Back to Basics: Shampoo Free Update

From May 2013

This is the 5th or 6th week since I started my shampoo free experiment. The flakes are gone; actually, those only lasted for about 3 weeks all together.

I did have to wash my hair with shampoo twice last week while I was in Oklahoma. I had no choice. The stuff I was digging in was quite questionable….with the rotting food and who knows what else that had been stewing under the rubble for a week. I’m sure some people had just gone grocery shopping before the first tornado hit. My friend dug up a whole ham at the first house (poor thing kept finding all the meat). On the last day we were there, we split into 2 groups and the other group was talking about this enormous rat and its babies that they uncovered. So, yeah……I washed my hair with shampoo there.

My hair was the softest it’s been in….well, since I quit shampoo. I resisted the urge to use conditioner. I didn’t need it though. I wish I had known that for years that my hair didn’t really need conditioner. I could’ve saved a lot of money.

You know, the whole 100 strokes a day hair brushing routine women did way back when? I did some research on the best brushes to use on hair to disperse the natural oils. The brushes they used were boar bristle….which cause major static, especially for those of us who are “electric people” and carry a LOT of static on a normal basis. I found one at my local pharmacy for $12. And then I went back and got a synthetic one for $4 (it came with a free comb too). It still makes a bit of static but not near as much as the boar bristle. I read that a mix of real and synthetic is helpful with static probs too.

My hair looks a little better than it originally did and it’s less “nappy” (as my son said) feeling. I did read that sometimes it takes months for hair to adjust to not using store-bought shampoo. I threw out the yucca root shampoo I made. I’ll probably try a different recipe, once I order my bulk herbs again (Mountain Rose Herbs in Oregon), with the root powder. I’m still messing with the amount of baking soda necessary also. I think it has a lot to do with hair texture and how much hair you have as well. There isn’t really a tried and true one size fits all formula. I feel like it takes forever to rinse it out as well. I also cut out the ACV (apple cider vinegar).