Tuesday, January 3, 2012

poo free

I have become my own guinea pig, and am conducting an experiment on myself.

Unlike the experiments I conducted when I was young and stupid, this one is legal and hopefully won't be very very bad for me.

You see, my hair is like coconut fibre in its' natural state. It's really thick, dry, mad frizzy, and I have to use a ton of product on it every week.

My sisters' hair is much the same, and when she told me she'd stopped using shampoo and conditioner, and was now using BICARB and VINEGAR to wash it, I thought she'd gone mad.

BUT.... her hair looks lovely! it's soft and shiny and utterly manageable, and I've been thinking about trying it for months.

So yesterday, after Googling for about half an hour, I wet my hair as usual, and gave my scalp a really good massage, then used a mix of about 1/2 cup of bicarb and about a cup of water, to 'wash' my hair.
It felt very weird -- really runny, no lather -- but I rubbed it in and let it sit for a couple of minutes, then 'finger-combed' it through my hair, and rinsed really well.

Then I used a diluted vinegar solution, and rinsed REALLY well (who wants to smell like fish and chips, right?)

Now, it can take up to 6 weeks to restore the natural pH of your hair and scalp, so I wasn't expecting miracles -- but I gotta say, my hair is MUCH softer than I thought it would be, and more natural feeling than it would be after I'd subdued it with about a cup of conditioner.

I've let it dry for a day (yeah, it takes that long) and I'll straighten it today, so that will be the real test.

It doesn't smell of vinegar (I used the fancy shmancy white wine vinegar that I bought cos I like the bottle) and my scalp is really clean.

My sister says her dandruff is completely gone, so I'm hoping for a big win there. And not having to load my head up with expensive and chemical-laden product would be nice!
Let's see how it goes....

9 comments:

  1. Well, that same recipe works a treat on my washing machine every few weeks - so I can't see how you can go wrong!!
    I'm keen for some before and after pics here!
    :-)

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  2. Looking forward to seeing how that goes. would also love to see b4 and after pics :)

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  3. Uhh, yeah, girls -- since I have an aversion to cameras we'll have to see.

    I'll do an update next week, and report on the whole gig.

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  4. I'm keen to hear how you go, Toni. This heat is doing all sorts of weird things to my hair at the moment! Gah! :)

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  5. I'm not happy anymore with the shampoo and conditioner I've been using, so I think I might try this. But I'll be using apple cider vinegar, because that's what I have here. I use it in everything that needs vinegar.
    Except for cleaning the kettle, that gets the cheap generic white vinegar.

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  6. Also I'd like to know is your hair shiny as well from this? I like shine on my hair, a lot of shine.

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  7. River, I've never had shiny hair, and I'm hopeful this might do it. But I'll have to wait till my hair gets used to the new treatment, I think.
    I've decided to give it a minimum of 6 weeks; currently I only wash once a week so we'll see if that changes as well.

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  8. I'd love to hear how you go too Toni. I've got thin, dry, frizzy hair and am a product whore.

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Thankyou.

xx