One whole month without washing my hair. OMG!

FREAK!!!  That’s me …

I’m still completely astonished that SHAMPOO isn’t a necessary part of life.  I never ever ever even considered that something as basic as shampoo was optional in life until a month ago.

Anyway, the update is that it’s going well.  I wash with baking soda (1 tb to 1c water) with a few drops tea tree oil, and rinse with apple cider vinegar (1:10 ratio with water).  I let it air dry, and then rub a drop of olive oil between my palms to smooth over the top layer and ends to control frizz.  I straighted as usual with a flat iron, and then use another drop of olive oil if needed.  I do this every 4th day.

Several people I associate with over at BabyCenter Canada are also trying out the no poo lifestyle, but most of them are following the “Curly Girl” method of conditioner only washing.  Basically, you condition twice.  First time, you scrub your hair and scalp with the conditioner in the same manner you would with shampoo.  Second time is conditioning as usual.  It’s important to use a conditioner with no silicon derivative ingredients, so, nothing that ends in CONE.  Also stay away from sodiums, sulfates and words ending in XANE.  Most of the super cheap products foot the bill.  I have started this method with M.  I felt it appropriate because, well, she’s a curly girl.  So far, so good, although, it’s a gigantor pain in the ass. We have 6 varieties of V05 conditioner right now (not to use all at once) because it was $0.66/bottle at the grocery store last week.

Basically, my curly girl’s curls have been disappearing, especially in the back.  The back of her hair is just wavy these days, while the front is still spirally.  Her whole head used to be spirally.  When I read that the CG method helped restore curl, and then saw the pics, I knew I had to give it a shot with her.  We have CO washed exactly 3 times, and I’m starting to see more curl in the back of her hair!  This is very exciting.  I know that once we get it cut (she is growing it very very long to donate to make hair for sick kids), there will be more curl simply because of the weight difference, but even when it was shoulder length in September, there wasn’t a whole lot going on at the back of her head.  Hopefully that will change with prolonged CO washing.

So, as I’ve been typing this, A asked what I was writing about.  I told him I was blogging no poo.  He said “You better not start not washing my children’s hair …”  I told him that I had already started M, and he’s not happy.  Whatev.  He doesn’t deal with her crazy hair, so he has no say, MUAHA!  I told him as much, and he just rolled his eyes.  I really would like to test out BS/ACV on the boys.  I don’t think they would mind too much.  I just don’t think A would stand for it.  It’s already bad enough to listen to him whine and cry about the smell in the bathroom when I shower (the tea tree is strong, the vinegar is strong, I’ll admit it, it doesn’t smell good at ALL, but I deal.  I mean, the smell is GONE as soon as it’s down the drain.  Small price, ya know?).  And I’ve been thinking about the whole peer thing.  What if they told their friends “I don’t use shampoo …”  Geeze, I imagine that wouldn’t go over well with the elementary school crowd, LOL!  Teachers would probably call CPS on me or something …  EEK.  I dunno.  I still need to figure out a better way to mix up my potions for ease of use  (it’s kind of a pain to mix everything downstairs in drinking cups, and taking it upstairs to the bathroom, LOL), then I can worry about ‘dragging my family kicking and screaming …’