Monday, February 2, 2009

Soapin' up the curls

Many curlies have embraced the joys of using soap bars to clean their hair and scalp. Although this was not one of my more successful experiments, it does work well for some -- kathymack at NaturallyCurly.com being the pioneer on this front.

I interviewed kathymack for The Daily Curl, so take a gander at what she has to say about soap, soap-making, and using the bars to clean your head.

On the flip side, I want to quote what Tiffany the hair stylist has to say on her blog about soap bars:

...Which brings to a small derail. I know people are tired of me harping on the excessive use of shampoo bars. If, however, you have porous hair, you are not doing yourself any favors by using them. These bars are fairly alkaline and raise the cuticle, the exact opposite of what people with overly porous hair are trying to achieve. Your goal is to establish a routine and determine the most effective product use for your hair without swimming upstream in the process.


I think Tiffany's observation/warning is the reason kathymack follows her soaping experiences with a vinegar rinse (it closes the cuticle). So, be advised that soap + acidic something = hair happiness.

2 comments:

Marisa said...

I have a question, but it doesn't concern soap in the hair.

Do you ever get dry scalp? If so, what do you do for it?

There is a recipe in the Curly Girl book in which one must use heavy whipping cream to exfoliate the scalp, but now I feel like my hair just smells like sour milk.

I'm not sure if it worked quite yet because I just washed it, but I wouldn't do it again because of the smell.

Any advice?

Sage Vivant said...

Hi, Marisa. Dry scalp is one of the few hair conditions I don't get, so I'm not much help, I'm afraid. But I've seen this topic come up on the discussion boards at NaturallyCurly.com so I just did a quick search on "scalp" and got these results: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curltalk/search.php?searchid=1654633 so hopefully you can click on that and find some good information.

I haven't tried that whipping cream recipe but I do know that you're not alone in your assessment of it! Not a popular recipe...

Feel free to email me or PM me at NC.com and maybe once I find out more about your routine, I would have a better idea what to tell you.