Just tried the no poo :)

[Barcino]

I decided today to try the no poo. Last time I had used shampoo was Sunday so I thought there is no way the bs and the vinegar rinse will take care of the greasies... I thought I will try it and most likely have to wash it again but at least I would have tried. Well I did it - could not belive how soft the vinegar makes the hair... and it looks great. Seems like it has more body. We will see how long it lasts clean.

[Alkenny]

I'm still using shampoo, but once a week I no-poo and my curls always bounce back in.

[Barcino]

It is now a few hours later and my hair looks awesome. I cant believe this.
My husband says the top of my head smells like vinegar a bit but I dont think anybody needs to smell up there - so what do I care! We will see... I dont know if I would go totally no poo. I started going from pooing every day to every other day to every three days and this week I went every four days. So if I can do no poo with an occasional poo then I would be having much less exposure to the nasty stuff which to me is better than what I had done up til now for sure

[velcromom]

That's great, sounds like it's going to work out well for you. You'll likely find you can go longer and longer between washes. It took my hair & scalp a few months to get to this point, but I am now only washing my hair about once a week. When I do wash my hair, it's usually because the hair itself just is a little grungy and not smelling fresh, it picks up odors from cooking ect., and not because my scalp gets greasy - the only time I ever feel like I need to wash because of feeling oily is near or during AF. I went in to get a cut two days after I'd last washed, and my stylist couldn't believe it'd been two days since my hair was washed, it still felt perfectly clean even at the roots. In between washings I rinse with water and maybe use my lemon rinse if it's feeling tangled, that helps soften and untangle it.

[litlwons]

I started yesterday....

a friend and I started yesterday and it is great. I also can't believe how soft my hair felt after the ACV rince! Wow! I will be so excited if I can go completly shampoo free!
Good luck! So far so good here!

[Sherra]

Been no-pooing for a month now........Awesome!

If you want to try something other than vinegar, I cut up a few lemons, boiled them, strained them, and put it in a sprayer. I haven't even gone through half of it in a month. It smells better too. To help with itchies I put in some drops of lavender eo. It smells so good that I use it as a body spray and then rinse off hehe. I also use dr. bronners almond soap in a sudser. Taking a shower now is the best smelling that I've ever had it. I actually look forward to the smells. It beats anything I have tried commercially and it's kinda fun to thumb the nose at the shampoo makers that put us in a neverending cycle to need their product.

[oceanbaby]

Can you pleae tell me specifically what it is you do? I have been wanting to try this myself.

So you get in the shower, wet your hair . . . and then what? What do you use, how do you use it, and how much? Then you rinse? And no conditioner? Please, I need specifics!

[Barcino]

What I did was get a little round glad cheapie type small plastic container that has a lid. Before I went in the shower I put about half of it (I think it is a 1/2 cup container so approx 1/4 cup) full of baking soda. I also grabbed a meassuring cup that has a handle. I have a bottle of the apple cider vinegar in my bathrrom so I set that bottle and the meassuring cup outside of my shower since the shower is kind of small. Anyway... I went in, got my hair wet opened the baking soda container, got the meassuring cup and filled it with a bit of hot water and poured some water in it to make a paste (I could have done this ahead of time though it would have been easier). THen I put clumps of the paste in my scalp. It took a while and I felt I didnt know what I was doing. I massaged them in and let them in for a while while and just used my body soap then while that sat in my hair. Then I rinsed my hair well and got the measuring cup, filled it with hot water poured some vinegar, not much and then poured that over my head. Then I rinsed it with more shower water... my hair was super soft I couldnt believe it. Anwyay that was pretty much it. Also I decided to use some of the baking soda in my face as a scrub and it worked well but you have to be gentle.

I am sure there are easier ways to go at this but this was what I did yesterday. BTW Today my hair is still not greasy

[oceanbaby]

Thank you! I am going to try this this weekend.

[Sherra]

Can you pleae tell me specifically what it is you do? I have been wanting to try this myself.

So you get in the shower, wet your hair . . . and then what? What do you use, how do you use it, and how much? Then you rinse? And no conditioner? Please, I need specifics!

haha I had read so many threads on this and still had these questions. It's funny when it's foreign to you huh? Been there done that. So here is what I do in order:

Prepping to make it easier:

1) I got a tub from some cottage cheese I ate and cleaned it and put a cup or so of baking soda in it and closed the lid. I then found a little scoop I used and marked it with a permanent marker where 1 tablespoon was and then marked it where 2 tablespoons were.

2) I got a little plastic dish that I used when I ate up a little cream cheese. I cleaned it up and put it near the tub of baking soda. I use this as my mixer.

3) I got some lemons and cut them up. I put them in a big pot with a lid along with a lot of water and boiled for about half an hour. I then put it in a 16 oz. sprayer (can buy them anywhere) with about 7 drops of lavender essential oil. You don't have to have the lavender oil so don't worry about it. I put the rest of the lemon concoction in some containers and put them in the fridge so they would keep fresher. I store the sprayer near the baking soda tub that I made up earlier.


Actual usage (I have very short hair..so you may need more if yours is longer):

1) I put one tablespoon of baking soda out of the tub into the plastic dish. I then put some shower water in it to make it pastey, runny kinda. Then I take my fingers and grab some and work it into an area..and I keep doing that until I think I feel it covering and working through all my hair and scalp. This does the cleaning part like a shampoo does.

2) I rinse the baking soda out really well and massage the scalp

3) Then I grab the sprayer and spray all over my hair, saturating it with the lemon spray. Think of this as conditioner. Some people use Apple cider vinegar in place of lemon.

4) I then rinse the lemon spray out really well.


This has been enough for a month so far and it's still going with my original amounts I made up. My thing is, the more difficult it was the least likely I would be to follow through. That is why I separated the prepping part from the actual usage part for you. Once it's prepped, you are good to go. After you do it awhile you think to yourself, egads this is easy and I had so many questions lol.

Here is a thread that may help understand the troubleshooting process too:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=114069

No Shampoo Troubleshooting
in general, the troubleshooting might go like this:

frizzy = too much bs, too long with the bs in the hair, try adding honey
greasy = try less acv, switch to lemon/lime juice, leave out honey, comb instead of brush, might just be adjustment
itchies = tea tree, lavender, rosemary eo's seem to help, try a good rinse, this too shall pass
dry hair = try a *tiny bit* of oil (any oil, i like coconut) smoothed on bottom of hair

Have fun and let us know how it goes!