A long overdue update

So, I'm very happy with my sulfate free hair life.

My current routine is a baking soda rinse, followed by a soak with apple cider vinegar.  (Both are diluted with water - my non-scientific recipe will follow).

What I've noticed is that my hair feels softer and it does seem to curl a little better.

Unscientific Recipes:

Baking Soda rinse:  About 1-2 tablespoons baking soda to 6-8oz of water.
Apple Cider Vinegar:  Somewhere between 1 part ACV to 3 parts water and 1 part ACV to 2 parts water.

You should play with it and discover what works best for your own hair if you decide to try it - that's what I did.

If anyone reads this and has any questions they want me to answer, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them in a new blog!

A small change in plans

Okay... so I'm finding that I REALLY don't like my hair on the baking soda days. I mean, it's still soft, but it gets frizzy and difficult to manage. I think for right now I'm going to switch to an every other day conditioner only/shampoo and conditioner regimen.

I'm considering the thought that I might need to use more diluted baking soda to get the desired effects, but I'm going to slow my roll a little here (so to speak), and let my hair gradually adjust to this new process. The one thing that I have noticed is that my scalp feels nicer and I'm having less flakes, so that's good news, but I seriously can't deal with ugly hair - I spent way too many of my teenage years hating my hair to go back to having it be unruly.

As I have said, this experiment is a work in progress. Experiments require adjustments, so it is not outside of the realm of possibility that I may not ditch shampoo, but merely shampoo which contains sulfates. I may carry this experiment all the way to hand soaps and body washes. I'm just not sure. But for now, I'm not 100% shampoo free, and I'm pretty okay with that.

First week

Used my sulfate free shampoo today to clarify.  Still experimenting with trying to find silicone free/wax free hair products that I like.  My hair feels soft today, so I'm happy.

My hair is longer than I want it right now, but I haven't got the time to get a haircut.  Soon, I hope.  I've been working lots lately, and am somehow still poor.  So, for now it stays longish.

I haven't been adding pictures because I've been pulling it back for work, so you can't really see what it looks like.  As far as feel, it almost feels like it's thicker when I've got it down.

Overall mood after about a week is pretty okay.  I'm still experimenting and I may completely modify how I work with this to make it work for me.  I honestly never had major problems with my hair before, but I read an article that suggested that this method might help with my dry scalp.

So we'll see how this goes.  No major changes or issues after week one.  :)

Day Four

Skipped yesterday's blog because I'm tired... I didn't want to skip today, though, so a quick one before I go to bed.  Yesterday and today I conditioned only with a sulfate free conditioner.  My hair seems a little weird right now but I did a little further digging and found out that silicones are also a problem because they build up and sulfate is what removes them.

This is a work in progress.

I think tomorrow I will shampoo with the sulfate free shampoo I found.  My current plan is to wash with that one day a week and alternate the other days between the baking soda and apple cider vinegar, and conditioner alone.

Hair Mood:  Interesting

Day Two

Okay, so this is the look on day 2 - dried, styled and with makeup on.  This is a not busy day - I slept late and showered late and the only thing I did was go to Ulta to find sulfate free hair products, so not much wear and tear to speak of, but it looks good.

I altered slightly from yesterday - I used a baking soda paste instead of a rinse, and then I soaked my scalp and hair with diluted apple cider vinegar (with a cinnamon stick inside to hopefully make it smell a little better).

I did still use my old styling products, but I'm pretty sure they have sulfates, which is the problem, so I bought some new stuff today.  We'll try that out tomorrow, along with a day of work, to see what happens with this new method when it's put to the test.

I will try to provide a picture every day, but so far, I'm happy and not feeling dirty.

No Shampoo Mood:  Happy So Far

Day One

(Note:  Post originally published on my other blog - presented unedited)

I'm attempting the "no 'poo" method on my hair.  By that I mean that I'm ditching my shampoo for a few weeks (at least) as an experiment to see how it works on my hair.  This concept freaks me out a little bit, but the more I read about it, the more I think it will be good for my particular situation.  

The shampoo that I have been using has a product in common with dish detergent.  Seriously?  Dish detergent?  That's frightening.  So yea.  I'm going to give it a go and see what happens.  

The photo is shortly after the first "wash."  

An explanation

I started posting about this on my knitting/life blog, but I was thinking that everyone wouldn't necessarily want to hear about that, so I'm moving this over here.  

This blog will chronicle my hair experiment - to ditch shampoo.