No-pooing 1 month+

I've been wanting to blog about no-pooing for a while but it has taken some time to tweak my routine and get the hang of it before writing about it. I should probably clarify that by no-pooing, I mean that I am shampoo (and conditioner) free.  I no longer wash my hair with shampoo... yes, you heard that correctly. 

I've been taking steps for a few years now to become a more natural me and to keep a more natural house.  I've blogged previously about cloth diapers, giving up paper towels, natural menstrual products, and now going shampoo free has been one more step. 

I only have good things about going shampoo free-- my hair looks and feels awesome, we're saving money, and I'm saving lots of time. 

For those that aren't familiar with no-pooing, I do still wash my hair, but my hair is becoming less dependent on washings so I don't have to wash it everyday.  And yes it is still clean.... I mean unless you're swimming in chlorine daily, or are a chain smoker, how dirty does your hair get daily? 

Before no-pooing, I washed my hair EVERY single day.  If I didn't wash my hair everyday, it would get greasy, and I also wouldn't know how to style it because styling for whatever reason was very dependent on taming it with the hair dryer.  Essentially what happens with shampoo from what I understand is that your hair becomes dependent on it.  It cleans up the oil in your scalp and hair and tells your scalp to produce more, so you keep washing and keep producing.  When I first started no-pooing there was at least a week of a grease mess that I covered with a wide headband but now things have balanced out even as I have critiqued my wash routine. 

You can google no-pooing and find all sorts of information on it and wash routines and really you have to work out what works best for you and your hair, and even your water type.  I only say water type because I felt like I had to do even more tweaking after the move (city water to hard well water).

I keep 2 jars in my shower-- an old salsa jar and an old spaghetti sauce jar.  (Yay recylcing!) In the 1st jar I sprinkled a few tablespoons of baking soda and then added warm water.  In the second jar I have about 1/3 full of apple cider vinegar and the rest water.  On days that I wash, I start with my baking soda jar and scrub well at my scalp and roots and work my way down.  I rinse and rinse and rinse really well and often times have a comb on hand to comb it out.  Once that is done, I pour my ACV/water all over and "lather" it in and then rinse.  (Maybe I should clarify, I don't use the whole jar... I just keep jars so I have it at hand and refill when I need to.) Simple as that!  As far as wash cycles it goes something like this currently--
Sunday- BS and ACV
Monday- none
Tuesday- ACV
Wednesday- none
Thursday- BS and ACV
Friday- none
Saturday- ACV
etc. etc.

It took some tweaking and learning with the baking soda.  I have sensitive skin and subsequently a sensitive scalp, so I found a constant baking soda wash to be harsh, but at the same time I really need to do occasional baking soda washes to keep the oils down, so this is what works for me right now is every other day washing but not with baking soda each time.  From my understanding with no-pooing is that gradually your scalp gets to where less and less washes are necessary, so I'm sure that this will change even further. 

Oh, and as far as styling... I've learned that I don't need that hair dryer every single day.  I can style my hair without washing and without it being wet.  I have fallen in love with hot rollers since starting.  I can throw hot rollers in my hair after even having my hair tossed up in a bun for 36 hours and when I pull the hot rollers out it looks like I spent an hour curling.  They really are genius!  I also occasionally pull out my Chi and straighten my hair.  It works! I'm loving the versatility and loving the look of no-pooing!