Still Doin’ It!

First of all, I just wanted to give a tiny recap to say that I am still shampoo (and conditioner) free!  I’m washing my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar a few times a week and my hair is happier than ever.

I realized however, that I really liked the title of this blog and I didn’t want to just waste it all on the No-Poo Method.  There are so many other little things that I do and learn about that I’d love to share with you.

Just to start things off, I will offer a small gem, and on the same topic of hair care… Aloe is a magical plant!  I LOVE to use it in my hair.  Every once in a while you can harvest that amazing substance and rub it all over your hair.  Leave it in for half an hour or so and then rinse it all out.  And voila!  VERY HAPPY HAIR!

This is of course the short-short version of an Aloe tutorial because there are SO many great uses for it, but maybe we can talk about that more later.  I will mention though that it is also a MIRACLE WORKER as a topical ointment for cold sores/fever blisters/ HSV-1.

Day 32 of the “No-Poo” Method

Hooray!

I have officially stopped using shampoo and (according to the instructions that I’ve followed) my natural oils of my hair and scalp should now be reaching their appropriate balance.

Today I washed my hair again with Baking Soda and Apple Cider Vinegar after two weeks of washing with just water.  My hair is fluffy and soft and does not feel oily at all really.  I should only have to wash my hair about once a week now with the Soda and Vinegar, but apparently this varies for all different types of hair, so your experience may vary.

I’m posting a final picture here so you can see, its not as curly as it had been in the past two weeks of just water washing, but instead its more fluffy and wavy now.  I’m sure the curl will come and go depending how often I choose to wash it with the Soda and Vinegar.

Thanks for reading!!

Day 24 of The “No-Poo” Method

Well, I have now been washing with just water for the past seven days already and I am neither disgusting nor am I dead.

My hair is definitely more curly than it used to be when I would wash it every day with shampoo and it is also more oily, but I’m really not dissatisfied at all, and I don’t think anyone who I meet even suspects that I have given up shampoo.  I am brushing it every day and also still brushing it in the shower after I scrub my scalp vigorously with my fingertips, but I have not had any issues with tangles or matting thus far.

And to be honest, when it comes to the increased oil in my hair, it actually isn’t so bad and is starting to feel a lot more normal to me.  Its as if I’m realizing that my hair is supposed to feel like a living extension of myself, rather than like the silky / stringy barbie doll hair that I got so used to playing with as a child.

I also must say that I am really excited at how quickly my hair is growing, both in thickness and in length!  This is probably mostly due to how much more attention i am putting into brushing and massaging the scalp on a daily basis, but it probably is only helped by the fact that i gave up those nasty chemicals!

You can see for yourself with this photo, but I’d say that I’m in pretty good shape as of now.  (Still one more week of washing with JUST WATER though, so we’ll see if my attitude adjusts at all over the next few days.)

Day 19 The “No-Poo” Method

So, today is day 19 which technically means that I should have been using ONLY WATER to wash my hair for the past five days.  Unfortunately I had to extend the first portion of this little experiment for an extra few days because I had an interview and could not risk looking greasy…

It has now been two days since my last Baking Soda / Cider Vinegar washing and I have been washing with just water since then.  So far, not so bad.  My hair is more oily, but it’s also just got more of its natural curl going for it now, which i happen to like a lot.  I definitely do not LOOK greasy, but my hair is a bit more oily to the touch than I am used to, for sure.  But so far, definitely not unbearable at all.

Day 11 – The “No- Poo” Method

So I have skipped a few days here because pretty much nothing at all has changed.  My hair is still responding in the same way and I am still brushing and washing in the same way pretty much every day.  Some days I have actually skipped washing it with the mixtures, instead just massaged the scalp with water, because it was hardly even oily.

One thing I will say though is that I recently went to visit my dad who lives off of well water which is very soft compared to our city water where I live.  And thank god I was only there long enough to need to wash it once because it was extremely painful!  Not only did it take longer to actually rinse the baking soda and then the vinegar out of my hair, but the brushing portion while dealing with this ultra-soft water was really tough.  My hair just did not want to comb  through and it reminded me a lot of having my hair pulled by the comb when i was a kid!

So if you have soft water where you live, I regret to say this will probably be more challenging for you, unless I am just a tender-headed wimp.  You tell me.

Here’s a pic from today, as you can see things are looking pretty much the same so far… but we’ll see what happens when, six days from now, i have to switch to “washing” with JUST WATER for two weeks straight.  Thank god its so cold out, in case i have to wear a hat every day!

Day 3 – The “No Poo” Method

One quick point that I want to make before I forget:
I have also been trying to switch to washing my hair and body with cool water rather than steamy hot water (which is really hard right now because its a chilly winter!) but I’ve heard its much better for our hair and skin to wash in cool water, and it just makes sense.

So today was another good day, with hair once again looking and feeling quite clean.  It is still feeling a bit fluffy and frizzy, but getting softer by the day.  In addition, after the baking soda today, it was beginning to feel a bit waxy when wet and after the vinegar I could tell that I needed to brush it right away to avoid tangles.  I brought a plastic travel hairbrush into he shower with me and combed it through as I rinsed out the vinegar solution which seemed to work quite well.

Another quick point that I wanted to make since the beginning is that people might be concerned about what happens if you get any of this stuff in the mouth or eyes during the process.  So far I think I’ve gotten both solutions in both places, though just a little bit, and I just try to keep eyes closed throughout and then rinse before I open them.  As for the mouth, if you’ve ever washed your mouth with Baking Soda (like they did in the old days) you will know that it tastes a little salty and is not the worst thing in the world –in fact it will be good for your teeth if you get some in there anyhow!!   Obviously the vinegar tastes much like vinegar but because it is Apple Cider Vinegar (and its also watered down quite a bit) its really not as offensive as we might have imagined, so you don’t have to worry too much about that part.

Day 2 – The “No-Poo” Method

This is Day 2 of my process.

So far today has been a lot like yesterday except that I used 1 full Tbsp of Baking soda (plus 1 cup warm water) and 1 Tbsp of Cider Vinegar (plus one cup of water) rather than a little less than that each time.  So far so good!

My hair was quite literally “squeaky clean” after the baking soda got rinsed out! Then the vinegar definitely softened things up after that but I immediately came to realize that I will need to find my wide-toothed comb ASAP because my hair is clearly not going to get that strange doll-like silky smoothness when wet anymore the way it did with regular conditioner.  –which is fine, because that always felt pretty unnatural to me, like i was incapable of rinsing all of the product out no matter how long i stayed there..

I stopped brushing my hair a long time ago for two reasons:
1. Because it was such a torturous experience from my childhood
2. Because when i did stop, i realized i really just didnt need to brush it at all and it still wouldn’t ever get tangled (perhaps a gift from God for all of the suffering that i had previously endured…)

But alas!  I shall start again!

Now that it’s dry my hair feels a bit less dry than it did yesterday but still soft and fluffy and it is definitely more shiny and happy looking.  I also took more time to rinse after each application and now it doesn’t smell like vinegar anymore!  (Thank God!)
In fact!  A friend who I ate dinner with said that it smelled really nice, like a good shampoo!   Wahoo!!

Day 1 — The “No-Poo” Method

Today is Day 1 of my process, although I suppose I technically started preparations as of yesterday.
I went to the store and bought a large bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar and a box of Baking Soda.  I also found a glass jar that my step-dad had so fortuitously saved and set aside for me for some reason just a few days before.
(This was my “sign” that the time had come!)

Last night I also cut some aloe from my plant, named Grandma, and used it as a conditioning mask for my hair before I began this whole process (if you don’t have an aloe plant, i would highly recommend that you get one, but more on that later).

Today I took my glass jar to the shower with me and before I got in, I placed a little less than 1Tbsp of Baking soda in it (because I have fairly short hair).  When I got in the shower I filled the jar with a little less than 1cup of warm water and then closed the jar and shook it up.  I poured the liquid over my head in small portions across all different areas and massaged it into my hair and scalp for a few moments before letting it sit.  I counted about a minute, rinsed and then completed the same process with the vinegar only focusing more on the tips of my hair when rubbing it in.

I was a little worried because it felt pretty oily after the baking soda part, but I wondered if maybe I just didn’t use enough.  It felt much silkier after the vinegar though and now that it is dry it feels quite clean, fluffy, and not weighed down with grease at all.  It does smell a little bit like vinegar (not attractive!) but they mentioned that you can add some essential oil to help with that and I’m also wondering if perhaps I did not rinse it entirely well enough.  It does feel a little bit frizzy and dry right now, but still very soft to the touch.

Trading Baking Soda and Vinegar for Shampoo and Conditioner

Preparations for — The “No-Poo” Method

For a long time now I have been hearing about how many terrible chemicals there are in the shampoos and conditioners that we buy in the store.  Even “Natural” products can be harmful to us as well as to the earth, and I’ve always wanted to see what it would be like to try and give them up.

I am not a vegan, nor a total hippie, but i found a post on the internet entitled “how to give up shampoo without becoming completely disgusting” and this title really sparked my interest, so I’ve decided to give it a whirl.  Not to mention the title “No-Poo Method” definitely gave me a giggle as well…

The basic time-line of this process is as follows:

FIRST TWO WEEKS
– Mix 1-2 Tbsp of Baking Soda with 1-2 cups of warm water  (depending on length of hair) and pour over your head, massaging into the hair but focusing on the scalp.  Leave for one minute or so and then rinse.
-Mix 1-2 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar with 1-2 cups of warm water and pour over you head, massaging into the hair but focusing on the tips of the hair.  Leave for one minute or so and then rinse.

SECOND TWO WEEKS
-Switch to massaging hair and scalp with just water in order for your natural oils to find their own balance without the constant help from Baking Soda and Vinegar.  At this stage you can either just go cold turkey or wean yourself off of the previous regimen and then wash with just water until the desired balance is achieved.
-Throughout this process and especially during this stage, it is highly recommended that you brush the hair regularly in order to remove excess grease.  Baking soda can be added to dry hair occasionally to deal with extra greasy days, but its mostly just a waiting game.

ONCE BALANCE IS ACHIEVED
-You may move to a new regimen of using Baking Soda and Vinegar once or twice a week to suit your personal needs.

This all seems very simple to me so I thought I might as well take this opportunity to document the process, for any other “regular people” who are curious, and it was also a good chance for me to get into the habit of blogging.