The Sad Tragedy of the No 'Poo Experience

As my title suggests, my no 'poo experience has come to an end and I want to thank my mother (even though I was upset by it at first, but I'm not anymore) for pointing out my thinning hair as I am really proud of how my curls/waves look. I am no longer using the BS/ACV rinse anymore and have switched to a store bought, sulfate-free, shampoo and conditioner.

I was having problems each morning with the hair underneath being so tangled up like a bird's nest. It was painful to brush out and I was loosing a lot of hair from doing this. In the very beginning of doing this experience, I blamed the hair loss on the post partem part of my pregnancy and never really paid attention to it. I was still loosing hair, but not in big clumps as before after about the 6 month part of my post partem.

To give a little back story, I was having a recent conversation with my mother about our little family reunion coming up. She wanted to do a girl's day out, to give me a day away from all 4 kids, and get all gussied up... to do something really nice for me. She wanted to go to a good salon and also get mani's and pedi's with all the women in our family. I was a little skeptical about the salon, so I asked what she meant about it. She said my hair was looking flat and that my hairline was starting to recede at the top. I told her that my hair gets flat at the top when it is long (the longest layer is about an inch below my bra line in the back) since my curls are at the end of my hair. It did bother me and I became self conscious about my hair. I did a lot of research these past few days and found out that the baking soda cleanser, no matter how much water you use, or how little baking soda you use, the ph of it is higher (about 7-9) than your scalp's ph (at about a 4). The only thing that was remotely close to the scalp's ph is the ACV with a 4.5 ph, which means that this is still really good for your scalp! The majority of the stories I read from the women said that they lost hair even though they started out with thick hair, and that their scalp got damaged.

My husband also mentioned a post he read about someone documenting this same no 'poo routine. This girl had hair past her waist, but after about a year of doing the baking soda/ACV rinse, she started loosing clumps and clumps of hair. She finally figured out that it was the baking soda that caused this hair loss and has since stopped using it.

I did notice a couple months back, that my sides where starting to look thinner and I could see a lot of my scalp there. I always chalked it up to my hair being greasy and nasty which was my indicator I needed to wash my hair. I have since stopped using the baking soda and have bought the L'Oreal Everstrong Anti-Breakage shampoo and conditioner. I was wanting to get the Thickening shampoo and conditioner since it claims to be for thinning hair, but for some reason in the Golden State, they have this shampoo in a locked case, and the worker just handed me the first one she saw, so I didn't get a chance to see if it was the one I was looking for or not.

Depending on how long you have been using the baking soda, it can take up to years for the hair to regrow back. I did find that Castro oil is really good for thickening and regrowing hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, so I will see if this does anything or not. To do the whole head, you will need to mix the castro oil with some melted coconut oil since it is a really thick oil and is hard to try to spread onto the scalp.

If you have started using the baking soda rinse, stop immediately! The longer you keep doing it, the longer it will take for your hair to grow back.

I hope you have enjoyed my experience with the no 'poo. If you still want to continue being a no 'pooer, there are ph balanced shampoos out there that only call for two ingredients! I would have loved to try this recipe during my experience, but never got a chance to buy the ingredients. If you wish to discontinue and go back to store bought shampoo, I did find that L'Oreal would produce salon like outcomes for a really cheap price (about $6/bottle). Once I get my hair back to normal, I will probably buy their Evercurl Hydracharge product line.

Thank you and I love you, mama, for pointing out my thinning hair so I can get it fixed! ^-^ And thank you for those sticking with me through this experience and I hope you learned a lot about your hair as much as I did.

Happy Shampooing!

No 'Poo Experience after 7 months

It has been an interesting 3 months since my last blog update about my experience. I did change up somethings since July, so I am going to combine 3 months worth into one post.

After the 5 month, I ran out of both the baking soda cleanser and the vinegar. I was happy to get back to the ACV rinse. This time, I didn't add the honey into the ACV, but I did put in tea tree and lavender essential oils. I could feel the tingling of the tea tree after the first use of the new ACV rinse, but after that, I guess my scalp healed up enough to where I didn't feel the tingling anymore.

I ran out of the baking soda cleanser twice within the last 3 months. The first time I remade it, I boiled some water then let some chamomile leaves and tea leaves brew for about 5 hours. I didn't create too strong of a smell from the chamomile, but I was getting tired of just plain old filtered water. Needless to say, my bath tub was very brown from using that mixture for a month!

The second batch of baking soda cleanser, i just added tea tree and lavender into plain, old, filter water. I made about 32 oz of this which I would have finished by the end of November, but I have since stopped using it for reason I will talk about in my next post.

I did start washing the ACV rinse out with cold water. Yes, that is right, cold water! Now, you are probably thinking I am crazy for doing this, especially with the colder weather coming, but trust me, it is well worth it! If you haven't guessed, the cold water helps to close the cuticles in your hair strands to keep the moisture "locked in," so if you have dry hair (like I do), this will help out a lot! I did start combing my hair in the shower, using a wide tooth comb, after I squirt the ACV rinse on my hair (still using the same method as I mentioned in my last post "No 'Poo Experience after 5 months"). I researched that people with my hair type (wavy/curly) should comb their hairs in the shower, especially after the conditioner is added in, and that's it. Our hair does not like a comb when it is dry! You will get breakage and split ends like no tomorrow. It's no fun and you hair will hate you for it, believe me!

I did purchase a boar bristle brush as a last minute resort when I couldn't find my regular brush. One of my children hid my brush in a drawer in the school room right before vacation time. It's a Conair brand and it doesn't work. At. All. My hair started to get static in it and it wasn't even getting the tangles out. I had to use my girl's brush to get the tangles out. I do not recommend the Conair boar bristle brush. It does work great of fine baby hair, though, our pirate prince really enjoys it when I brush his hair in the morning. :-)