No shampoo

[kirstkat]

Right, so as of January 1, 2008 I haven't used shampoo in my hair, instead rinsing with a baking soda solution and/or an apple cider vinegar solution more or less as recommended by Natalie. Late in week two of the experiment my hair was almost unbearably waxy and stiff feeling, but after a couple of days it settled into its current state, which is

Comments

[topaz]

hmm. as to that last, i definitely had more breakouts from conditioner than once i switched to this, but i suppose ymmv. did your back start breaking out more at the same time as your scalp did, or later? so in other words, could it be the same worse-but-then-better cycle, just delayed?

i've also been told that my hair smells like me/smells nice. they can't all be lying, right

[kirstkat]

Yeah, I was debating between a boar bristle brush and a wood tooth brush. I had a wood tooth brush for a while in college and loved it, but I think boar bristle will be better for the whole oil distribution thing

[topaz]

i use both, actually - i use a wood brush for detangling (which boar-bristle won't do at all, at least on my hair) and the boar-bristle afterwards.

hmm, interesting. i should make sure to do that too. for some reason, i always break out miserably in jan/feb (not my face this year since i'm using medicated stuff, but my back and chest are still doing it pretty badly - i don't use the medicated stuff there because it discolors clothes :P). so yeah, i should probably start being more careful about nightshirts/sheets too.

:)

[shrinni]

All right, color me interested. I saw Natalie's post awhile back but wasn't inspired enough to try it, but no I'm ready to acknowledge that I know I shampoo too much.

... I'm thinking I'll ease into it though, to minimize the detox. Right now I'm shampooing just about every day - I'm going to switch to every other day for awhile first. Do you think I should still use my conditioner on the off days? Or should I not even get it wet? I dunno... maybe try the ACV rinse on off days.

I think I'll try the CO/EVOO facewash too - regular stuff seems to have stopped working for me. I also read somewhere that vitamin B6 will help PMS breakouts if I take it the week before and during my period... hm.

[kirstkat]

At the time I was definitely thinking that it might have been easier to adjust first to shampooing every other day or every three days rather than going cold turkey. But then again it's definitely a time of year where I can just pull my hair back and not care no matter how gross I feel like it is, so I think I'm glad I did it the way I did. It was more in the spirit of experimentation rather than a gradual change that I might have just given up on. There were definitely two different changes for me, the first was the "eww gross my hair feels oily" which was me adjusting to fewer washes, then there was a distinct separate extreme waxy feeling, which I think was the variously defined "detox" of getting all of the shampoo/conditioner residue out of my system

[shrinni]

I think if my hair were longer I'd go cold turkey, but I still can't quite pull it all back yet. My goal is to not buy any more shampoo, I've still got half a bottle left so I should be able to stretch that for a gradual lessening. Or something. Plus I already have baking soda and ACV, so laziness (not buying more shampoo) should help me there. :)

[topaz]

i did cold turkey, but i've read about people gradually diluting their shampoo (filling the bottle up the rest of the way with water every time they use some), and supposedly it works? i can't speak from experience, though.