Natural Beauty Aids, Revisited

Last year, I wrote a post about natural beauty aids since so many of us are trying to use more natural and organic products and have fewer chemicals in our households.  At the time, I had switched all of my shampoo products to more natural formulations, however, I had not made the plunge to go shampoo free. But many readers have and offered suggestions about baking soda and apple cider vinegar rinses. At the time, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that your scalp will naturally adapt to the cleaning regimen, and if shampooed less (or not at all with chemical shampoos) will produce less oil.  Well, I have been reading more and more about “no ‘poo” and decided to take the plunge, and as of today have been almost 4 weeks without shampoo.  If you are considering this, here are some tips:

–If you normally wash your hair everyday, you may wish to switch to every other day, before you transition over –  this will help you to get out of the habit of shampooing every time you are in the shower.

–It will take some time for your hair to acclimate to the no shampoo — during the transition, your hair may feel much limper and possibly stringy.  My switch over was about 10 days, and I normally tie my hair up in a ponytail during the summer so there was not so much of an issue.

–One option in the no shampoo environment is to use baking soda and apple cider vinegar — for this you make a baking soda paste with a few tablespoons of water and massage that into your scalp, rinse with water; and then condition the hair with 2 T apple cider vinegar in a couple of coups of water.  The vinegar neutralizes the alkaline baking soda so your hair doesn’t stiffen.

–Another option is to try brushing and water rinsing — often after several weeks of bs/acv, many people incorporate more just water washing.  I am currently alternating the bs/acv with water washing.  I brush my hair thoroughly (including the scalp) with a boar bristle brush and wash with plain water.

–If your hair has build up of cleaners or other products or you want to try other natural products, I have heard of good results using salt instead of baking soda and adding honey to the rinse.

As of now, I am not planning to go back to shampoo and I really love not having extra chemicals swimming around.  I’d love to hear your experiences if you’ve changed your shampoo habits.

shared at Works for Me Wednesday