A few months back I read about this new movement of women discontinuing washing their hair with shampoo and conditioner and I was intrigued… Not enough though to try it though…until now. I have had hair issues for a really long time. I have very fine hair with oily roots and dry ends. I have to wash my hair every single day and it has been tricky finding a conditioner that moisturizers but that doesn’t weigh my already-limp hair down. I’ve found a few good ones, but I’m still not happy with my hair.
Enter “No ‘Poo.” I’ve read a dozen articles and blogs on this method of “washing” your hair with baking soda and water, then conditioning with vinegar and water. Today I took the plunge. I mixed half a tablespoon of baking soda with half a cup of warm water in a squirt bottle (the kind I use to dye my hair) and then I mixed one table spoon of vinegar with one cup of warm water (I did all of this in the shower).
I rinsed my hair with water and then applied the BS and water mixture to my roots only and scrubbed with my finger tips for a good minute or so, then left it on for another minute and rinsed it out. Then I poured the cup of vinegar water over my head and then rinsed that out.
Then I “washed” my face with my olive oil/brown sugar scrub. 🙂 I’ll post about that later!
The articles I’ve read say to “wash” your hair (with the BS and vinegar) every 3-7 days and that for the first few weeks your hair may freak out a little bit at it acclimates to this new system. They say that your body will eventually start to produce the correct amount of sebum and your hair will look awesome. I’m willing to jump right in and see what happens.
My hubby isn’t too keen on my hair not smelling good (although once my hair dried there was no vinegar smell at all), so I’ve looked up a few recipes for making the vinegar rinse smell good, maybe rosemary and mint or lavender. I may try these soon. I’ll keep you posted!
Here are the pictures of No ‘poo, day 1. My hair feels kind of dirty, my scalp was a bit itchy, but it had a good amount of volume. Over all, it didn’t look any worse than usual.
Courage Does Not Always Roar... 
Hi, Stacy!
I am a Christian senior citizen who has decided to follow your blog and pray for you, your disability and your family. I am going to tell my hair dresser about this post.
I blog about my husband’s dementia and we are grateful for every day he is in stage one of his Alzheimer’s. Coconut oil is remarkable and my husband gets it every day. See if you can get the book, The Coconut Oil Miracle. Mine is loaned out.
Hugs and prayers,
Carol with thinning hair also
Thank you Carol! What a blessing! I will keep you posted about the hair progress. I will look into the coconut oil as well. Praying for you and your husband too!
I had tried that before too and had the same results but I didn’t stick with it. I know you can. I’ve heard great things about it. I just started using a natural shampoo that doesn’t strip the hair of all the natural, good oils and my head is adjusting to it. I’d eventually like to get to something I can make at home that is cost efficient. This is a good segway for me. Can’t wait to see the result.
For the scalp itchiness, I add a couple drops of teas tree oil to my BS bottle. I had that before I started this though, not because of the No Poo. It also smells good too. And the lavender oil my sister mentioned also did the trick for the vinegar smell.
I’m near the end of week 2 and it really is making a difference. I’ve appreciated being able to put it in a pony tail while it adjusts though.
Good luck!
Definitely use essential oils in your no poo mixtures. Mint works for me.