. use some common sense.