Given that this is my first post, I guess I should explain what it is I’m doing here (on this blog, on this earth…we’ll see what happens).  I started this blog mainly to follow up on a 30 day challenge I recently imposed on myself — no shampoo or conditioner. After the 30 days, we’ll see what happens; maybe the blog will continue, maybe it won’t.  I hope to keep people on the edge of their seats in suspense.  I think it’s working already.

So back to the challenge: yes, I live in the Bay Area; no, I am not becoming a dirty hippie.  This whole thing stemmed from a conversation with my sister, Alexis (ever the tree-hugging environmentalist), who told me about people choosing to go shampoo and conditioner free, or “no ‘poo.”  I didn’t coin the term; and yes, it’s both disgusting and hilarious.  Anyway, after the “no ‘poo” convo with my sister, I did some research and decided to try it for myself.

First of all, the why’s and wherefore’s.  On a larger scale, using shampoo and conditioner is (of course) harmful to the environment — all the chemicals going down the drain every week, all the plastic bottles, and on and on.  I’m attempting to save the planet one shampoo bottle at a time.  On a medium scale, going “natural” is supposedly better for your hair than loading it up with sulfates and product everyday.  We’ll see how this pans out over the 30 days.  And finally, the small scale.  I decided to do this personally for two reasons: A. I have recently decided my hair sucks and doesn’t behave as I would like, so I feel I have little to lose trying to go ‘poo-free for 30 days (I know, it doesn’t get any less funny no matter how you say it) and B. as you may have noticed from the blog’s tagline, I am currently unemployed and want to see if this whole thing pans out for purely economic reasons.

Ok, on to the how’s.  How exactly do you go without shampoo and conditioner?  Rinse with water and hope for the best?  Cross your fingers that your friends will dig your new dreadlocked look?  Well, that’s an option…but, no.  There are a number of natural recipes out there for shampoo and conditioner; I decided to go with the popular choices: baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

To cleanse, I wet my hair thouroughly, then pour a mixture of 1 tbsp. baking soda and 1 cup water over my hair.  I comb this through for about a minute, then rinse well.  To condition, I pour a mixture of 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar and 1 cup water over my hair, comb through, and rinse.  These are the basic recipes.  You can add things to the conditioning mix if you like. According to others, the juice of half a lemon adds shine, a sprig of rosemary and a bag of chamomile tea steeped in the mix helps take away the vinegar smell in the shower.

You can find detailed information on the vinegar rinse and options here.

To begin, I’ll post a picture of my hair pre-challenge to give everybody a jumping off point.  Depending on how on top of things I am, I will hopefully post subsequent pictures of my hair throughout the challenge so you can all see how it’s going (and not just take my word on things).

So here we go, my hair + shampoo + conditioner + product + heat styling (my usual M.O.) + scenery + wine…:

No I don’t generally pose for glamour shots which display my stunning tresses like this; KC happened to take this candid while we were wine tasting in Napa (thus the beautiful scenery behind me and the glass of red in front of me).  And by wine tasting, I mean wine drinking.  Let’s just call a spade a spade shall we?  Anyway, it’s the best shot of my hair I could find, so lay off.