Extremely bad reactions to shampoo, no solutions

[MarkKol]

I’ve tried natural alternatives like Black African soap, natural shampoos and kaolin clay but there’s no hope. Not only did they not work, some of them managed to give me headaches like African black soap did. I have extremely dry skin and eyes, this dryness always effects my eyes and makes me feel like I didn’t sleep at all.

I am looking for the most natural of natural shampoo alternatives.

P.s my skin is also prone to acne, specifically my chest, face and especially the upper back, my hands and fingers are always missing pieces of skin. This dryness goes away after a day or two of not showering, but in those two days I am barely functioning.

Not shampooing doesn’t work for me, my hair is itchy and greasy if I don’t. This problem goes way beyond just smelling nice or looking clean. So I’m not some beauty queen trying to find the best shampoo to look my best. I am dying. 

Edit: Shaving cream has the same effect.

Edited September 20, 2023 by MarkKol

[flowboy]

1 part apple cider vinegar with 4 parts water.

I was skeptical but it works.

It's all I use, I don't wash my hair with shampoo at all anymore.

[Something Funny]

@flowboy do you mix a bottle of it and store it or do you make a new batch every time you shower?

[flowboy]

@Something Funny The first one.

[Something Funny]

@flowboy ok. How do you apply it. I assume you need to use a lot to cover the whole hair?

[flowboy]

@Something Funny I have it in a spray bottle and I try to spray it mostly under my hair, onto the scalp. Then I leave it in for a few minutes while I brush my teeth, then shower and rinse everything off. Hair's perfect after that.

[Something Funny]

@flowboy i see, thanks for advise.

[something_else]

When I was younger my hair would get horribly greasy so I would shampoo it every day religiously to solve the problem, and then I realised that was actually what was causing the problem in the first place. Now I wash it once per week or twice if I’m doing physical activity and my scalp and hair are much healthier.

I don’t know if this will apply to you, but I remember it being quite a big problem for me so thought I’d share. It took about 2 weeks of time with less regular washes for my hair to adjust and stop overproducing oil.

[Princess Arabia]

Maybe try Dr Bronner's soap. Diluted as it's very potent. 

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.nyB4xeykkrltvuni1pZ9pQHaI6?pid=ImgDet&rs=1

I use this kind of black soap, not necessarily the brand but how it looks and not the extremely black looking one that I consider fake black soap. The one i use is made from plaintain leaves from Africa and it looks just like this. I break it up and add hot boiling water to melt it into liquid and put in bottles. Lasts longer that way and it's not drying and lathers real well. 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Princess Arabia

[Juan]

45 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

Maybe try Dr Bronner's soap. Diluted as it's very potent. 

Dr. Bronner’s is top tier! 

[sholomar]

The first thing that comes to mind for people to try if they are reactive to products are baby versions of these products. Johnson's Baby Shampoo is probably one of the least reactive products on the market for those with issues. It's not just for babies.   All it needs are the surfactants to emulsify the oils on the hairs. The rest of the ingredients are mostly for marketing purposes.

https://www.johnsonsbaby.com/baby-products/johnsons-baby-shampoo

You could also shampoo your hair with a bar of Ivory soap if you wanted. "Shampoo" is a modern marketing creation mostly... pretty smelling compounds which all do pretty much the same thing at various price points. Adding in all this fancy stuff really doesn't do anything for hair.

Edited October 9, 2023 by sholomar

[Princess Arabia]

7 hours ago, sholomar said:

The first thing that comes to mind for people to try if they are reactive to products are baby versions of these products. Johnson's Baby Shampoo is probably one of the least reactive products on the market for those with issues. It's not just for babies.   All it needs are the surfactants to emulsify the oils on the hairs. The rest of the ingredients are mostly for marketing purposes.

https://www.johnsonsbaby.com/baby-products/johnsons-baby-shampoo

You could also shampoo your hair with a bar of Ivory soap if you wanted. "Shampoo" is a modern marketing creation mostly... pretty smelling compounds which all do pretty much the same thing at various price points. Adding in all this fancy stuff really doesn't do anything for hair.

Hi. I don't want to start a debate on this and this is just my personal opinion but some of it can be backed up with substantial evidence and/or proof with references.

First, I would say, I would stay away from most, if not all, baby products in the mainstream market even food products marketed for babies and children and especially J&J products, not to mention the highly publicized lawsuit that they lost from claims that their baby powder which contained talcum powder caused cancer in some of its users.

I checked out the link you provided and if you stroll to the ingredients section, you will see quite a few ingredients that, if you were to research are highly toxic and not suitable for use on the skin and can be absorbed and enter the bloodstream to create harm, especially hormonally, especially EDTA. I don't have to itemize these ingredients as they are already on the website but if you need me to go in depth I can do so by a simple search that shows how dangerous some of these ingredients are.

This website is promoting a product so, of course, they won't do that for you and will make claims of how their ingredients are safe to use with the hopes that one won't delve deeper into these claims. I'm not saying this product won't provide the results you're looking for, but it comes with a cost and damaging side effects.

Baby products are especially toxic in the mainstream market and are very meticulously marketed with the tricks of the trade, which is very sad, IMO. I wouldn't recommend any Johnson &Johnson products to anyone and they are extremely clever in their marketing strategies. Take that for whatever it's worth and I will be open to any rebuttals or disagreements you may have regarding my statements and will certainly look into it personally if I see where I'm wrong in respect to any claims I made.

[MarkKol]

17 hours ago, Princess Arabia said:

I use this kind of black soap, not necessarily the brand but how it looks and not the extremely black looking one that I consider fake black soap. The one i use is made from plaintain leaves from Africa and it looks just like this. I break it up and add hot boiling water to melt it into liquid and put in bottles. Lasts longer that way and it's not drying and lathers real well. 

 

You probably smell like a weed then

[sholomar]

16 hours ago, Princess Arabia said:

Hi. I don't want to start a debate on this and this is just my personal opinion but some of it can be backed up with substantial evidence and/or proof with references.

First, I would say, I would stay away from most, if not all, baby products in the mainstream market even food products marketed for babies and children and especially J&J products, not to mention the highly publicized lawsuit that they lost from claims that their baby powder which contained talcum powder caused cancer in some of its users.

I checked out the link you provided and if you stroll to the ingredients section, you will see quite a few ingredients that, if you were to research are highly toxic and not suitable for use on the skin and can be absorbed and enter the bloodstream to create harm, especially hormonally, especially EDTA. I don't have to itemize these ingredients as they are already on the website but if you need me to go in depth I can do so by a simple search that shows how dangerous some of these ingredients are.

This website is promoting a product so, of course, they won't do that for you and will make claims of how their ingredients are safe to use with the hopes that one won't delve deeper into these claims. I'm not saying this product won't provide the results you're looking for, but it comes with a cost and damaging side effects.

Baby products are especially toxic in the mainstream market and are very meticulously marketed with the tricks of the trade, which is very sad, IMO. I wouldn't recommend any Johnson &Johnson products to anyone and they are extremely clever in their marketing strategies. Take that for whatever it's worth and I will be open to any rebuttals or disagreements you may have regarding my statements and will certainly look into it personally if I see where I'm wrong in respect to any claims I made.

Fair enough :-) buy whatever you find works for you. Buy whatever soap has the least number of added ingredients and is basically just tallow maybe something like ivory?  I like seeing other posters who ramble on with long multi-paragraph responses like I tend to do especially when provide useful information that teaches me something so I appreciate your post

Edited October 10, 2023 by sholomar

[Princess Arabia]

3 hours ago, sholomar said:

Fair enough :-) buy whatever you find works for you. Buy whatever soap has the least number of added ingredients and is basically just tallow maybe something like ivory?  I like seeing other posters who ramble on with long multi-paragraph responses like I tend to do especially when provide useful information that teaches me something so I appreciate your post

Appreciate your response.

[Princess Arabia]

14 hours ago, MarkKol said:

You probably smell like a weed then

I smell like roses?

[nuwu]

If sensitive, potentially make custom cosmetics. Study chemistry or analyze commercial formulations with tools such as GPT and https://incidecoder.com. For scalp health, aim for pH of 4.5 to 5.5, to deter unfriendly organisms.

Advantages of DIY formulations
- Strong artificial antioxidants and anti-microbial are non-essential due to shorter shelf-life expectancy and controlled storage conditions. Controlled inclusion facilitates skin-sensitive and environmental adjustments, by ensuring adequate stability and biodegradability of each ingredient. 
- Iterative and personalized
- Cost-effective, usually cheaper
- Verified concentration potency

Example ingredients worth researching
- Glycerin: Moisturizer, humectant
- Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate: Surfactant, emulsion
- Cocamidopropyl Betaine: Surfactant
- Xanthan Gum: Viscosity (safer solution to manipulate without spills or drops), mild oil-in-water emulsion
- Citric Acid: Buffering, mild chelating agent (may mitigate hard water / chlorine issues)  
- Acetic Acid: Buffering, mild antimicrobial
- Tapioca Starch: Thickener
- α-lipoic acid: Anti-oxydants, chelating agent
- Lavender Essential Oil: Mild anti-oxydants, anti-microbial, perfume (may cause irritation)
- Rosemary Essential Oil: Vasodilation (may cause irritation)
- Zinc Oxide (non-nano): Mineral UVA / UVB protection. Sunblock factors have exponential diminishing returns
- Niacinamide: anti-acne, psoriasis, keratosis, may regulate NO vasodilation causing rosacea (redness)
- Salicylic Acid: Anti-acne, exfoliant
- Azelaic Acid
- Bakuchiol: Presumably binds to retinol receptors without causing irritations or sunlight sensitivities like the latter
- Lecithin: Water-in-oil emulsion, source of phospholipids 
- Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate: Stable derivative to ascorbic acid with prolongated effects
- L-Citrulline: NO vasodilation (may exacerbate existing condition depending on pathology)
- EDTA-2NA: Strong chelating agent (non-biodegradable), binds metal ions and may improve solution stability (potential negative toxicology as suggested by @Princess Arabia)
- Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): Anti-microbial, source of organic silica 

Ensure proper solubility, stability, and reactive potentials of compounds before manipulation. Bacterias and molds still have negative effects in short timeframes, adequate anti-microbial is necessary. Wear a mask and protective glasses if manipulating powders that could damage lungs or eyes (e.g. ZnO). I am not a chemist, this is non-advisory. Be careful, the devil's in the details. Else brands such as CeraVe have decent skin-neutral products.

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by nuwu

[MarkKol]

6 hours ago, Princess Arabia said:

I smell like roses?

What type of African black soup smells like roses

[Schizophonia]

8 minutes ago, MarkKol said:

What type of African black soup smells like roses

She is West Indian.

Everyone knows that black Africans smell like lavender.

[Princess Arabia]

8 minutes ago, MarkKol said:

What type of African black soup smells like roses

Soap is for cleansing; it's not a perfume. The African soap I use doesn't smell. It's neutral. Even if it was scented, the scent, as in say lavender, would be there for it's medicinal purposes as in leaving the skin soft or healing the skin of skin issues. You wouldn't walk around smelling like lavender if it was used to scent soap because it gets washed off,