Frugal Hair Care

Inspired by the discussion sparked by my recent post about considering cutting my own hair, today we'll be discussing reducing your hair-care costs. Boys, this applies to you too, but I'm going to guess that you're not that interested (or don't spend enough on hair products that it's worth making an effort to cut back). I'm not offended. Come back later today for an article on gentrification.

So, for my remaining readers: here's the thing. What we're going to do here is focus on cutting costs by cutting back on the number of products you use. You may actually spend more on individual products using this method, but you'll use far fewer of them. The theory here is by that cutting back on products that damage your hair in the long term, you reduce your need for products to control or correct that damage. This is based on my own personal knowledge, gained when I began researching a hair-care regimen suggested by a stylist, so I don't have handy links--when in doubt, just Google the name of a chemical. Off we go.

So, the major thing you need to be avoiding are sulfates, or surfactants. Check your ingredients list: the most common surfactants are sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, ammonium laureth sulfate, and ammonium laurel sulfate. These ingredients serve two purposes: 1) They're industrial-strength detergents (that's right, like in laundry detergent or dishwashing soap). 2) They create lather. Lather has nothing to do with cleansing--it's an advertising trope that's so ingrained in us as product consumers that we link lather to a feeling of "cleanness."

Sulfates strip your hair and thus dry it out. That means that they create the symptoms of dry hair: frizz, flyaways, breakage, lack of shine, et cetera. You know, the things you buy products to deal with (this is a perfect example of products manufacturing needs to fill).

So, you say, I'll just stop using products with sulfates in them. Here's the problem: they're in the vast majority of drugstore shampoos, and many drugstore conditioners as well. They're hard to avoid. Another problem: sulfates serve a purpose, which is to remove water-insoluble ingredients (like silicone) from your hair. So here's what happens. You use a shampoo with sulfates. It dries your hair out, so your hair's frizzy and dull. You use a shine serum and an anti-frizz mousse, say, thus adding ingredients like silicone, dimethicone, amodimethicone, cyclomethicone, and cyclopentasiloxane to your hair. These compounds coat the shaft of the hair, preventing the natural hair oils from soothing the damage done by the sulfates until you strip them off using more sulfates, thus increasing the need for them. If you don't use sulfates to strip your hair of water-insoluble ingredients, they build up and eventually make your hair dull, limp, and flat.

So the trick is to stop using water-insoluble chemicals on your hair when you stop using sulfates. There will be an adjustment period of a week or two, while your hair gets used to its new chemistry. My hair went from very dry to slightly oily, but before long, the oiliness went away.

Your pared-down, hair-healthy, frugal hair-care routine looks like this:
1) Conditioner. Something without any sulfates or water-insoluble emollients/humectants. This is absolutely the most important part of the routine.
2) Styling products. I use a water-soluble gel and refreshing spray, both occasionally.
3) Optional: Non-sulfate shampoo or scrubbing conditioner. Many grocery stores now sell organic store brands; these are good places to look for a shampoo without sulfates. Don't be concerned if it lathers less. These are only really necessary if your hair stays slightly oily after you cut out conventional shampoo. Personally, I scrub my scalp with a cheap drugstore conditioner that meets my ingredients requirements (Suave Naturals).

My big bottle of expensive conditioner cost me about $30 three months ago, and it's not even half finished. My styling products aren't even a third finished. I estimate that once these bottles are used up, my hair care costs will be about $8-$10/month. That sure beats using up three styling products plus midrange shampoo and conditioner every month or so.

And, perhaps most importantly, my hair looks great.