Media Critics Bash White Woman For Not Using Shampoo For 5 Years

Do you watch the Today show? Well if you don’t, just to give you an idea, they have two shows, the early morning show with Matt Lauer and Al Roker and the rest of the team and then they have a late hour show with Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb.

In mid January Kathie and Hoda brought attention to a blogger who had not washed her hair in 5 years. Let me clarify, no pun intended, she had not shampooed her hair in 5 years.

Jacquelyn Byers, writes a blog called LittleOwlCrunchyMomma where Little Owl is the nick name for her baby girl. If you read the original post Jacquelyn explains that she doesn’t use shampoo for some of the same reasons us curly girls try to avoid it, and that is sulfates. But she goes further to add that the ingredient lists on most shampoo bottles are questionable and she asks,”would you drink this?”

The reason Jacquelyn questions the ingredient list on a typical bottle of shampoo is simple, she believes that whatever you use on your skin and scalp can indeed enter your body.

She says:

Whatever you put on your body goes into your body, right? (I hope you know that). If you wouldn’t be comfortable drinking it, why would you be comfortable slathering it all over your head and then rinsing it down your body?

Natural product enthusiasts say that if you can eat it then you can use it in your hair. Of course this doesn’t apply to everything but we have gotten quite creative with what we use on our hair in the name of conditioning especially if we consider it all natural.

It took a while for me to think about how to approach this post, I thought Kathie Lee in particular was very harsh in her expression of how she felt about Jacquelyn’s habits, but then again she has always been a straight forward ‘opinionated”, border line” harsh” character anyway. They questioned if she washes anything else, you know like those other areas! They turned up there noses and wondered if she smelled.

Here is what Jacquelyn had to say in response:

UPDATE #3: What else don’t you wash?!

Apparently when you come out and say you don’t use shampoo on your hair, people assume you don’t wash anything else…. Just to clarify, I do.

I wash my body.

Yes, I use soap to wash my body. Granted, I think that we use soap too much, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wash my hands or cleanse the areas of my body that naturally tend to exude odors…. So, yes, I use soap. This is the soap I have by my sink and in my shower. It has three ingredients.  I have made my own soap in the past, and plan to again, but this is a nice convenience to have right now.

Here are my honest thoughts; if it works for you so be it. Jacquelyn uses pure water on her hair because other natural sources like Apple Cider Vinegar* and Baking Soda made her hair dry.

I will admit that I am so trained to have a cleansing agent whenever I am washing anything so even if I were to go all natural I would want to try a healthy ‘shampoo’ bar or something. I think the key to this whole au natural thing, is education, we have some great companies that specialize in using all natural ingredients to make soaps and shampoo bars, we can even make our own that way we know exactly what is in the product.

Jacquelyn is obviously not looking for advise despite the media ‘outcry’ and she is making her own choices for herself just like she should. When you think about it we are always so quick to judge and bash when people do things that are considered outside the norm yet we eat and use things that are dangerous for our health daily.

Just yesterday I heard the story about Subway using a major ingredient in the dough they use to make all their breads that is also found in Yoga mats and the soles of shoes. I gotta tell you, I would much rather not eat my Yoga mat but apparently I have before and I enjoyed it!

Commercial products are scary, what we get in the supermarket in cans and plastic containers in the name of nourishment is scary and what we put on our hair in the name of moisture and cleansing is equally scary. Ever wonder why they say do not use a chemical relaxer while pregnant?

At the end of the day you have to do what’s best for you and make the best choice for yourself and your family just like Jacquelyn did, no judgment here and kudos to her.

To read more and see what Jacquelyn had to say in a recent interview, check out the Huffington Post article here.