I've been trying something new lately, and I thought I'd share. I'm no longer washing my hair with shampoo. Don't worry, I do still wear deodorant and shave my legs. That's not about to stop anytime soon! No, seriously, I'm washing my hair with baking soda. Why baking soda you ask? Well, it all started with the homemade laundry soap. Once I got looking more into that and trying different recipes, I started running into posts about "no-poo" as well. I thought that the money saving sounded great enough, but when I read about all the other benefits, I was totally on board for a test run.
You see, when you wash your hair with baking soda, it simply cleans your hair. It doesn't have any other of those nasty chemicals that strip your hair or weigh it down. This means your hair doesn't get oily the same afternoon you've washed it! I've always heard that the less often you wash your hair, the better, but I could never get mine to adjust to anything longer than every other day; and on the off day it looked terrible. So I couldn't wait to try this.
The result? I'll never buy another bottle of shampoo again! The first time I tried it, I went two days in between washings with no problem. I've since been going three. The third day still looks better than my "off day" from shampoo. And really, I think that if you stuck with it long enough, you could accustom your hair to whatever schedule you like. I was a bit nervous at first about drying my hair without any "deep conditioning", (with the baking soda wash you use an apple cider vinegar rinse afterwards) so I let it air dry and didn't really do much to style it. The next time I got brave, because I don't think that I'd stick with something if I couldn't blow-dry my hair. I didn't use any mousse though, because I thought that adding more gunk to my hair was a bit counter-productive. And guess what? My hair was so much more manageable than it has ever been before. I dried it, gave it a little fluff with my fingers, and some hairspray, and I was just as happy with how it looked as I ever was when I took the time to round-brush and style before, (if my camera wasn't on the blink I'd post pictures to prove it.....hopefully soon!). I also was a little concerned about brushing my hair when wet, but I've never gotten a brush through my hair so easily in my life. I think it's the vinegar. My hair was soft and smooth, and it felt so clean!
One more thing.....some people complained that washing the "no-poo" way stripped their hair color. I am here to tell you this is NOT TRUE. My hair is dyed a dark brown, with a smidgy bit of a red tint, and it is growing out faster than it is fading. I think it's like anything, the more you wash, the more it fades. Or perhaps it depends on the color, although I've seen bleach-blonde types say it doesn't hurt their hair either. So don't let that scare you.
The downside? My hair has picked up static electricity much easier. But that's taken care of easily enough. The real downer......when you wash your hair this way it doesn't smell like anything. At all. So, after a few days it will start to pick up the smells around you. It's subtle, (Brandon has never noticed it or complained) but if you cook with a lot of onions, or spend time around a smoky smell, you'll notice it. I think I'm going to try adding some essential oil to the vinegar rinse. I've seen a lot of comments that say that takes care of this problem. But does anyone know where to begin looking for essential oil in a small town like this? We have a Wal-mart, (can you buy it there?) a couple of grocery stores, but other than that the only "specialty" stores we have sell things like camouflage truck seat covers. You get the idea. I guess there's always online shopping!
If any of you are interested in trying this, I followed the directions found here. The top portion of the article is the "why", skim to the bottom if you're only interested in "how".
Note: Some posts I read said to use the vinegar rinse once a week, others used it every time they washed. I've been using it with every wash. And I didn't worry about getting just the ends....I rinsed my whole head because I think that's what is making my hair feel so soft. Just play around and see what works for you! Also, check Costco, or similar stores that sell in bulk for big bags of baking soda. I buy a 12 lb. bag of baking soda at Costco for cheap. Between using it for cooking, cleaning, and now this, it's a fantastic way to save money!
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