‘Poo free was made for me: How I gave up shampoo and conditioner: PART II

I’m sitting on the floor of the San Antonio International Airport next to an outlet where my laptop is plugged in.  I’m wearing $100 Nordstrom-brand jeans, a $6 v-neck t-shirt worn so thin that even moths turn up their noses at it, strappy sandles, and a black blazer.  My Ralph Lauren work bag  is slung on the floor with mock-trial papers half-way hanging out of it, and a luke-warm Dos XX (is that redundant?) is sitting next to me in a plastic cup with a lid and a straw.

I don’t know why but I felt like I needed to set the scene.

I’m stranded in San Antonio trying to get home to El Paso by way of Dallas, but apparently all hell is breaking loose weather-wise in my hometown, so flights are grounded until things clear up.  Will I make it out? Who knows! Will I spend the night in the airport? Stay tuned!

One thing is sure.

My hair looks damn good.

Of course I can’t take credit for it.  Credit goes to sweet ol’ Mother Nature.  Funny how once you stop trying to fight things they stop fighting you back.

But I digress.

“Shampoo, forgive me, for I have sinned.  It has been 26 days since my last lather.”

That’s right! 26 days.  So as I discussed last post, I had to go back and clarify my hair with clarifying shampoo because I skipped that step last time.  Apparently some people can get away with skipping it and make it through okay.  My hair was malleable.  Like so malleable I could have done a flock of seagulls ‘do and it would have stayed on its own with no product.  It was gnarly.  Yeah, gnarly.

So on February 17, I clarified with Herbal Essences NAKED shampoo (ignore the moniker, they think because it’s silicone free that it’s au natural…  whatever, it served its purpose).  After clarifying my hair felt like straw.  Worse than straw.  I don’t know what’s worse than straw but it was bad.  I then deep conditioned with raw honey.  Let me tell you.  You haven’t lived until you’ve poured warm honey on your head and massaged it into your hair.  It’s… weird.  Sticky.  Surprisingly enjoyable.  …Okay, this is getting weird.

Anyway, the honey works like a charm! I let my hair air dry and it still felt a little waxy and weird when it dried, but after I brushed it out, it was very soft.  And, bonus, you smell like everyone’s favorite natural sweetener.

So I was a born again no-‘poo-er on February 17.  Since then, things have been relatively smooth (pun intended)! To be honest, the timeline of my routine has not changed much; that is, right now it still takes me a while to get ready.  Less time on the hair fixing and shower time in the morning (unless it’s a wash day) but more time in the evenings with the hair brushing routine.  I’m doing the Marsha Brady hair brushing thing.  Allegedly using a boar bristle brush will (1) help distribute natural scalp oils, also known as SEBUM (which, by the way, is easily top 5 GROSSEST words in the English language–like, epic proportions of gross), down the length of my hair, rather than concentrating it at the scalp, which makes hair look oily; (2) helps stimulate your scalp by exfoliation, which promotes hair growth and, in general, feels really effing good, (3) helps remove dust and other filth that has collected in my hair as a result of overproduction of SEBUM (see, doesn’t it make you shudder?) that my scalp is trying to regulate as we speak.

So I know what you’re thinking.

“I thought she said her hair looked ‘damn good’? Sounds to me like she’s a greasy lint-trap.”

Au contraire!

I can’t describe how shiny and THICK my hair is.  Like my hair has never been particularly shiny and, despite feeling like I have many strands, has always felt thin.  NO MORE! It’s like a different beast now.  The entire length of my hair is brilliant, shimmering brown, healthy looking, very manageable and styleable.  And I really don’t want this to sound like bragging because it’s not like it’s a result of my own doing.  It’s just my hair being itself! And the best thing is that your hair can do it too! I’m telling you.  I had totally unremarkable hair.  But now that I’m not fighting it anymore, it isn’t fighting me.

I’m still not out of the transition phase.  Presently, I am washing with baking soda and then going three days with no washing before I wash again.  By day 4, my hair looks pretty grim.  But I can tell it’s getting better, which gives me even more inspiration.  It is looking better and better between washes.  Before, by day 2 (the day after I baking soda washed) it would look dirty enough that I’d feel like I had to wear it up.  Now, on wash day I wear it down.  Day 2, I wear it down.  Day 3, I try to wear it down in the morning and then I usually put it up by the afternoon.  Day 4 I wear it up.  Day 5 I wash again.

Deep condition days are my favorite days.  I don’t really have a set day that I do this, but it’s usually when my ends feel a little dry but it isn’t a wash day.  Some days I deep condition with honey, some days with egg yolks (on those days, I wash with the egg white and condition with the yolk).  I want to try aloe too since I have so much of it at my disposal at home.  Next on my list is applesauce though, which is supposed to be a phenomenal “clarifier” and humectant. I may do that tonight, if I ever get home.

The other thing that’s been kind of cool is I’ve looked into a lot of fun and exciting (and easy and quick) updos for my dirty days.  It’s nice to have fun looking hair when worn up.  The ballet bun is always my go-to but there are a lot of other fun ones that I have been able to play around with (especially on weekends and casual Fridays).

Long and the short – it’s working. It is an exercise in patience and I had hoped to already be through the transition, but the good news is that it’s definitely getting better.  Only a matter of time before I’m a one-wash-a-week girl.

Can’t wait.

I still need to post pictures. I promise they are coming.  I’ll be back!!

‘Poo free was made for me: How I gave up shampoo and conditioner – PART I

The No ‘Poo “Movement” is not really new in the scheme of trends.  Based on the internet “research” I did on it, I found blogs and forums about it dating back to around 2009.  Of course, the real “trend” is shampoo; humans have been ‘poo free for the vast majority of the course of human history, saving a shampoo-type service for only the most luxurious and special of occasions.  It was not until around the 50s that someone thought it would be a great idea to market shampoo as a daily ritual and necessity for personal hygiene.  Based upon their fool-proof mantra of “lather, rinse, repeat,” we all became slaves to the industry in the name of staying clean.  Of course, it isn’t necessary to shampoo to stay clean, healthy and hygenic, and it certainly isn’t necessary to pour carcinogenic chemicals on your head to do it.

And so, on something of a whim after my most recent bottle of baked-goods smelling, commercial, designer-brand shampoo and conditioner ran out, I decided to bite the bullet and ditch the ‘poo for good. I guess it wasn’t really on a whim. I had actually been considering it for months but could never think of a time when it would be socially acceptable to have disgusting, stringy hair, as I was certain mine would be. But I figured no time like the present, and since I have something of a history of putting my body through some variety of healthy experimentation, I knew I would enjoy the novelty more than I disliked the grease.

But… there really wasn’t much grease.

Now I feel I should preface this post by providing a “before” visual for how my hair operated. I have fine hair with medium body that is mostly straight with a little wave that can be coaxed out with certain methods. It is uncolored and hasn’t been colored in about a decade. It is a pretty standard shade of dark brown (with a couple of creeper grays making their way in). I have an oily scalp and dry-ish hair and split ends (my ends weren’t too bad when I gave up shampoo because I had just gotten a good trim, but they were split a little). And my hair is long – currently it falls right about where my shoulder blade points meet.

And now for the process: I can’t take the credit for my no ‘poo method. Countless blog posts offered tips that I considered and tried to tailor based on the experiences of others. 

So here’s what I did:

The last day of shampooing was Saturday, February 7.

On Sunday, February 8, I woke up with hair that was about its usual morning-after state: a little greasy and matted around my skull and limp around my shoulders.  Here enters the no ‘poo:

3 Tbs baking soda into 2 cups of water in a leftover (rinsed out) shampoo bottle

I got in the shower.  I squeezed out a palmful of the baking soda mixture into my little mitt and put it on my part.  Rubbed it into my scalp.  Got a little more of the mixture and spread it throughout the rest of my scalp.  THIS IS IMPORTANT: the mixture is intended to clean your scalp, NOT your hair.  Ergo, I didn’t use it throughout my hair strands, just right at the roots where it met my scalp.  Once massaged in a bit, I rinsed it out right away.

Next is the “conditioner”

Diluted apple cider vinegar

Now I’ll be honest here, I’m not sure exactly what my ratio was on this.  I venture to guess it was about 1 part apple cider vinegar to about 5 parts water, but I could be wrong.

For this part, I leaned my head to the left side and pooled a lot of my hair in my left hand while my right hand wielded the diluted vinegar solution in a bottle. I squeezed the solution onto my locks and rubbed it in a little and then switched sides and did the same on the right side to try to adequately coat my locks. I then took a wide-tooth comb and combed through my hair, including my scalp.  THIS IS IMPORTANT: I did not put vinegar directly on my scalp. While some people did this with good results, I read some results that the vinegar directly on the scalp made the hair at the scalp too oily during the transition process especially. Since I know my hair tends to be oily, I opted just to keep in in the tresses and let the comb bring a little to the scalp, but not much. Then after just a minute, I rinsed it out well. [Update: I switched to 4 Tbs. of distilled white vinegar in about 14 oz. of water. I think it will help control the oil in my hair a little more.  Will report back.]

I wish I had taken a picture of my hair on Day 1 because it really looked nice. It looked a lot like it did when I washed it with my Philosophy shampoo, John Frieda conditioner and used my Aveda phoamollient. But I didn’t. That list of stuff I just mentioned costs me about $60/6 weeks. The baking soda and ACV cost me about $4 and I think will last me 6 months or more.

Monday, Febraury 9–also known as Day 3–and I woke up pleasantly surprised. I was expecting greasy matted and sad looking. Surprisingly, it really wasn’t! Okay, it was a little oily at the crown and immediately around my (oily) face, but I was not deterred.  I pinned my hair up during my regular shower, careful not to get it wet, and showered as usual, minus anything having to do with my hair.  Once out of the shower, I decided I would wear my hair up because it was a little kinky looking and I didn’t want to use a straightener on it and risk taking out all the lovely body it still had. So I pinned back my bangs in a little bouffant pouf and then did a high ballet bun.

HERE COMES THE MAGICAL PART.

Especially during the transition period, oily days are going to happen. True, wearing your hair tied back helps, but even a sophisticated ballet bun cannot always hide a true Exxon-Valdez crisis in your hair.

Enter the “dry shampoo” cheat for oily days. Except it’s not a cheat because it’s not ‘poo.

Equal parts cornstarch (or arrowroot starch) and cocoa, for brunettes. [I saw other blog posts where redheads added in cinnamon and blondes added ginger root, if they were a darker or more golden blonde. Or if you have the time, you can do pure cornstarch and let it absorb before you go out so you don’t get the powdered wig look.]

This has changed my life, and that is not an exaggeration.  There were times living in Houston that even if I showered at 2:00 p.m., the damn humidity made my hair oily by cocktail hour. Sometimes I showered again or was forced to wear my hair up to avoid an embarrassing shiny night out. NO MORE.

It works like magic. I don’t know how else to describe it. I put it in a little plastic tupperware container and using a large powder brush, I dabbed a little along the oily spots.  It went on looking a little powdery, but in just a few minutes and after a couple of strokes, it blended in beautifully with my hair. And just like that, oil = gone.

Days 3-6 went about like above.  On Day 3 I no ‘pooed and then miraculously waited until Day 6 to no ‘poo again.  Everything was going great until Day 7.

Days 1 – 6 consisted of me more or less obsessing about no ‘poo and wanting to soak up as much info on it as possible.  So I read and read and read and started second guessing my formulas, started worrying that I hadn’t clarified my hair before I started and hadn’t deep conditioned first.  So on Day 7 I decided I should deep condition.  I did a 1:1 ratio of raw honey and almond oil and walked around with a plastic bag on my head for 30 minutes.  Then I tried rinsing it out with complete failure of epic proportions.  I tried baking soda to get it out, I tried castille soap to get it out.  Nothing worked.  Then–more reading–I determined one or more things had happened: 1) the washes I was using weren’t strong enough to get out the almond oil (which is why no-pooers should use only non-oil deep conditioners); 2) the castille soap had reacted with the hard water in my shower and left a waxy film behind; 3) my hair was never properly stripped of the silicones from my old shampoos and conditioners, which were now showing up as buildup on my hair.  Whatever was happening was bad.  Really bad. My hair was actually malleable.  The roots were surprisingly clean, but the length of my hair was covered in waxiness.

So I had to take a step back and re-examine my routine.  I decided to go back to “Step 1,” or what really should have been “Step 0,” which was to clarify with regular sulfate-laden (but–important–silicone-free!!) shampoo and then deep condition with an all natural conditioner.

That’s where I am today.  Tonight I will start over and shampoo again (hopefully, really, for the last time) and start the process over knowing now what works for me.  I am still very optimistic!

I can offer the following advice before beginning no ‘poo:

THINGS TO BUY BEFORE YOU START NO ‘POO:

My issue with no ‘poo was I was so excited to start it that I didn’t plan ahead well. I thought, ‘I have baking soda and ACV.  I will never need to buy a single other thing for my hair ever again.’ So wrong was I.  Granted, I will save a ton since I’m not buying hair products per se, but there are things you need to get before you start.

1. Boar bristle brush.  Only 100% boar bristle will work.  It will help spread your natural oils and sebum down the length of your hair without damaging it.  I found one made by Conair at Walgreens for $10.  A bargain for boar bristle.  Make sure you clean it out regularly.
2. Shower cap.  Okay, admittedly I still have not bought these, mostly because JEM laughed at me uncontrollably when I told him I was thinking about getting one. But they are really helpful for deep conditions and other hair treatments, not to mention days when you aren’t washing your hair at all and you want to keep it dry in the shower.
3. Deep conditioner.  There are tons of good ideas out there for deep conditioners.  The ones I have tried and loved were the egg (I used a whole egg) and the raw honey.  I want to try aloe too because I have heaploads of it sitting around my house.  **Important – If you are doing baking soda as your no ‘poo of choice, make sure your deep conditioner is oil free.  Otherwise you’ll find out the hard way that it doesn’t rinse out.
4. Clarifying shampoo.  This was the one step I missed and I have to go back and start from scratch at today. I bought Herbal Essences Naked shampoo which has sulfates but is silicone free.  There are a ton of clarifying shampoos out there that cost anywhere from $1 to $30.  Mine cost $5.  Just make sure it’s silicone free – no ingredients ending in -xane, -zane, -cone, or -conol.
5. Empty plastic bottles to put your new mixes in.  At least save your old shampoo and conditioner bottles. Rinse them out well, keep the squeeze cap on there for easy administration, and you’re good to go.
6. Essential oils, if you’re into that kind of thing.  I already had some peppermint essential oil on hand, but got some tea tree as well, just for kicks. Good stuff. It’s like a kick in the face–in a good way–every time I open the baking soda solution bottle.

Okay, so that’s it for now.  I’ll do another post in the next day or so with some day-by-day picture updates so you can see the true carnage of how my hair looks today, and how it will look after my clarification/deep condition.  I also want to include some link-backs to the blogs I found most helpful and that I still refer to a lot. I’ll also update every week or so until I reach no ‘poo nirvana, as CodeRedHat so eloquently put it.

Until then… keep fighting the good fight.