Going "No Poo": unhappy camper

Day 5. Most of the day I've had this uneasy feeling that sweat was collecting on my scalp. It just felt damp. It still does. I asked a few friends at school if they thought my hair looked ok and they said it did, but I wonder if they were lying to me. Well, it looks ok... But not my normal, fluffy, squeaky clean version of okay. But I'm very afraid that it's going to get worse tomorrow. I have a concert tomorrow that I need to look nice for. So I'm going to do it.

I'm going to wash my hair with shampoo.

I will use only a small quantity, I promise. Hopefully the past five days of oil build up will protect my hair from frizzing. The shampoo I have is relatively low lather (from my experience) and is promoted as "healthy". Who knows what their definition of healthy is.

Another thing that's pushing me to wash my hair is a smell. I smell something weird. I thought it was the bathroom, but I cleaned the bathroom, washed the dishes in our room, and even did some febreezing. I still smell this smell! I'm freaked out that it's my hair. My sister and I are both experiencing colds and have a hard time smelling things at the moment, so right now I'm the only one that can smell it. Hopefully shampoo will cure my phantom smell. :/

I'm wondering if my greasy/"damp" feeling isn't being affected by the weather. I live in Nebraska, and it's humid. Already it's beginning to feel like a sauna in Omaha. I also sweat a lot (thanks for passing that gene along, Dad). I'm going to post my problems on a LiveJournal community and see if I can get some help/suggestions.

Day 6. I did wash my hair with shampoo last night. It wasn't bad. My hair was very soft, not frazzled like it normally is. I ended up using liberal amounts of hairspray as well. My concert went well, too. :)

Day 7. My hair was looking a bit gross (mostly because of the product in my hair), but I didn't have enough time to shower so I used a bit of dry shampoo.

Day 8. Well, today's day 8 and I just woke up. I'll probably just do a vinegar rinse. We're out of baking soda and I'm too lazy to go buy some. Maybe I'll use lemon juice. I read somewhere to use that instead of baking soda. I'll do research.

Going "No Poo": on your mark, get set, go!

This all started back in the beginning of March. I was in a musical that required me to curl my hair pretty much for three weeks straight. It was a nightmare. I would shower at night (already I was out of my comfort zone-- I always shower in the morning) and then apply liberal amounts of mousse to my hair and put my long, thick tresses into foam rollers. I would go to bed praying that my hair would dry somewhat in the four hours I got for sleep and wake up disappointed with my soggy, sticky waves and have to leave work early and call my sister on the way home to make sure the curling irons were fired up and ready to go when I got home. By week two I had gotten better at rollers (starting earlier and skipping classes to let my hair dry helped) and was getting good curls, but I was sick of spending hours putting them in my hair. I love my hair, but I'm not that dedicated. So what was my solution?

I didn't wash my hair between shows.

We had four shows a weekend. I put my hair in rollers twice a weekend. I was surprised to find that the less mousse I used, the BETTER my curls were. And I still had a riot of curls in the morning after sleeping on them. I used liberal amounts of hairspray just in case, but I was ecstatic. I felt like I was cheating the system. I asked cast members if my hair looked fine and got a strange joy out of telling them "These are my curls from last night!" Weird, I know. But that's me.

Ever since then, I've been interested in the concept of not shampooing my hair. I'd heard about celebrities that ditched the 'poo, but most of them were people that I associated the words "greasy" and "gross" with, such as Robert Pattinson (so cute in Harry Potter... then he stopped washing his hair!). But natural green living has always been a secret interest of mine, and now that I'm in college I can actually do things like this. So last week I started researching during down time at work. Ibrought up the idea with my roommate Morgan that night. Her reaction was a little disappointing. I thought she would think it was a cool idea. Morgan is more of a natural healing kind of person and is fairly low maintenance, so I thought it would be up her alley. Instead she warned me not to believe what every website says and started preaching about pseudosciences. She's a wise woman and I appreciated her advice, but I think by this point I'd already decided that I was going to do it. Or at least try it.

So on Saturday, April 24th, I decided I was going to stop using shampoo.

I technically hadn't "washed" it since Thursday morning. I used a dry shampoo Friday morning because I woke up extremely late and didn't have time for a shower. And Saturday I wasn't going to shower because, well, I'm lazy on the weekends. But my dad kept insisting that I take a shower, so I decided I'd raid my parents' kitchen and try this stuff out.

Before we get started, I should say what my hair is like, I suppose. I've posted pictures of myself before, but my hair has changed a bit. I have monstrously thick hair. It goes about six inches past my shoulders. To give you an idea of just how much hair we're talking about, it takes two boxes of Natural Instincts hair dye to cover my hair. And yes, I dye my hair. I have bangs, too. I also have crazy layers. I have problems with dandruff, oiliness, and dry ends. And because of all this nonsense, I spend extreme amounts of money on beauty products. I'm tired of it. Anyway...

My first results? Amazing. I used a diluted baking soda rinse for cleaning and then diluted apple cider vinegar with some clover honey mixed in for a nice smell. I scrubbed my scalp with the baking soda and rinsed my hair, then soaked my hair in the vinegar mixture for conditioning. It still felt clean! There was a positive side! On the negative, my hair dried... funny. It was fluffy and a bit frizzy. But my mom liked the fluffiness and said it looked squeaky clean. That's when I grinned at her and told her I hadn't used shampoo. Later that night we were watching the newest episode of Doctor Who as a family when she said, "Oh, Whitney, did you tell Cheyenne what you did to your hair?" And so I got to tell them all about my research and how shampoo is just a scam to force you to buy more shampoo. And they were all fairly supportive! Another positive!

Day 2, Sunday. I didn't wash my hair in the morning, not even baking soda. And it wasn't greasy at all. The fluffiness had died down a bit, which was nice. It was good throughout the day. My only complaint was that it was feeling really dry at the ends. When I got back to the apartment, I searched the kitchen and sure enough we had ACV and BS! So I hopped in the shower and got to scrubbin'. I used a small amount of conditioner throughout my hair inbetween the BS and the ACV to combat the dry ends. And after my shower I killed everything. I found this little bottle of coconut milk... something. It was oily and was an anti-breakage serum of some sort that my sister had purchased. I had read things about putting oils in your hair being a good thing, so I slapped some in my palms and rubbed down my damp ends.

Day 3, Monday. I wake up and instantly know something is wrong. My hair feels... weird. The roots feel clean, but the ends feel greasy. I knew I had messed up with the serum. I wanted to shampoo it all out, but I didn't have time for that, so I threw my hair into pigtail braids and went to class. When I finally got home at 10:00 that night, I was too tired to care and went straight to bed. I figured the oil in my ends would probably be okay if I let them soak for a few more hours.

Day 4, Tuesday (Today!). I washed my hair this morning with the BS, conditioner, ACV regimen again. It felt a little greasy on the crown of my head all day, but I think that was just my imagination. I looked in the mirror and it LOOKED fine. I had some interesting things going on with my layers. I have a bit of natural wave to my hair, and my shorter layers are picking it up quicker than my longer layers, so I've got long bits of straight hair sticking out of wavy bits. I'll adjust. Right now my hair is pretty greasy feeling. I think touching my hair so much isn't helping the situation. I brushed my hair with a soft bristle brush 100 times on each side and in the back while I was watching Glee, hoping to maybe distribute the oils that are most likely collecting on the crown of my skull. I'm probably going to hop in the shower tonight, but who knows?

Conclusion? I don't know. I'll have to stick with it for a while longer. I may break down on Thursday morning/Wednesday night and wash my hair with shampoo because I have a recital the next day. But if what I read is true, that won't be so bad because I've already got a good coating of oils on my hair to protect it a little bit. I just don't want to be a frizz ball!

I'll keep updating. Hopefully my updates won't be so ridiculously long. :/

A Long-Awaited Post

Title inspired by Lord of the Rings. Why? Not sure.

So... I shouldn't start blogs if I'm going to forget about them, eh?

Iwas looking through my blog posts and found a draft that I'd never posted from April of last year. Apparently finals inspires me to do blog. Anyway, this is what my draft said:

I've recently been infected with the blogging bug again... I think I always quit blogging because it seems like there's just no one out there that cares about what I say.

OH WELLS.

But srsly. All of a sudden people are like "OMG BLOGGING RULZ!" They're even starting a blog for my college's choirs and vocal students. I'm kind of like "Um, yeah, duh. You should have done that three years ago when blogging was cooler. Now blogging is lame. Everyone uses Twitter and that junk." But whatever.

I'm not sure what the point of my blog was, but I'm including it because, well, I haven't kept this updated. At least I showed interest in posting a year ago...

Life has been intense this past year and a half. When I last posted, I was just starting my freshman year of college. I'm now finishing up my sophomore year. I didn't fail music theory (MCC I) like I said I was going to. I'm getting ready for my MCCIV final next week. There is little doubt in my mind that I will pass that class with at least a C+ (or hopefully a B!).

I did make friends at school. I have some truly wonderful friends that know just how to cheer me up. And my sister is now in the music program at the same school as me, so I get to see her every day. In fact, we share a room at my apartment. It's... interesting.

Speaking of apartments, I'm moving to a new one soon. My sister and I are going to get a three bedroom with my cousin. We've been having several problems at our current apartment (cleaning habits, food ownership, etc) and while I like my roommates very much, I think it's time we moved on. But mostly I want my own room. And we're helping my cousin out because she doesn't want to live on campus anymore. I can't say I blame her! I wouldn't like living with strangers. It's weird enough to live with friends. But living with family will be fun! I think.

Some sad news to add to this. Our dear Rozzy (pictured in previous posts) passed away earlier this month. She was a good rat, and I'm sad that she died so young. She had to live with Morgan's parents for the past few months because I developed an allergy to her (my eyes were swollen shut!). It was better for her to live with Morgan's parents anyway. Her younger siblings would play with her. Rozzy wasn't getting much exercise at our apartment-- Kitty, our foster cat, wouldn't allow it. And Rozzy was chewing on things. Rest in peace, Rozzy!

What else can I say? I spend most of my time working on homework, memorizing music, surfing the internet, or watching my shows. TV is my favorite way to relax. I can honestly say that last year I didn't watch much TV. My sister Cheyenne brought that habit with her. I like it, though! My only complaint is I don't like TV in the morning, but I can deal. We watch Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Dancing with the Stars, Castle, and LOST (thank goodness for Hulu, otherwise we wouldn't be able to watch all of our shows!). And then we go home on the weekends and watch The Pacific and reruns of True Blood. The Pacific is an amazing show. If you haven't watched it, I suggest you do!

I have other things I could talk about, but this post is getting ridiculously long. I'll save some for a more specific post, which I should be putting up tonight! I also have to figure out a topic for a commemorative speech due tomorrow. Hmmm. Hopefully I'll think of something!