Sunday, July 24, 2011

I'm washing my hair.

Have you ever seen in a movie, read in a book or said yourself that you could not go out on a date because you were washing your hair?  I never understood that comment since it takes me no time at all to wash and dry my hair.  That is until last night.  Before I tell you about last night lets go back a few months.

In part of my becoming a better steward of the environment in April I decided to try the "no poo" hair cleansing method.  When using this method you don't use regular store brought shampoo you cleanse your hair with baking soda & water.  For a conditioner I used apple cider vinegar & water.  I did this for about a week and my hair did not feel clean or look good.  So I broke down and used some good old shampoo--it was the Saturday before Easter so I wanted my hair to be nice for Easter Sunday.  You can look up "no poo" online to get more details.  Some people have great luck with this method.  I believe it didn't work for me because of our hard water.  I may try it again and boil the water first or used distilled water.

About three weeks ago I ran out of shampoo so I decided to make some.  The recipe follows.

Herbal Shampoo Recipe for Every Hair Type
1 cup distilled water ( I used tap)
3 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp lemongrass
2 tsp tea tree oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Castile liquid soap

Heat the water in a pot and bring to a boil. If you have a strainer, place the rosemary and lemongrass in it. Place the herbs in a container that can hold boiling water. Pour the water over the herbs, and mix the herbs around a bit. Cover the pot, with the herbs inside, and let the mixture seep for 20 to 30 minutes.

When the time has elapsed, take the cover from container, and mix the herbs around a little more. Then remove the herbs from the container. If needed, strain the water to remove any floating bits. Mix the tea tree oil and vanilla into the water.

Mix the soap into the infused water, and make sure the soap dissolves completely. Because you're mixing oil, water and soap it's important that you mix very well, spreading the oil out as much as possible.

Pour the mixture into your container, and you have homemade herbal shampoo. Let the shampoo cool, and then place the top on tightly. This recipe makes about 12 ounces of shampoo.

For the first week it was great.  My hair felt clean, health, and had a little more shine.  Week two and three were not so great.  My hair began to feel heavy and very rough. 

Last Night:

I did some research and found that castile soap drys out your hair.  Thus, I decided that my hair needed some deep conditioning.  I looked up homemade conditioners online and decide to put homemade mayo in my hair and let it sit for 15 minutes.  Afterwards, I showered and washed my hair with my homemade herbal shampoo.  My hair felt great!  I was so excited!  Josh and I then sit down to watch a movie--a nice date night in.  The two hour movie took much longer because two little boys did not want to stay in bed.  Once, we finally finished the movie I realized my hair was still really wet, which is not normal it should have air dried by then.  I went to dry it.  After several minutes I realized it was not wet, but oily.  I then tried putting corn starch in my hair.  I had read that people with oily hair can used this dry cleansing method to cleanse their hair.  It did not work.  I then boiled some water, let is cool, mix in some baking soda to try the "no poo" method.  It did not work.  It was around 11:45pm at this point.  I told Josh I had to go buy some shampoo.  So, I drove to CVS when I pulled in the parking lot I noticed a sign that read "open til midnight"  it was 11:53pm.  I rushed in forgetting my shopping bag, brought some kwiklime V05 shampoo and conditioner in plastic bottles and paid with  my debt card (it was less then $2--I really don't like using my debt card for small amounts).  Not environmental at all, but my hair felt so GREAT after I once again shampooed it.  It is now soft, smooth, shiny and smells good too.
 
I am not giving up on making my own shampoo and conditioner.  The lesson learned is to always have some store brought shampoo on hand until you find the homemade one that works for you. 

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