coconut oil+'poo bar+ACV rinse+catnip= oily hair?

[deviantkitten]

I did my first "all natural" routine last night. I know it takes some trial and error, but I was hoping you lovelies would be able to help me out. Here is what I did-

-coconut oil in my hair about an hour before wash- I usually do an overnight soaking, but poor planning on my part
-washed once with 'poo bar
-ACV rinse- 2 c +2T- left on my hair for a few minutes
-rinsed out ACV
-Catnip rinse- steeped 1 t for 1 hour the night before, left in fridge, allowed to come to room temp. before use
-catnip soak on ends for about 20 minutes- I had planed on soaking for an hour, but again, poor planning on my part
-rinsed out catnip

Let hair air dry for a bit, damp braid, then off to bed. I woke up this morning, and my length are still veeeerrryyy oily. I am assuming I needed to wash with my 'poo bar a second time. length only. Or maybe I should have skipped the coconut oil altogether? Higher concentration of ACV?

Am planning on coming home tonight, and do the same routine, this time foregoing the coconut oil, and concentrating the 'poo bar on my ends.

I there anything else I should do?
If I am using a 'poo bar and catnip, do I need to stop oiling alltogether?

Any advice would be appreciated! I really want to make this work. I kind of know what I think I did wrong, I would just love if other members could give me their input on what they think I could improve.
Thanks again!

[countryhopper]

I've had problems with oil... I've found the ONLY way they seem to work for me is to braid my hair and apply a drop of oil to the tassel ends while my hair is DRY, not wet. And I only do this maybe once a week.

Also, when I use vinegar as a rinse, even a tiny (teaspoon?) amount, my hair is instantly limp and greasy looking and feeling. I've had much better success with tea rinses or even using dilluted lemon juice.

Hope that helps!

[cmnt831]

I haven't had problems with oil, but shampoo bars and especially ACV rinse will leave my hair greasy and limp. Maybe leave out the ACV rinse next time and see if that helps?

[Gabriel]

I'm not sure of your regular routine, but have you used a shampoo bar before?

If it's your first time, I'd recommend perhaps starting from zero - clarify your hair.

I would suggest following that with your shampoo bar only.

Washing your hair with a shampoo bar requires a bit of trial and error and again varies from person to person and brand of shampoo bar. I find for myself that it is very different than using a liquid shampoo. I make sure to use it on all of my hair versus what some of us are used to with liquid shampoos of letting the suds trail down the length after applying it to the scalp. If I don't make sure to use the bar along my length my hair length does look lank or greasy.

See how your hair feels with just the shampoo bar alone for a couple of washes. You'll know by then what else your hair and scalp needs or doesn't need.

If it seems to need it, add a little coconut oil when necessary but there's really no need to over do it and soak your hair in it before every wash. Unless you need to of course. In that case I'd personally at least wash my hair twice with my shampoo bar to make sure all the oil not soaked up by my hair and scalp is rinsed out.

Depending on your water, where you wash your hair, and the type of shampoo bar, you may or may not need a vinegar rinse at all. Start with the weakest dilution you think would work for you, and work your way up.

If your hair seems to need it, add the catnip rinse to your wash cycle.

You could also instead of both a vinegar rinse and catnip rinse, use one and then the other and compare how your hair feels with each alone.

Wow this ended up being really long. Sorry about that and hope something here helps!

[cmnt831]

Wow this ended up being really long. Sorry about that and hope something here helps!

Not the OP, but I don't think it was too long. You just gave me some good ideas to try! :flower:

[Merewen]

I second Gabriel, with emphasis on trying one thing at a time. Everything you tried can be great for the hair, but when you try that many things at once and something goes wrong, it's hard to tell what caused it. Also poo bars can be tricky, as previously stated, so I would start there as well and figure out the poo bar first.

[little_cherry]

Just double the shampoo bar whenever you coconut oil if you have oily issues. Don't omit the ACV with the shampoo bar or your hair will feel waxy.

Just wondering, did you clarify your hair before you started your natural routine? Clarifying always helps with starting with a clean canvas, so to speak. It helps everything soak in better. :) I just use 2tbs of baking soda in 2 cups of water, pour it on and let it sit for a couple of minutes with a gentle scalp massage and then rinse and proceed with you poobar/ACV/catnip routine.

How much coconut oil did you use? Whenever I coconut oil, it usually soaks into my hair over night.

[deviantkitten]

Thank you everyone!
I did not clarify my hair, but I am bout to LOL
And littlecherry, you saved me a trip to the market LOL. I was going to go out to buy a clarifying shampoo, but now I am going to go try the bs.
When I use coconut oil on my hair....I use allot LOL
My ends are very dry, so I use maybe not quite a teaspoon....which I know is ALLOT compared to how much many of you use. I never had trouble washing it out with my bottled shampoo.
So, I am going to now try the bs clarification, 'poo bar, ACV, then catnip

And so, the journey to natural continues LOL

[StephanieB]

-coconut oil in my hair about an hour before wash- I usually do an overnight soaking, but poor planning on my part
-washed once with 'poo bar
-ACV rinse- 2 c +2T- left on my hair for a few minutes
-rinsed out ACV
-Catnip rinse- steeped 1 t for 1 hour the night before, left in fridge, allowed to come to room temp. before use
-catnip soak on ends for about 20 minutes- I had planed on soaking for an hour, but again, poor planning on my part
-rinsed out catnip
WAY too much, all at once!!

Regarding ACV - since I do vinegar rinses - vinegar makes my hair clarified of all gunk and it gives my hair more body. Many people agree with me on this, and many don't - so it must depend upon one's hair.

I occasionally do an SMT, but I otherwise don't put any kind of oil into my hair. In other words - I don't oil. My hair is oily enough all on it's own without needing any help. lol

I've never tried catnip, so I can't honestly tell you anything about it. I have a large colony of cats who live in my house (indoor only cats) and I can't use anything that even remotely smells of catnip without the cats tearing it apart... even regular mints will cause them to go into insane frenzies. I can't leave a mug of tea with mint leaves out, I must drink it all at once or 'hide' it somewhere like the clod microwave oven.

I personally have never found a shampoo bar that wasn't too harsh on my hair - even a few brands of bar whose same-brand liquid shampoo my hair will tolerate. It must be something to do with the ingredients necessary to make it solid (a bar). Again - this is completely individual; some hair loves bars other hair hates it.

I don't know how to stress enough that you must try one new thing on your hair at a time and see how your hair reacts to it for weeks, before you try another new thing. And that second thing should be used for weeks before you add a third. And so forth.

Let's try to determine which item you should work with first.

What were you trying to achieve with the coconut oil?
How about the catnip?
The vinegar?

If your hair is extremely dry - try the oil first, maybe.
If your hair might be full of gunk and old product(s), then try clarifying it with the vinegar, first, maybe.
I have't clue why anyone would put catnip on their hair, so I don't know what to even ask or suggest regarding that... but if you were using that to solve a pressing problem - then maybe try using just the catnip first.

I haven't found vinegar to dry out my hair - not even my previously damaged dry and dead ends. (finally cut those off) So if your hair is dry but also possibly full of sticky old product residue, you might want to try the vinegar before you try oiling.

Anyhow, I wish you luck and beautiful, healthy hair - whatever you do with it. :-)