What did people do before shampoo?

When ever I go a few days without shampooing or just simply washing my hair out with water(no shampoo or conditioner) it becomes greasy, crumbly and unpleasant. However shampoo only became popular in Europe about 1 or 2 hundred years ago so what were they doing before that to keep their hair in shape? I find it hard to imagine that everyone back then had greasy, dried hair, in stories and texts it tells of people with beautiful, waving locks and in all the old photographs their hair looks as good as ours today

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Well, respectable women used to brush their hair a LOT with boar bristles which removed dirt and excess oil and they perfumed their hairs with essential oils as well.

They also occasionally washed their hair, but not at all like we do these days and usually with only a rinse or mild soap. There were a plethora of home cleansing remedies, a lot of them dry or herbal.

Also women didn't cut the length as often, so they needed all the extra oil to keep all that hair healthy. The shorter your hair the more often you have to wash it so men would have just used regular soap to scrub their heads with their usual bath.

Here's an excerpt from a 1890 guide on hair cleaning for women, keep in mind this is when bathing was already much more regular.
>The hair should be shampooed once a month, and any dust that lodges upon the scalp between the shampooings should be removed with a moderately stiff brush. The shampooing process is simple enough, the only difficulty being to dry the hair thoroughly. Of course, the drying process is most tedious when the suite is very heavy, and coarse hair dries more easily than fine, since it is by nature less moist. Before the hair is washed the dandruff should be raised from the scalp by means of a brush having stiff bristles set quite far apart in a rubber back, which will yield to the scalp and thus render the bristles less rigid, though taking nothing from their effectiveness.

>A good shampoo may be made with pure white Castile soap, which is more beneficial than a soap that contains much alkali, because the oil used in its manufacture is very wholesome, and enough of it remains on the hair to render it soft and glossy. Shave the soap finely, and dissolve it in warm water, using enough soap to make a strong, thick lather, which, for convenience, should be placed in a bottle. When ready to shampoo, pour a liberal quantity of the liquid upon the hair and rub it well into the scalp with the fingers. When the scalp and hair have been thoroughly cleansed, rinse them with clear water until the soap is entirely removed. It is advisable to use warm water for rinsing, as cold water might shock the scalp enough to produce unpleasant results. After the last rinsing, rub the hair as dry as possible with a coarse towel.

>The best way to dry the hair in Winter is to spread it in the heat of a grate fire or a coal or gas stove. The heat from a hot-air furnace is not advised, as a register usually discharges too much dust; neither is fanning recommended, because the strong current of air thus produced often causes neuralgia and other affections. In Summer the open air or, better still, the warm sunlight is the preferred dryer.

>When the hair is perfectly dry, free it, carefully from snarls and tangles with a coarse comb, beginning by combing out the ends and gradually working upward. If the hair is combed too near the scalp at first, it will be far more difficult to remove the tangles, more hair will be lost, and the operation of combing will be quite painful. Unusually dry hair is frequently softened with a little “brilliantine,” a well known preparation, which is poured into the hollow of the hand and transferred to the hair, not the scalp, and is then brushed through.

thanks for the info, but even this is after the introduction of shampoo into Europe, what was it like a thousand years ago or even before?

I've often heard the argument that using shampoo is like coffee: at first it gives you more energy but if you keep using it you will soon have to be drinking a cup a day just get the energy level you had before you have started drinking it in the first place

In the 18th century, castile soap was used if you wanted to clean your hair. But in between soaps women would use hair oils, powders and pomades which helped keep your hair thick and shiny.

So to surmise it was mostly about the brushing. The old wives tale of "100 brush strokes" comes from these times where you would brush very thoroughly at least every night before bed.

People also had more tolerances for what we might consider "oily" hair today, because up-does and breads where very fashionable for the last 500 years or so rather than loose length which was usually reserved for young girls.

Soap has been around in some form or another since antiquity, they may not have had dedicated shampoo but they could wash their hair in the same manner as their bodies.

You are correct about modern shampoos causing us to become dependent on them.

This thread is starting to interest me as well(and I'm a dude), what did men use to do before shampoo or even before soap was common?

>When ever I go a few days without shampooing or just simply washing my hair out with water(no shampoo or conditioner) it becomes greasy, crumbly and unpleasant.
Shampoo is actually not awesome for your hair. The reason it gets so greasy and nasty if you don't wash it is because it's trying to get back to an equilibrium. Your hair is supposed to have natural oils in it to protect it.
I stopped using shampoo a while ago, and use baking soda to wash my hair and scalp, and apple cider vinegar to condition. My hair looks fine (but to be honest I keep it pretty short) and I used to have a big problem with dry scalp in the winters but not anymore.
Also stop taking hot showers, its bad for your skin and hair. Try Warm-to-cool showers.
Also there's a reason women's fashion for a long time was to cover their hair

not the op, but am wondering is it possible to stop becoming dependent on them?

>Also there's a reason women's fashion for a long time was to cover their hair

Why?

>is it possible to stop becoming dependent on them?
Yes. nopoomethod.com/

Thanks for the advice, I think I will try something like that

Something effective for scouring the body has always been available, even if only just water and some sand or clean mud and even oil. They just didn't have the same concept of "shampoo" as something unique to cleaning the head, its pretty la-di-da if you think it about from a historical perspective, especially for men.

Use soft water and castille or another mild soap that wont leave residue into a light lather and rinse well once or twice a month and wear a shower-cap the rest of the time. You can also try dry shampoos as well but you don't need to go full "nopoo" crazy to get the benefits.

Be careful with vinegar rinses, it fried the ends of my hair and I had to stop using it.

Its hard to stay squeaky clean unless you were upper-class until recently. Women wore clothing that covered most of their bodies including hats. I personally don't believe hats were popular to hide less-than tidy hair but it certainly didn't hurt.

Women's hairstyles and fashion were not rooted in covering up a dirty body or oily hair. Women's fashion was based on an expectation of modesty. In Europe, wearing hats had its roots in passages from the Bible which implied, or were interpreted as anyway, meaning that women should wear head coverings when going to church or worshiping. This line of thought then extended to being a dress code for a proper woman in society as a whole, and it eventually became a social convention for many years for women to wear something on their head in public settings rather than a religious or moral statute.

Hats, like clothing, were also used to signify status. Only wealthy women could afford to wear expensive hats or coverings... in some cases it was even a law. For instance, Henry VIII made it illegal for women to wear French hoods or other coverings with certain materials unless your husband had a certain amount of wealth.

I had always assumed there was something pragmatic behind it like covering up long hair to make it that much harder for parasites to get in there (like lice, fleas, scabies-mites, or whatever).

Almost every civilization dabbled in hats and such as obligatory dress up until just a few decades ago.

That's not even how lice work

Water and constant combing/brushing can do a lot to take out excess oils.
They also did have (more harsh) regular soap made from hydroxylayton of animal fat like we use now(soponification) for our bodies with fragrance added. If you know antthing aboyt hair, you know that such harsh soap (especially with sulfates) strips the hair of all oils. They then would then replace the lost natural oils (the human scalp tends to secrete an oil called jojoba oil I believe) with essential oils like olive oil, the most common oil in Europe, or Argan oil, almond oil, avacado oil, etc. else where.

>Almost every civilization dabbled in hats
I'm disappointed in myself for how much this made me laugh.

British royals are still obligated to wear hats in public. Horrible, horrible hats.

This is a bit off topic but
do you have very thick curly hair too? Eitherway, I recommend a moisturizing shampoo without sulfates. sodium laurel sulfate and other sulfates are the main ingredient in most shampoos that strips alot of natural oils from hair.
Apple cider vinager is great (not sure about baking soda since that is more basic and your hair/scalp is more acidic) but it doesn't completely cleanse dust built up from the environment we are usually exposed to these days, especially if you put products in your hair.

>dabbled in hats
My friend dabbled in hats for a while, fucked him up real good.

Did he get help early enough? Hats are a gateway drug to poufs and if you make it that far, god help you...

your hair adjusts and stops being so oily after you stop using shampoo everyday

your hair only gets super greasy after a day of missing shampoo because you shampoo everyday and fucks your hair oil up

this thread is peak american

shampoo is bad for your hair you dullard.

idk but here's a bump

This hair looks pretty oily.

>When ever I go a few days without shampooing or just simply washing my hair out with water(no shampoo or conditioner) it becomes greasy, crumbly and unpleasant.

What if I told you shampoo does that?
The reason is that shampoo does away the natural level of oil/grease our hair has and to compensate our bodies go into overdrive in producing said oil/grease on our scalp/hair.


>I find it hard to imagine that everyone back then had greasy, dried hair, in stories and texts it tells of people with beautiful, waving locks and in all the old photographs their hair looks as good as ours today

That's due to their hair maintaining their natural levels of oil.
If you want to experience for yourself, use baking soda and vinegar to keep your hair clean, in that order without washing it in between. In 2-4 weeks your hair should have adjusted to your new, less destructive washing habits and you too can experience what's it like to wash your hair 2-3 times a week and looking as good as someone who shampoos daily. Just remember to be patient. You can google this shit.

In general it's a good idea to do the above even if you didn't care for looks. Shampoos include a whole variety of shit that's damaging for the human body. You can use it and get by just fine but you'd always be better off without.

Been doing some research on shampoos recently trying to find something to do about my oily scalp and flakes. The possible issue with Castile soap is it being too alkaline and making your hair fall out as well as being too drying even if diluted. That still doesn't mean commercial shampoos with SLS are great though.
An old Mexican friend of my mother mentioned before about having used mud from the river back in the day.

There are also those soap nuts.

Just to be clear, to do nopoo for the first month should I just wash my hair with water only or should I use baking powder aswell(if so how often)

here. I washed my hair with the method I described like once, maybe twice a week.

I was satisfied with the results (as a male with medium-length hair).

I did the baking soda for a while without the vinegar rinse. I imagine it must be drying on the scalp. It should be diluted in something before hand.

I use shampoo like once a week and conditioner every other day. Seems to work fine,my hair is thick and grows fast, never greasy or brittle. I also only shower in freezing cold water

Mystic Water and SheaMoisture make a lot of interesting products. Rather than giving over wholeheartedly to the natural trend it would probably be a good idea to pick and use things for a specific purpose since some of these essential oils can be as or even more toxic and harmful than the chemicals found in popular commercial shampoos if ingested or contacted with the eyes. Otherwise a bare bones unscented soap or shampoo bar might be even better.

thanks

Water > Brush > Toner/Balsam > Using shampoo
I am not saying shampoo is evil
But it really is.
I don't even how such a vile thing entered society, and made it into mass commercialization.

>few days
>it becomes greasy, crumbly and unpleasant

Try a couple of weeks and your question will be answered. This is your scalp counteracting because of the imbalance caused by shampoo, just like your eyes become very teary if you have problems with dry eyes.

>industrialization, convenience, market pricing for materials
in no particular order

I want to add, as someone who uses shampoo very sparingly, my hair is completely fine during the no shampoo periods, but when I use shampoo it will become greasy and oily a couple of days afterwards for the reason stated in the post above.

Oh, right, definitely this.

I used like 60% water rations for both the vinegar and baking soda dilutions.
Remember to shake the soda well before use!

-

So if Shampoo is bad how should I wash my hair?

Just rinse it well with water until it stops the cycle of grease after a short while

Ever heard of soap you dirty fuck?

Shampoo is competing with taking a shower without shampoo, and normal baths without shampoo.

Aqua Vida
And all that

I'm a guy and haven't used shampoo in years. Have a lovely head of brown hair. Works out for me

idk

Same. I haven't used shampoo in a year and I surf often, so lots of sand, salt and ocean water touching my.hair. Still, all my hairdressers always told me I've got great hair.

>wash your hair 2-3 times a week and looking as good as someone who shampoos daily.
isn't it necessary to wash your hair more often because of dust, dead skin and dandruff accumulating?

I haven't used shampoo in several years, but I do wash my hair with water every day that I go to work. nobody has ever said that my hair is dirty or anything, but at the end of the day if i brush my head with my hand repeatedly and quickly i can see some dust and dead skin go fliying (i just checked and it's actually less than i was expecting, but it was noticeable). do i just have less healty hair than most people?

also, i never use toothpaste, but i brush my teeth once a day before going to day almost every day. i have some black spots in some teeth, but none in the front ones so nobody notices even if i smile. i like to think even if i used toothpaste this wouldn't change

I never use shampoo (only water) and my hair's fine and I have long hair. Shampoo is a scam

Heres your answer. They used sea salt and that other shit

...

Yeah, use soap. Regular ass soap.

Unless you use any hair products, it shouldnt be necesary to wash your hair any more than a couple times a week.

yeah thanks Lindy, we all know how that worked out for you.

ikr
these dumbfucks even use 'lotion' to masturbate sometimes

sup Veeky Forums
short haired guy here
Savon de Marseille is what i use
it's mostly olive oil

>I - I did not bring my hats either.