Monday, January 4, 2010

'Poo free (not constipation!) Shampoo

This is not food related, other than the fact that I'm using what can be considered 'food' items for it. 

I read early and widely when I was a child.  I must have been 6-8 years old at the time, I remember seeing an ad (don't remember what they were selling but I think it was a book) about this woman who had incredibly thick, long hair, talking about how she no longer uses shampoo.  She wrote briefly of the first couple weeks of her hair feeling nasty and greasy and changing the pillowcase daily, but after that her hair turned out to be wonderful.  I remember being mildly interested and somewhat grossed out.  I also remember thinking it over a bit, obviously shampoo is a fairly modern creation and people went without what we call shampoo for centuries.  I haven't thought of it much since then until recently. 

Looking about the blogosphere I've ran into 'natural' pages and such and several talk about going 'poo free'.  I've read up on it and overall it makes sense.  Most seem to use baking soda in hot water to clean and an apple cider vinegar rinse for conditioning.  Other things are used depending on hair type and problems.  I've been thinking it over and thought I'd give it a try.  DISCLAIMER:  I am in no way convinced that I'm going to follow through on this, nor that I'll stick with it, I just want to see if it works better than what I'm doing now.  So, today is day one.

I've been sick the last week, some sort of virus that filled my inner ears with fluid (not an infection) and left me feeling as though everything around me was spinning.  I also had a biopsy of a spot on my face below my right eye that the dermatologist is convinced is a basal cell skin cancer.  I haven't showered a lot due to trying to stand upright and not getting that spot wet.  (I sponge bathe!)  So my hair had already gone about 5 days without being washed and was limp and greasy.  Why not start now!  I mixed up 3 cups of hot water with 4 tablespoons of baking soda and in a separate container, 3 cups hot water with 6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.  I combed my hair out before getting into the shower, wet it thoroughly with hot water and poured on half the baking soda water.  I massaged my scalp and hair well (trying not to create knots by scrubbing), rinsed and repeated.  I followed up with the apple cider vinegar rinse (although I did rinse it out rather than leaving it in.)  My hair didn't feel what I currently think of as 'clean' but it didn't feel greasy.  I combed it out again while still in the shower and it combed through about as easily as it would when using shampoo/conditioner. 

The verdict?  Well, it's still drying (it's been a couple hours.)  I don't usually use a hair dryer or heat tools on my hair anymore anyway.  It's a bit longer than shoulder length, fine texture and straight, but I have a lot of hair. I can comb through it easily and it looks ok.  I'll see what it's like in the morning.