I began this journey in February, after the very informative blog series on chemicals in our hygiene products by fellow blogger Dena,  I began reading different articles on the internet and I some how came across the No Poo method for your hair…. your probably saying “the What” right about now, as I did also.  No Poo basically means no shampoo – you would use Baking Soda to wash your hair. No shampoo for your hair – how does that work?

Will it really work?  Will my hair smell?

and a lot more questions entered my head.

Shampoo is a detergent – yes it cleans your hair, yet it also strips away essential natural oils your head produces for your hair to remain healthy. Seems the use of shampoos keeps your hair in a perpetual state of over producing oils to keep up with the stripping the shampooing process does to your hair. So a proverbial never ending circle takes place with your hair and oil.  There are many chemicals as we have found out in these shampoos and not all are good for you and your hair and really do we need bubbly suds a mile high when we wash our hair?    So, after reading a few other articles and finding one brave momma who has been doing the No Poo method for two years now, I decided why not, I can give it a try to see how it works.   Off to the store I went at lunchtime and I bought two squeeze bottles for my new hair care products $3.00 total.   Now the process seems easy enough and I have the other ingredients at home already.  There seems to be many different recipes for the no poo method measurement wise, for different hair types and some sites say to use it in paste form and some say the watery form.  I choose to go with the watered down form since I have fine / thin hair.

No Poo Recipe:

1 Table spoon Baking Soda mixed with 8oz Water- place in squeeze bottle, shake well to dissolve baking soda and then work into your wet hair. Work it from your scalp first and then to your ends of hair. Rinse Well.  *Note add water first then Baking soda it mixes easier*

* Those with Thick or Oily hair may need a bit more baking soda – again it isn’t set in stone try the recipe and tweak it for your own hair needs.  But if your hair is really brittle like straw from it after- you may be using to much baking soda.

Conditioner Recipe:

2 Table spoons Apple cider vinegar and 8 oz water mixed in squeeze bottle.

My take on this process so far:

• Day One Thursday Feb 9th – I have no idea why I chose to try this on a work day but while I was standing in the shower I said oh well hope this works out okay.
• I will admit is was a little weird with no bubbles – we are so used to those little bubbles saying our hair is getting clean.
• I used about half the bottle of solution to wash my medium length hair.
• I also went for the home-made conditioner (apple cider vinegar / water) I did find the smell sorta gross in the shower I will admit it was like a sub sandwich or salad dressing smelling the vinegar, I have a sensitive nose also, BUT I rinsed well and after my hair was dry, there was no smell what so ever! – that was pretty cool.
• My hair was SOFT, SHINY and felt oh so good and it felt Bouncy all day.  I found myself running my fingers through my hair throughout the day at work. I also kept sneaking peeks at my hair in the mirror when I would pass to see if anyone could tell I didn’t use shampoo – how funny.

I am going to try this and see how it works for me – no guarantees that I will totally be off shampoo – I may use this as a weekly clean or I may use it all the time but as of now it is pretty cool to know this works and works well.

  * Okay so Its now April and I must say – I didnt stick to a “fully poo free head”… (Shampoo free) I guess I fell back on convience but I have at least twice a month done this as a cleanser to get all the product build up off my hair.  I did also use this while we were away on vacation in Florida – easy enough to mix up and helped keep the chlorine from the pool from messing with my hair.  I have to make a bigger batch to keep in the shower the smaller one goes after 2 uses and well a busy momma knows we forget to take care of our selves sometimes.

What do you think?  Want to go “Poo Free” or at least try?  Ever have any experiences with this, I would love to hear your thoughts on it !