In case you're not familiar with "no-pooing", it's the act of washing your hair with baking soda, and conditioning your hair with apple cider vinegar. Yea, you read that right. Apple. Cider. Vinegar.
I can already see your faces, thinking about the smell, but trust me. It's not that bad.
To No-poo, you'll need to gather a few things:
Baking soda and a squirt bottle (like hair dressers use)
Apple cider vinegar, a spray bottle and some essential oil if you want. I used Rosemary.
Rosemary essential oil, when used on hair, can stimulate hair growth and help your scalp. It helps curb the smell of the ACV (apple cider vinegar). Helps.. not eliminates. :)
My hair had been a couple days with no washing.. so I was excited to try this.
I mixed a bit of the baking soda (I just eye-balled it, but you could do 4-5 spoons full.) with warm water. Just filled to the top with water. (Leave enough space at the top to shake and mix it up)
I dunno... maybe a centimeter of soda?
Crazy waves.. Am I an auburn?? Because I always considered myself a brunette!!
Anyways, wet hair like normal. Then squirt the baking soda-water mixture on the scalp, by dividing in sections. I read in several places to keep it to scalp as much as possible.. because it can be super drying to the hair if it sets on the length of the hair for long. I didn't focus on that much.. just squirted it on the scalp and rubbed it in. Use the whole bottle. After a few minutes, rinse it all out.
THEN.. You're ready to "condition". Before your shower, you would have mixed up your ACV and water. I did 1:4 ratio of ACV to water. Then I dropped in like... 7 drops of Rosemary EO. I wasn't really measuring. So, after the baking soda is rinsed out, spray on the ACV. I probably used 1/4 of the spray bottle. Looks like I'll get a lot of bang for my buck on that! I just sprayed it all over, dividing in sections and rubbing in. I sprayed on all lengths of hair, not just roots.
It. Is. Strong. Smelling. Also, don't get this in your eyes. There was a minute, y'all, when I wondered if I would ever see again. O_O I don't know if it was the ACV or the EO that burned so bad, but something did!
After a few more minutes, rinse it out, and you're done. Now, my hair felt matted and heavy.. not very clean after I was done. But then, I dried it and it was soft as a baby's bottom. And kinda smooth, since I normally straighten, to get smoothness.
After! Looking particularly red-headed here..... Smooth and shiny!
After drying.
So, it's not like a night and day transformation, but it is clean hair with natural ingredients! And I know, because I made it myself.
Unless it begins to affect me negatively, I'm planning on continuing this. And, no, I didn't walk around smelling like vinegar after this. The smell pretty much rinses out in the shower. :)
My roomie does this - and he has done it for a few years actually!
ReplyDeleteHer hair always look clean, fresh and healthy, and she tells me the longer she sticks with it the less and less she has to wash her hair!
She only washes it every week or so - crazy!