Washing Your Hair with Soap: Should You or Not?

What is soap?

Soap is a cleanser made through saponification, a reaction between fats and a base (lye) that forms sodium or potassium salts and glycerin.

These salts are what we call soap, and only cleansers made through saponification can properly be called soap; everything else is usually called a detergent.

By nature, soap is also a surfactant, because it acts mainly on the surface of things, in this case skin and hair. Soap comes in two forms: bar soap made with NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and liquid soap made with KOH (potassium hydroxide). When listing ingredients on the packaging, makers may leave out the base, because after saponification the base has fully reacted or been neutralised and no longer remains in the soap.

You will often see these words on the packaging of cleansing products: soap and cleansing. Can you see the difference? Even if two cleansing bars are both square or round, if one says soap and the other says cleansing, that already tells you they are different.

Soap is soap, meaning saponification has taken place. Cleansing bars, shower gels and shampoos are all blends of detergents. Keep this in mind so you buy the type you actually need.

Why can you wash your hair with soap?

Besides bathing, soap can also be used to wash your hair, wash your face, and so on. What you are probably wondering is how to wash your hair with soap, right? We can absolutely use soap to wash our hair, whether your hair is long, curly or short.

What matters, though, is your own experience with each type of soap, because "natural" products can be picky about who they suit. Some people get on with them from the very first wash, others need 1 to 2 weeks for their body to adjust, and some still cannot adjust even after that period. In short, it takes patience and a willingness to experiment.

And not every soap can be used to wash your hair. Each bar is made from a different recipe, and the maker has to understand whether the properties of their soap suit the scalp, and whether its values are right. Is the cleansing value too high? Does it suit oily or dry hair and scalp? A soap that is too conditioning will not suit an oily scalp. Is the lather stable, and does it stay on the hair long enough for you to massage your scalp?

How to wash your hair?

Washing is much simpler than using boiled herbal leaves. Just wet your hair (the wetter your hair, the easier it is to lather), wet the bar of soap and rub it onto your hair to make a lather, then massage your scalp with your fingertips. Massaging both cleans the scalp and boosts blood circulation there, helping nourish the hair roots. Then rinse your hair with clean water.

If you want cleaner hair that stays clean longer, wash a second time. Don't comb your hair at this point, because freshly washed hair feels squeaky: the strands have just been cleaned and build up static, so they cling to each other.

Also, soap is a natural cleanser and contains no silicones like industrial shampoos, nor anti-static conditioning agents, which is another reason hair feels squeaky right after washing. Once your hair dries, though, the strands loosen up by themselves and become soft and smooth.

After all the cleansing steps, this is an important step for those with shoulder-length hair or longer: mix half a lemon, or 4 tablespoons of vinegar, with 2l of clean water and rinse your hair with it.

Rinse from roots to ends to make your hair smoother and stop it feeling sticky or squeaky, because by now your scalp's pH has been balanced and the static in your hair reduced. Then rinse your hair one last time with clean water to wash out any vinegar water left in it, so that the ends don't become dry afterwards.

If your ends feel dry once your hair has dried, you can rub 2 drops of hair oil into the roots.

You can use hydrosols or hair oils to care for your hair every day. In particular, don't let fear of hair fall make you skip brushing twice a day; this is an important step that helps scalp circulation and makes the hair roots stronger.

The pH of soap and hair washing

When you search the internet about washing your hair with natural soap, you will surely come across two opposing views, and what people are wary of is the pH of soap. Soap has a pH of 8 - 10, while other shampoo products usually fall around 5 - 6.5; our scalp is acidic, while soap is alkaline.

In theory, soap would be harsh on our scalp, but in practice, for a very long time many people have successfully used soap to wash their hair, and over many years their hair has had no problems.

I am a typical example: I have washed my hair with soap for more than 4 years, and my hair is still very healthy, with no split ends, damage, weakness or anything of the sort. So some things work one way in theory but give completely the opposite result in practice. So give yourself a chance to try it.

What you might experience when washing

When it comes to using true soap to wash your hair, not everyone will get on with it and like it from the very first wash, and it is even harder for people who have only ever used industrial products to clean their hair.

People who have only used bottled shampoos before may run into this too, because this is a completely different product from what you have been using. The biggest benefit of natural soap is that it cleans and protects the scalp, helping it return to its own natural balance suited to each person's body.

Conventional shampoos contain synthetic chemicals such as artificial fragrance, SLS, parabens and silicones. SLS is a chemical that strips away everything on your hair, including healthy natural oils. These shampoos then start leaving synthetic chemicals and their residues on your hair.

Using industrial shampoos and conditioners may feel great at first, but they actually harm hair and skin, and tend to give healthy hair more and more problems. Many conditioners contain various forms of silicone that make hair smooth at first, but with continued use your hair becomes drier, stiffer and damaged.

This is because silicone coats your hair completely, forming a layer that keeps moisture from getting into it. In the end this dries out your hair, which you may hardly notice, because the coating makes your hair feel soft and smooth when you run your hand through it.

Of course there are many different types of silicone, but on the whole they are not very good for your hair.

When you first start using natural shampoos, you may notice your hair is very greasy. This is your body overproducing natural oil to try to make up for everything that was stripped away by industrial shampoos.

It may also feel waxy and sticky, especially if you have long hair. This stickiness comes from the synthetic chemicals and residues from previously used shampoos that have built up on your hair.

Natural soap shampoo bars are extremely gentle and do not strip the natural oils from your hair, unlike shampoo bars that contain SLS and other harsh synthetic chemicals. This is why your hair needs time to get through this transition phase: it takes time for the natural shampoo to remove this built-up residue.

So you need to be patient until your hair has fully shed the built-up residue and your scalp has balanced its natural oil production. But trust me, once you are through it, your hair will feel better than ever, naturally nourished and full of life!

Pros and cons of washing your hair with soap

Pros:

• For short hair, it is a revolution: it adapts easily from the very first wash.

• Using natural soap helps your body limit its absorption of harmful chemicals and helps clear out the residue that earlier hair cleansing products left on your hair, so your scalp can gradually recover and rebalance on its own.

• Convenient to use: a single bar of soap can be used for hair, face, body and more.

• Less waste from bottles and jars going into the environment.

• Soap bars are usually scented with essential oils, so you also benefit from the therapeutic properties of essential oils, helping you feel more relaxed and refreshed.

Cons:

• You need patience while your scalp rebalances over time.

• In areas with hard water, washing your hair with soap will not work as well as in soft-water areas.

• For permed or coloured hair, this is not something I recommend, because washing with soap strips the dye and makes your hair gradually lose its colour. Use the Indigo shampoo bar to deal with this.

• For long hair, you must rinse your hair with vinegar water or lemon water after washing to neutralise the scalp.