Throughout a long history, people have been experimenting with the laundering of hair. It is known what the ancient Greeks and Egyptians used for this purpose -- a mixture of clay and water. In medieval Europe they used water gruel made of flour and bran, mixed with talcum powder. Such mixtures adsorb oil and pollution. By the way, there are modern "dry" shampoos, powders, which are usually delivered in aerosol form - such as shampoo "YOU" by the German company "Schwarzkopf". The composition of these shampoos include talc, colloidal silica, aluminum silicates, esterified starch, cellulose ethers. A bran and rye meal are recommended for strengthening hair - as a source of vitamin E.
Some people have practiced the process, so to speak, the opposite to washing of hair - they covered head with fat and oil, animal or fish oil. Indians, Africans, Chukchi got rid of the lice using oils and fats: beauty and hygiene at once. But it's not just about primitive people; character of one of the stories of Akutagawa, looking with disgust at the untidy village girl, said that her hair had no sign of oil.
History does not know the name of the Egyptian, who invented some kind of primitive soap by mixing fat and ash. Lump soaps appeared in the Middle Ages in Europe. Production technology, based on the alkaline hydrolysis of fats and vegetable oils (this reaction chemists and called "saponification") did not differ from the present one. Evolution of the soap production, especially fulminant in the last hundred years, was aimed at elevation of raw materials, improving the composition and consumer properties of soap. Liquid soap and lump remained the principal washing means to 50-s , then they were thoroughly forced out by shampoos.
