Monday, June 8, 2009

Day 11

I've lost that lovin feelin! I've reached my apex. Even though my hair hasn't looked 1/10th as bad as I anticipated it would considering shampoo has not touched my hair for 11 days, I'm tired of being uber self conscious about my hair. I'm tired of putting my hands in my hair and it not feeling like my hair. My hair has always been soft. Now it feels coarser, heavier, the underside of my hair always seems greasy and stringy, while the top feels and looks dry.

Now I'm not running off with the first shampoo I see. I am still committed to not using shampoos with SLS, and conditioners with silicone in them. I bought some Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner today, as well as some Giovanni leave in treatment (which is an organic product). I do wish they made refills in different packaging so I didn't have to keep buying plastic bottles.

I did learn a lot about natural hair care, alternative products, and curly hair care. So it's not a complete loss. I've come out a little wiser, and probably won't go back to being an every day shampooer.

So ends the great No 'Poo experiment!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Day 9

No pics today, just too busy to take them. Today was another WO day. I think my hair is really going through the transitional period now. Amazingly I seem to be weathering it pretty well, and my hair seems to be weathering it well too. Today was my 3rd day in a row doing a water only wash. I knew there was NO WAY I was wearing my hair down today. I let it air dry then tried the corn starch trick I've heard much about on no 'poo sites. I've used powder on my hair before, but the corn starch is really amazing. I used a make up brush, put it in the corn starch tapping off the excess, made a part in my hair and put the corn starch down the part. I continued making parts in my hair and corn starching. Since my hair is light you couldn't really see it unless it went on too heavy, then I would just work it with my fingers. Really, I'm amazed again. I put my hair up in a pony tail and it looked good. I was going to my parents house, running errands, and going to a party at Chuck E Cheese. At no time did I feel self conscious about my hair. Normally, if I went one day without using shampoo my hair, I was all squicked out about it.

I mentioned to my mother last weekend that I was trying this no 'poo thing. I mentioned to her again today, saying that it had been 9 days since shampoo touched my hair. She looked surprised. I take that as a good sign. I could have said that and she could have said "yeah...it looks it".

Tomorrow is a Dr. Bronner's and vinegar rinse day...Yay! I admit I am really looking forward to the latheryness of the Dr. Bronners!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Day 8

Well I have made it one full week!! Honestly when I started this I was determined, but really didn't even know if I was going to make it past a few days.

So I left off on Day 6. Ick..that was a bad hair day! VERY Bad. I still think Dr. Bronner's castile soap is the best thing EVER!! After I rushed to wash with the castile soap on Wednesday night I read that I probably should have followed with a vinegar rinse. So Thursday morning I washed with water only and followed with a vinegar water rinse. If I didn't explain before, the vinegar rinse is kind of like a conditioner. It helps with detangling, and the acidity restores your hair's PH after using an alkaline wash (baking soda, etc, including the castile soap apparently). So yesterday's hair was pretty good. Good enough to be worn down all day.

Today was another water only day. This is first time I have gone two days using water only. The trick when using water only is to massage/scrub the scalp well with your fingers. I also read and seem to be finding a hot water wash and a cold water rinse work very well. I wore my hair down until about lunch time, then I felt I needed to put it up in a pony tail. I took it down later to take pics, and it looked pretty good...better than it did when I put it up.

Tomorrow I am planning on water only again, and some Dr. Bronner's on Sunday morning. Tomorrow will probably be an all day ponytail day.

On to the pics:

Day 6 after Dr. Bronner wash

Day 6 also after Dr. Bronner wash
Day 8 - 2nd day of water only washes
Day 8 also

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Day 6 - part 2

THANK YOU DR. BRONNER!!!! My hair feels much cleaner, but still No 'Pooish. As I first said the purpose of No 'Poo is to bring the natural oils which were stripped away by chemically shampoo back to your hair and let it do it's thing. After using the Dr. Bronner's my hair definitely feels like No 'Poo hair, but No 'Poo hair I can live with...not the POO POO hair I had earlier today!

Day 6 - part 1

I have never felt more disgusting. As I said yesterday, after my BS/WV wash/rinse yesterday I was feeling pretty grungy. Today was WO, I didn't immediately put my hair up in a ponytail. I waited and waited and WAITED for it to dry. After almost 4 hours of feeling like I had wet hair I realized it felt wet because it was just GRUNGY. Again..it didn't look anywhere near as bad as it felt...on my head..on my hands when I touched it. The more I thought about my hair throughout the day, the more my head itched.

I had to do something. All I could do at work was pony it up. Still, it wasn't feeling funky at the roots or hairline like I assumed it would, it was the underlayers of my hair. They just felt coated. I decided to go to Stop and Shop after work. Yes I am still committed doin no 'poo...but I had to try something else. Everything I 've read about this method said it is trial and error and everyone is different. Stop and Shop has a little section of organic hair/body care products. I knew Burts Bees make 98.3%(somewhere around there ) natural shampoo, with no SLS's. While I was there I saw Dr. Bronner's castile soap. It is 100% natural and I have seen some No 'Pooers who use it. They had the bottles but the dilution was like 2 tsp or tbl to 2 gallons of water! I didn't want to under dilute it to use on my hair. Thankfully they had a bar of Dr. Bronners castile soap(with lavender!).

Castile soap is a type of soap made exclusively from vegetable oil rather than animal fat or synthetic substances. The purists feel it should be made from olive oil but there's a wide variety of castile variants that use oil from plants such as coconut and jojoba. The simple nature of the soap means a lesser enviromental impact due to reduced waste stream during manufacture and also faster biodegradability. Yeah um...I put more oil on my hair. It's saponified oil(means it is made into soap) so hopefully that will make a difference.

The first thing I did when I got home while AJ was doing his homework was jump in the shower and wash my head with that soap. LATHERY LATHERY LATHERY!!! I was in lather heaven. I probably should have followed with a WV rinse, cause after the lather ecstasy, my hair no feel so good. Right now it is up in a towel, and I have to go get dinner ready. I will update later about the state of the hair under the towel.....

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

day 5

I know. I haven't posted. I got a lovely summer cold and feel crappy. Which is not making me feel any better about my hair. It's hot, it's humid, I'm sweaty, with a stuffy red sore chapped nose, coughing. I feel completely gross and just want to feel better. Right now all I want to do is jump in the shower and scrub what I perceive as every speck of grime off. So of course that means I just want to put some bubbly lathery shampoo in my hair.

Well...after my little rant I just went and washed my face with some cool water and lemongrass soap and feel a smidgey better. Let's see - day 5. Today was a BS wash/WV rinse. Today was the first day doing the BS/WV that my hair felt oiley once it dried. Surprisingly it wasn't oiley around my roots/hairline where I thought it would be/where it would normally get oiley. This was in the back of my head. Maybe I didn't get enoug BS wash in that area to get rid of the oil. Maybe I'm doing the BS washes too frequently and making the detox worse. After I got hotter and sweatier through the day I put my hair up in a ponytail. Perhaps I need to spread the BS washes out. I'll start going to every two days now. So that means tomorrow, and thursday will be WO(and probably ponytail days!). I'm getting ready to break out the cornstarch. Though leaving the house with my hair still wet makes that a bit difficult. I may have to break down and shower at night to try out cornstarch in the AM.

I promised pics so here they are:Day 1

Day1


Day 5

Day 5