When going natural doesn't work

I loved the idea of using henna, I really did. Now that I'm going to start having Ralph's ex-mother-in-law do my hair (no, I'm not worried about her purposely dying it purple or shaving it, she's very nice), I have to find my own hair color. I called my ex-stylist to ask what color she used on my hair, but, seeing as how she's now lost my business, she never called me back. Oh well.

My fellow "no-pooers" on Live Journal all use henna, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The kind most of them use, though, is extremely expensive, as it would cost me over $45 dollars. And the site said I might need to repeat the process before desired results. Seeing as how I'm doing this to save money, that wasn't an option. So I looked on another website and found Light Mountain for only $7.99. Much better. Of course, I know cheaper price means cheaper product, which could mean not-as-good results. But that wasn't my only problem.

When the box came it had two packages of powder, one of henna, and one of indigo (or black henna, as they called it). I had to go to the store to buy distilled water and then heat it in a non-metal container and then pour it into two separate containers to mix (with a non-metal spoon) with the two herbs. I then had mix the concoctions until they were a grainy paste and let them sit for an hour before using them. I packed the glassware containing my pastes into the car and drove over to Martha's. As soon as she saw that I had henna, she said, "Oh, yeah, that stuff is not so good. Many hairstylists won't use it because it's so time consuming." But she agreed to give it a shot and proceeded to spend the next two hours painting paste into my hair.

She put the henna on first, which turns the hair a reddish color but needs to be a base for the indigo, otherwise I'd look like a blue-haired old lady. I had to sit with the mud on my head for about 15 minutes, then she started the laborious job of rinsing it out, only to have to repeat the process with the indigo. After all that, my hair really didn't look that much different, since I'd had it dyed so dark before. The roots were reddish, but there was no indigo in sight. Sigh.

I have nothing against Light Mountain, I'm sure it works for some people, and it might have worked for me, maybe I didn't something wrong in the mixing. Even if it had worked, though, I don't think I'd do it again, as it's so involved and there are so many steps. To me, unfortunately, it's just not worth it.

Martha was so nice, though. Even after I made her do that with her knowing it wasn't going to work, she volunteered to come to my house on Tuesday and bring real dye and fix the mess I'd made. I swear she's a saint.

No 'poo update

So I'm about two weeks into this no 'poo thing (read more on the no_poo thread at live journal), having not used any shampoo and only conditioner once (okay, I mixed a tiny bit of watered-down shampoo into it). I decided to give the baking soda/vinegar combo another try this weekend.

I first put a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water in my hair, because on the no 'poo website a lot of people said to do this if you have hard water. On babyslime's site she has a link to a water hardness map, as well as the USGS site explaining more about hard water. The map showed that SoCal has some of the hardest water in the country!


This was a big change from my native Bay Area, which has some of the softest water. No wonder my hair feels like straw!

Anyway, on the no 'poo site they said baking soda + hard water = soap scum. Lovely. (In fact, hard water is the reason why shampoo was invented, since it cleans similarly in hard or soft water.) Last time when I tried using baking soda (BS) my hair got all funky, now I know why. So I rinsed with the WV solution first, then used the recommended 1 tbs BS / 1 cup water on my scalp, and finished with a 1 tbs apple cider vinegar/1 cup water.

My hair came out better than when I hadn't used the WV before, and I could definitely tell that the BS cleaned my hair this time (last time I only used a tiny bit). In fact, it actually dried my hair out a lot, to the point where I would have to put something else on it to keep it from looking like straw, which kind of goes against what I'm trying to do. I can put a tiny bit of olive oil on it, but most people recommend coconut oil. When I run out of my other products I'll get some of that.

I have to admit, it's a bit of a hassle to use all that stuff, and takes a lot of time and water with all the rinsing etc. That's not what I want to deal with when showering at 4:00 AM. I figure I can use the BS if my hair feels extra nasty or something, like once a week maybe. It's nice to know at least that it works.

For now, I think I'll stick to the conditioner-only routine; Suave has a Naturals line that many "no-pooers" recommend, since it doesn't have silicones (more on that below). And it's nice and cheap, an added bonus! I got some on sale at Rite Aid this weekend for 99 cents; it's usually $1.29 so even at full price it won't break the bank.

I got the Ocean Breeze kind because I like the scent, but a lot of no 'pooers like the Coconut. I'll have to check and see if it has coconut oil in it...

As for silicones (those dreaded 'cones!) many people on the no_poo site refer to them in such a way that you'd think they are deadly. Basically, though, they create a waxy buildup on hair that you would need to wash off with shampoo, hence why many no-pooers don't like them. A quote I thought summed it up nicely (from constant state of flux): "Here though, the haircare industry wins hands down; selling shampoo that manages to strip the cones away each time you wash, only to sell you more conditioner that applies them again afterwards. A never ending circle of seal and strip, seal and strip, that builds up and up, where the only winners are Proctel and Gamble and other haircare manufacturers."

The thing that concerns me most about 'cones is that they also strip your hair of color. Since I color my hair, I'll be trying to avoid them from now on. Here's a thread where you can read more about 'cones.

The big test in all this will be on Wednesday. I'm going to the salon to get my hair colored and I'm really interested to see what my stylist thinks of my experiment. I want to see if she notices a difference (good or bad) and what she knows about the chemistry of it all, etc. I'll post my update here after I see her tomorrow.

The whole point in doing this (other than trying to make my hair more naturally healthy), is to save money. I had stocked up on shampoo and conditioner when I saw Salon Selectives and Tresemmé on sale, so now I have a bunch of product I'm not going to use. Not very cost effective. But after reading the backs of the bottles (and more on the no 'poo site), I found that all "cleaners" have the same basic ingredients for cleaning, namely SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate). It's a detergent that is used in everything from soap to toothpaste, (as well as car washes and garage floor cleaners) and is responsible for the lathery bubbles. (You can read more about the issues with SLS here and here.)

Since we have four sinks in our house and encourage the boys to wash their hands often, we have quite a few liquid-soap dispensers. I can just fill those up with shampoo when they start running low. Also, I can use the conditioner for shaving cream, or give it to the rest of the house's inhabitants when theirs' run out. They don't care what kind of shampoo/conditioner/body wash, etc. they use, and they hardly use any, so I don't have to buy them any hair care products for probably two more years. So far so good!

**Update to the Update :)**

Yesterday I went to my stylist to have my hair colored. I told her about my "experiment," and while she hadn't heard of the movement (probably some of the reason is because I live in SoCal and it's all about image and buying the latest and greatest of everything) she was very interested. She told me that they use BS in the salon on clients with lots of product buildup and she says she remembers way back when they used vinegar to soften, etc.

The reason I even brought it up (other than wanting her opinion) was because she would obviously have to rinse out my color, and usually shampoos and conditions. I brought out my Suave Naturals bottle and she didn't bat an eyelash. In fact, after we had finished, she said, "Your hair looks so shiny!" She also said I didn't even need to trim it, as the ends look fine. She even said to keep her posted on my progress, and she might even recommend it to her clients with really damaged hair! I thought this was really progressive, as many stylists often push expensive products on their clients. Yea for her wanting to spread the word!

Just FYI, here are some pics I took yesterday of my hair. You'll notice that I have some frizzies/ends that aren't smoothed down bc I'm sure it's still adjusting to no 'cones, and I didn't put anything in it yet (like oil, etc.) to smooth it down. But all in all, not too shabby! Yea no 'poo!

Frugal Friday ~ Cheap beauty regimens

This is my first Frugal Friday post - hope I do this right! For other fantastically-frugal ideas, pop over to biblical womanhood to see the amazing cache over there.

So I've had to tighten my belt a lot recently. The mortgage went up (a lot!), unexpected funeral costs came our way, and gas prices are killing me since I drive 120 miles a day to work and back. Needless to say, I've been looking anywhere and everywhere I can to get ideas on where I can curb costs. Things I tend to spend a lot of money on are "beauty aides" such as make-up, lotions, shampoos and conditioners, cleansers, toners, moisturizers... the list goes on. Of course, none of these things work like magic, so I just keep spending money on the newest beauty breakthrough. So when I came across some natural (and cheap) ways to scale down my regimen and get off the consumerism treadmill, I was a happy camper.


The first thing I found was the No 'Poo method.

No, not that kind.

This is actually about reducing the use (and eventually getting rid of) your SHAMpoo. I heard about the idea a couple of weeks ago, and then Stephanie at Keeper of the Home reminded me of it on her post for Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer. Basically, you phase out your shampoo and conditioner and use only baking soda and vinegar to cleanse your hair (both a whole lot cheaper than any other beauty products!). Some people don't even need those, they just use water, and some use only conditioner. I guess it's a matter of personal choice. There are tons of people who've had great success with this, as you can read on the site above. There's also great info on this site. The sites also have lots of good advice and helpful people. I've only been doing this for a couple of days, but so far so good. (Be aware, though, that your hair may go through an oily adjustment period.) I still have some shampoo and conditioner left, so I'll probably decrease the amount of use instead of going cold turkey, but I'm really excited at the prospect of not buying those costly products anymore!



The second radical natural cleansing routine I'd like to try (after I finish using up the rest of my old product), is the Oil Cleansing Method, or OCM for those in the know. This is the idea that you only use oil to cleanse your face. Yes, oil. Or a combination of castor oil and olive oil to be more precise.



I've heard about this before, too, but not in a whole lot of detail until I found this site (above). Basically, castor oil has a lot of cleansing properties, while olive oil moisturizes. I know it sounds counterintuitive, especially if you have oily skin (like I do), but castor oil can actually dry out your skin if you use too much, and that's why the olive oil balances it out. You can also substitute other oils as well; there's a list on the site. These aren't the cheapest oils on the market, but they are definitely less than a lot of the facial cleansers out there! And it eliminates the need for a moisturizer, so you save even more! Oh, and they also mention using witch hazel as a toner instead of brand-name toners, which saves even more money.

I like that these ideas are not only about using natural ingredients, but also reducing your use and using what you have already. So many sites/stores try to sell you on "all-natural ingredients" while charging you an arm and a leg for them. All of the things mentioned above can be bought in a grocery store or pharmacy, at a really reasonable price!

You can Google both "no 'poo" and "oil cleansing method" and find tons of info.

If anyone has tried either or both of these methods, I'd love to hear about your success, or lack thereof.