No Poo Update - i'm out.

Uncle. I give up. White flag. Stick a fork in me. 

Yep. I'm over the no-poo thing. I can't seem to get the right ratio (I guess) for my hair and I cannot deal with how LONG it takes to dry. Oh. My. God. 

Yes, my hair is thick. Yes, my hair is long. Guess what, I can blow dry it in 30 minutes when I use regular old drug store shampoo and conditioner. It won't be dry in an HOUR when I use baking soda, water and vinegar. Sorry, can't deal. 

I tried. I wanted to love it. I thought I loved it. I was wrong.

On the plus side...my fridge and freezers will all smell nice and fresh since i'm well stocked on Arm & Hammer.

Update!

No poo update - I gave in while in TN. I used shampoo and conditioner. And BioSilk.  I washed my hair when we first got there and I did go "no-poo". I guess I still don't have the ratio right because I can't get my hair to feel the way I want it to feel. After I used the shampoo and conditioner, it was fabulous. *sigh* that said, the first time I washed it back in FL, I went back to "no-poo". It looks fine, not like when I use regular shampoo, but it's fine. 

What I really dislike is the fact that it takes so freaking long to blow dry it! I don't know if the baking soda / vinegar lets the hair soak up more water or what, but Lord have mercy I take my hair down from the micro-fiber turbie twist and it's still soaking wet! I'm talking I can squeeze more water out of it! 

It's like I dry and dry and dry and dry and it never really feels DRY. So I end up giving up and letting it air dry, but since I can't stand wet hair hanging all over me, I put it up in a wad (half pulled thru pony tail) or clip it up and then it's weird curls. Some kinky, some wavy and it just looks like a hot mess. 

I used a whole bottle of Italian dressing to marinate some chicken a week or so ago, so I popped the squeeze ring thing out of it, cleaned it good and put it back in after mixing up a batch of baking soda/water to wash my hair. The squeeze bottle makes it easy to use and shake to mix it up. 

That's about all I have to say about it at this point. I suppose i'll keep tinkering with it and see if I ever get it right. I'll keep you updated.
 

No Poo Update

Week 2 of “no-poo”. That just sounds wrong. Nonetheless this is my update on NOT using shampoo and conditioner…



Last week I washed my hair twice. It started to look a little greasy on top – I think I used too much coconut oil. It’s a bit of an adjustment in how thick it is compared to the Bio-Silk that I’ve been using for years now. I’m officially OUT of Bio-Silk – at least at the Paisley Cottage. There’s a small container of it at the Robin’s Nest. At any rate, so far so good.


I’m looking for one of my old water bottles, the kind with the “sports cap” – I looked for the small version that used to be readily available in the beauty section of Walmart or Target. Now all they have are little tiny bottles like mini body wash that are TSA approved. “The Man” strikes again. *ugh* That was when I thought “HEY! What did I do with those dumb free water bottles?” yep – perfect. One for my baking soda mix and another for my vinegar water mix. Lids, squeezey goodness. Yep, that will work. I did end up buying two containers for the coconut oil. One is a travel size pump/spray bottle, the other is a slightly larger trigger style spray bottle – I bought that one to use on my skin, not my hair.


So back to my hair. No frizz! Most awesome thing EVER. I can let my hair AIR DRY – seriously. In Florida!


I’m thrilled with not having to blow dry my hair. I like the separation that I’m getting and the little bit of natural cur / texture that it’s bringing out.


So there’s my update on not using store bought shampoo. Gonna continue with it for awhile and see how much curl turns up.

Ch ch ch changes...

Ok, so I haven't been using my treadmill AS much as I should, but at least I AM using it - and not for hanging clothes either.

I've been squeezing in 15 minutes in the morning before work. Some days it's harder than others, thus far it's happened daily. Baby steps right?

I also started drinking more SoBe Life Water instead of Diet Coke. I was rather happy with myself, until I realized that they aren't all 0 calorie. The first 2 I grabbed off the shelf were. The other 3 were not. NOT COOL. On the plus side, I actually liked the 0 calorie ones better. So just a note if you're thinking about  making a change in that department, check ALL the labels.  The last bottle I had was Pomegranate Cherry and it was so-so. When I glanced at the label it was 100 calories and 24 grams of sugar! So much for the calories I burned on the treadmill that morning. At least I know now. Won't make that mistake again!

Another change I made this morning was ditching shampoo and conditioner. This morning I decided to give the "all natural" cleansing a shot. I need to tweak.

I mixed 1/2 a cup of Arm & Hammer baking soda with 2 cups of hot water in an empty water bottle and dumped most of it on my head in the shower. No doubt it stripped out any product residue. Wow.

I followed that with a rinse of 1/4 cup of white vinegar mixed with 2 cups of cool water.

It certainly made a difference after the baking soda wash. My hair felt - hmmm. How to describe? Almost like straw - I guess that's the super clean, stripped feeling.  Couldn't run my finger thru it, felt like it was all stuck to itself. After the vinegar rinse It felt silkier - even though it was wet.  I rinsed that out and donned a Turbie Twist while I figured out what to wear to work.

Still felt kinda - eh when I ditched the towel. So I worked a little virgin coconut oil thru. Then I pulled out my TIGI Bed Head tourmaline light up hair dryer and got to work.

It sure seemed to take WAY longer to dry. I thought i'd never get done with it.

My hair FEELS good. It looks okay. It doesn't smell like anything. It doesn't look greasy, but it's separating if that makes any sense. It also wasn't 100% dry when I left the house and it's NOT frizzy from the Florida humidity. That right there is a bonus! It also seems to have a little bit of the natural curl coming out. Hmmm...

We'll see how this goes. I'm going to pick up some squeeze bottles and a spray bottle and do a little more tweaking and experimenting with my mixtures and see what kind of results I get.  I love my Bio Silk, but it's $25 a bottle...if I can get similar (or better) results with baking soda, vinegar and coconut oil...wow - cha-ching money in my pocket.

I will keep you posted.