Shampoo - Wedding Edition.

I imagine any of you that have been following this blog to any degree may be interested to find out what happened with my hair at my wedding.  As you may remember, I haven't used shampoo on my hair in a while.  Sixty-six days today, to be exact. Well, you will be happy to hear that I did not shampoo my hair for the wedding!  I stuck to my guns and did a baking soda rinse followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse the day before the wedding, and that's it.  The day of the wedding, I washed it a couple hours before the ceremony then blowed it dry, followed by hot rollers.  I used the fabulous Dr. Hauschka make-up that I purchased for the wedding.  It went great! And luckily the wedding was outside and it was windy, so even if I had gotten my hair done professionally, it most likely would have ended up looking like this:

This past weekend was the first weekend that we were back following the wedding and honeymoon, and after we did the Grouse Grind we stopped by Pure Magnolia and I donated the dress.  I enjoy the thought of someone else getting to enjoy all or part of my dress, depending on what they do with it.

Shampoo - Part VII.

I think that things are starting to become a little more normal with my hair now and that my scalp is officially transitioning to whatever follows the awkward phase of this shampoo-free lifestyle.  I used a baking soda rinse (1 tsp baking soda to 1 cup water) on Friday night, followed by a vinegar rinse (1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to 1/2 cup water), and it looked a little off, but I think that was from using too much vinegar (the effect of too much of it, particularly on your roots, is to make it look greasy).  However, yesterday and today I have used water only rinses and my hair looks completely normal.

I am coming to understand that perhaps my hair is never going to feel like it used to, and not because it's greasy, but just because it is now conditioned with natural oils instead of conditioner.  I know that it doesn't smell (I'm still asking Tim to check every day), but it just feels different.  Almost like each strand is thicker.  It feels very soft and most importantly, very healthy.  I find that with poker-straight hair, you really can't fake having clean or healthy hair, so I'm glad that it doesn't look like a grease trap.  I'm interested to see whether with time it will start to feel more like it used to, or if this is sort of how it is going to be from now on.  I'm very happy with the results of not using shampoo so far, it has cut down drastically on the length of my showers, and no one has commented on my hair looking anything but normal. It has been a good experiment so far!

Shampoo - Part VI.

Well, today is definitely different than the previous five days.  Last Saturday was my last shampoo and today is Friday, so it has been a pretty good run.  I did use baking soda last Sunday, but it's been water only since then.  I curled my hair for photographs the day before yesterday, then it looked so great that I just touched it up yesterday morning (I didn't even wet it), but I knew today I would have to at least do a water only rinse.  This morning is when it all fell apart, I guess.  I'm okay with that, though, because it really doesn't look bad, it just feels very greasy when I touch it.  This is a picture I took yesterday before everything went wrong:

So I rinsed with water the same way I've been doing since Monday morning.  I could tell there was a bit of oil in it and I debated using a baking soda rinse, but thought it was worth at least seeing how bad it is when it feels that way.  As I was suspecting, after I blowed it dry, it was greasy.  I used a large barrel curling iron just to give it a little life and that made it tolerable.  I guess I'm firmly in the awkward adjustment phase and I'm not getting out of this as easily as I thought I might.  The positive spin on all of this is that everyone that I've read about that is doing this also went through a similar phase.  I haven't decided for sure whether I am going to use baking soda to rinse it tomorrow or if I'm just going to push through this phase.  I might continue with the water only rinses for the weekend and if it is unbearable by then, use a baking soda rinse followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse on Monday morning before returning to work.

Shampoo - Part V.

Well, I didn't give up and I pushed through.  Today I have to take some photographs for a group that I volunteer my time for, so I thought due to the sesame oil incident yesterday I might have to use baking soda today (it was definitely not bad enough to justify actually using shampoo).  But last night I did some experiments with hot rollers to see how my hair would look (and whether it would "take" without any gel or hairspray), and I was comfortable with the result.  So today I showered using a water only rinse, followed by the blast of cold water at the end, then blow dried my hair and put it in hot rollers for 25 minutes or so.  My hair turned out wavy, so not quite as curly as it would with gel and spray, but I am happy with it.  It actually looks like how I wish it looked naturally.  Toussled, perhaps, which is what I was hoping for.  It feels really nice as well.

Not that I'm so far removed from using hair products that I can afford to look back and remark on the error of my previous ways (you know where this is going), BUT I have realized a couple of interesting things about the whole messy process of using hair products.  First of all, think of how unnatural the whole process is: on a typical day, I would wake in the morning and shampoo my hair because it was greasy or had product in it.  Then, because the shampoo stripped all of the natural oils out of my hair, I would condition it.  Because my hair was both stripped cleaned and conditioned, it wouldn't hold a style, so then I would have to use gel so that it was easier to do things with.  And at the end, in a (somewhat desperate) attempt to get the style to stay in place, and get the little hairs that had broken off to do what I wanted them to do, I would hairspray it all into place.  Today I rinsed my hair with water and styled it and it looks fine.

The next matter that I have been reflecting on is how much I am coming to resent advertising.  I am not a fan of the fact that so many companies are trying to convince me that I "need" their products.  If a hundred years ago we didn't need their products, then what has changed?  Our needs? I doubt it.

Finally, the more I learn about being shampoo free (and hair-product free generally), the more I think that it is time to re-evaluate all of my personal care products and really establish what I need and what I'm just paying a bunch of money for that serves no practical purpose.  At this point I still use two cleansers (one for my face and one for my eyes) every day, body wash, a razor, two moisturizers (one for my face and one for my eyes) and toothpaste.  I think I would like to get down to a "man" routine (toothpaste, razor, body wash).  We'll see. Let's finish the hair saga first!

Shampoo - Part IV.

Well. I don't stink (not yet anyhow).  It is now 72 hours since I have washed my hair with shampoo (48 hours since using the baking soda and water).  I don't know why I find this so surprising and impressive.  I guess it is because this "no poo" decision is just so unexpected and admittedly weird, I think I feel compelled to justify my decision by pointing to how "not bad" it is compulsively.

In any event, for someone that has never been able to go two days in a row without washing her hair (without pulling my hair into a ponytail and hoping no one came near it until I had a chance to wash it), three days in and everything is going remarkably well.  This morning I again massaged my scalp and hair under fairly hot water in the shower, then blasted my head with cold water at the end of the shower.  I made the mistake of exfoliating my legs with a mixture of sugar and sesame oil, and the oil was still on my hands a bit for my last massage of my scalp, so I could tell immediately that the oil had transferred.  Nevertheless, I didn't wash with baking soda, because I thought I might as well find out how it would be once it was dry.  I blow dried my hair, as usual, and ended with a cool shot.  My hair feels excellent, but I can feel a bit of the oil.  I am fairly sure it is not scalp oil, but the sesame oil.  It doesn't look or smell oily, though, and Tim gave it the smell-test and said it smelled fine.  Tomorrow after I give myself a scalp massage if the oil is still noticeable I will wash it with baking soda.

I'm not trying quite as many of the different options as some of the other "no poo-ers" out there in cyberspace (there are lots of resources available on the internet if you are thinking of kicking the habit but want to know everything to expect before you take the plunge, and believe me, there are many different ways to clean or condition your hair without any chemicals whatsoever).  I really would like to quickly move to "water only" (WO) washes (which I have done for the past two days) and I can't help but think that if I keep using things in my hair to clean it (such as water with baking soda) that it will slow down the process.  So for now I'm going to keep the baking soda rinses minimal, but trust me, the container I use to squirt the solution in my hair is sitting in the shower, waiting for its chance.  I guess the initial adjustment period is just about figuring out what works best for you individually.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will have it down to a science.  And no more using the exfoliator before I finish with my hair unless I wash my hands well first!

Shampoo - Part III.

I promise that this won't be the only subject of posts for too much longer.  I had a lot of territory to cover to bring readers up to speed, but now everything is going to happen very slowly (although I shouldn't say that too soon, because it could go wrong very quickly, it's hard to tell this early in the game).  Today I didn't want to use anything at all other than water on my hair in the shower, due to my suspicion that the baking soda I used yesterday may have done the exact same thing as a shampoo - minus the chemicals, of course.  Specifically, one of the benefits that being shampoo- and conditioner-free is supposed to bring is to allow your scalp's natural oils to rebalance, thereby removing the need to constantly be stripping them off with any sort of product.

Having this in mind, I washed my hair with only water today.  I got my hair thoroughly wet, then massaged my scalp with my fingertips (not my nails) for about a minute or two.  I then went about finishing up the rest of my shower routine and at the end raised the temperature of the water, massaged my scalp again for good measure, then finished off with a blast of cold water to seal the cuticles of the hair (particularly important if you are going to use the very hot method of water-only washing, I imagine).  Again, much like yesterday, my hair didn't feel particularly pleasant while it was wet.  When I got out of the shower I blowed my hair dry and gave it a shot of cool air from the blow dryer at the end once everything was dry.  Guess what?  My hair feels and looks just as good as it did yesterday.  This morning is 48 hours since my last shampoo... and counting!

Shampoo - Part II.

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I am experimenting with my hair and trying to go "no poo" (shampoo-free).  This post is an attempt to catch you up on where I am currently in this saga, because there is a lot more to this than just not using shampoo.

Last year, I cut off my hair and donated it to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for children with cancer from the donated hair.  My hair had been subjected to a lot of dye over the years, so to be honest, I really don't know if Locks of Love could have even done anything with it.  Anyhow, since that time, I've decided that I am going to essentially "farm" or "cultivate" my hair for the purpose of donating it every couple of years.  So I sort of look at my hair as though it is just renting space on my head and someday it will move out and be someone else's.  So I've been trying to treat it well.  I don't dye it, I stopped brushing it in January.  I blow dry it so that it doesn't go through the wet stage where it is the most fragile and subject to breakage, but otherwise, I do nothing to it besides shampoo, condition, occasionally I give it a squirt of hair spray when I have a hair that wants to stand out.

Shampoo - Part I

This is going to probably be the subject of multiple posts, because what I am now in the process of doing is attempting to go entirely without shampoo and other hair products.  Yes, you read that right.  Nothing non-edible in or on my hair, or at least that is the goal.

The whole "movement", if you could call it that, to go shampoo-free (or "no poo") as the converted lovingly refer to themselves is based on a couple of pretty sound premises which are consistent with the goals of this blog and myself in general, so I thought that I would at least give it a try, because if you can, then why not?  Commercially made shampoo has only been available since the early 1900s, so obviously the human race has survived without it before and may even be able to do so again.  I will start by setting out some of the reasons why a person may be interested in living a shampoo-free existence.  In the coming days, I will tell you about different things that I am trying, and how the experiment is going for me personally.