My no shampoo do...

I didn't used to be this way. Honestly, I do not know what happened, but somewhere along the line I became a little bit hippy dippy. I think we can pretty effectively blame Pinterest...

I cloth diaper. I make my own laundry detergent. I have every intention of making Kylan's baby food. And now this. I no longer use shampoo. (For the record, this hippy dippy-ness... totally not a bad thing! I don't want anyone to think that I mean any disrespect. It's just that I have known me my whole life, and it is surprising to me how I am much more crafty, home made, natural this and that, and less processed than I ever really imagined I would be...)

I found this post on Pinterest, and decided "Eh, why not..."

For those of you who do not feel inclined to read the original post, although if you really want to know what this "no poo" business is all about I definitely would encourage you to, I will give you a little run down. Shampoo uses chemicals to strip your hair and remove the dirt and oil. In the process it also removes all of the good oils and nutrients that your hair needs. To compensate, your scalp then over-produces these oils, which means that you then need to wash it again, so it over-produces again and on and on... You get the picture. With this no shampoo system, you use baking soda and vinegar (two extremely cheap items, which you probably already have) to wash and condition your hair. This way you gets to keep all the good, happy junk, but your hair still gets nice and clean. The result is healthier, shinier, and in general, more awesome looking hair that you have to wash a lot less often. There are two different methods described in the post. If you are interested you can read about them. I am using method number 1. 

I am a weird kind of girl. I don't own a single item of make-up, and my clothing article of choice would most definitely have to be sweats, but I am not exactly a tom boy. Basically the point is, that is not changing! I am still going to spend less than 5 minutes doing my hair, but perhaps with this new plan, it will be healthier :)

I am going to do this first post about it as a kind of running report... After the first few weeks I shall post it and then I think I will keep you updated every now and then.

About half a week after starting: I am gonna go ahead and tell you, its a little strange. But thus far my hair feels clean and honestly I haven't really noticed any difference.

About a week of no shampoo: Ok, so I am gonna be honest. My hair is feeling not so great these past few days. I now understand what she meant by "cottony"... Its not so much that it feels dirty, because it's not, it just feels weird and I am leaning more towards the bad kind of weird. I still have a few days of the "adjustment phase so we shall see how things are lookin later this week!

Two Weeks: I hit the two week mark yesterday! Crazy, crazy. So far, I am still a big fan. In fact, in the past few weeks my love for baking soda and vinegar has exploded. These magical ingredients make delicious food, clean my hair, and my sink, and my garbage disposal, and my shower, and pretty much my whole house... Just sayin. But anyway, back to my hair. I should be through the transition phase and on to reaping the benefits of this no poo lifestyle! I will check soon and let you know what's up! (I would also like to point out that I got my mama and my sister to jump on this no poo bandwagon! Wooo baby. My mom started a few days after me, and my sister started yesterday... so far my mom loves it!)

Three weeks: My hair is feeling pretty good... most of the cottony feeling is gone, and after three weeks I still love this whole no shampoo business. Plus the other day I found a recipe for some shaving cream stuff and it uses shampoo and conditioner, which I happen to have and happen to not need!

So it has now been about a month since I last used shampoo! Honestly, my hair doesn't really feel that different then it did when I used shampoo. It took a while for me to get the hang of using the baking soda and vinegar. But I think that between my mom, Katie, and me we have figured out a pretty good system! The other day I noticed that there were parts of my hair that felt dirty. For the most part my hair was past the adjustment phase and felt normal, but there were sections that were pretty much just yucky. I was getting discouraged, but then I talked to my sister about it. She suggested using the baking soda before I wet my hair, that way I can tell where I have missed and none of my hair gets left out. She also told me that mom had suggested doing the baking soda twice. I tried it this way and success! My hair felt much better. Four and a half weeks of no shampoo and I am still a fan!