Why is baking soda so bad for your hair? And how can you fix extreme damage?
This guide is for you if you’ve been dealing with severe hair damage. OR If you’ve been on the no ‘poo baking soda train and want to get off.
You’re in the right place! I’m going to tell you my own story with severe hair damage and how to fix it in a few simple steps.
I’m sure you’re determined to grow your hair out fast and/or eliminate all that damage that’s been accumulating over time. I’m here to tell you that there is a light at the end of this tunnel! Because I’ve been there.
If you’ve just tried baking soda shampoo, you might be noticing the extra breakage. Don’t worry though! I’ve got plenty of baking soda shampoo alternatives to bring your hair back to life in as little as one month.
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What Does Baking Soda Do to Your Hair?
The short answer is baking soda slowly destroys the health of your hair and scalp. The longer answer involves some science.
We’re going to look at the pH scale to explain how baking soda damaged hair is formed over time. Those of you who have tried baking soda shampoo may be wondering what the heck happened.
Or if you have severe hair damage, stick with me, because this applies to you too.
Here’s how baking soda interacts with your hair:
To start off with the basics, the pH scale determines how acidic or basic a substance is, and it ranges from 0-14.
Zero is the most acidic and at the same level as battery acid, while you can find the most basic things like bleach and lye at about 14. Seven is completely neutral, and your blood actually falls into this category!
In order for your hair to be clean and happy, it needs to be washed with a substance that has a similar pH. Your hair falls at about 4.5 on the scale, so it’s slightly acidic.
Baking soda, on the other hand, falls at 9.5! See what a big difference that is? Baking soda for hair growth is a myth that needs to be debunked in the clean beauty community.
But Isn’t Baking Soda Known for Cleaning Hair Well?
Yes, but at the cost of severely damaging your ends. Having such a basic substance applied to your acidic hair disrupts its environment, breaking your hair cuticles open and allowing severe damage to happen.
Another problem with baking soda shampoo is that the difference of pH actually over-cleans your hair. Over-cleaning, or clarifying, means that every trace of grease and gunk on your hair will be stripped off.
Sounds great, right? Not necessarily.
Diluted “baking soda shampoo” will not only get all the bad stuff off your hair, but the good stuff as well. We’ve been operating under the assumption that oil is bad, but your skin (and therefore your scalp) need oil to be its healthiest self!
Baking soda shampoo can over-strip and thus cause major damage to your hair over time.
Now let me be clear here; it’s totally fine to use a diluted baking soda shampoo on your hair if it feels weighed down with chemicals or other gunk.
Doing a baking soda rinse on your hair would be good for occasions like after swimming in a chlorinated pool. But you should only do it once and follow up with some good moisturizing products right after.
Never use baking soda shampoo consistently!!
Baking Soda is Also Terrible for Scalp Health
The lack of moisture and oils doesn’t just affect your hair’s pH, it affects your scalp too!
Baking soda burning your scalp is a very common side effect of the no ‘poo method. I personally never felt any irritation when I tried it, but you should especially not wash your hair with baking soda if you have a sensitive scalp or dandruff.
Your scalp is what creates the sebum that makes your hair look greasy, so you want to treat it well. Even if you don’t feel irritation from the baking soda, it’s still very harsh.
The cleaning power of baking soda usually over cleans your scalp, making it produce even more sebum! The key with making your scalp produce less oil is to give it gentle products less frequently.
People have used and sworn by baking soda shampoo, only to find major breakage on their hair they worked so hard to grow!
It can take a few months, or even a couple years, but the over-cleaning power of baking soda catches up to anyone and everyone. It actually caught up to me rather quickly, which wasn’t fun.
My Damaging Experience with Baking Soda Shampoo
When I first started my clean beauty journey, I focused solely on my hair. I read on Pinterest that the best way to wash your hair was to put diluted baking soda on your roots about once a week followed by rinsing my ends with diluted apple cider vinegar.
It was not a fun experience. What followed was extremely greasy hair and more damage than I wanted.
My hair felt like I never washed it at all, even when I was fresh out of the shower. I was devastated! If your hair felt weird after baking soda shampoo, you are not alone!
The over-stripping power of baking soda caught up to me in a matter of weeks. The first week seemed okay, but the second and third weeks were a complete nightmare.
My hair was left feeling so dry and stripped, that anything coming into contact with it made it stand up on end from the static electricity. Even stroking my fingers through my hair made it come to life.
This greasy root and dry end combo did not look good at all. Unless my hair was tied back in a braid, it looked awful.
I fully planned on sticking it out, but I saw that I was starting to get split ends noticeably faster than before. I realized that my efforts to grow out my hair without shampoo were fruitless, so I turned to chemical-free shampoo instead.
The First Step to Fixing Severely Damaged Hair
Non-toxic, nourishing shampoo and conditioner with regular treatments is the way to go! Let’s stop the regular damage that can come from conventional hair care products and give your hair a chance to breathe and recover.
I eventually found a great all-natural hair and skincare company that saved my hair from complete breakage. Their shampoo for my hair type restored my hair’s health, and I bet it will work great for you!
I felt so duped after trying baking soda shampoo and destroying my hair. What most people rave about baking soda shampoo is that it restores the life of their hair. It feels softer and has more shine.
What’s interesting, though, is that there is no evidence to support this. Whether or not baking soda for hair is good or bad, you don’t want to make a lifestyle change based on anecdotes and no scientific evidence.
After hours of scouring Pinterest, I also came across some amazing yet little-known hacks to speed up hair growth. You should really check it out! These things are what actually made a difference in the growth and overall health of my hair.
Pick a Natural Shampoo and Conditioner that Works for You
If you need some suggestions for finding the best natural shampoo, I have an article that should help you out! You can find all of my favorite natural shampoos here.
I went back onto Pinterest after I realized what I had done to my hair, and I found all kinds of pins for hair care from Just Nutritive.
I went onto their site, and they had just about everything I needed to restore my hair! You can read my full review of Just Nutritive’s haircare line.
There’s something for oily hair, fine hair, thick hair, African American hair, just about every kind of hair (or lack there of)! They have styling products and hair treatments too.
Just Nutritive’s Oily Hair Shampoo was the very first natural shampoo I ever tried. And I loved it! Plus, their products are so big that I didn’t run out until over a year later!
And if Just Nutritive’s products don’t look that appealing to you, no worries! There are hundreds of nontoxic shampoos and conditioners for every hair type and price point. I’ve got my top natural shampoos you can check out, along with the best natural conditioners to go with it.
Some of my other favorite brands include:
Your Hair Healing Secret Weapon!
Now that you’ve found a great natural shampoo, I have some extra tips on how to fix damaged hair. These will seriously make all the difference!
While I wish there was an easy fix, the reality is that you’re going to have to grow out new hair and cut off the brittle hair.
I’m not saying you need to shave yourself bald!! Just start by going in for a trim to get off as much hair as you’re comfortable with. Chances are that your dead ends will be pretty up there.
Again, you can do this part at your own discretion.
While you wait for your hair to grow itself out again, you’ll have to keep it super-duper healthy to prevent further breakage. This can include:
- Regular hot oil treatments. I have a post on DIY hair oil you can use every day if need be. I would do an intensive oil treatment at least once a week by lightly oiling your hair a few hours before each shower.
- Wash your hair as little as possible. Yeah, you’ve got natural shampoo now, but that doesn’t mean the friction you create on your hair in the shower isn’t damaging. Try to stretch the time you can go in between washes so your hair can create its own oils and keep your ends healthy. I can currently go three days in between washes and I’m okay with that.
- Promote hair growth. The healing process will go by much faster if you try some hair growth hacks. Seriously, check it out!
- Consider a hair growth serum or herbal rinse. If you really want to kick your growth into high gear, there’s a hack for that! I highly recommend you look into regular herbal rinses or a scalp serum like Vegamour.
The hot oil treatments and prolonged periods between washes will help bring some luster back to your hair, but once its damaged, there isn’t much you can do.
The best thing you can do is practice healthy hair habits and wait for it to grow out again. For most people, you should be able to see improvements in about a month!
Baking Soda Shampoo is Feasible for Some, but Not Most
Contrary to this article’s purpose, I know that you can wash your hair with baking soda and be totally fine. I’ve had people tell me that they only use it as a kind of clarifying wash once a month or so, and that’s it.
Using baking soda on your hair once a month to every other month won’t damage your hair at all. But most people’s hair isn’t that low-maintenance, unfortunately.
It takes a lot of transition and “training” your hair to go for long periods between washes. This can be especially hard for people with curly or thin hair like myself.
I really wish that I could use baking soda shampoo like that, but my hair is just too greasy. This is one of my biggest struggles with clean beauty. But I’ve come to accept that it’s a part of genetics and healing some long out-of-balance hormones.
Believe me, I’ve tried training it to go for longer. I tried washing my hair once a week, but I saw zero change in my levels of greasiness over the course of months. Someday I’ll figure out how to go longer in between washes. And when I do, I’ll tell you all about it!
Before You Go!
The biggest thing I did to revamp and regrow my hair was to simplify my routine and use mostly DIY treatments whenever possible.
That’s why I highly recommend you check out the DIY hair recipe portion of my site! Is has way more recipes for hair growth that made a huge difference for me.