A “Hair-y” Experiment
By Stacey | Posted on April 19, 2011 | No Comments
Lately I’ve noticed in my blog reading that a lot of people are starting to avoid traditional shampoos. This intrigued me, and so I started a shampoo experiment of my own.
For years, we went to Walmart and bought the cheapest generic shampoos for adults and babies. We felt proud that we were saving money. But as my concern for all the nasty junk that was in those products increased, so did my willingness to spend lots of money on natural shampoos. My kind husband allowed this, though, $7+ per bottle was painful to us both. $7 a bottle times 8 heads of hair times thousands of showers equals. . .
Recently, I’ve read about ladies just rinsing their hair, using baking soda straight or mixed with water, and making their own natural shampoos. What they report is that once their hair adjusts to not having the oil stripped out everyday as with traditional shampoos, their hair slows oil production. Some have been able to extend the amount of time between shampooing.
I’m already a huge fan of the tremendous number of things you can do with baking soda. Vinegar also has an impressive list. So I took my 2 household “friends” and mixed up some natural shampoo and conditioner. I used 2 of the kids’ old juicebox-style sippy cups. In one I squirted a small amount of natural shampoo, put in a few tablespoons of baking soda, filled the rest of the space with water and mixed. In the second, I filled about 1/4 of the cup with apple cider vinegar, added 3 drops of lemon oil and 3 drops of orange oil, and filled the rest of the space with water.
Actually, we originally tried straight baking soda “scrubbed” into our wet hair. My husband enjoyed that and still uses it out of an old recycled parmesan cheese container. My 14-year-old daughter and I felt that it was too harsh, and it was bothering the skin on the backs of our hands.
That’s when I tried the above mixture, and we’ve really enjoyed it. My daughter can shampoo every other day now if she wants, and her hair doesn’t look greasy or unwashed.
The vingear rinse is pretty strong. You definitely want to keep your peepers closed while using it. My 8-year-old daughter says the vinegar rinse helps her comb her hair easier. That’s a big deal for a girl that hates combing wet, tangled hair. The rinse doesn’t seem to make a difference on the boys’ short hair.
This whole hair-y experiment has been really exciting to me! We will be saving lots of money every month on shampoo and conditioner – like at least $14-$21 per month. We are able to keep a large amount of (cheap!) baking soda and vinegar on hand and mix it up at any time. We can experiment with different essential oils if we want scent variety. I want to be more self-sufficient and less dependent on trips to the store. This is a practical way!
Have any of you tried anything untraditional with shampoo or conditioner?