Thursday, January 10, 2008

Nix shampoo?

Well, I bit the bullet today and tried washing my hair without shampoo. I have been reading about using baking soda and vinegar as shampoo and rinse, and thought I would give it a try. I have pretty long hair, down nearly to my waist, and it tends to be fairly dry and frizzes on top where my grey hairs play havoc, but also gets a little greasy at the scalp if not washed regularly. I used about 3 Tbs in a mug of hot water at first, but since I had not washed it in two days it still felt a little dirty at the scalp so I took a few Tbs in my hand and applied it directly to that area. After rinsing, I have to say my hair felt the same as after a good shampoo, so stage one seemed to be a success. I was pretty skeptical about the vinegar rinse. My hair is very picky for conditioners, and anything less than Pantene leaves my hair un-brushable. I used about 1/4 cup vinegar in a mug with hot water, and poured it over my head rubbing it in as I did so. Immediately my hair felt smooth, and that feeling stayed after rinsing with water!

After I was done with my shower and dressed, the true test came-the brush. I started to brush my hair and it ran through as if I had been using salon conditioner! Much easier than with even Pantene!

I am sold. I will see what it looks like dry, and give it the test of time, but so far I really am happy. The good news is the baking soda comes in cardboard with no plastic, and while I used vinegar from a plastic jug (left over from summer) it is available in glass jars with only a plastic lid. If I can figure a way to get the rest of my family to join me, we can nix all those plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner!

I will be looking at making herbal vinegar for my hair, I bet many herbs and spices would smell really good in a hair rinse, such as lavender, citrus, and vanilla.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. If your family doesn't want to join you in using baking soda and vinegar, you could encourage them to use shampoo bars instead of bottled shampoo. I have seen them made by Lush, Burt's Bees (aka Clorox now!), and Liggett's. I also know there are individuals making handmade bar shampoos on Etsy. Right now, I'm using the Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint shampoo bar, which I bought before the Clorox deal.

Jen Kuhn said...

I didn't even know those existed! Thanks for the heads up. I did notice some were wrapped in plastic, but many were not-I think I will try them as my husband said there is no way he is switching to baking soda and vinegar, he likes his shampoo and conditioner very much thank you. He may try this though, as it doesn't look to complicated.

So how does a bar main mainly of oils work to clean your hair? I can probably make them myself but wanted to try it out first-the ingredients have me a little befuddled.

Anonymous said...

Soap is made from oil! I didn't know that either until a few months ago. I'm not sure what the difference is between the shampoo bars and regular soap. But regular soap is some kind of oil or fat plus lye. It's the reaction of the oil and the lye that create soap. In the olden days, the fat would have been from animals, like bacon grease. Castile soap is generally made from olive oil. Other oils, like coconut, palm, etc. are used for the different properties they bring to the soap. So I'm assuming it's the same with the shampoo bars.

The 3 brands that I mentioned, Lush, Burt's Bees, and J.R. Liggett, are not wrapped in plastic. In fact, the Lush bars are not wrapped in anything at all if you buy them in the Lush store. They are cut off a huge chunk of product and sold by weight.

Jen Kuhn said...

Duh, you know you think I would have thought of that, having helped make soap before!

You know I keep bees and grow herbs, and have been thinking of getting into making some of these products, I just have been very distracted by college and illnesses in the family. I think making some of these products from scratch may be the best way for my family to reduce plastic use. They will be more willing to try new things if they are homemade. Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

You keep bees? That's great. Your beeswax will hopefully not be full of chemicals like commercial beeswax.