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. :/
0 comments:
Post a Comment