Saturday, May 30, 2009

day 2

Today was a WO (water only) day. Once my hair dried it felt a little greasy. Mostly like my hair would feel the first day of not washing, definitely not the second day! It looked good, and felt ok, until I was out and about and started getting hot and sweaty, I just felt better putting it in a pony tail.

I'm looking forward the BS/WV (baking soda/white vinegar) tomorrow. This better work...I went to Costco today and bought 12 pounds of baking soda!!

Friday, May 29, 2009

The great no 'poo experiment - day 1

For anyone who doesn't know what this means, don't get too freaked out by the term "no 'poo". What it means is no shampoo...not whatever else might have popped into your head!

I read about the no 'poo method of hair care quite a while ago. While I was intrigued by the idea, I wasn't ready to commit to it. Within the last six months I have been consciously making an effort to go green little by little. I've found that baking soda cleans like a dream!! Especially sinks and bathtubs. Vinegar mixed with water really does work great for cleaning windows and mirrors. I also spray vinegar on my baking soda scrubbing paste in my sinks/tub to make my own "scrubbing bubbles" bathroom cleaner. Of course, once I'm done cleaning my house it smells like one big sub sammich. I have the makings for home made laundry detergent, I'm just waiting til the stuff I have runs out to make it and try it out. In addition to these items being greener, it's also cheaper. Win win situation!

Ok..so back to no 'poo. It means just what I said. No shampoo. The reasoning is, shampoos can contain harsh and possibly harmful chemicals. Furthermore, these chemicals strip the natural oils from your scalp. In turn, your body catches up by increasing oil production. The theory behind no 'poo - stop shampooing and your scalp will return to its natural balance. (oh and I will save money by not buying shampoo).

I've read up on this quite a bit in the past few days. Mostly about other people's experience going no 'poo. Some people experience an "adjustment period" where your scalp is still over producing oil, and thus the hair can look greasy and feel funky. After your body adjusts, your hair will go back normal, and in every testimonial I read from people who made it through, their hair looks, feels, and even smells better than when they were using shampoo. However, many do not make it out of that adjustment period, and quite frankly I don't know if I will either.

Now there are a few different ways of going no 'poo. One is just that...stop...cold turkey. Water only rinses. Sorry, can't do that one. I need to put something on my hair at some point besides plain water! I think water only would work as a surface clean for a few days, but at some point something needs to give a better cleaning. Another method is using conditioner. For some reason I guess conditioner is less harmful than shampoo? ::::shrug::::. Not doing that one either. The one I have seen the most about is baking soda and vinegar. I've chosen this way to go because I KNOW if I went cold turkey I'd make it about 2 days absolute tops. My hair would be greasy, I'd hate it, and I wouldn't want to go out in public. My plan with the baking soda and vinegar route is to ease into it so I can hopefully lessen the severity of the adjustment period.

This is a very individualized routine. Some people only do the baking soda/vinegar rinse once a week, some every 2 or 3 days. I'm starting out with one day baking soda/vinegar, one day water only. I'm planning on trying that for a week and seeing how my hair handles it. If that is good, then I will go to one day baking soda/vinegar two days water only. I'll keep going from there. Apparently there is a lot of trial and error. I expect to end up doing the baking soda/vinegar every 2 0r 3 days.

The baking soda and vinegar method is this. First you clean your hair (especially the scalp) with a mixture of 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 8 ounces of warm water. Massage the scalp with that mixture, leave it on for a minute or two, rinse well. Then with a mixture of 1 tablespoon vinegar to 8 ounces of water rinse your hair (mostly the ends). Rinse that out. Now everything I read says to use apple cider vinegar. I am using white vinegar, and in an effort to not personally smell like a sub sammich I added a drop (maybe two) of essential oil to it. All I have at the moment is rose, or patchouli. While I'd prefer the patchouli, I know a great many people hate it. Plus I didn't want to risk having greasy hair that also smelled like dirt, so I went with the rose. Happily my hair smells like a bouquet of flours instead of the #12 sub. LOL

So, after the long novel, today is day one - baking soda and vinegar rinse. My hair looks fine...feels soft, and as I said before, smells like roses! Normally, had I just not washed my hair today, I would be squirming because it would be starting to get greasy. So far...no greasiness.

I will be using my blog to keep track of my great no 'poo experiment daily(sorry to my facebook people...I hooked my blogger account to facebook and don't know how to unhook it). I am planning on my posts being 1) considerably shorter than this one 2) containing pics of my hair's "journey". We'll see how long I stick to the second one. It will be very difficult for me to post a bad hair day pic. I'll post the day one pic later.

Believe me, I am completely miserable when I feel my hair is dirty. I'm probably one of the last people anyone who knows me well would think would do this. I shampoo my hair every day, which really doesn't bode well for me sailing through the adjustment period. If I can lessen the ill effects of the adjustment period (which can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a couple of months!) I truly believe my hair will be happier and healthier for going no 'poo.

Wish me luck!