Guest Post: No 'Poo For Me

Maybe it's from having parents who were hippies in their youth, but I always assumed that as you get older, you get less crunchy. Yet here I am, entering my thirties as a composting, bread baking, granola making, neti pot using mom who makes birthday gifts by hand and hardly buys any of her food from the grocery store. I've been assuring myself for a while that as long as I continue with a healthy dose of Friday Night Lights and make regular trips to Target, I'm not too much of a social weirdo. Plus, at least my "earthy" tendencies hadn't affected my personal hygiene.

Yet.

I wish I could say that my reasons for going shampoo free had to do with environmental responsibility and the desire to protect my body from harmful chemicals. But the truth is that I have just never been able to find a shampoo I could stick with for any extended period of time. I certainly wouldn't describe my hair as problem hair—dark, wavy, on the oily side of normal with a tendency to frizz in humidity—but every shampoo that seemed to make my hair glossy at first made it gunky by the end of the first bottle, and every shampoo that combatted the oil issue made my hair feel like straw.

So when I came across a couple of intriguing "Poo Free" posts in the mommy blogosphere, it seemed like a potentially perfect solution. I researched the different approaches and settled on an appropriately simple method from Simple Mom:

• Two 8 oz squeeze bottles (I got mine in the travel section of the aforementioned Target)


• Baking soda


• Apple cider vinegar


• Small funnel


• Tablespoon


• Water


• Essential oils (optional)

- Measure one tablespoon of baking soda into a squeeze bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with warm water and shake until dissolved.

- Measure one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar into the other bottle. Fill the rest with warm water and shake to mix.

- Add a few drops of essential oil for the scent of your choice. I tried a few of these and found some I liked, but honestly I usually skip the scents for simplicity's sake.

In the shower, I squirt a little of the baking soda mixture directly onto the top of my head and rub it around with the other hand to keep it from running right off. Then I repeat on the sides and back and commence to scrub with my fingertips for approximately a minute. It rinses out very easily and leaves my hair feeling clean but not squeaky. I follow this up with some cider vinegar on the ends of my hair and let it sit just like conditioner for a minute before rinsing. That's it. The result is soft, easy to manage hair.

People talk about a transition period when going shampoo free where their hair is more oily than normal as it adapts to not being barraged with detergents and other chemicals. When I first started, my hair was a disgusting, stiff, unmanageable mess and I hated it. That is, until I realized that my poor, fried mommy brain had made the recipe with baking powder instead of baking soda. Once I remade the recipe correctly, I never experienced the transition phase and never looked back.

Here are the pros and cons as I see them, for those of you who are still on the fence or who just like a good list:

Pros

1. Incredibly cheap - I can't even calculate how much a tablespoon of baking soda and a cup of water costs, but you're more than welcome to do that and get back to me.

2. Totally safe - For your skin, hair, and the environment.

3. Less "shampooing" required - Because the baking soda only cleans the dirt and oil away, your scalp isn't constantly overcompensating for the beating it would take from virtually any shampoo by pumping out extra oil. Thus, your hair feels cleaner longer.

4. No residue - So many shampoos and conditioners make your hair feel smooth at first by coating it. Baking soda gets rid of residue and vinegar softens and detangles your hair without leaving deposits.

5. Beautifully simple - When you run out, just head to the kitchen for a refill. Or, if you're super efficient, get a box of baking soda and a bottle of vinegar just for the bathroom. No more agonizing in the shampoo aisle over scents and bottle designs and the wording of product descriptions.

Cons

1. No suds - I have to admit that it's a little more satisfying to work up a lather when shampooing. No bubbles here. You're just going to be massaging water into your scalp.

2. More intentional scrubbing - A half-hearted rub isn't going to work, whereas it might with a sudsy shampoo. You actually have to massage.

3. The sensory bit - Vinegar smells like, well, vinegar. It does wash out completely and, as I said, you can improve it with essential oils, but the fact remains that you're in a steamy shower with vinegar on your head.

The change has been an easy and welcome one in our house (my husband surprised me by jumping on board with no qualms and my son doesn't have a choice). We don't miss store-bought shampoo or conditioner and I have finally come to terms with adding one more thing to my list of hippie attributes.

I may or may not also wash my face with oil now, but we can talk about that later.

~ Annie Kratzsch

Salt & Nectar thanks Annie for guest blogging today. Annie lives in Louisville, KY, with her husband Kyle and her 2-year-old son Collin. A 21st Century renaissance woman, Annie is an accomplished poet, writer, baker, crafter, and crocheter. You can read her writing on her two blogs Collin the Champ and The Good Life. You can purchase her gorgeous crochet items at her etsy shop Annie Mae ~ Handmade Goods. If you want baked goods, you'll just have to move to Louisville and make friends.

Image via I HEART NATURAL BEAUTY.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Hi Annie! This is so interesting, and since I have everything in my kitchen right now, I am so tempted. Convenience (of all things) is what has kept me using cloth diapers, so that might be what keeps me doing this once I try it. I want to hear more about the washing your face with the oil... Maybe I should come see you when I'm in town this summer!

[Annie Kratzsch]

Hi Elizabeth! Definitely come see us this summer, but if you want to know more about the oil thing before then, I went ahead and posted about it on The Good Life.

[saltandnectar]

Don't be fooled Annie! She's just trolling for the aforementioned baked goods! ;)

Here's the link btw:
http://annietk.blogspot.com/2011/04/as-someone-with-oily-t-zone-ive-spent.html

[The Logophile]

Very interesting... I have been no-poo for two months and my hair is okay. That is is, okay. I know hair is not supposed to feel fabulous, just like hair but I miss the soft and smooth flowing hair. Mine is too stiff and too dry and I am not loving it. Not ready to give in yet, though. I just read up on oil face cleansing and I am so excited. I sent my hubs out to buy the oils so I can smear away.... Good luck on the natural stuff :)

[Annie Kratzsch]

Don't give up! You may just need to tweak. I went through a spell when my hair was feeling stiff, but I started using more of the cider vinegar solution for conditioning and it made a huge difference.

[PS.]

This is definitely interesting. But does it actually clean the dirt away (and by dirt, I mean Ddddirt). I'm living in India and I'm pretty sure I have a halo of smoke and dust every time I step out.

[stephanie]

A few weeks ago I had read on the back of my Dove bottle that you shouldn't use it if you have kidney problems and I went WHOA! this can't be good stuff, so into the garbage it went and I spent the money on some stuff at Whole Foods. Alas, I started with the Tom's brand deodorant in my move to 'green' 'good' personal beauty products (after making the switch to hippie cleaning products and cleaning my floors with vinegar I thought the switch to personal beauty products would be easy. I've never used anything but witch hazel on my face as a cleanser anyway so I thought it wouldn't be too bad) yet the outcome was terrible! I couldn't live with my stinky self. Perhaps if I was backpacking around Europe again :) (but those days seem a bit far away at the moment)And I found myself back at my Target (my mom haven) blissfully shopping in the personal beauty aisles.

Maybe I'll try shampoo and let my deodorant be my 'what-comes-what-may-I can't go green on everything little secret'.

This was my grandma's go-to hair care regime whenever we spent the week at her house swimming 24/7 over the summers. I HATED the smell during the bath but I also remember that after we put on our white t-shirt pj's over our slightly sunburned skins and curled into bed that the everything smelled, well, just plain good and clean!

[Hollie]

I have gone from an employee of a luxury cosmetic brand to a fully committed granola gal, I can say you might put in a little extra effort, but the results are worth it. Deodorants are tough, but a little experimenting with different brands, and adding a little talc free powder, and you'll find something that works for you. And the neti pot? I'm so angry that in all of my hundreds of rounds of antibiotics as a child and young adult not ONE doctor ever mentioned a neti pot... I couldn't live without it! You go, Annie! And btw, miss you!

[Amos’s Nursery: The Big]

[...]  We’ve been so happy with Griffin’s Baby Mod crib that we went with Baby Mod Modena 3-in-1 Fixed-Side Convertible Crib for Amos. My mom sewed the crib skirt out of Waverly Cross Section in Charcoal, which also makes an appearance on the pillow in the rocker and and the closet curtain. My mom made all of these and I’m so grateful! The gorgeous hand crocheted blanket was a gift from my friend Annie. [...]