In Part 1 of Does Your Hair Care?, I explored what possibly harmful ingredients are in my current shampoo, and other brands.
In Part 2 of Does Your Hair Care? I started looking into homemade options, including different 'real' soaps, and Baking soda wash/vinegar rinse.
Part 3: The baking soda experiment results
I only shampoo every other day for various reasons, so I was already on the way to weaning myself off of shampoo.
Week 1
- Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Liquid soap: Very hard to use (especially diluted) and my hair felt greasier after I used it. (There are still many uses for the Dr. Bronner's though!)
- Baking Soda: I mixed about 1/4 cup of baking soda in 1 cup of water in a (reused) plastic bottle with a little lavender oil. Squirting in on my scalp and working it in is definitely something to get used to after using lathering shampoos. It felt good though, and smelled nice.
- Vinegar Rinse: After the baking soda scrub, I sprayed a mixture of diluted vinegar and chamomile tea on my hair and rinsed. This part felt really good, my hair felt softer and silkier.
- Back to shampoo: Towards the end of the week I was getting a little too greasy, so I broke out the shampoo. It's a process...
- Same as Week 1- Dr. Bronner's too greasy, Baking soda/vinegar rinse nice, still had to shampoo one time a week to be able to go out in public.
- Weaning off of shampoo! I can go more days without washing after the shampoo, with just warm water rinse and massaging my scalp in between.
- Baking soda wash: Tends to leave my hair a bit dry and I have to use conditioner. Vinegar rinse still works great! (I also use it as part of my facial cleansing routine!)
- Giving up the baking soda: It's a nice idea, and I will still use it periodically for a good scrubbing (and it would be good to bring camping). There are plenty of people out there that swear by it, but everyone is different.
- Hemp Soap: I bought a bar of hemp soap with patchouli (not too strong) from my little local soap shop for $3.50. The soap lady said it was good for the scalp and would last a long time. I really like how it works- my hair is not too dry and not too oily, and has a nice fresh smell.
- Emergency Shampoo: I still keep a little bit of shampoo around, for those extra greasy days, but I'm almost free from it!
Mine does, and it prefers homemade hemp soap. I'm happy because it's pretty inexpensive, cleans well, and my hair and scalp looks and feels great.
It's also perfect for traveling; you can cut off a chunk and use it for whole body soap (my face still prefers the oatmeal/baking soda scrub though)
What does your hair prefer? Any natural hair care tips?
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1 comment:
You can use soapnuts to wash your hair. They are used even today in South India for hair wash. Just that and nothing else. Maybe some coconut oil hair treatment mask prior to that, to keep hair hydrated because soapnuts thoroughly cleanse your hair. There is a lot of info about them, just check it out. Soapnuts can be used for washing laundry too. All natural.
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