No Poo Movement Fail

So I was going to do the No Shampoo thing but, in a nutshell, I failed.  Here's what happened.

I was on week two back in June of the No Poo Movement, just before going to Canada.  I hadn't had my hair cut since April, so I went in for a cut.

Well, as they do at salons, if you're getting all of your hair cut and you're like me and have a shit ton of hair, they wash it.  Needless to say, shampoo was used on my hair, regardless of the fact that it may or may not have had sulfates in it.

Prior to this, I was dealing with some greasiness and buildup on my scalp that was becoming unbearable.  You're not supposed to brush your hair anymore either when doing the No Poo Movement. What I don't understand about that is how oils are supposed to travel down the hair shaft to moisturize the rest of the hair. If you have super frizzy hair that's kind of mop like, you know what I mean.  All the grease and buildup just sits at the root of the hair.

Well, I looked for solutions to this and most people, when in transition to no shampoo, use a baking soda "shampoo" and an apple cider vinegar "conditioner".  Really it's like 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water and 1 table spoon of the vinegar to a cup of water as well.

I tried this.  It fucked my hair up terrible.  I have really strange h air.  I'm not even sure if it's frizz or not; I have multiple textures of hair on my head.  Some are very fine and straight.  Some are very course and spiral-like.  Some are so course they look like they couldn't possible have come from my head but a different part of my body that I'd like to not mention.  Yes, some hair comes off of my head looking like that!

So with all these varying textures of hair that make up this incredible mass of hair on my head, it's hard to find products that tame it and keep me looking like I, at least, take care of myself.  Well, the baking soda shampoo rinse whateverthefuckyouwanttocall it destroyed my hair.  It sucked every ounce of moister that was in my hair at the time out of it.  Completely.  The vinegar was too acidic and also acted like a stringent, stripping more oils out of my hair.  But my scalp felt very clean, so I was happy about that.  It even stopped itching.

However, my hair looked terrible after about an hour wrapped up in a t-shirt.  (I was also trying to do the "Plop" method of drying my hair, which accomplished nothing).  My frizzy halo was back in full force.  It was worse than it has ever been in the past.

I highly warn against ever using a baking soda rinse with apple cider vinegar as a conditioning solution.  It does not work for dry hair that needs moisture.

The major problem is that, with going to the No Poo Movement, you're also not supposed to use products on your hair at all.  The transition period was tough as it was, so I continued to put product in the ends of my hair, starting at about the nape of the neck and down through the ends.  Well, that didn't really help ANY of the frizz that surrounds the top of my head.  And I couldn't see that really improving much after a week and a half of no shampoo anyway.

So all this lead up to the visit to the salon, which is always nice; Whitney is a great stylist and knows my hair pretty well.  But with shampooing it, I didn't realize how much of a step backwards that would be.  I also picked up a lightweight cream for my hair that day to try to enhance the curls but tame the frizz.

I later attempted to find a organic product line called Intelligent Nutrients but the salon I went to was phasing it out of their line of products and didn't carry the conditioner anymore.  So I picked up some organic conditioner.  I like the way it smells, and you know, my hair feels super soft, but I still have a terrible frizz halo all over my head.

While in Canada all I did was rinse my hair with water and used conditioner once out of the three showers I took there (over a period of 8 days).  By the second shower, when my hair had dried, it was so oily and greasy and felt so incredibly unclean and itchy that I could stand it.  I caved and stole some of Melinda's shampoo (she offered when I complained to her about it) and took another shower the following evening.

I'm back on shampoo now.  Currently I'm switching between Nuetrogena's T/SAL for scalp cleaning (I'm almost positive I have like eczma of the scalp) and L'Oreal's Sulfate-Free Ever-Creme shampoo, which is supposed to be super moisturizing.  And I still use the organic conditioner once a week.

But the frizz hasn't changed at all.  Really, it hasn't gotten any better (except for when it recovered from the dry-shocked it experienced with the baking soda rinse), and I'm back where I started.  I don't know if I can live completely product-free when it comes to my hair.  That first week and a half without shampooing was okay, but I don't think I could NOT put product in my hair after getting out of the shower.

I've tried this on occasion and I've experienced something very interesting.  When I shower at night and go to bed within an hour of doing so, my hair is still pretty wet (even if I leave it in a towel the whole time).  I make sure I don't sleep on the length of my hair, but keep it lifted up away from my head, so I'm only sleeping on the roots.  The hair dries over night and frankly, looks fucking baller first thing in the morning.

Within five minutes of waking up and getting dressed, frizz will appear out of no where and the awesome beach bummy waves that were there a few minutes ago fall lank and I end up with triangle-head (big bulky poofy hair at the ends that narrows and lays flat at the top of my head).

I tested this again last night after having this experience a few times; I put product in it this time before going to bed (that same cream I bought at the salon) and then immediately upon waking up went in to the bathroom, parted my hair where I wanted it, and then sprayed the shit out of it with my hair spray (Bumble and Bumbles soft but strong hold.  It's the non-sticky stuff).

That accomplished nothing but preventing the frizz from setting in until I went into to my car.  Living in Minnesota has it's pluses (really awesome diversity in seasons) but the one thing I hate the most is the fact that winter lasts 9 months, spring and fall are usually skipped, and summer lasts only 3 months.  And the biggest gripe is that it's ridiculously humid throughout the entire summer.  So my hair simply doesn't do anything I want it to.

So with that absolute failure, I've gone back to shampoo.