Just eat a piece of meat.

Early last fall, my hair started falling out in clumps. I’m 27.
Washing my hair every day was traumatizing as more and more strands tangled in my fingers.
It must be because I’m vegan. Or so said my father the doctor, my fiance the Inca, and my endocrinologist. Just eat a piece of meat.
I bought expensive shampoo with placenta in it. I’m not sure what type of animal it came from, but at six months before my wedding, and with a frightened look on the Inca’s face every time he looked at my receding hairline for long, I was desperate.
It had to be stress was the consensus. I was changing countries and moving in with my fiance in Peru. That would stress anyone, right?
But it didn’t get better once I started to settle in here. I had a serious problem. Several bloods tests and doctors’ visits, and even a non-vegan week involving red meat, didn’t help.

Around the holidays, I desperately wanted to recreate the feeling in my new home from my old home: warm cookies, a steamy kitchen, and plates of not-so-good-for-you decadence.
I found this RecipeZaar Vegan Oatmeal Raisin recipe – my first time making cookies from scratch – and they were unbeLIEVable AND easy to adapt (added nuts, added cocoa powder, etc.) They had flax as an egg replacer.
I ate so many I felt ill. But my hair loss seemed to slow in those days.
I was convinced it was the flax. I started adding 3-4 tablespoons to my high-fiber cereal every morning. I seemed to be getting better, and fast. It wasn’t a full cure, but it was certainly helping.
Then a few weeks ago, as I decided to detoxify our cleaning and personal care products and make more natural, homemade ones, a friend (East Coast hippie relocated to the West Coast, and living the co-op life. Not NY co-op. Like real co-op. Big hippie points!) said he stopped using shampoo and pointed me to Paleo. I was intrigued. Sure, he’s down to a little mohawk, and my hair is well past shoulder length, but whatever. Shampoo seems unnatural. To cut it out of my routine as much as possible made sense.
I made it to three days with just water washes, making sure to comb it our really well under the running water. It wasn’t tangled or oil. I even went running and only washed with water. My hair felt thicker and happier and looked fabulous. The Inca commented on it before knowing about my little experiment.
And best of all? Hardly any hair was falling out. Like, much less that even before the Great Fall Fall of 2009. It didn’t smell bad, or unwashed. It actually smelled… good.
I eventually gave in out of habit. My Head & Shoulders – or maybe it was the Pantene conditioner – made my hair feel greasy almost immediately. So I’m on Day 2 of no shampoo. I’m looking into natural alternatives to shampoo as well. Conclusion? I want to stay away from shampoos as long as possible. As long it looks good and feels good, I’m going to keep going with it. But as I did with veganism early on, I will cut myself some slack and revert to old habits when I feel it’s necessary. Quitting full on is rarely a good idea.
I also want to try an apple cider vinegar rinse.