What is this smell, and why won't it go away?
I've been shampoo-free for almost two months now, and came here when I was experiencing beginning newbie woes. I've settled on a system that's been working pretty well for me, in terms of feel and appearance; water only, followed by plopping with coconut oil (this is what really helped the dryness, I am a total coconut oil convert), and a BS+ACV wash about every week.
It was going fairly well, and I was really happy with the transition and the steps on having no-shampoo work for me, when something really odd happened.
My hair has started to smell very, very strongly of soap. As in laundry detergent-strong-soap smell. It's been driving me nuts for weeks, especially since I can't figure out for the life of me what might be causing it. I'm washing my hair every day, but every time I turn my head there's this...cloud of very soapy smell. My face and neck were smelling of soap for a while too, but that faded. Now it's just my hair. I did BS/ACV washes more often, nothing, switched from coconut oil to aloe vera gel, no change. I caved and used a shampoo (stuff from Trader Joe's at least) in an effort to just get it to go away and...shampoo failed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the heck this is? I'm lucky in that it's not a terribly bad smell, but it's a weird one, and it's driving me bonkers.
Edit, as of two weeks later: It ended up being the coconut oil! I'd been unable to completely wash it out of my hair, and that what caused the build-up and smell; it took about this time to dissipate completely. Now, obviously this does not happen to everyone, but if you're worried about this sort of build-up/scent and don't know what it is, it might be the coconut oil.
It was going fairly well, and I was really happy with the transition and the steps on having no-shampoo work for me, when something really odd happened.
My hair has started to smell very, very strongly of soap. As in laundry detergent-strong-soap smell. It's been driving me nuts for weeks, especially since I can't figure out for the life of me what might be causing it. I'm washing my hair every day, but every time I turn my head there's this...cloud of very soapy smell. My face and neck were smelling of soap for a while too, but that faded. Now it's just my hair. I did BS/ACV washes more often, nothing, switched from coconut oil to aloe vera gel, no change. I caved and used a shampoo (stuff from Trader Joe's at least) in an effort to just get it to go away and...shampoo failed.
Does anyone have any ideas on what the heck this is? I'm lucky in that it's not a terribly bad smell, but it's a weird one, and it's driving me bonkers.
Edit, as of two weeks later: It ended up being the coconut oil! I'd been unable to completely wash it out of my hair, and that what caused the build-up and smell; it took about this time to dissipate completely. Now, obviously this does not happen to everyone, but if you're worried about this sort of build-up/scent and don't know what it is, it might be the coconut oil.