I'm really going to try it

Sounds good, and I may try that myself, but….I’ve heard from others that it takes awhile (maybe a week? not sure) for the abundant oil production that is triggered by use of commercial shampoos to stop. Hence, I’ve been told to expect a somewhat “unwashed” look for a bit until things settle down.

Perhaps some of the ladies who have used baking soda as shampoo can chime in with their initial experiences.

We’ve been doing that since last September.  Lindsey D. has a post on her blog about it and her experience.  That is where I first read about it and decided to give it a try.  I didn’t have a problem with the oily stage, but my hair isn’t extremely oily anyway.  My DH and my kids use it too.  Lindsey D. mentions using a squirt bottle but we have found that we prefer a little jar and just dumping it around.  I keep 2 pint jars in the shower and just put 1T baking soda in one and dump some apple cider vinegar in another before I get in the shower and then fill them with the water from the shower when I am ready for them.  Because my hair and my girls hair is curly and tends towards the dry side, we are using Burt’s Bee’s conditioner also.  My DH does not.  The girls and I are able to only wash our hair 2x/week. 

My DH gets dandruff and we find that if he uses a bit more apple cider vinegar with his rinse then it helps cut that back.  I’ve read somewhere to use 1 cup ACV, but he probably uses 1/4ish cup at a time.  DH uses the baking soda 2x/week (I think) but uses the ACV rinse everyday or sometimes every other day.

Sue – I’ll have to see if he will try some tea tree oil in his rinse.  He isn’t real fond of tea tree oil smell but I bet it would help with the dandruff.

I did the baking soda and ACV for a long time, few years ago and I found that it made my hair really dry after a while and I just started to miss the lathering of soap feeling. I am now switching between natural shampoo and homemade w/Dr.Bronner and coconut milk. Almost never use conditioner, mostly after Henna. I LOOOOVE Henna.

Sara my husband is the same way and he just doesn’t use anything at all, just water!!

Sara B. – apple cider vinegar does smell nasty but once I rinse my hair, the smell is gone.  It doesn’t linger around or smell when you get out of the shower.  And, after using it for a while, even the nasty smell isn’t as bad (can’t say it is good, though).

At first we were using the baking soda only and my hair was really staticy.  It also felt sticky for a while which I learned was from being dry.  Once I started using the ACV, the static went away and the stickiness went away, too.

I started using the Burt’s Bee’s conditioner after reading (in the book Curly Girl) that the frizz that curly hair gets in moist weather is from it being dehydrated and reaching out for the moisture.  Also, after reading Curly Girl, we quit using any kind of brush/comb/pick on our hair.  Putting the conditioner in helps us to get any tangles out with our fingers while in the shower.

petitemom – what recipe do you use for your Dr. Bronner/coconut milk shampoo?  I’m open to other things.  I just want something natural, that works, is good for our hair and is inexpensive.

Sorry I’m just now seeing this post!

Yes, I wash my hair with baking soda and ACV. I really like it. I wash my hair every 3-4 days, usually 4. On days 3 or 4, when you can tell it’s needing a wash, I wear it in a pony tail or bun. My life has been much simpler since switching to this method of hair care. 

It did take about 2 weeks for my hair to fully acclimate to the change in products. Keep in mind that I was previously using organic, paraben-free, sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner before. From what I understand, bottled shampoo strips the hair of its naturally produced oils. Conditioner is then needed to re-moisturize the hair, sort of a false “re-oiling”. Because the scalp wants to moisturize itself with its own oils, it overproduces to make up for the stripping the shampoo is doing. Therefore, we wash our hair ever 1-2 days because our hair looks oily, greasy, and dirty. 

When you stop this cycle and start using products that don’t strip the oils, your scalp sort of goes into shock and starts producing mega amounts of oil–hence the “acclimation period”. For a solid 10 days my hair was super greasy, despite using the baking soda daily. I wore it in a pony tail only during that time, and my bangs were totally unmanageable. AFter 10 days, it started clearing up and by 2 weeks, it was back to normal. Only then was I able to go 3-4 days between washings.

So, I say all that to prepare you. It may not be sunshine and roses for the next week or two for you. If you have normal hair (not too oily, dry, thick, or curly) you should be fine in a couple of weeks. My dd has very thick, naturally wavy hair, and this method DID NOT work for her. Her hair became dry and brittle, so we changed her over to WEN (very expensive, but worth it) and within a couple of weeks her hair looked healthier. I guess what I don’t spend in hair products, we make up for in what we buy for her; but a bottle of WEN for her lasts over two months, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Hope that helps,

Lindsey