Help no-pooers!

[ZorroZ]

I have not use shampoo or conditioners for 16 days now. & I'm going insane! I have straight, long hair (to bra strap) I only shampooed 3 days a week so I wasn't a huge washer to start w/. I use 1 tbl B.S. in 1 C water & then rinse w/ black tea. I have rinsed w/ vinager but I hated the smell. I wash it every 2/3rd. day.

My hair, since the beginning has felt dry, filmy. It's weird! I feel it & it's dry, but i feel a film on my fingers. Does that make sense? It feels like it did with day old product in it. It's terrible to run a brush through. It tangles easy.

I did buy a boar hair bristle brush. That just makes my hair static-e.

Any suggestions?

[Juvysen]

try lemon instead of vinegar. You need some acid to balance out the baking soda... not sure tea would be strong enough. You can also do just water (just massage your head for a while - think minutes not seconds), or you could do just a little lemon in water. When I started, I put a drop of essential oils (rosemary) in the vinegar... it helped me with the smell... but now I'm kind of used to it. I only use like a tablespoon of vinegar at a time, then fill up the bottle it's in (I use an old coke bottle) with water and use that to rinse my hair. I've stopped using baking soda, though, because i found that after a year it gave me worse split ends than normal.

Also, if you have hard water, you need to look into solutions for that. I think citric acid? I can't remember, but I can tell you that my no-poo routine was TERRIBLE when I went on vacation where the water was extremely hard. Our water is sort of medium hard and it works fine here, though.

[ZorroZ]

well I know I don't have hard water. So that's not an issue. I will try lemon

[Blueone]

I swear by Chagrin Valley soaps. I tried no poo but it didn't work. My head was itchy and really dry. I tried apple sauce and that worked really well and balanced it out, but then no matter how often or long I rinsed it it was sticky or had applesauce bits in it. So I went for an all natural shampoo bar by Chagrin.

[girlfromthefuture]

I've been using Braggs Cider Vinegar and it works wonderfully. (and I like the smell, too!) Have you tried that?

I also went through an itchy-scalp phase, but think it's done now.

What kind of Boar Bristle brush do you use? Curious because any I've tried in the stores aren't firm enough (I like to feel the brush on my scalp and have it go completely through my hair) and I don't want to just order one online and take my chances.

[ZorroZ]

I tried using white vinager this time. I only used 1 tbl w/ 1 cup water. Much better on the smell. I couldn't even smell it! (Last time I used 1/4 cup ACV to 1 cup water. I love vinager, but man, it was stinky!) My hair was soft & easy to comb while it was wet. But I could still feel it dry, filmy went it was dry.

& my boar hair bristle is not firm enough...so yea, that stinks! I didn't know it was suppose to be firmer...oh well!

Maybe I'll check out Chagrin Valley soaps. But I am trying to hold out for 30 days of this no-poo challange...Must ...not....give up...yet.

[ZorroZ]

Blueone, I have never used shampoo bars. Do you have to put any type of conditioner in after you shampoo? is your hair a tangle mess after the shampoo bar? How long does a shampoo bar last?

I went to Chagrin Valley website & now I'm drooling. They look so yummy! Thanks for tempting me...golly gee, I'm really trying to stick to this no-poo routine...those soaps are NOT helping me!

[SuburbanHippie]

If your hair feels waxy, you can try this trick I found to eliminate the wax. Scramble up 1 egg yolk, 1/4 cup milk and a couple drops of tea tree oil. Apply it to your wet hair and work it in your hair (not your scalp!) really well. Rinse with the coldest water you can possibly stand. If it's warm water, you will cook the egg! Yuck. When it dries it will feel (and look) 100 times better. You can't do it too often because of the protein in the egg (can cause your hair to get brittle and break) so I did it once or twice a month. I think I only had to do it a total of 3 times actually. By then I didn't need it anymore.

[mmhinton]

subbing in....

I'm having this same problem (nearly word for word as OP - except that I did start out with bs/acv).

To suburban hippie regrding the egg yolk, milk, tto - do you do that before, after, or instead of the bs/acv???

I love the idea of no poo, but it;s only been about a week for me and my hair FEELS awful - like I have a week of product build up might feel like..... and I don't use product! I don't want to give up yet......but my hair looks and feels awful

[Blueone]

Originally Posted by ZorroZ

Blueone, I have never used shampoo bars. Do you have to put any type of conditioner in after you shampoo? is your hair a tangle mess after the shampoo bar? How long does a shampoo bar last?

I went to Chagrin Valley website & now I'm drooling. They look so yummy! Thanks for tempting me...golly gee, I'm really trying to stick to this no-poo routine...those soaps are NOT helping me!

I wash every 3 days so they last a long time. I wash every 2 days now though because the water where we are is really really soft and my hair was becoming really oily by the 3rd day. I used to live where the water was really hard. I don't use conditioner after either. As for my hair after, it's like I used normal shampoo I guess, I forgot what normal shampoo is like. It's easy to comb and is manageable all day and until I have to wash again.

But I understand your reasoning for staying no poo. For me no poo meant nothing with sulfates and since the baking soda, apple sauce, vinegar, and all the other things I tried, even yogurt, just made my hair worse I switched shampoo bars.

But hey, they have really good body soap too! I use the mud clay ones for face wash!

[SuburbanHippie]

I did the egg trick on a non-bs day.

[ZorroZ]

On day 19 I broke down & used a shampoo bar. It's J.R. Liggetts. It was the only shampoo bar in town. I will be buying Chagrin Valley soaps once my soap is gone...which won't take too long because my son & husband fight over it. Once I used the soap, my hair went back to "normal" feeling. I felt guilty, because I felt like all that no-poo work went down the drain! but I will admit, by day 18 my hair felt a little better. I don't know if I was getting use to the feel or if the no-poo kinks were working thenselves out.
I love the idea of shampoo bars, so I'm making the switch to them. I did use b.s. wash Sunday & my hair was rough & difficult to brush through....but it kept the style I curled into it all day w/o product. (I woke up & it's still curled!) So I think I will do my shampoo bar most of the time & then once a week do b.s. wash.
I must say...I will never go back to reg. shampoo! I am so happy I tried this experiment. I feel liberated! I had to giggle when I went out to lunch w/ friends last week & one of the ladies (not a friend) brought her "awesome" realllyyy expencive hair product shampoo crap to give to a friend of mine(who I just dared to try no-poo) She just raved how worth it this shampoo stuff was. They were all talking about hair & one friend said "geez your hair is so long. Looks great etc." The shampoo lady said (oh man...I was just waititngggg for her to pettle her crap) "When did you cut it last?" Ummm, 4 months ago.
"4 months! You have no slip ends! What do you use. Your hair looks so healthy!"

Mmmuuuuhhhhhhh, every no-poos girl dream come true! This was such an easy set up. (ok, ok...I had only been no-pooing for less then a month, but still...I only used really cheap shampoo before)

"well, I don't shampoo it."


what.........?

I told everyone about my experiment & how I will never go back to reg. shampoos agian. The look on this ladies face was priceless! She didn't know wether to gag or to punch herself. I even had one friend take notes! Oh man, no-poo was worth it just to have that conversation!