In-between talk of laundry and poop, meet HighlyUncivilized. He writes a blog full of homesteading hacks and interesting conservation and environmental ideas. Check out this worm tower - brilliant!
I've been trying out the no-poo lifestyle for about three weeks, and I would say it's generally a success. I'm still using baking soda every time I wash my hair, followed by a thorough rinse, a spritz of water/vinegar mixture, and a second rinse. I've read that many people don't use even baking soda after the transition period, but I'm still using it. My hair is pretty short (max 1.5" after a haircut), and not oily anymore, so I don't have split ends or oily roots to worry about. I don't style or blow-dry it. It's free-range hair.
The first time you try it, you will be weirded out by having no suds. It will feel the opposite of clean. Just give it a nice massage with your fingertips. [Do NOT use the plug-in muscle massager that promises to get the kinks out. It's not talking about your hair.]
The only downside I see right now is sensory deprivation. I'm used to my hair smelling like something - a tropical rainforest, a lemon grove, a rose garden - during and after its fauxpoo. Not that I can get it to my nose to sniff, but it's just there. Baking soda leaves me smelling like nothing, which is better than what I went in smelling like. That might not be a complete bummer, either, because Annie and I have a hard time agreeing on shampoo scents, but we want something cruelty-free and preferably without SLS or parabens. And cheap. Can This Marriage Be Saved? If we can't agree on a scent, maybe we can agree on having no scent.
Some of our face-friends read this blog, and I fear their fear. If I weren't writing here, I wouldn't talk about my toilette at all. If you're no-poo, do you tell your friends? Or do you wait until they notice how environmentally-friendly, preservative-free, and frugal you look?
19 comments:
i've been no-poo about a year now. it is awesome. you can smell good too though! i add all kinds of things to the apple cider vinegar rinse - a cinnamon stick, orange peels, various teas, vanilla bean, etc.
i tell my friends and i usually get that grossed-out-big-eyeball look. i try to explain about all the useless crap in shampoo and how evil the companies are, but it usually falls on deaf ears :)
Oh nice! Do you marinate your smell-stuff in the vinegar ahead of time, or add it just before? Details! I think I would like to smell better than just neutral if I knew how.
Haha! Luckily most of our friends are already greener than we are, or they're extremely tactful, but I can imagine a couple of them having serious doubts about my hygiene.
Thanks for following, by the way!
Roxanne
No-Poo!#@!
WOW, that is very interesting. Most the time I just wear a ball cap! My hair tends to get up before I do!!!
Travel Safe
Dawn and Denise
Ha Denise!
Ah! So you don't use baking soda at all, huh? I didn't realize that you could stop using it altogether after your hair stopped freaking out. I'll have to try not using it the next time!
I don't use baking soda at all - too harsh. If I need more oomph, I use sugar. I use cheap conditioner on my naturally curly hair. My hair is squeeky clean when done, my scalp is clean and my hair smells nice. I leave in a good conditioner. The straight arrows might not need leave in conditioner. We curly girls have a lot more trouble with dry hair. Poo is unnecessary and harsh.
Love the background on your site. Not a no-poo person, but will read up on it and see what I come up with.
OK, I can't discuss poo in a public forum. My mother would faint!
I love the link, though!
Hi Michele - I do still use baking soda, but I keep reading of people who drop it after the "freak out" stage. And, Tesaje, I hadn't heard of sugar, but it sounds kind of great. I wonder if I could do a sugar facial scrub, too.
Thanks, Pidge. The picture is of a creek that runs about 500 yards from our current home and flows into Cayuga Lake.
Chi-hua-hua, did you like the link you could or could not show your mom? ;o)
i marinate :) like you, i really missed the smell of conditioners...one morning i was trying to figure out what to do with my orange peels instead of tossing them. on a whim i put them in my vinegar bottle with a cinnamon stick. i just left them in there until the bottle was empty and next time added mango tea. one day i'll end up with funky colored hair because i experimented a little too far!
and happy to follow :)
I have tried the no poo thing a few times and for some reason it just doesn't work out right. The one experiment we have done that is a reasonable compromise and I liked a lot better was just using a castile bar type soap. It just worked a lot better for me with my picky long hair.
I love your background image too, very nice! Heidi has been having fun on that HighlyUncivilized site too! I just started reading it, looks pretty cool :)
Your writing style cracks me up! I love it!
-Mike
97 Roadtrek 170P "Taj Ma Trek"
HTTP://WWW.VanTramps.Com
Thanks, Mike!
I've tried castile soap on my hair, because Dr. Bronner's makes such great scents and I wouldn't feel bad about the ingredients; it sort of felt gummy and dull when I was done. But ... (just realizing) I didn't use vinegar afterward - that might make the difference.
I think I may have found HighlyUncivilized on Heidi's site. Great ideas!
Well you've got me really interested in this now. So let me make sure I understand, you wash your hair with aking soda and rinse it with cider vinegar. Every time I've tried a cider vinegar rinse, I end up smelling like vinegar even if I rinse 2 or 3 more times with water. So what's the secret, 1/8 vinegar to 7/8 water? And how often do you "wash" your hair?
Just love this blog! What's Annie doing in her new "retired" status???
Sherry
www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com
Thank you, Sherry!
That's pretty much all there is to it. I'm not sure how dilute the vinegar is, except very. It might even be less than 1 in 8. The first time I did it, I wasn't sure if I should rinse after the vinegar, but Annie said my hair smelled slightly vinegary. So since then I do rinse. I probably no-poo 3 or 4X a week (it's still cold here). I would definitely not use me for a model of the no-poo life - I'm still learning stuff from people who have been doing it a long time.
Even as I type here with my feet up, Annie is pulling up carpet and preparing to lay down more Allure. It's a match made in slacker heaven.
Cool! I've been wanting to try the no-poo method for a while. I think I'll take the plunge! By the way, if you miss the smell of perfume in your hair, there's a couple of great natural conditioners you can try. I particularly like olive oil and coconut oil. Just use a teeeny amount and work it into your hair-ends after the shower. I use this instead of conditioner and have done for years. Nina
Hi Nina,
I do like the smell of coconut. It reminds me of long, sunburned days on the beach. My problem would be that my scalp is pretty close to my ends, so I might over-condition my head. Do you rub it in and leave it?
Let me know what you think after you've tried it!
Another suggestion for an after rinse is to steep fresh rosemary in water and let it cool, then just rinse with it. Smells wonderful and leaves your hair all soft and smooth.
Hi Andria! Thanks for visiting!
Would this rinse cut the alkalinity of the baking soda, or would I rinse with the vinegar and then rosemary myself?
That I don't know, I've not done it with no-poo, just as a rinse to make my hair nice and soft after using plain goat fat soap.
Post a Comment