I have never been one of those people who wanted my hair’s texture to be something that it’s not. I’ve always embraced my curls, and rather enjoyed the fact that the only thing I had to do to “style” my hair was scrunch some gel into my wet locks and let it air-dry. Really, my only problem was that the “x-treme hold” gel I was using to control frizz and define my curls made it virtually impossible to NOT wash my hair every day (besides the fact that my hair became greasy and unpleasant-smelling after 24 hours anyway). Enter my issue with a couple of patches of psoriasis behind each ear…the daily shampoo was not helping this at all!

With the success I’ve had going natural & organic with my skincare routine, I’ve been wanting to try the same approach with my haircare. Two “objections” prevented me from trying it sooner: 1) the fact that without a ton of certain conditioners, I cannot pull a comb through my hair at all, and 2) the fear of a greasy, smelly head of hair. After some research, I decided to go with the banking soda (BS) & apple cider vinegar (ACV) approach to “washing” my hair. With a week off of work ahead of me, I knew it would be the best time to try this experiment.

The first day, I just put the BS into my hand, wet it, and worked it into my scalp (very messy). I have to admit, “washing” my hair without lather felt very weird, but once I rinsed, it felt clean (if not dry and almost straw-like). For the ACV, I put a couple spoonfuls into a small spray bottle (filled the rest with water) and sprayed it onto my hair. Amazingly, I was able to comb through my hair with ease! Although detangled, my hair did not feel slippery-smooth like it does with conditioner, which was again, weird. I rinsed a final time before stepping out of the shower.

Not wanting to “ruin” my natural/organic challenge on the first day, I didn’t want to use my normal gel to style my hair, but since I hadn’t really thought through the style aspect before I attempted this, I grabbed the closest thing to gel I could find, which was a tube of aloe vera gel for sunburns (without alcohol, dyes, or fragrance). My hair still felt a little straw-like on the ends, so I smoothed on a pea-sized amount of extra virgin coconut oil on my ends to moisturize and to tame frizz.

Over the course of the week, I made a few tweaks to my routine: I’m now putting the BS into a hair dye applicator bottle filled with water for ease of use, and I’ve started putting a couple drops of essential oils into both the BS & ACV mixtures to treat my scalp and to eliminate the vinegar scent. I’ve also bought a bottle of food-grade pure aloe vera gel from a health food store to style with.

Results: My curls are defined, but not crunchy, and my hair is not greasy or weighed-down at all. The part that surprised me the most was how soft my hair is with SO MUCH LESS frizz! In addition, my scalp is slowly starting to heal as well. (The image here is from Day 6 of No ‘Poo.) These results are enough to motivate me to continue my challenge through the week (and beyond!).

Who out there has tried “no ‘poo” and has some tips to share?