No (sham) Poo Update!

Just wanted to drop by and tell you how my No Poo experiment is going. I have to admit there have been many times I miss my happy bubbles that are the result of commercial shampoo. Times when I want that silky smooth feel that commercial conditioner leaves after you rinse it out. Using baking soda and apple cider vinegar does neither of these things. But it is a VERY cheap option for hair care and removes all weird chemicals and harsh additives from your hair care routine!

I think my transition period was about three weeks or so. I'm not really sure if it was a transition period for my hair or my brain. It did take a little bit to figure out how best to wash my hair this way. At first I had a bit of an itchy scalp. I did some research and discovered adding some tea tree oil to the "shampoo" bottle would help. I haven't done this yet, honestly I think my problem was not getting the baking soda mix everywhere. The baking soda absorbs oil and dirt. I switched to getting my hair wet with the baking soda mix first instead doing this first with the shower head. This way I knew what had "shampoo" on it and what didn't. This helped immensely with the itchy scalp problem. Second problem I encountered was my hair feeling oily and heavy shortly after showering. After further reading I found that the problem may have been that I was using too much apple cider vinegar mix! What I read suggested spraying it only on the ends of your hair. I have extremely short hair, so this was difficult!! But since ACV is what makes your hair super shiny I now spray the ends and a quick spritz to the top of my head, the area that shows the most! This probably addressed my third problem as well. I felt my hair was dull and brassy, but after figuring out how ACV works it seemed to solve the problem. I discussed what I was using with my hairdresser, she confirmed how amazing ACV is for hair!

If anyone out there is considering this I highly recommend it! Just make sure you realize it may take some time to get it just right. There are many suggestions of containers to use to dispense your  mixes, since they are mostly water I use spray bottles and really I think this is the easiest way to do it! At first my husband was very concerned about the vinegar smell in the bathroom, but it is only really noticeable when you first spray it on. I also added a few drops of doTerra Wild Orange essential oil to both the baking soda mix and the ACV mix to give it a happy smell. I will admit there have been times when I want to resort back to the happy bubbles but I think I have finally found my own happy place with this method!

Any one out there trying this or about to start?!

Going No 'Poo

I have made a decision recently, I'm going no 'poo! I know what you are thinking... didn't you just get your "poo" issues addressed with colonics? Actually going no 'poo has nothing to do with bowel movements. Going no 'poo is becoming shampoo free. Have you guys heard of this recently? The idea behind it has to do with the fact that your scalp can naturally take care of your hair itself but our commercial shampoo and conditioners block it's ability to do so. Most commercial shampoos contain mineral oil, which is a barrier to your scalp, blocking your scalp from producing it's natural oils to care for your hair. This creates a vicious cycle, the more you shampoo, the more you need it.

So what do you use to break the vicious cycle? Baking soda is an amazing product for all sorts of things. I will be using about one tablespoon of baking soda to one cup water in a squeeze bottle to use as a cleanser for my hair. Then I will be using apple cider vinegar as a conditioning agent, some sites suggest rinsing the baking soda out first, others suggest putting the ACV on top of it as it will create a foaming substance. I am going to experiment and see which works best. For the rinse you use one tablespoon of ACV to one cup water. Everything I have read states that the vinegar smell will disappear once your hair is dry. I may add some essential oils just for that good smell shampoo and condition have. I'm going to have some what of a transition period, but I don't think it will be too long. I am not an addicted shampooer, I hate washing my hair too much since it seems to dry it out. I will keep you updated on how the transition period is going.

Really it was my colonics that have motivated me to change my cleaning products. My ND would name all the chemicals we were rinsing out of my body through colonics... so why would I want to be putting them back in? Our next task is keeping our hot tub clean naturally without chemicals.