The greasy ponytail look (us at Packers Family Night)

curls

no product in this do and no grease either

Then the night before last night, I washed with baking soda and skipped the vinegar rinse.  Got out of the shower and combed my hair and was surprised to feel my hair was soft and clean and no grease!  I was soo happy!  It looked great and felt great..wahoo!  Even today, it still looks pretty good and still isn’t greasy.  Here are pictures of my hair about an hour after washing it the other night with baking soda.  There is no product in my hair.  This is all natural.  Look at those curls!  Yes, I’m wearing my pjs..it was ten at night hence no makeup either.  Scary 

I’m going to keep washing my hair with baking soda and rinsing with apple cidar vinegar every few days or so.  It’s working out well and it feels liberating to know  that I no longer need to buy shampoo and conditioner.  I am now using my leftover shampoo to clean the bathroom and the conditioner is being used to shave my legs.  It really does work better than shaving cream.  Try it!

I bet you are wondering why I’ve decided to go this route.  Well, I just started using some shampoo that I bought on sale and that shampoo made my hair look and feel terrible.  Like embarrassing to step outside.  So, I was thinking about it and I realized that none of the shampoos that I have used have made my hair look good.  My curly/wavy hair was always frizzy so then I’d put more product on and try different products.  It was getting expensive with the same results.

My hair using shampoo. Not bad but frizzy and lifeless

I LOVE to google whatever I have a question about and shampoo was on my mind.  I started googling alternatives to shampoo and found different recipes to make your own. This was neat idea but it would require spending more on ingredients and I wasn’t sure the outcome would be worth it.  Then I came across “no ‘poo”.  The facts about not using shampoo made sense and I was convinced to give it a try.  The Simple Mom  explains why shampoo is bad for you much better on her blog than I could so check it out. 

I now have a new philosophy on beauty and cosmetics that I’m trying to live by.  If I can’t ingest it, I won’t put it on my body either.  This isn’t set in stone as there are some things I can’t live without like my dove clinical deodorant…yet.  But since skin is the largest organ on your body and absorbs what you put on it, I’d like to try to keep the bad stuff to a minimum. 

So, I am now on Day 2 of no ‘poo.  Here’s my little beauty regimen of baking soda (bs) and apple cidar vinegar (acv).  I will be updating via comments on how it is going.

Mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 cup of water in a squirt bottle and shake to dissolve baking soda.  You should not feel any grittiness from the baking soda.  Wet your hair completely and squirt the mixture onto your scalp while gently massaging your scalp and then rinse out.  Don’t worry about your hair because when you rinse, the mixture will run down your hair.  You only need to do this as needed which might be every few days.  You will know when you need to wash your hair again.      

Mix 1 tablespoon of  apple cidar vinegar with one cup of water and put the mixture on your hair especially the ends.  This works well with a squirt or spray bottle because you can concentrate on where you need it the most.  Leave on for a few minutes and then rinse out.  The smell will go away when your hair dries.   

So, I washed my hair last night with the bs and acv and it looked really nice and felt clean.  Today, my hair was a little unruly (because of the humidity) so in the shower, I sprayed on some acv and rinsed it out; it looks great. 

 They say that there is a transition period where your hair gets greasy and it can last anywhere from a few days to a few months.  It’s like you are re-training your hair and scalp to balance out the oils.  Using shampoo messes with that balance and your hair needs to get healthy.  I’m not looking forward to that but I am looking forward to the healthy and beautiful hair after the transition period.  If you see me in hats and scarves, you know why

So, you’ve done your research and you’ve decided to go no ‘poo.  What do you do with all of that leftover shampoo?  It is a detergent after all so use it to clean the toilets and sinks in the bathroom.  You could also use it on the dishes since it has the same ingredients as dish soap but that’s just a little too out there for me! 

On a side note, we are no longer using body wash either because it has the same ingredients as shampoo.  We are using soap and I will be sewing some bath mitts out of washcloths to slip the soap into.  Thanks Martha Stewart  for that idea! 

I just want to add a few things about no ‘poo.  You don’t have to go the baking soda and apple cidar vinegar route like me to go no ‘poo.  There are other options for cleaning your hair like just using conditioner or using things around the house like lemon and cucumber blended together.  The whole point of this is not using shampoo because it’s not healthy for you.  I just decided on using those items because they are very frugal (a box of baking soda at Wallyworld is $.48 and apple cidar vinegar is about 3 bucks for the huge container so it’s frugal for me)

I found a blog with really easy directions along with the breakdown of cost and thought, I could do this!  I really could.  I purchased the ingredients and spent about 30 minutes one Saturday afternoon doing this experiment with my boys.  They thought it was a fun activity and I have to agree.  It was pretty easy and kind of funIt was a great family activity and it was teaching my kids how to be frugal too.  I’ve used the laundry soap a few times now and I just love it!  It cleans really well and it only has 4 ingredients:  Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, Borax, Ivory Soap bars, and water.  One batch  makes a little over 2 gallons and the ingredients left will make at least 4-5 more batches.  Thanks to The Simple Dollar for teaching me how to do this!  You should check out their blog too!  they have a tutorial and pictures.