How many of you use dish soap?

[BrokenJetSki]

Okay, so on my timeline I've been pretty vocal about my nightmare journey to finding shampoo that would work with my hard water and for MONTHS I dealt with tacky hair between deep cleans...until I caved one day and tried dishsoap. I've been using dish soap ever since. It's cheap and it lasts a long time since I dilute it. So for those of you that use dish soap as your shampoo, what lead you to that discovery/why did you decide to stick with it?

[lipstic]

Well I tried it, but I didn't stick with it... Just like it does for my dishes it removed all traces of oil from my hair which was very helpful in encouraging my dreads to lock faster. However, my scalp was so itchy and dry I couldn't take it, then it (my scalp) would produce too much oil which would delay the process and cause me to have to wash my hair more often. It took me months to get my scalp back to normal. As a side note I didn't like all the chemicals in majority of dish soaps, natural or not.

[heidij4]

I don't use it.The place I went to that does my dreadlocks said not to use dish soap to me.Said it delays the process basically

[alethionaut]

Never have as it strips colour from your hair. I do use a l'oreal sulphite free shampoo (so I'm half torn as its not a sustainable company but the shampoo is the only thing that keeps my colour going forever).

[BrokenJetSki]

Interesting! It's never made my scalp unbearably dry. I'd like to use something with less harsh chemicals but everything I've tried makes my hair tacky because I have SUPER hard water. It does make my hair oily faster, but I'll take that over permanently oily hair any day.
Do any of you have hard water? If so, what do you use? I've tried Dreadhead HQ, Dollylocks, dreadlock shampoo (I think that's the company name? They have shampoo that uses natural clay and beer and it's made for hard water but it was SUPER residue-y), and baking soda. All either left my hair unclean and tacky, or so brittle that I felt like my dreads were gonna snap right off.

[james]

I've used it a few times basically because I didn't have anything else to use. Cleaned my dreads really well, but whatever brand I used the first time was really no fun to get in my eyes as they went horror movie red on fire. I watered it down loads. I sometimes buy an eco plant extract based detergent for the dishes. I wonder if that might be pretty good.
But in general it's a bi-carb mix or some natural Tea -tree shampoo, or Neutrogena T-gel.

[LeRemy]

I used undiluted dish soap to start my dreads.

I can't stand regular shampoo with SLS, so go figure. As a one time thing/deep clean, it's okay. It's proven that SLS is an irritant, and have many health risks. So yea.

[Deleted]

Yeah, so used it for a time. But we usually get concentrated, or super strong kind. (Turns out I used the normal kind somehow anyway, I think.) Ok, but just generally it is harsher on my hands so I looked for a dreadlocks liquid shampoo....but yes, I have tried it and it worked greatfor the hair!

[alethionaut]

Yup we have hard water

[BrokenJetSki]

I bought some sulfate free shampoo from trader Joes to see if I can finally say goodbye to dish soap. I honestly never thought of how it would strip hair pigment. Maybe why my dark brown pieces faded up so fast. I think it was great for my baby dreads, and way better than the other options I tried but now that my hair has matured and fuzz and sectioning aren't as big of an issue I think it's time I start finding something more environmentally sustainable.

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2016 7:21:20 GMT james said:

But in general it's a bi-carb mix or some natural Tea -tree shampoo, or Neutrogena T-gel.

Hey james, I think I've asked you before, so apologies if this is a repeat question, but I keep coming across folks who swear that bicarb, especially without an ACV rinse is terrible for your scalp's ph. I've mentioned before that I used bicarb/ACV for months before starting dreads and never had any issues. Maybe it's one of those things where different people have different experiences, or maybe some people use too much or too often, I dunno. I saw on the Lazydreads site that he warned about the same thing -- that hair can become brittle over time from using bicarb.

So, no brittleness or dryness? Your roots are healthy, etc? Obviously your dreads are healthy, since I assume you'd be the first to make a change if they weren't. I know this stuff is pretty subjective -- what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everybody, but I'm just curious as to why there's quite a few people who recommend against using the simplest thing you can use for washing your hair.

[james]

Yeah they're just a bunch of moaning wimps!!!
No, I guess it's just different for other folks. I don't use a lot of Bicarb and make sure it's well rinsed out. Maybe it does dry your scalp a bit, I can't say I can equate any problem to it. Maybe people think about hair products more than me, which wouldn't be difficult. I think about whether evil monkeys would ride broomsticks or have bat wings if I needed them to fly, more than shampoo.

[Deleted]

I remember reading on another forum where the admin said that bicarb had caused his hair to become so brittle he had a dread that began to fall out in clumps. Then, he used a magic dread shampoo that his friend makes, and if as by magic, his damaged hair healed overnight. The claim was so ridiculous that I can't take his warnings against bicarb seriously, not that it works for everyone, of course.

Btw, there are no evil monkeys. Non-human animals don't use such limiting concepts as good and evil. They just follow the Tao. Also, they use batwings. The broom thing is just a silly myth.

[james]

Well I probably on average wash my hair once every 7-10 days now. It doesn't really need more unless a bird or a flying monkey poops on it.
I just washed it today and I guess it is a bit dry and brittle so maybe not good to do it too regularly. If I 'thwacked' my dreads with a machete they'd probably come right off.

[Deleted]

@kevin I know who you are referring to and well, ...idk. maybe, in this case, given he has like super long dreads maybe he knows something about the bicarb stuff...which was in my post lastnight (is it really harmful conducting the volcano experiment on your headevery soak? Tbh, it feels pretty cool! ). So, I mean I just like to see other thoughts out there. A lot of things are similar to here but, and/or I think some things might just be for individuals to sortof experience for themselves. Like again, crochet. It CAN be fine, but I wanted a different way. And then just all the different shampoos...I think the nitty gritty stuff is more personal and as long as you havethe basics down, you will be alright. The worstto happen, is your hairwill fall out (I think thatis theworst), but hey! This could happen with or withoit dreads, with or withoutthe best care...I mean, you know? Idk!