Have any of you heard of the no poo approach to washing your hair? No poo is short for no shampoo. I hate the name. It sounds like some kitschy term for a bowel disorder. But I have taken the plunge none the less. Yes, you read that right. I am no longer using ANY shampoo or conditioner on my hair. Well, nothing you could buy at the store. Well, nothing you could buy at the store in the HBA section in pretty bottles laden with chemicals and artificial fragrance. To go no poo you use baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and water. You don't get much more basic than that. Which reminds me, I really need to google how to make your own apple cider vinegar at home. We go through a TON of the stuff. *mental note to self, do blog post on ACV!*
After reading the ingredients label on our shampoo bottles I about stroked out. I can't even pronounce the majority of the ingredients. Then I made the horrible mistake of looking up what shampoo does to your hair. YIKES! Awesome. I remembered many years ago, when I shaved my head, a friend of mine telling me about the no poo method and said I should try it. I didn't. Not then any way. Now, here we are in the present and I am kicking myself for not starting this when my hair was a half inch long. It would have been a MUCH easier transition. But, I didn't have the drive to do it then. I didn't understand exactly what I was doing to myself and my family through our environment and food. Now I do and the call brought a sort of desperate urgency to rid ourselves of the poison who all so innocently flood ourselves with.
I started this about 3 days ago and am glad I read about it first or I would be stark raving furious right about now. My hair is dull, and stringy, and oh so oily. It have the vague appearance of a homeless person with a hairbrush. Why would I want that? I don't! But, just like unprocessing our foods can leave our bodies with DT's, unprocesing our hair does too. It takes several weeks for your hair to stop over producing oil. Shampoos strip our hair of any healthy oil so severely that even after we stop using it, our hair habitually over produces it's natural oils in excess to protect itself. I wouldn't mind it so much if my kids didn't both have separate school functions today that require my attendance. The people in our small southern town tend to be a little on the judgmental Stepford side of things, so this makes showing up at school dressed like a hippie with greasy hair much less than desirable if I want to avoid the "freak" stares all day. Oh well. Let them think what they want. They can poison themselves for beauty.
The problem is, I am kind of (really) vain about my hair. I started lightening my hair chemically when I was 11 yrs old. I chopped, and bleached, and colored, and stripped, and curled, and blow dried, and flat ironed, and essentially abused my hair to the point that no one would have blamed it if it all fell out and never came back. But, when I shaved it several years ago, all that changed. I got to see my natural hair color for the first time in two decades. It was dark and rich brown, like wet cocoa. It had these gorgeous chesnut and auburn undertones. It was soft. OH MY GOD soft. It shined with health and radiance. Why did I ever not want this hair? Blue hair might be fun for a little while, but this, this was breath taking. Ever since I have been a little fanatical about my hair. It's been cut 4 times since. The last one being the most drastic and in all honesty, I hate it. It's the cut I wanted (for hubby, he prefers short hair on women) but I miss my flowing tresses. I have not dyed it once, despite the ever increasing prevalence of kinky shiny silver threads inundating my locks. I wash it regularly and use the most luxurious hair care products I can afford (Suave Professionals) to pamper it and show case it's stunning-ness. But my hair falls out in droves. I have to clear my shower drain multiple times each time I bathe. The thick body of my hair is literally falling through my finger tips. I would rather go through a "hat" stage than have my hair leaving my with thin bald patches on my lily white scalp.
I started by purchasing (at the suggestion of my awesome little sister) catsup and mustard condiment squirt bottles. The kind that are red and yellow and empty. I put about 1/4 cup of baking soda in the red one and filled the rest of the space with warm water and shook it up. The yellow on got about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and then filled with warm water and vigorously shook. When you shower you wet your hair like usual and then squirt on the red bottle of baking soda water. Rub it into your hair paying close attention to the roots and scalp. You rinse. Then you use the yellow bottle of vinegar and water and squirt it on. Rub it through your hair and rinse. Aaaannnnnddddd..... your done. Clean hair. Really. That's it. But make sure you rinse between the baking soda and the vinegar lest you want your head turning into a 3rd grade science experiment. Not that I've done this... nope. Just a public service announcement. :) The best part, once your hair dries it smells nothing of vinegar. Pretty darn cool.
I know I still have upwards of a month left before my hair decides to behave itself again. I just hope it will forgive me for force feeding it hair heroine and then yanking it away to dt cold turkey. Even though my hair has been sooooooooo oily this far, I still rub the ends with coconut oil when I am out of the shower. It might seen contraindicating, but like skin, sometimes being too oily is a sign of not enough moisture. Besides, It really is awesome for your hair.
I am going to switch the girlies to no poo as well. But because I love them enough to not only worry about their physical health but their emotional well being as well, I am going to wait until summer vacation starts. While we plan on homeschooling in WA, right now they are in public school and they both have hair that reaches almost to their waists. I am not going to make them go through the last few weeks of school looking like crazy punk rockers trying to grow dreadlocks. If they want that when they are older, I'm all for it. But right now, I just want them to enjoy the simplicity of natural beauty. That's what they are, natural beauties, and that is one thing I hope will always stay unprocessed.
Today go no poo! The name sounds as dumb as a lead hot air balloon, but it's really just another way to rid our lives of pollution, processed schmuck. It's just one more step to make ourselves and out families healthier. I will post before and after pics when my hair stops freaking out and I would love to see yours too. Besides, think of how much money a year you would save without forking out for chemical hair cleansing agents. Just sayin..... I think this is a great little step that's easy, practical, and actually pretty amazing.
Today I hope you find wonder.
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