Rye Flour Shampoo

My family thinks I'm nuts, especially my mother-in-law. My husband wishes I would do something normal once in a while. Pretty much anyone I explain this to, thinks I'm missing a few screws.

Two years ago, I realized I was losing a lot of hair. Every time I brushed or washed my hair it felt like I ended up with a handful of hair. We had just moved to a new apartment, and I thought possibly it was due to a change in the water, high mineral content, or old pipes. Maybe I wasn't getting enough nutrients? I wasn't eating any red meat or chicken at the time, just fish on occasion. Was it my new bar shampoo? Was I just not brushing my hair enough? Had I always lost this much hair and was just now paying attention?

I researched hair shedding and came across several possible remedies. On top of a nutritious diet, accompanied with brushing both regularly and gently, and using protective hair care styles, I came across the idea of using PH balanced shampoos and products. Our scalp, has a PH of around 5.5, which is slightly basic. So the understanding is that if you use a product to wash your hair with the same PH as your scalp then you are less likely to disturb the sebum and it's natural protective oil production. And there have been studies to back this up, for example here.

While there are some lab manufactured shampoos that do maintain a lower PH level, like these, my goal recently has been to keep it as simple as possible. Less packaging, less products. Historically, humans have used an abundance of plants, clays and even animal fats with lye and ash to wash their hair. These concoctions varied across continents and cultures, and evolved over time as well. From horsetail grass, yucca, aloe vera, sage, avocado, coconut, argan, shea, nettles, rosemary, ginseng, goji, rice, chickpeas, to sapindus (soapberries). Chemically based shampoos weren't introduced until the mid 1800's.

I wanted to find a small combination of minimally processed materials to clean and maintain my hair. Most sources seem to agree that the length of time to restore natural sebum production, after using a commercial oil-stripping shampoo is anywhere from 3 months to a year. I had tried the no-poo method back in college when I was very much into ditching everything. I stopped shaving, and using deodorant, perfumes and lotions, so when I came across a few articles on ditching your shampoo, I did that too. I kept at the no-poo method for the better part of a year, beginning with no washing with shampoo for a month (only water) and then using baking soda and vinegar to wash your hair afterwards, whenever necessary. However, I do not recommend this. I remember that at first my hair responded well to just being washed at all, and felt nice to not be bouncing around like a giant stinky grease ball in art school. My hair was fluffy soft hair for a few months, emphasis on the fluffy. But I wasn't scientific about it, I didn't measure anything, and I certainly wasn't consistent with washing, and soon ended up with a very....very itchy scalp, plenty of dandruff, and brittle hair. My hairbrushes were also getting clogged up with so much oil and debris, that just keeping them clean was frustrating. So after many many months of itching and pretending to be fine, I went back to an off the shelf shampoo, and ended up shaving my head to just start all over. That was 7 or 8 years ago.

Fast forward to the couple years ago when I noticed my hair was falling out and at the same time sick of constantly throwing away or "recycling" shampoo bottles. So I thought maybe I could give this no-poo or low-poo (Maybe we come up with a better name?) another go. I was a little hesitant about ending up with brittle hair again and so did much more research. After countless articles and hours on Youtube I started with a full month of no shampoo just to let my scalp rest some. Then began the experimenting.

First I tried chickpea flour, which worked fine, but left plenty of grit. Within only a day or so however, my head felt greasy and slightly itchy. I gave up after a month of this and moved on to the next. I remember pots of cooked rice water, no suceess. I moved onto shampoo bars, which I thought were quite novel and the easiest solution of all. But after using several different brands in rapid succession, all with varying results I gave up on those too. For the most part they were fine, but still had the same ingredients as bottle shampoos, but without the plastic. My hair would feel greasy after a day, so these felt just barely better than bottle shampoo. Did no option exist that had it all? no plastic, no chemicals, clean hair (for at least a few days?). Enter, rye flour (in bulk, bring-your-own-container babyyyyyyy). I must have read about using rye previously, but had dismissed it. For shame.

After a month of using rye, I could really start to see an improvement in my hair. No itching, reduced fall out and clean hair for the better part of a week. Glorious. I decided to try a full year commitment. Traveling was a little tricky, having to pack tiny containers of flour and vinegar, and shower walls always got covered in tiny bits of rye, but I stuck (no pun intended) to it. I did always wonder if long term use of flour in the septic system would cause problems at all-either clogging the pipes or somehow fermenting in the septic tank and exploding, but so far none of that has happened.

I made it about 10 months only using rye flour once a week, with an ACV rinse until, until a trip to a Turkish Spa/Hamam ended my streak. In the midst of all the heavenly bubbles and massage, I wasn't about to tell this wonderful angel to not use shampoo on my scalp. But the first part of the experiment was complete. I wasn't able to go a full year, but ten months felt like an accomplishment non-the-less. My hair had definitely stopped falling out as often, my scalp wasn't itching, with the caveat of when I waited too long to wash, as in more than 7+ days did I get some itch. This I attributed less to the use of rye and more to working on a farm and having a build-up of sweat, dirt, and oil during the week. My hair would feel healthy and clean for about 3-4 days, and then get slightly more oily until day 7 when I would wash. I did a few times try to extend the washing time to once every two weeks, but I had little luck, and just got tired of being greasy after long, so kept washing to once a week.

Overall though, I think shampooing with rye flour, at least for my hair (straight/on the oily side) has been a huge success. Every wash I use about 5 tablespoons of rye flour mixed with water into a thick paste and rub about 1/2 to 3/4 of the mixture into my scalp. I'll let it sit for a few minutes before thoroughly rinsing it out and applying the remaining paste. With the rye flour still on my hair, I pour 1 Tb of ACV mixed into a cup of water all over my hair and wait about 20-30 seconds and then rinse this out finally. About once a month before washing I will apply a scalp oil and let it sit for 20 minutes to an hour. When I do use the oil, if I do really scrub and let the rye flour sit the first time, I find my hair will still be greasy after (which is way I started only applying 1/2 of the mixture to begin with.) I did try using oil once a week, but found my hair remaining greasy too often, and so once a month seems good for me. I equate this to fertilizing in the garden-doing so too often can have adverse results.

So for the last three years I've used rye flour about 90 percent of the time, with the occasional use of my husband's shampoo after a beach trip. (I haven't converted him yet). Nothing I've tried really gets the sticky salt out of your hair like chemical shampoo. Which helps me to work on my rigidity in routine-if I need to use a "regular" shampoo every once in a while, I'm okay with it.

My only real complaint with the rye flour is how messy it is, and how long the whole process takes. From having to gather supplies-bowls, spoons, cups, to mixing applying rinsing and repeating, it must be at least 20-30 minutes. Afterwards I have to rinse the shower tub and walls extra thoroughly or the rye sticks, and then for the first couple hours after washing tiny bits of rye fall out of my hair. I try to reckon with this as "self-care" time? Sitting quietly in the tub, feeling slightly witchy mixing solutions and then drying my now hip-length hair out in the sun can feel extremely calming and satisfying. If I'm in a rush however, the whole process is sort of hell and end up with a trail of rye bits all around the house and into the car. But I suppose that's also part of how perspective and proper planning can make our lives more enjoyable in general.

I have tried a few times to make rye bars, by drying out little cakes of rye paste-to no avail. I would love to try a proper mix rye and maybe coconut oil or glycerin and some essential oils in a silicon tray-maybe popped in the freezer? Maybe even with goats milk and lye or honey?

We'll see. For now, the bathroom is sometimes a mess but my hair is healthy, so I'm happy.