Here's the story. I posted a facial wash with honey a few days ago. As I said in that post we are hunting cleaner (for the Earth and for us) products and of course less toxic chemicals in our daily lives. I was doing a search on youtube (can I say I'm in love with youtube.) and stumbled across a number of different recipes for home made shampoos and conditioners. Now I was looking for home made deoderant. I have found a few recipes and will post once I find a Tried and True recipe that I think works.
I found a wonderful assortment of recipes that included Dr. Bronners (which I have used in the past as shampoo and still always have in the house.) Dr. Bronners dried out my hair, so I quit using it as shampoo ages ago. I still use it once in a while as a clarifying shampoo but not my regular shampoo. The recipes with Bronners also had a bunch of different oils etc... They looked great and I was really leaning towards trying one of those. However I kept seeing vidoes for washing with just baking soda/water, and doing a rinse with Apple Cider Vingear/water. Now we have known in our house a long time the wonderful uses for ACV. I don't mean any ACV. I mean raw, organic, unfiltered with the mother apple cider vinegar. Braggs is all these things and the only ACV I use. My husband has used it for a few years as an after shampoo rinse. I haven't used it because I have very very curly hair. Naturally curly hair also tends to be dry. So I have always used heavy moisturizing shampoos and conditioners on my hair to keep it tame. So here I sit reading this stuff and thought what the heck. I already use healthy and wonderful soaps from my favorite web site (sheaterraorganics.com) and their body products. I just invested in new cosmetics that are organic and made with food grade products. I'm still working on a new face program. I have found my good face washes. I have learned to make my own Vit. C serum. I use a great night time mixture for moisturizing that my face loves. I just haven't found my day time light moisturizer yet. I'm still working on it. Okay, back to this post.
So I went to my bathroom with my handy dandy plastic bottles (cheap ones I purchased at the kitchen store. You can get them anywhere. I know most beauty supplies stores carry the plastic bottles to mix products in.
Ok, you need two bottles. In one place one Tbl. of baking soda and mix it with 8 ounces of very warm water and shake to dissolve. The warm water is so the baking soda dissolves. Next in the other bottle place one Tbl. apple cider vingar and 8 ounces of water. This water doesn't have to be warm.
Now you aren't going to want to get either of these in your eyes if you can help it cause it will sting. Just letting you know. Most shampoos would sting or do sting. The ones that don't have products that actually numb the membranes of your eyes so that it doesn't sting. YIKES.
Alright, now the confession. I had not washed my hair in two weeks. Yes....I said it two weeks. I know, its horrible. I'm ashamed. Since my college semester started my life has fallen apart. Maybe I have fallen apart and I'm taking my life with me. Either way, I'm just now getting my balance back. Back to the hair. My hair was very dirty. So I was super curious to see how this would work.
I wet my hair and just kinda gently scrubbed my scalp and hair to get it good and wet. I took the bottle of baking soda and water and put the tip close to my scalp and started saturating my scalp with the mixture. I sprayed and scrubbed. I used about 3/4 of the bottle on my scalp and then used the rest to saturate the rest of my hair. When I had used the whole bottle ( I don't know that using the whole bottle is normal. My hair was so dirty. I just decided to use the whole thing. I gently scrubbed my scalp for a minute and then worked the mix into the rest of my hair. Then I rinsed well. Almost immediately my hair started squeaking. You know that squeaking clean squeak. I was a little shocked. I rinsed it all out and then followed up with the ACV rinse. I also used the whole bottle on my head and hair. Then rinsed. Don't worry your hair will not smell like vinegar when its all said and done. You wont walk around making people crave salad or anything. I promise.
So after I was done. My hair was very very clean. It worried me at first cause it didn't have that normal soft almost waxed feeling that the store bought conditioners give my hair. So I was fooled into thinking that my hair would be super dry and fly away. I combed it out. I couldn't believe how easy my hair combed out. I thought it would be a tangled mess (remember the very naturally curly hair I have. Also my hair is past shoulder length.) I took about 1/2 tsp. of Jojoba oil and rubbed my hands together and rubbed it into the ends of my hair and then with what was left on my hands ran it through the rest of my hair closer the my scalp. Then ran a comb through it again. Now if you have oily hair you probably wouldn't need the Jojoba oil but for me I always use either Jojoba oil or Argan oil in my hair even with store bought products.
The verdict. My hair is clean, clean, clean! My hair is soft, soft, soft. My hair is shiny and not frizzy. Now I don't know long term how this will work. I will let you know. I am getting everyone in my house to try it out and see how it works on different hair types and skin types. But for now this is a winner and I will continue to use this cleaning method. How great is this? How cheap is this. I also don't think you have to use as much as I did but even if you do, its not that much.
Give it a try. What do you have to lose but one more unhealthy chemical on your body.
