One year "no 'poo"-versary:)

Today marks the one year anniversary of when I stopped using shampoo!

My routine has changed a lot over the last year, but I definitely don't regret the decision. For a long time I was using apple cider vinegar only and that was working really well. I only switched again because of the dreading process. ACV is a little too conditioning alone for dreads:). I'm back to baking soda and have added a few drops of tea tree oil and lavender, mmmmmm, smells so good!

This year has gone by so quickly!

One month no 'poo-versary:)

It's been one month since I decided to go no 'poo!

So one revelation has come to me... I grew up in an area in Iowa where your water was hard, unless you had a water softener. Well, apparently in Georgia, the water ISN'T hard! I just assumed water was hard every where, unless it was softened, haha!

I'm now only using my old wash routine of baking soda and apple cider vinegar on Sundays. Two or three other times a week, I use an acidic rinse. So far I've used diluted apple cider vinegar, and cranberry juice (not together, lol.) I'm also going to give applesauce a try.

No 'poo can be a big process of trial and error. Figuring out what ratios of baking soda to water and apple cider vinegar to water work for you. Or if these don't do well for you, figuring out which of the plethora of options will work for you.

For troubleshooting, I'll again post the blog that I refer to. Info: Shampoo Free.

Update on my lack of 'poo;)

I have changed things up a bit. I'm now attempting to completely forgo my hair touching water between my bi-weekly rinses. I've been doing a lot more reading around and have a very good reason as to why. I have hard water! So when I get my hair wet and put nothing in it, mineral deposits build up on my hair, yuck! If I do need to do something with my hair between washes I will probably just take a shower and use some sort of acidic rinse to prevent any buildup (probably apple cider vinegar,) but leave out the baking soda. Right now I'm trying to get my hair used to only being washed twice a week, because eventually it will slow down the oil production and will no longer look like a greasy mess;) haha!

It's really not that bad now though! I washed Sunday, accidentally used a bit too much oil, so I did a water only rinse yesterday (before learning the mineral deposit thing.) Today it was a tiny bit greasy, but just powdering a bit of cornstarch in there for a minute and brushing it out, has my hair looking like new... well almost new, lol. My ponytail is my new best friend:). And my boar bristle brush does wonders for my hair, too.

Twice a day I brush my hair out really well with my regular hairbrush. Then I go over my whole head with the boar bristle brush several times. After that, I flip my head over and brush out the back of my hair several times. Once I flip back up my hair is poofy and huge, haha! This is just to help the sebum (natural oils from your scalp) move from my scalp out to the ends of my hair. So once I'm done doing this I use my regular brush over it once more.

Around the house I HAVE to keep my hair up, or else I am constantly playing with it, making it much greasier than it'd be if I could just leave it be, haha. I use scrunchies though, so it's relatively easy to go from being up all day, to wearing it down if I want to.

Anyways, just thought I'd share:). I feel like I learn new things everyday!

All about no 'pooing

I'm sitting here trying to think of just one topic to write about. It's kind of hard to pick just one, so maybe this will just be a little update about everything:). On second thought, I may just dive more deeply into explaining "no 'poo."

No 'poo is going wonderfully. Being a stay at home mom, I never really got too dirty or sweaty, so I didn't shower daily, or even every other day. I would shower about every three days or so. Well now with going no 'poo I've found that if I just jump in the shower every morning to rinse my hair out and do a quick scrub down, I feel great! My hair looks great, and I feel refreshed and ready for the start of the day. After my hair is done going through the detox phase, I may go back to showering every other day, but for now, I'm enjoying this routine.

If I don't shower daily, my hair does get quite greasy, because of the awful detox period, and my hair getting rid of the years of buildup from my old shampoos and conditioners. If I shower everyday though, you can't even tell that I'm not using shampoo or conditioner! Right now I'm trying to keep my washing routine to twice a week, Sunday and Thursday.

In case you haven't read earlier blogs, the actual wash routine is as follows.

• I put 1 tbsp of baking soda into a cup. In the shower I fill my small cup with water and scrub that into my hair. I let it sit for at least a minute, usually while I'm washing my body, then rinse.
• Then I take my other cup that is half filled with apple cider vinegar and fill it the rest of the way in the shower. (Note: I used to pre-mix my ACV and water, before my shower, but it was just way too cold, haha!)I pour this all over my hair and let that soak for at least a minute, usually a bit longer, like you would with conditioner. This is usually while I'm washing my face and doing any shaving that I might need to do.
• After I've let it sit I rinse my hair VERY thoroughly. I let the water run over my hair for almost as long as I let the vinegar sit in my hair. I use my hands to press the water through my hair, and press my hands along my scalp as well. I do this to prevent any of the vinegar from remaining in my hair, and I never have a vinegar smell after my hair has dried.
• Also, in each step I massage my scalp very thoroughly, like enough that I can feel my scalp move a bit with my fingers. When I don't do my wash routine I also massage thoroughly in the shower and help the natural oils move from the scalp down through to the rest of my hair.

There are a lot of good sites out there to help in learning about no 'pooing and why you should do it. Today I found an amazing site that I'm going to start using as a reference guide. Here's a link in case you're interested.

Honestly my hair looks better than it has EVER looked before. And this is without even using styling products. My hair is softer, silkier, and has more body. I've never been happy with my hair. Even on past "good hair days" it still was never all that great to me. Now I LOVE my hair, and I think it looks fabulous:).

No 'pooing might be "green" and "crunchy" but that's really not even why I decided to try it. I tried it out because I wasn't happy with my hair and I wanted a change. The green/crunchy part is just a plus.

Wow, so much has happened in 2 months!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant! I can't believe I haven't blogged since finding out! I'm due September 3rd and am soooo excited to be having our second baby.

Things have been rough lately, last week McKaleigh was sick for most of the week. Then we had to put down the oldest dog, because he couldn't walk anymore. We knew the alternative was hauling him back and forth to the vet for a few months before he would end up just dying naturally. I'm a small girl and he was a big dog, so it just wasn't a feasible option:(.

This week has been much better so far. McKaleigh finally got over her sickness this weekend, so we made the jump into cloth diapers. I love love love them! I have more on the way and wish I would've been cloth diapering from the beginning! I'm so excited to cloth diaper baby #2.

Switching to cloth diapers has led me to want to live a generally greener life. I'm thinking about switching to cloth all around (even mama cloth *gasp*) because I'm tired of buying things to throw away, when there are reusable options out there!

Today was also day 1 of me switching to a "no 'poo" routine. Instead of shampoo I used a baking soda/water combo and instead of conditioner I used an apple cider vinegar/water combo. My scalp is a bit dry and itchy, but I know that it's just part of the process of my scalp getting used to producing it's own oil again. I may have to make up a natural deep conditioner for the mean time though. I saw a good recipe in Cosmo, lol.

So that's just an update on some stuff around here... I know I don't really have many followers, but I write these more for me than anyone else anyways:).