No-poo journey

Early in the year 2014, I stopped using shampoo. I was fortunate in not having work at that moment, because I heard that your hair goes through some really oily phase as it adjusts to not being washed as much. I tried a variety of things at first, but thanks to this blog post (which shared actual scientific reasoning as to why baking soda is bad for your hair), I knew to steer clear of the most commonly discussed method of going “no-poo” which would be a baking soda and ACV wash/condition method.

I had done a lot of reading leading up to my decision, and got many ideas for things to try. First up was just water. Literally just water. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but I knew that around week 4 was supposed to be the greasiest your hair looks with any no-poo transition, so I decided at the start I wouldn’t judge until at least week 7.

Week 7 and my hair just wasn’t feelin’ it. My hair is very thick, and it is naturally a bit oily. It just looked bad with plain water. Thankfully, with no job at that point, I didn’t have to worry about professional appearances, and would just throw a bandana on over my hair when I had to step out, hoping it would pass the greasy phase.

June 2014 (nothing)

I decided to revisit the post linked above and tried out the rye flour method of shampoo. I just mixed in a bit of rye flour with water until it was a paste, used that to rub into my scalp, and rinsed. I used ACV/water for conditioner.

May 2015 (Rye flour)

The above worked really well, and I continued doing that for the last year and a half (if not a bit longer). It was especially nice when I would cut my hair short, but I recently started using shampoo again, for simplicity’s sake.

June 2016 (Rye flour)

I know it sounds like not much work to pour a bit of rye flour into a bowl and mix with a bit of shower water. It really wasn’t. I stirred it with my finger. It took basically no time. The hard part was rinsing it out of my hair. If I had thin hair, I think it would be a totally different ending to the story, honestly. Rye flour has little pieces of the shell (husk) in the flour. It is great as an exfoliator for the scalp, but isn’t a friend to thick hair. I found that if I didn’t take the time to use the highest pressure and carefully blast every part of my hair, the tiny little pieces of husk stuck to strands of hair. This looked bad. Not just like a weird piece of fuzzy in someone’s hair, weird… but it looked like a piece of dandruff, or worse, a louse egg.

If I switched to the tub faucet and rinsed under there, it was easier to get it all out, but it just was such a water waste. That, and it hurt my neck to do that. It was more of an inconvenience, and my hair was longer by this point. Thick, long, heavy hair… and having to do that.

I truly believe that if I had very fine, straight hair, this would be a non-issue. Sadly, my hair is not only very thick, but naturally wavy (not curly). I loved paying only a few dollars a year for rye flour and having it last so long, but now I’m back to shampoo. I’m actually really sad about it, as I really wanted to never go back. My hair already feels less healthy, but I’m trying out more natural shampoos and hoping to find the perfect one for me. It will probably be a lot of trial and error until I find one I like, and it isn’t going to be as cheap as the rye flour (nothing would!).

If you’re looking to go no-poo and have thin/straight hair (or just short hair), I highly recommend trying the rye flour option. Otherwise, I’m interested in hearing suggestions for other no-poo alternatives (or good, natural shampoos)!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own.

Clean Hair, Naturally

I've kept a pretty low-profile on this for a while, but I've been experimenting greatly with hair care. I use lots of natural products, and while I used a more natural shampoo, I really wanted to go completely natural. People haven't had shampoo forever, and their hair didn't always look like a grease ball, so there has to be a way, right?

An older picture of me (with Bobble!) to show my hair when it was cleaned using commercial shampoo

This started back in March. March 19th to be exact. Well, I guess technically it was March 20th, as the 19th of March was the last time I put purchased shampoo in my hair.

Since I'm currently out of work, I figured this is a great time to try this. Not only do I not have to worry about how to style my hair when I hit that peak of greasiness as your hair transitions, but nobody can complain that I don't "look professional" when it happens. In the off chance that I got scheduled for a job interview, I would simply wash my hair and start over (unless it looked okay by that point).

They say your hair goes through a transitional phase where your oils are trying to balance. Modern shampoos strip the oils out of your hair so your hair makes more. The more you wash the more your hair is making oil. When you start to back off with the shampoo (be it a "no 'poo" method or simply washing less often) your hair is still making all that oil. You're going to need a transitional period. I thought that would be around the 4 week mark, as that's what I've read.

For the record, I went from using a more natural (purchased) shampoo to only using hot water. I read that some people have luck with just hot water. I made sure to massage my scalp well while running the hot water, cleaning my hair as best I could. I tried doing this daily. I tried doing this every other day. Every few days. Once a week.

I'm going to skip ahead for you: It didn't work for me. It didn't matter how I did it, just hot water was not working. I have thick hair, and it's just past my shoulders. I also have very hard water. During week 5 (of just hot water), I washed my hair at my in-law's. They have average (if not soft) water there. My hair was much nicer and I even went with it down and without a bandana that day. That's when I realized using absolutely NOTHING in my hair just wasn't going to work. I need to do something different.

Below are some pictures of 10 weeks in. My hair was always thick and full. While these pictures aren't the greatest (yay, camera phone!) you can see my hair looks flatter (thanks to the oil) and almost like it's thin. That's just not right. 

I had heard conflicting things from (local) mothers saying that they heard using apple cider vinegar is bad, using baking soda might be bad, that using bronner's soap might be bad.... the list goes on. I decided that I was going to read up on stuff before I put anything in my hair. I'm glad I did.

Did you know that Baking Soda damages your hair? Your hair is happy and healthy at a natural pH of about 4.5.... and it takes 20 CUPS of water to make 1 TABLESPOON of baking soda a pH of 9. NINE! That's still double what your hair wants! I was very thankful for the post I stumbled upon over at The Hippy Homemaker's blog. It is well written and goes into the science about natural hair care.

Thanks to her hair care series, I was able to stop scouring the entire internet (as she links to other places that are helpful) and just read her natural hair care series. Finally, at week 16, I added something different to my hair. Yes, I went sixteen weeks without shampoo or conditioner in my hair. Nobody can say I didn't give that a fighting chance! At week 16, I made a honey shampoo that I read about in the second installment of the natural hair care series.

Up to that point, my hair had been consistently greasy. Namely the top back part of my scalp (where you'd put a high pony tail). I would try to wear it down and let it breathe, per se, but I always ended up putting a bandana on before heading out in public.

14 weeks, no shampoo + bandana

I was really surprised at how different my hair felt after the honey wash that I did. I did not use ACV, just the honey wash. After the wash it was not completely oil free, but I didn't expect it to be. After all, it had been 16 weeks. That's a long time. I knew I couldn't rush into this and go crazy, washing my hair 2x a day or something, so I figured I'd do the honey wash again in a few days.

The next time I washed my hair I made up twice the amount (my hair really could use it!), and, to ensure that I didn't dump it on my head and miss a bunch of spots, I actually leaned forward and dipped my hair into the cup that had the wash. I then did my best to slowly pour the mixture where it was the oiliest (back of head), as you really need to worry about the roots when you wash, not the rest of your hair. This helped significantly. I then did a quick ACV rinse and let it be.

The results were great! I had really soft, shiny hair again... and I didn't use a bandana to hide my hair only to keep it out of my face while I cooked. Oh, and that one time I had to run out the door without having time to brush my hair. That doesn't count, though. Right? I don't mind having my hair unbrushed, but it looks a mess if I haven't brushed it. See? And yes, that is how I have to type sometimes. Squiggle needs her mama's milk, especially when not feeling well!

17 weeks, after 2 separate honey washes (but not the same day this picture was taken), with unbrushed hair

So now we are at 19 weeks. My hair feels like what it used to feel like. It's soft. It's smooth. It's even shiny again. My natural waves are there again (as opposed to the straightness I had when I was using only hot water), and I don't hide under a bandana.

I am going to look into more natural hair options. I might even try the natural hair colour that I read about. I'm usually don't dye my hair, but I'm so curious about this I might just have to try it. Of course, I'll write about how it goes if/when I do.

Disclaimer: Thoughts Of Fluff was not reimbursed in any way for this post. All opinions are my own and may be different from those of your own.