No-poo Hair Wash

A few years ago I switched to products without petroleum, parabens and chemicals in them. I tried the baking soda method before, but found it a lot of prep work. When the price of shampoo jumped from R30 to nearly R50 I thought it was worth giving it a bash again.

This method is pretty simple actually. There is an adjustment period that you need to know about, but it is a small price to pay and totally worth it. I've never had to wash my hair more than twice a week before, so lately I've been stretching it out 4-5-6 days between washes so that my body can acclimatise back to producing its own oil. (You can get away with that when you have long curly hair that can just be tied back)

TIP: Try finding 2 bottles (or even using an old shampoo bottle) that can be filled easily and then squeezed through a nozzle for easier application instead of using plastic cups and pouring. A spray bottle for the vinegar 'conditioner' makes for very easy application.

"Shampoo"
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp baking soda (approximately. This amount can be experimented with)

"Conditioner"
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
* (you can either mix the ACV with water before use or you can just put undiluted ACV into a spray bottle and spray it directly onto your wet hair - this applies WAY more easily and quickly!)

Mixing Instructions (if using 2 cups of water in total)
Mix the two cups of warm water together. (I put in a drop of rosemary essential oil for my dry scalp and a drop of peppermint essential oil to make it smell nice). Feel free to use lavender if you prefer the smell.
Put the baking soda into the 'shampoo' bottle through a funnel and pour the water in afterwards to wash the powder in.
Pour the apple cider vinegar into the 'conditioner' bottle through a funnel and pour the water in afterwards to wash the vinegar in.

Mixing Instructions (if using one cup of water for the shampoo and spraying ACV directly on as conditioner)
You can use 1tsp of the baking soda mixture that you've put together for your carpet/mattress cleaner if you'd like to get some essential oil smell into your shampoo.
Put the baking soda into the 'shampoo' bottle through a funnel and pour the water in afterwards to wash the powder in.

Washing Instructions 

Pour the "shampoo" mixture onto your head, starting at the scalp. It may or may not make a lather as you massage it in to clean your scalp and stimulate the blood flow. Leave it on for two minutes, rinse, repeat.

Your hair will feel squeaky clean. Don't worry the vinegar will remove any residue and soften your hair.

Pour the "conditioner" mixture onto your hair, starting from the scalp again. Massage your scalp again, leave on for two minutes and rinse out. The vinegar smell will disappear when it dries, but the essential oils should help with that as well.

Curly hair tends to be more dry, so I use a little bit of coconut oil that I've mixed into a bottle with some essential oils as a dry scalp treatment/leave-in-conditioner for now, as I've only just started using this method again.

I'll let you know how it goes...
(5 months later so far so good!!! I'm very happy with this method and my hair looks and feels geat!)

Travelling with curly hair used to mean packing lots of little bottles