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| they do not use baking soda. |
They have both blogged about how it went for them, but it seems hair and water type have a lot to do with how this works, so I thought I would share my experience, too.
First of all, I have often used baking soda to boost the lathering punch of my shampoo- especially when I'd gone too long without shampooing- after a camping trip, for instance, or when recovering from a flu bug or childbirth. A very little bit of baking soda can really pump up the lather of your shampoo and make your hair feel cleaner.
About a year ago I started gradually reducing the amount of shampoo I used and increasing the baking soda. By last Christmas I was down to about a drop of shampoo and a teaspoon or two of baking soda. A bottle of shampoo lasted me the entire year this way.
In January or February I just eliminated the shampoo altogether. I put baking soda in a tupperware container I keep in the shower. I wet my hair, then rub about a tablespoon, maybe two, of baking soda all over my head and hair (I have long hair, about midway down my back, but it is also very thin hair).
My hair feels very good to me, and it has more body. I can also go longer between hair washings- with shampoo, my hair looked and felt oily and clumpy by the next day after washing it, now it doesn't. I don't use conditioner. I let my hair air dry and then I comb my fingers through it until the tangles are gone. Then, if it needs it, I comb it with a wide tooth comb or a brush, but it usually doesn't need it. I have used an egg on it once in that time- I whisked the egg, added a splash of lemon juice, massaged it into my damp hair, and then washed as usual with baking soda and rinsed well.
Occasionally, I spray my hair and scalp with vinegar before rinsing and washing with baking soda- this helps with dandruff and makes my hair smooth and silky. When I was a child, I used vinegar instead of conditioner in my hair until I was old enough to buy my own conditioner. My mother is very frugal. It's interesting to me that after all these years I prefer vinegar and baking soda over shampoo and conditioner.
My water is filtered and treated and so it's incredibly soft. Kim's water is harder, and she had to do other things to make it work for her. When we went on vacation the water was really hard and my hair felt gross, so I switched back to shampoo while we were gone. I think if I had done my homework ahead of time I could have managed. With hard water you want to pay more attention to measurements and boil the water in advance, mixing the baking soda and boiled water together and storing them in a bottle.
On my bookshelves:
Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living
Clean House Clean Planet
Thinking of adding to my wish list:
Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Every Body
So that's my money saving and garbage reducing find of the year (shampoo comes in plastic bottles, baking soda in cardboard boxes that I could shred and mulch if I were so inclined).
I have some other frugal tips over at Frugal Hacks. What about you? What new frugal skill did you learn this year?
This post linked at Try New Adventures Thursday and also the 'No-Poo Challenge.' I know that's what this method is called, but personally, I won't use it. I prefer baking soda shampoo or shampoo-free.=P Pin It
That's great! I think I'll try it. I reckon all you need in life is baking soda and vinegar! Oh and Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oils. Have you ever see My Big Fat Greek Wedding? The girls father used Windex on everything. Well, I think I could be like that with baking soda, vinegar, eucalyptus and tea tree oil!
ReplyDeleteI recently started doing this at the recommendations of the ladies at the MOMYS Digest. But I have found that my hair has become drier compared to when I was using shampoo. Perhaps my hair is being stripped off?! But using the ACV is a lovely way to condition the hair. Do you notice less hair dropping with the use of baking soda?
ReplyDeleteI do this too! For me, though, I water everything down. In addition to what you said you keep in the shower, I have a plastic measuring spoon (Tb) and a little squirt bottle. I put about 1/2 a TB of baking soda into the squirt bottle and fill it halfway up with water to wash my hair. Then I use 2 TB of vinegar to a whole bottle of water for conditioner. I have curlier hair, so I need a tiny bit of shampoo and TONS of conditioner for my hair to look even remotely decent.
ReplyDeleteI didn't make ths switch because of cost, but due to ALLERGIES. It got to where every type of shampoo and conditioner bothere my skin. It is so nice to not have to worry about that anymore!
Do you use an entire bottle of water/2TB vinegar for conditioner each time you wash your hair?
ReplyDeleteOne reason I posted this in such detail is because proportions are different depending on hair type, hair length, straight vs curly hair, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou might need to reduce the amount of baking soda you use. You could also benefit from mixing an egg (or mayo) into your hair, perhaps once a week, or twice a month? If you use a blow dryer or a curling iron, that could also contribute to dryness with the baking soda hair cleaner.
I don't see a difference in the amount of hair I shed.
Once when I had a new baby I had some apple cider vinegar in a squirt bottle in the shower, and I also had some olive oil in a squirt bottle. I accidentally used the wrong bottle, and then had to wash oil out of may hair. My hair felt very soft and luxurious for the next couple of days.=)
I'm slowly making the switch. JunkMale hasn't used shampoo in months, but I'm having a hard time getting it to work for me. I have horrible dandruff, and while I've heard that some people see a dramatic cure by cutting out shampoo, mine has gotten slightly worse. :-/
ReplyDeleteI started using the baking soda wash about a year ago I guess. At the time I started, I only used the BS. My hair felt dried out and strawlike. THEN, I started using the ACV as a rinse. THAT was the key to soft, not dry hair. I don't recommend just using the BS without the ACV.
ReplyDeleteI have short hair. I use 1/8-1/4 t. BS with about 1/2 cup of water and 1/8 c. ACV diluted to 1/4 c. I wash my hair about every 3 days. Any less and it gets gross. Sometimes I'll use shampoo, if we're out of town or it's just more convenient, but mostly I use the BS/ACV combo and I'm just loving my hair. But...it makes it so soft that the first day, I can't do a thing with it! Tough problem to have! ;o)
I buy pure soap from Tasmania down here which has no chemicals. A small bar is not cheap when compared to the price of soap here but it's wonderful. Mine has eucalyptus and I've used probably two bars in just on two years, for amazingly less than shampoo and conditioner would have been. I've spent about $16 Australian on the soap. About a two teaspoons of cider vinegar in perhaps a litre of water is the final rinse.
ReplyDeleteI did this, not for the price differential in comparison to shampoo/conditioner,but because I have psoriasis. The soap has improved my scalp enormously so that I now don't have most of the problems the psoriasis can bring. It has flared lately, but that's from stress which has been very high. Now the cause of that has gone, it will die down.
My hair feels clean, I can go a week between washes, where I used shampoo much more often before. It's clean, shiny, soft.
cooler water also helps reduce dandruff and dry hair.
ReplyDeleteI've been using baking soda between shampoos for a year or so, and I'm down to shampooing once a week. My hair is almost completely grey and when I tried other things (egg shampoo, notably) it started turning yellow, so now I use a purple shampoo meant for grey hair once a week, and baking soda and water, or just water (we have nice well-water) between times. On occasion I use a little white vinegar in a quart of cool water for a rinse, but generally I still use the purple conditioner.
ReplyDeleteI've looked up recipes for shampoo for grey hair online but so far they are all things like coffee, IOW, to cover the grey, which isn't what I want. Seems like I found a recipe once that called for tons of violet juice... I've also considered using just a teensy bit of bluing, highly diluted, once a month or so, but I can't find out for sure what it's made of and don't want to use it on my body till I know that, even though I know that old ladies have been using it for a couple of generations -- I guess that's where the classic "blue-haired old lady" came from, so I'd want to be careful and not overdo it.
:-p
When I was visiting my sister in Houston I bought distilled water to use for a final rinse -- their water is so hard it made my hair feel gross, even if I shampooed every day. I never thought about boiling it and adding baking soda -- I have to suggest that to my daughter, who is down there now.
My frugal tip for the year is using white vinegar in my washing machine for the final rinse instead of fabric softener. It makes clothes just as soft, and makes them smell clean and fresh instead of perfumed. It even keeps them from building up static in the dryer, and it keeps the dryer from having fabric softener buildup that causes it to break down, requiring a visit from the repairman. I used to add bleach to my kitchen and bath towels to keep them from having that damp, mildewy odor, but by adding vinegar to the rinse I don't have to use bleach. I don't know if that's any more frugal, but the towels sure smell and feel better (I never used fabric in the towels since it tends to make them water resistant).
Thanks for your extra tips. I shall reduce the bs and see how it goes.
ReplyDeleteWhile my hair is cleaner, my dandruff seemed to get worse as well. I thought maybe perhaps because I wear a covering and my hair does not get as much sunshine as the typical woman, that was the culprit.
ReplyDeleteIf you can, clean/scrub your brush/comb each day. When you use that to manage dandruff-bothered hair, you are getting the stuff on the comb/brush and then rebrushing with the same scalp-sickness. I use a toothbrush to clean, and soak the toothbrush in water/ACV/tea tree oil to disinfect. I also use that mixture to scrub the brush/comb with. :)
Very interesting! I've been getting my shampoo for free at drugstores, so it doesn't really feel frugal to me, but if it's healthier, it's definitely worth the consideration! Makes me think about olden days, and what they used to use....
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting to me...might have to try it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up to Try New Adventures Thursday--I appreciate it! :D
Alicia