If you’ve met me, you’ve most likely seen my hair pulled back in a messy bun. Sometimes I just wish I could let my long, cascading locks flow. Like most women, I’m prone to bad hair days. But unlike a lot of women, I never really take much care of my hair. As a college girl I had indulged in the crazy fads of neon highlights and chemically straightened hair and those had taken their toll on my thick head of hair. My thinning hair started to give way to a receding hairline a few years ago. There is also the hypothyroid to blame. This obviously led me to evaluating the hair products I use – shampoo mainly.
Why organic?
Regular, commercially available shampoos are often laden with chemicals. Some are not a cause for much concern, but others are extremely harsh, corrosive, and have even been linked to certain types of cancers. Among these chemicals are sulfates, parabens, propylene and butylene glycols, petroleum, PEGs, TEA, DEA, NPE, phthalates, silicone, pesticide, artificial dye and fragrance.
If you're worried about switching over from Loreal, Keune, and other salon brands, understandable, but give one of these a try before you just dismiss them. Here’s a list of the better alternatives for you:
Neev Olive Aloe shampoo - Rs 300 for 200ml – This shampoo does not really lather too well so a lot of you might dismiss it on reading this or after the first try. Try and not do that, use it a few times and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It smells great despite what the name might suggest. For those of you who workout everyday, this is a great light shampoo to rinse your hair with everyday.
Rustic Art Organic Shampoo – Rs 290 for 200 ml – This shampoo is USDA organic and is great for combination hair. Being a balanced shampoo, it works alright for oily hair as well and pretty well for dry hair. There is also a variant for men although the differentiation of shampoos by gender are usually due to fragrance stereotypes. The Men's shampoo is a juniper lavender and ladies, you are free to use this too. For medium length hair, a bottle should easily last around 3 months.
Mitti Se Conditioning shampoo with hibiscus - Rs 480 for 40 gms - This one is shampoo in a powder form, something I’m sure you will all be curious about but only some of you will be adventurous enough to try. This product is truly therapeutic for your hair. A spoonful of the powder, boiled in some water, or simply mixed into room temperature water and left to soak for 10 minutes, results in a soapy liquid that can be then used just like shampoo. And guess what? You can even work this one up into a good lather. If you’re not lazy or forgetful like me, this one is just what your locks need - when I was using this, most of the time I'd forget to boil or pre-soak it.
Mamaearth Onion hairfall shampoo - Rs 349 for 250 ml - I wish that all commercial, chemically laden product brands will see sense in doing what's best for Mama Earth and follow the example of this brand - it has brought amazing chemical-free products of excellent quality into the market. The best part about this one is that it feels quite light in your hair.
Organic harvest daily shampoo - Rs 795 for 500 ml - I'm all for larger pack sizes, because lesser packaging. Totally understand that with something like shampoo, you have to try and buy. For that they do have a smaller pack size of 225 ml as well. With the right certifications in place, this shampoo is great for frequent beach goers who need those additional rinses per week.
Let us all know that the best thing one can do is reduce the use of shampoos and other products that we use. I did join the 'No Poo Movement' for a while with the baking soda and ACV recipe (available all over the internet for those interested) and I'm yet to get around to that full time. You have to be consistent with it long enough to get the results to show.
All of the shampoos mentioned in this post condition your hair too but for people with those extra needs, my post, on hair conditioners, is coming soon!