Sunday 26 February 2012

Quotes to live by


"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" - Dr Suess


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Monday 6 February 2012

An experiment in alternative haircare - Day 40

If you read my last post (here), you should know that slightly over a month ago I decided to experiment with a slightly unusual haircare routine - namely using bicarb soda and apple cider vinegar (ACV) to wash my hair instead of shampoo and conditioner.

And if you haven't read that post yet, you should probably read it first... It goes into the reasons, the mechanics, and links to the blogs I got the inspiration from.

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So, the verdict.


Well I'll go into more details in a moment, but the short answer is: It seems to work fine and I intend to keep it up. The new routine appears to work just as well as shampoo/conditioner for my hair (possibly better), and there aren't really any downsides. There are a few things that I'll mention below, but they're really not that significant. Which is good - I'm pleased it has worked out and that I can live more sustainably, save money and still have clean hair.

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First an update on my routine. I have adapted my formula and my routine a little since I started.

I found this livejournal community (http://no-poo.livejournal.com/) and this blog fairly early on and the main thing I got out of reading through them was that you have to find the routine that works for you. People are doing all sorts of no shampoo routines - I'll leave it up to you to read them and discover - and what works wonderfully for one person doesn't always work for everyone. In a way I'm glad that I had only read about the bicarb/ACV way before I started, otherwise I might have been overwhelmed by the possibilities.

My new routine

approx 1.5 tbsp bicarb soda in 600ml of warm water
approx 1.5 tbsp ACV in 600ml of warm water

I have re-purposed 2 old 600ml plastic pop-top water bottles for holding my "shampoo" and "conditioner" (hence why my recipe is for 600ml of water). The pop-tops aren't essential but I do find them very handy for getting the liquid where I want it to go when in the shower.

I wash my hair when I first get in the shower. This is so that I can leave the ACV solution in my hair for a couple of minutes (like conditioner) while I wash the rest of myself.

First I wash my hair with the bicarb and water solution. Or rather I'm diligent about getting it thoroughly into the roots and scalp and don't worry about the rest of my hair. If I'm not diligent about making sure I get into the roots and scalp, I (typically) end up missing the area at back near the nape of my neck which means it's still greasy and ick after washing. This is where the pop-top on the bottle is very useful because I can shove it into my hair and squirt the liquid where I want it to go. I use my other hand to comb through my hair while doing so, to spread it around and check that it's getting to everywhere. (The bicarb and water solution has a bit of a slippery feel to it, that's how I know I've got it through my hair). By the time I've got it everywhere in the scalp and roots, I've probably used about 1/3 of the bottle of liquid.

After I rinse out the bicarb solution, I put the ACV solution on my hair - roots, length, ends, everywhere. I end up using rather a lot of it (probably around 1/2- 2/3 of the 600ml bottle) but I do have long hair that's more than half way down my back. I'm sure if you had shorter hair you wouldn't go through as much.

I leave the ACV solution on my hair while I wash the rest of myself and then rinse it off as the last thing I do in the shower. I make sure I'm very thorough about rinsing it out, because on 2 occasions part of my hair smelt like ACV after it dried (but only part of my hair in each case). I assume that it must have been because of inadequate rinsing, because every other time I washed my hair it didn't smell like ACV. I've had other people smell my hair to check a couple of times and they've confirmed that it doesn't smell like ACV.

I wash my hair every 4-5 days (usually 4), which is slightly less often than before. When I used shampoo and conditioner I used to wash my hair around every 3-4 days.

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So is my hair in better condition now?


Well, it's kind of hard to tell. It's definitely not heaps better, but it's certainly not any worse than it was when I was using normal shampoo.

I think it's in somewhat better condition, although I could be misremembering what my hair was like before. But I have 2 things to bolster my belief that my hair is a bit better now:

1) I'm having to wash my hair slightly less often which means it's not getting greasy quite as quickly as before.

2) In my last post I referred to the condition of my hair as "pretty awful". If you asked me about the condition of my hair these days I'd say it's average. So unless my standards for judging the condition of my hair have moved, it's probably better than it was.

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Downsides

As far as I'm concerned there are no significant downsides. There are a few things that I'll mention here, but none of them are really significant.

- It's not really a travel friendly routine. I mean it'd be fine if I was only going away for a week but if I were to go backpacking for a couple of months (like I hope to at some point) it'd be quite a hassle. But that's not a problem at the moment anyway.

- I find the smell of ACV in the shower a bit weird. I still haven't got used it it. As mentioned above I've confirmed that you don't smell like ACV afterwards, but in the shower when I'm using it, I find it odd and slightly unpleasant. Apparently some people use essential oils or something to scent the ACV solution because they don't like the smell, but I can't be bothered - it's not a major issue and I can put up with it (obviously I don't find it that bad or I would bother to try adding essential oils). Some people use lemon juice diluted in water for the conditioner instead, I might try that at some point.

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So overall, as far as I am concerned, it works and I'm sticking to it.

In terms of saving money:

I'm not sure how much bicarb I've gone through because the bicarb gets used for other things as well. But I've used roughly 1/4 of a 750ml bottle of ACV, so it looks like this bottle of ACV will end up lasting me around 5 months in total. I don't remember how often I used to have to buy shampoo/conditioner but I'm sure it was at least every 3 months (possibly every 1-2 months).