Shampoo Free for One Year!

December 31st 2014

Some of you may know, since January 2014, I have quit using shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner, hair spray and all other commercial hair products. (I did an in-depth post about the process here) It has been over a year now and I am still so in love with how well my hair has responded! In one years time, I have experimented with so many different methods, recipes and ingredients. Here is what I do now.

My Wash Cycle:

Day 1: Wash Day. 

• Brush hair really really well with a Boar Bristle Brush
• Mix 1tsp baking soda and 1tsp Rye flour with water until it becomes a slimy paste.
• Use mixture as "shampoo". Scrub it into your scalp, concentrating on your roots to however far down your hair length you feel you need it.
• Rinse well
• Saturate ends and any irritated, dry or itchy parts of your scalp with your rinse mixture. See below for what I use.
• Rinse out "rinse"
• After shower, moisturize ends with hair oil or diluted Aloe Vera gel
• Style as you wish, I usually do the headband wrap while my hair is damp.

Day 2: Do Nothing

• If you are like me and chose a wrap or bun style on the previous day, then you probably don't have to do anything with your hair today except for maybe brush it. 
• Sometimes my ends will be dry or frizzy so I'll spritz them with a Sea Salt Spray that I make (see below for instructions)

Day 3: Water Only Day

• Brush well with the Boar Bristle Brush
• Shower and "wash" your hair but don't use anything except water, just scrub around as if you were using a product,
• You can use a rinse if you feel you need it, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Just depends on if I feel like my scalp or my ends need it.
• Follow the shower with hair oil or diluted Aloe Vera gel.
• Style how you wish, again, I usually do some sort of style that will leave my hair wavy or curly when I take it out.

Day 4: Do nothing.

• Same as day 2. No need for anything unless you think you need to. 

Day 5: Water only Day

• Same as Day 3.
• Sometimes I skip this day and just opt for a top bun or long braid, most days I work and am required to wear my hair up anyway (food service job).

Day 6: Do nothing.

• On this day I am almost always wearing my hair in a big ol messy top bun, it's usually a bit greasy at this point, any curl or wave is pretty much gone.

Day 7/Day 1: Wash Day!

• Start the whole cycle all over again!

My Ingredients:

Rinse:  I experiment a lot with different rinses. I usually use whatever is available to me at home. Some of my favorites include Green Tea, Light Beer, Rosemary Extract, Diluted Almond Milk. And my utmost favorite is one I make myself, I'm not sure what you'd classify it as, a tea of sorts.  

• I harvest a large amount of Rosemary and Lavender (I have a very large bush of each in my yard) 
• I use just the buds of the Lavender and just the leaves of the Rosemary
• Boil them together for about 10 minutes, then reduce to a simmer for another 30 minutes.
• Let cool then transfer to a sealed container, I use a glass bottle, keep refrigerated.

Sea Salt Spray: (measurements are for a travel size bottle)

• Take a spray bottle (either new or clean out an old product bottle)
• Fill 3/4 of the bottle with warm water
• Add 1tsp of sea salt
• Add 5-8 pumps of hair oil or Aloe Vera Gel
• Shake well
• Spray on hair to add texture or to tame frizzies