Is baking soda good for your hair?
Hello! What does baking soda do to your hair? I was wondering if using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda is okay to use to bleach hair with?
Using baking soda for hair might sound like a surprising idea, but it is a simple and efficient solution for hair hygiene. Recently, it has become popular with those who are fed up with commercial products and would like to switch to natural ones. Yet, natural doesn’t always mean safe, so baking soda has to be used with caution. The article will give you a clear idea of how to make your locks happy with baking soda used for a hair wash!
Pros of Shifting to Baking Soda
Washing hair with baking soda efficiently and thoroughly removes all impurities and residues of hair care products. Soda is a strong cleansing product similar to a clarifying shampoo. Also, it exfoliates the scalp and can be applied for dandruff removal. Those who are used to washing the hair on a daily basis often report that with baking soda, they have gradually moved to doing it every second or even third day. Soda leaves no film on locks and makes them crispy clean and soft.
Apart from baking soda benefits for hair, it is good for the planet. Soda is an eco-friendly natural substance that doesn’t pollute the environment, and it’s cheap. Using an egg and baking soda instead of commercial shampoo is highly recommended by activists of the no-shampoo movement. While washing hair with egg emulsion is more complicated, soda application is pretty straightforward.
You can use baking soda for hard water. Hair will only benefit from it. Have you ever noticed white marks on your shower walls? They are salts of calcium and magnesium. If you live in a region with hard water, the salts leave a film on your tresses every time you wash them. Baking soda not only makes the water softer but also washes away the salts accumulated in the strands.
Cons of Using Baking Soda
The negative side is that it might dry and irritate the scalp and be bad for your hair in the long run. Soda is not a mild product — it is rather aggressive. Over time, it removes the natural oil from the hair and causes breakage. But that’s what any shampoo does, and we use conditioners and masks after a wash just to soften, moisturize, and nourish our manes.
Nevertheless, if you have dry or irritated scalp, dermatitis, or chronic conditions, such as eczema or psoriasis, you need to be extra prudent with soda or, maybe, skip it altogether and go for a more delicate product.
Please be careful with this. Baking soda is too harsh for hair in the long term. If your experience follows mine, your hair may be great at first, but over the weeks and months will become brittle, cracked, and start falling out. @india.holton
How to Use Baking Soda for Hair
To make a natural cleanser, put a tablespoon of baking soda in water and stir until the soda completely dissolves to create a creamy texture. You might want to add some essential oil to the mixture. Your baking soda shampoo is ready for use! Apply it on the hair and scalp and massage gently for a minute or two. After washing it out, it is highly recommended to balance the ph of your tresses with a slightly acidic rinse — that’s where you should combine lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and baking soda for your hair to shine.
If your locks are used to commercial shampoos with added silicones, it will take a couple of washes for the build up in your hair to go away. When it does, you might need to reduce the amount of soda to half a spoon per wash.
Also, remember that you need to make a fresh soda shampoo every time you use it. But it takes only a minute, and, in the long run, you will save time considering you will wash your hair less often.
Baking soda and vinegar for hair have to go together every wash. Once or twice a month you need to make a deeply nourishing and moisturizing mask. You could use coconut oil or castor oil or make an avocado hair mask, simply applying a mashed avocado to your hair. Alternatively, you can opt for honey and baking soda for hair. Honey is a mild conditioner for the hair that needs more moisturizing.
Baking Soda for Removing Hair Dye
If you are into retaining your brand-new shade, please do not use baking soda for washing your hair unless you want to strip the color off! Meantime, if the coloring job was not a great success, you can make a hair dye remover from soda. Due to its high cleansing qualities, the substance can remove the pigment you don’t like.
You need to increase the amount of soda to two tablespoons per cup of water and blend it as described above. Or prepare a baking soda and lemon juice mixture, which is going to be even more efficient. Lemon has strong bleaching properties to free your colored hair from the wrong tint. You might need 3-4 washes on consecutive days to take the color away completely.
Remember to moisturize and nourish your locks after the treatment a lot!
Baking Soda for Blonde Hair
It is also possible to use baking soda to get your natural hair color 1-2 shades lighter. Let’s mix baking soda and hydrogen peroxide for hair lightening:
– Take one cup of baking soda and three tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide.
– Mix the two ingredients into a paste.
– Apply it to your hair and leave for 15-30 minutes.
– Rinse thoroughly with cold water.
Baking soda is a very efficient hair cleanser that works especially well for greasy hair. Over time, it helps to reduce the number of washes to a couple of times a week. However, while it might be a good idea to employ baking soda for oily hair treatments, it won’t be that beneficial for dry curly hair. The latter needs less frequent soda applications combined with other natural washes. Try it yourself and see what works better for you!
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