originally from here: http://zegarkus.com/2006/11/04/scientifically-formulated-hair/

This is about about hair. Most of my life I’ve had thick curly hair. It was fine until I turned into a teenager and all of a sudden it became dry brittle and unmanageable. Because of this, I wore my hair very short until recently.

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to wash my hair with a mixture of vinegar and shampoo. Before she retired, her profession was that of a hairdresser. When I became older (probably the time girls starting coming into my life) I switched. Mainly because I thought what does this arcane tincture of shampoo vinegar have to do with modern hair care. Because all the advertisements I saw on television to me to take care of my hair using their ’scientifically formulated’ product, I thought what my grandmother taught me was just an old wives tale.So

I tried heaps of different shampoos. My hair, which I wore slightly long became extremely unmanageable. It was dry and stuck out all over the place. It was extremely wild and unkempt looking – no matter how much I combed it. I used conditioners to no avail. Different products like gels only made things look worse. So I just cropped my hair very short. And that was the way that I wore for nearly 18 years. Sometimes I would try to grow my hair long again, but with the same situation – totally unmanageable – and ultimately – unhealthy hair. I damned my genetics and loathed myself because of my god awful hair.

About 1 year I decided to grow it long again. I always wanted longer hair – so I decided to let it all grow out, Afro or not. Luckily – I could keep it under control with a special hair product cream and I found a really good hairstylist. I was still a bit of pain because it was a lot of work (I am a bloke – I got other things to do besides trying to do up my hair!).

About 1 month ago – came across this article called the “great shampoo scandal“. In it, it talks about the detriments of using shampoo for your hair. In a nutshell it said that shampoo was detergent, though it clean your hair, it damaged it by stripping everything else out as well (oils, nutrients). I read it over and over, it made a lot sense to me. I feel that those with thick curly hair such as mine probably have the most to lose from this – I can say from my own experience in trying to choose a hairstyle, haircut. The only style that I could manage was short. And because I have a narrow, thin face – this style did not suit me well.

What was great about this article – is that it had a solution – what to use instead of shampoo. That was just plain old soap or a mixture of shampoo vinegar among other things. So of course I immediately started to put this plan into action. The results – about 1 week into trying regular soap, my hair became extremely manage and healthy looking. It was the first time I could remember actually be able to wear it in different styles. It didn’t lose the curliness, but the curls became more manageable and wavy instead of extremely wild.

Looking back, it turns out that my grandmother was right all along. So much for scientifically formulated hair care*!

*note – if am not knocking scientific research – merely suggesting that you do research yourself and pragmatically find what works best. Keep an open mind to all solutions!