No 'Poo Tuesday Report - Week 13

So you may wonder if I've given up on this "no 'poo" experiment since I've been MIA for so long.

Well, I'm still doing it and I LOVE it still.

I went on my tour in April and went back to 'poo.  My face broke out!!  Using shampoo again made my face breakout, and I thought maybe it was the change in climate or the traveling... but as soon as I got home and started back on my no 'poo regimen, my skin cleared up again. hmmm~

Then, last week, I traveled to Japan and used shampoo for 9 days.  I broke out AGAIN!  and again, I thought maybe it was the climate change and the traveling... and again, as soon as I got back and started using my no 'poo concoction, my skin started to clear up. HMMMM......

Anyway, I love the no 'poo thing.  I wish I knew more people that were willing to do this no 'poo experiment with me.  My hair isn't greasy.  It doesn't smell funky. It's super clean and I have way more volume than before.  I think it's because I'm not using chemicals that strip away EVERYTHING in my hair, even the good stuff.

I'm super happy to be back on my no 'poo experiment once again.

Are you doing it yet?  :)


To read about my past weeks and to find out my no 'poo recipe, check out my no 'poo arvhive!

No 'Poo Tuesday Report - Week 7

Quick report.

Things are going well.

I mentioned that I'm going on tour on the east coast this week.

Leaving tomorrow early morning.

Gone until Sunday night.

I'm sad, but I can't go "no 'poo" while I'm on tour.

I can't think of a way to carry the no 'poo mixture on board and I can't make it there because I don't know what kind of water they have. If they happen to have hard water like we do here, there will be no where for me to boil water and I don't want to trouble my group and go get distilled water. Our schedule is packed as it is.

So, for 5 days, I'm going back to 'poo.

Hope it doesn't mess things up.

Otherwise, everything is going good. :D

No 'Poo Tuesday Report - Week 6

Making the ACV mixture stronger and less diluted totally worked!

My hair is not dry and static-y anymore! Yay!!!

I'm kind of at the point where I miss that nice shampoo/conditioner smell.

I know that's one of the selling points for shampoo and conditioner.

I don't mind the ACV smell, but... still, I miss that shampoo/conditioner yummy smell.

I gotta keep reminding myself that the fragrance is just one of the bad things about those products and that there are so many other chemicals in them that are super bad, too.

Plus, my hair is still healthy looking and clean. The only thing missing is that fragrance. I wonder if I can add my own somehow?

(For my No 'Poo recipe and previous entries, check out "No 'Poo" under the categories on the right side!)

No Poo Tuesday Report - Week 5

Things are going pretty good.

I noticed that my hair was getting dryer... might be the weather.

So, I decided to make my ACV mixture stronger and less diluted.

We'll see how that goes!

I'll report back next week to let you know!

:D

Have you started?

No 'Poo - Week 3 (my first no poo post)

No Poo - Week 4 - with recipe

No 'Poo Tuesday Report - Week 4

We are now in our 4th week of going "no 'poo".

Yes, I still kind of think I'm crazy and I can't really believe I'm doing this... and that I've done it for 4 weeks now.

I have an update. Towards the end of last week, my scalp seemed... dare I say it?... A little on the greasy side.

O_O

Um, no. I don't think so.

"No 'Poo" is only going to work if my hair/scalp was clean and... well, normal, if you know what I mean.

I already knew how to tackle the hard water issues (the boiling water method).

I searched online and found 2 other suggestions.

- Don't wet my hair before I use the baking soda mixture. It's wet enough anyway.

- Add a little bit (like drops) of tea tree oil.

I tried both. I already had tea tree oil so these 2 adjustments were super easy for me to make.

This did the trick. My hair and scalp are back to normal and my hair is super soft once again.

Yay!

Someone asked me about what the baking soda and apple cider vinegar recipe I'm using..

This is what we've been using in the last week or 2. We adjusted from our original recipe because I think we were using too much baking soda. We like this adjusted recipe so far, but I'll let you know if we ever make any changes!

Here is what we're using right now!

Baking Soda Mixture - for those with hard water

1. Boil 4 cups of water and keep it boiling for 15 more minutes.

2. Turn off the heat and SLOWLY add 1/4 cup (used to be 1/2 cup... This lesser amount is working for us, too, so far) of baking soda. It'll fizzle!

3. Gently mix.

4. Let it cool and transfer to container (we use an old shampoo bottle).

* Only transfer the liquid if there's stuff on the bottom.

5. Add a few drops of tea tree oil.

- If you made the mixture correctly, your fingers should feel slippery when you touch it.

- To use: Don't wet your hair before using. Pour some of the mixture onto your scalp. Make circles and "massage" your scalp. Make sure it gets all over your scalp. I don't really put any on the rest of my hair. If you made the mixture correctly, your scalp should feel squeaky clean! Rinse thoroughly.

Apple Cider Vinegar Mixture

1. Mix 2 cups of water with 2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar.

2. Pour into your container of choice (we use an old shampoo bottle). That's all!

- To use: I put it only on my ends and avoid the scalp. I take my shower hair brush (it's all plastic) and brush out your hair. ACV is truly a natural conditioner and detangler! Rinse thoroughly.

You might need to adjust your baking soda and apple cider vinegar amounts, but this is what's working for me right now.

It takes time to adjust.

The baking soda mixture won't lather up.

Apple cider vinegar smells like... vinegar. I actually don't mind it at all. It completely disappears after your hair dries. My hair smells really nice, actually. :)

Oh, and remember how I said I think my skin is a lot clearer since going no 'poo?

It seems like I'm not the only one that experiences this. Strange, but a lot of no 'poo-ers notice that their face becomes smoother and more clear. :)

(Check out my first post here.)

What do you think about this whole "No 'Poo" thing?

Let me know if you try it out!

No 'Poo!?!? Baking Soda and Apple Cider Vinegar Instead?

People who know me - I have a confession to make... I've been "No 'Poo" for THREE weeks.

Yes, I am going "No 'Poo".

No 'Poo = No Shampoo.

I am crazy. Yup. Crazy.

I LOVE shampoo.

I love how it smells.

I love how it makes my hair feel.

I love how I feel so... so clean afterwards.

So WHY in the world would I go No 'Poo?

WEEeEEeeelllllllllll..... it's similar to the cloth diaper story.

Shampoo isn't good for you. It also costs a lot. I never realized that eliminating shampoo is "green".

Just like how I went into the whole cloth diaper thing thinking, "If this doesn't work out for me, I'M OK WITH IT. At least I tried...". Well, I went into the whole No 'Poo thing thinking the same way. I'll give it a try and if it doesn't work out, I can always go back to using shampoo.

Phew. Ok, so I made the commitment to try.

In a nutshell, this is what I learned:

- The chemicals in shampoo = BAD NEWS. You can look it up yourself. Do I REALLY need that on my scalp?? no... I can try to go without it.

- The more we use shampoo, the more our body needs it. It's like a supply-and-demand sort of thing. 1) Our scalp produces a natural, normal amount of oil. 2) We use shampoo to strip that oil off (pretty aggressively). 3) Our scalp says, "oh no~ I have absolutely no oil! I need to make a ton more~!!!" and makes more oil. 4) We use shampoo to get rid of that access oil. And this cycle repeats over and over. So, in theory, if we don't use shampoo to aggressively strip the natural amount of oil, our scalp wouldn't really get super oily... which would eliminate our need for shampoo.

So what do people that go "No 'Poo" do? They use baking soda and apple cider vinegar instead. Other people use other stuff, but from what I read, this is the most common. I decided to start off with what was most common. Baking soda and apple cider vinegar it is!

I kept reading about this scary "transition period" that people go through when they switch over to baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Anywhere from a week to MONTHS of your scalp trying to get used to not having shampoo to strip the oil... which meant that their scalp was an oily mess during this transition period.

EW.

I was one of those people that NEEDED to wash my hair every single day. Otherwise, my hair/scalp would be an oily mess. So, this "transition period" sounded super scary. I was nervous.

Then, I came across this site. If you scroll down, the author tells you how to deal with hard water (which is what most of my state has). Bingo. I followed these directions for the first week and adjusted it a bit for the week after (I used a little less baking soda). Boil the water for 10+ minutes first, add baking soda, cool, DONE.

Everything was fine. I've been doing this for 3 weeks now. NO "TRANSITION PERIOD". WOOT! No oiliness. No problems. I LOVE IT.

Oh, conditioner. Yes. That too. Instead of conditioner, I now use apple cider vinegar. Grossssss~ right? I thought so too. BUT, it totally detangles my hair and leaves it soft soft soft. The smell?? COMPLETELY disappears after my hair is dry. In fact, it smells really really clean like I used soap. AMAZING!

H. (who I introduced in the last post as my hubby who is super super supportive of me going 'green') has been using this method for 3 weeks now, too. He doesn't use the apple cider vinegar, though, because his hair is really really short (um, like 2 mm long). He told me a few days ago that his hair is actually already a lot less oily. He said that usually by the afternoon, his scalp seems a little oily (not super oily or anything, but just... a little oily). But now that he's been using baking soda as his shampoo, he's not oily at all! How awesome is that.

And I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but since I've been No 'Poo, my face has been a LOT more clear!!! whaaaaaat??? I have no idea if it's related, but... whatever!

Super super super super super cheap and so much better FOR US. :)

I want to update everyone on how the No 'Poo experiment is going every Tuesday, so stay tuned!!! So far, so good! :D

<3 Yuri