Friday 12 March 2010

No 'Poo? No thanks

Don't do as I do, do as I tell you.

I really should listen to my own advice. Despite having written an article about how to care for red hair (which you can find HERE), I continued to wash my hair with normal shampoo, everyday, with fairly hot water. Of course, the red disappeared really rather quickly.

In my defence, I had bulk bought normal shampoo and conditioner sometime in November, and I still had 1/4 left which I didn't want to waste.
Furthermore, my hair gets greasy really quickly. I've tried just not washing it everyday and it makes no difference. I've changed products, methods, styles and nothing has helped. The only time during my teenage years when I haven't had to wash it everyday was the glorious six months that I was on Roaccutane.
And hot showers? I guess I just like hot showers...

I stumbled across an article explaining how replacing shampoo with baking soda is not only cheap, but also protects colour and prevents needing to wash hair everyday. Perfect!
I decided to give it a one week trial. Shampoo is apparently full of detergents, chemicals and all sorts of other nasty things. I felt rather eco-chic abandoning it.

On the first day, I washed my hair with baking soda using no conditioner (or conditioner replacements!). My hair was dull, difficult to comb and really dry. By the same time the next day it needed washing again. I had read that if you need to, using a small amount of olive oil works well as a conditioner replacement. So I combed some through the very tips and washed it out. This turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE. After I had dried it, it looked as though I had recently dipped my head in a chip vat. Luckily that evening I was only going to Alexe's house (to do nails - post coming next!)

"I'm sorry about the state of my hair Alexe."
"It's ok, mine's wet too,"
"....mine's not wet."
She looked at me with a face that said 'you're a fool; your hair is wet.'. Then it dawned on her with an expression that flicked from confusion, to disgust, and back to confusion. I explained, which she found rather funny.

It took raaaather a lot of real shampoo the next morning to resolve this mess.

After this fiasco I decided to scrap the No 'Poo Plan. I probably did something very wrong; missed out a vital step or ingredient. There are many people who love this. Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm raves about it (check out the bottom of On My Vanity where she talks about it). I would recommend that you give it a go, seeing as there's not much no harm trying. When I have gotten over the trauma of my experience, maybe I'll give it another whack.

In the meantime, I'll be sticking to my detergent filled, chemical ridden, colour protect shampoo which keeps my hair, you know, clean...