Well - not exactly.
I'm on a quest for good hair. I know, I have decent hair - but I think it could be better! My hair started out straight as a baby, and as I got older it got curlier right up until I got pregnant with Inara:
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| All Natural Curl |
In the beginning of my pregnancy my curls looked more like this:
And near the end, this was my air-drying result:
Even now, almost 3 months since Inara was born, my hair is still as straight as can be, but I'm on a mission to change that.
I have been looking into "the Curly Girl Method" also delightfully called "No Poo", for a few years now, and I think I'm going to try it. What it is, is a no Shampoo cleansing routine that changes your scalp's ph, and trains your body to produce less oil for your hair - thus improving the natural texture (which I hope for me = curls!)
The science behind the method is that our body is meant to be rather self sustaining - we were perfectly designed to take care of the little details, but we live in a consumer society, and these days there are 101 products out there to clean, moisturize, deodorize, volumnize, etc etc.. that our bodies don't end up getting the chance to do what they were meant to do. You know when you wash your hair, and the next day your hair seems a little limp, and the day after that it's greasy and in desperate need of a cleaning again? It's because that initial shampoo was done with harsh chemicals (same ingredients as your dish soap in the kitchen - true story, take a look), and it strips the hair of it's natural oil - then your body panics, and produces MORE oil to compensate - but don't strip the oil, and your body will adjust to stop producing so much.
Also, you know how awesome and slidey your hair feels when you condition it? Know what that is? Silicone and Wax. It coats the hair shaft and actually weighs down hair - and it's one of the main reasons that we need to put that harsh shampoo in our hair, to break down the wax... but then your hair is so dry from the shampoo, you need to put the silicone back in to make it manageable again! It's a viscous cycle, and I think it's time I broke it!
I've decided to go shampoo free, and see what kind of hair I end up with! I've read a lot of blogs, and watched a lot of Youtube videos on the subject, and it is a simple enough process - you give your hair one last deep cleaning with the harsh drug store shampoo (to strip any silicone or wax), and then you switch to washing with a 100% organic natural shampoo bar, or baking soda mixture, and condition with a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse. It's that simple! Plus, you don't do it every day! I would be able to wash my hair once a week, and have volume and (hopefully) curl the other 6 days!
I found a girl on Youtube who has the kind of hair I have always dreamed of having, and this is her routine - she washes once a week, and lets her hair air dry, and this is her result:
Her hair is gorgeous, full of volume, and she says she never has to use any hair spray because her hair just does whatever she wants it to do now!
Also - I don't know about you, but I spent an entire season of Survivor loving Ozzy's natural curly hair - his hair was amazing, and I know he wasn't shampooing for the 30+ days he was out on that island!:
It's not all good news however - it's a process, and there is kind of a rough transition period where your hair is getting used to not needing as much oil, so you end up with some greasy hair for a few weeks - from the reviews it sounds like 4-8 weeks seems to be the average transition period. So lots of hats, buns and updo's during that time. But once your hair figures out the new routine, your hair is better than ever and ridiculously healthy!
I found a blog in which a lady took pictures every week of her transition to Shampoo free:
Week One:
And then 6 months later (with only washing with the baking soda routine twice a month:
Greasy Hair be gone!
What I'm looking forward to the most (Aside from the curls) is being able to look good with next day hair, and even third day hair. With a newborn I've found that my usual "every second day Shower" is becoming more and more difficult to maintain. It's become an ordeal - even if I manage to pop under the water for a few, I never have time to dry or style my hair afterward, so it usually ends up back in a pony tail, only to look greasy the next day. My hair is very thin, which is part of my problem - when it lays flat to my head, it gets greasy very quickly, especially if I do any sort of styling with it. Now don't get me wrong, I still will be showering, and cleaning my body, but to be able to tie my hair up and have a 3 minute shower and not have to deal with styling would give me so much more freedom! That's usually my biggest frustration with finding time to shower, is knowing that I need a good 30 minutes in order to shower (wash and condition my hair) and then dry and style it so that I can last at least the next day before I have to do it all over again!
Bonus - the cost! How many times I've shelled out hard earned cash for the special volume shampoo, curl cream, hair spray etc etc I can't even tell you - it's been a small fortune for sure. But to be able to use the equivalent of 1/2 cup of baking soda, and 1 cup of apple cider vinegar a MONTH to maintain my hair would be amazing! I could probably get away with only buying my ingredients once a year, and be set for my styling aids!
I've already switched to a completely natural hair dye (henna) to maintain my rich auburn hair color (and cover the greys), because I didn't like how much hair I lost down the drain after other dye processes (my hair is too thin to see that much fall out at each shampoo!), so naturally this is the next step! (Plus $5 for a package of Henna that does my whole head +some as opposed to $150 at the salon, or 3x $25 drug store kits! I'll take the $5 - plus Henna doesnt' really fade, it grows out, so you cover roots but you usually still have the vibrant hair for several weeks!!! (I usually go about 8 weeks between dye jobs - or more... it's been more recently...)
I love home made beauty secrets, like honey as a face mask (acne be gone!), and Avocado as a deep hair conditioner, or an Asprin paste as a firming mask, or even Olive Oil as a makeup remover - I love them because they are cheap, and I'm cheap, and they work better than anything I could find at a beauty counter for a fraction of the price. I love to spend an evening treating myself to some home spa treatments, but we hardly have the budget to fit all those little extra's in, so natural is #1 in my mind!
I grew up with very severe Eczema that covered 90% of my body when I was a child. It would crack and bleed at all times of the year, and was extremely itchy. I used to always have scabs on my legs from scratching at night, and kids would tease me about "Molting" or having "old lady skin". My mom researched every cream, and technique known to man to help me - but what worked best, was having a warm bath with oatmeal (she would make a little bag out of cheese cloth, and tie it with an elastic and drop it in the water with me) and then coat me head to toe with microwaved Vaseline and put on my PJ's to sleep in. Once again, a natural product saved the day!
I still struggled with my eczema right up until University until I discovered an amazing "cure" I stopped washing with soap/body wash in every shower! I shower every second day at least (and every day in the summer time) but I only lather up my entire body maybe once a week - otherwise I just spot wash (underarms etc) and rinse with water. I haven't had a bad spot of eczema in a few years now! Once again, by taking a step back, and letting my body regulate it's own needs, it ended up working out the problem on it's own!
I'm going to try to trust in my body a little more - if I let it, I believe it'll take care of a few of those things for me! And, although I joked about becoming a hippie, don't worry, I'm not going to suddenly start wearing hemp and decide to forgo shaving my legs or anything... :)
But for right now - I am going Shampoo free - so don't be surprised if I look a little less than stellar this month if you run into me - thank goodness is freezing out there, and no one would fault me for wearing a toque at all times! (it's a good time of year to try this little experiment!)
I'm going to be taking pictures to share my little transition with you, and then I'll write another blog about the whole ordeal at a later date!
Hope this works!!
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