any other No 'Poo-ers?

[baaaad_kitty]

Hi all!

I mentioned in my intro post in the newbie forum that I'm a no 'poo practitioner. Are there any out here like me that use BS and vinegar? :)

[CailinNua]

Hi,

Until recently I did too - for almost a year. I was happy with the results but I guess I got a bit bored and it can be inconvenient at times. I started adding a little rosemary EO to the vinegar rinse which made it smell lovely!

I still use it from time to time but also Aubrey Organics shampoo and conditioner.


How are you getting on with it? I've heard people mention it can be damaging but I don't think it made my existing damage any worse.

[eamane]

I'm not sure what BS stands for but we are quite a few here that use only conditioners to wash with, here's that thread http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=2898 :)

[Djinmonet]

I did the baking soda wash, vinegar rinse, for years due to my water. Now I use the CV shampoo bars first, then do a light version of the BC & V.

I still didn't like my hair in public, as it was seriously frizzy. So I'd wash with a poo & con that I could wash out reasonably well, when I wanted to look nice. Thing is, doing that ruined my scalp and back, for months, each time. :mad: Not to mention it would take about half the first month just trying to get all that junk out of my hair. Yeah, sorry not the typical water, and such, but..lol

For me adding the bar soap finally looks good (except when I try a bar that randomly doesn't get along with my hair), is less drying, and cleans better. And.... Rinses out...:D

[Roseate]

I did BS/ACV for about 6 months right before joining LHC- my scalp really liked it, but it was too drying for the ends of my hair.

Now that I know more about oils and butters and such, I could probably try again; it might work for me with the addition of a prewash oiling on the ends. Haven't got around to trying it again, though.

You'll find lots of different no-shampoo routines on this site; water only, no water/sebum only, indian herb washing, conditioner washing... lots to choose from! Welcome to LHC!

[Qwerty Uiop]

I do.

I've been doing it for 3+ years, although I do use oils on my length and ends when necessary. The baking soda gets them out fine. I've even used it after a deep oiling.

I started out CO and then moved to BS/ACV when I couldn't afford all that conditioner any more and am now very close to WO--it's a process getting your scalp to stop overproducing sebum as it gets used to the fact that you aren't stripping it away with shampoo any more. I don't keep track of how often I use the BS/ACV, but it can't be more than once every month or two.

Roseate, if you ever want to try it again, you might want to use a more dilute concentration. For myself, I use 1 Tbsp of BS in a pint of water when my hair is obviously greasy/waxy, but when my little boy needs more than plain water, I leave about 1/2 inch of my own solution in the bottom of the mason jar, fill it back up with water again, and use the extremely dilute solution. It works fine--he doesn't need very much.

I'm concerned enough about the safety of some of the chemicals used in commercial cosmetics that boring suits me just fine. :)

[little_cherry]

I've been CO or WO for 8 months now. For Co, I use suave or fructis triple nutrition.

[Roseate]

Roseate, if you ever want to try it again, you might want to use a more dilute concentration. For myself, I use 1 Tbsp of BS in a pint of water when my hair is obviously greasy/waxy, but when my little boy needs more than plain water, I leave about 1/2 inch of my own solution in the bottom of the mason jar, fill it back up with water again, and use the extremely dilute solution. It works fine--he doesn't need very much.

I never needed much either; I used to do 1/4 tsp of BS to a pint of water and that was plenty. I suppose I could do less, but at that point it's more or less WO anyway....

I think my problems would have been all solved by just oiling my ends. I just didn't know anything about oils at the time.

[bahoban]

I've been no-poo since I've joined to LHC,, so is almost 3 months,, and I love it,, but i want to add some EO for the final rinse, sometimes I don't like the AVC smell on my hair

[christine1989]

I wish I could give up that awful poo for goo but the smell of vinegar just makes me cringe. :(

[terryn]

Going on 2.5 years. :) I quit shampoo because my dandruff VS oilly scalp pretty muich refused to be solved by anything, so I figured I had nothing to lose. I am using roughly 1 tbsp bs to 1 c H2O at the moment, but I want to cut back, as I know that dillution is too strong and dried out my hair. So, I am messing around with organic conditioners and oils and the like to find a balance, and am going to try rinsing with lemon juice as vinegar made me all oilly all over again. So, my current routine is: conditioner, let sit, bs mix on scalp only and rinse well, but it is ever evolving. :)

[Cupofmilk]

So to wash with BS only you mix it with water and rub into the scalp?

[Igor]

CO/WO washer going on… 6 years? I think on average my hair has seen shampoo maybe once a year since then (All love to both CO and WO, but on rare occasions I just need to bring out some shampoo)

[baaaad_kitty]

So to wash with BS only you mix it with water and rub into the scalp?

Yes, that's basically it. I do 1T baking soda in 1 C water as my "shampoo" then 2T white vinegar and 1C water as my conditioning rinse. I add about 5 drops lavender essential oil to the rinse so I don't smell like crackling dip.

I find that I can go for 3 days in between. At first I did NOT like the feeling (or thought) of not washing every day, but I guess my scalp got used to it and it stopped producing so much sebum that I can stretch in between washings. Yeah, it took a month or so before I tried not to wash every day because I can't stand even the slightest greasiness. Yuck! :mad:

[morecowbell]

I did BS/ACV for about a month earlier this year, and really did some major damage to my hair...
Let this serve as a caution to those who are interested in trying it:
I was washing my hair once every two to three days with about 1 teaspoon of baking soda diluted in a cup of water, poured on my scalp only and massaged in. I rinsed out with water, and then did 1 tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar to two cups water for my final rinse (which I left in mostly).
By the end of my experiment (about a month) my hair was absolutely COATED in weird stuff (I have really hard water), and when I clarified with shampoo, I was horrified at the condition of my hair! What before was chemically abused but still manageable hair, is now horribly dry, frizzy, tangly, damaged, crunchy awfullness! It fluffs out three or four inches from my head, with weird kinky 'waves' that are so dry they break off if I don't slather on shea butter first!

Protein and moisture treatments have restored SOME of the manageability, but I can still see and feel how much damage I did...

I see that most of the people who have success with this routine probably don't have chemically treated hair, but I would still caution anyone trying this to keep a close eye on how your length is reacting. My roots were okay-ish with the routine, but everything from my ears down is pretty much ruined (and this is not an exaggeration).

I don't want to be a bummer, but I really wish I had had the knowledge of what it could do to my hair beforehand.

[charalito]

I have been no poo for 6 months and I'm transitioning to WO. BS/ACV is only done every 2 weeks or so and I added coconut oil treatments twice a week.

The first month I noticed a LOT of split ends, but turns out the cones were masking the damage and it was just my hair showing what was there all the time. I cut about an inch an a half and now it's pretty much healthy. Of course i find split ends when I do S&D, but it's not epidemic.

[Arianwen]

No 'poo for me for around a week hehe.

[silverjen]

WO for just over two years now. I never tried BS/ACV, because for me the whole point was to simplify my routine, and the baking soda route sounded just as complicated as shampoo and conditioner. My hair and scalp have never been so healthy.