Not Pictured

No, I am not about to reveal the identity of the guilty party in a season-long murder mystery arc. On the other hand, I haven't procured a pH test kit to photograph (or use), yet, so it must be guilty of something...

Not the correct way to pose for a mugshot.

I may have thrown us off-track a bit by blithely declaring, "Oh, any pet store that carries aquarium stuff will have a pH testing kit for sale!" Now, this is not untrue. However, contrary to my bleary memories of childhood fish tank maintenance, the pH kits sold in pet stores provide color guides that typically fall between 6–8 pH only, since it's not likely that your aquarium water is any closer to acidic than that without you actively dumping acids in among the poor little fishies. Also, since pH level is just one of many potential concerns when trying to help your aquarium thrive, the test kits I found were all bundled with a slew of other water testing purposes, driving up the cost of the kit past the point I was willing to spend to do a one-time test of my current BS and ACV mixes. Hello, selective stinginess, my old friend.

That said, as Jenn and I are finding online, MANY before us have done the legwork of testing their mixes and documenting their results, so...I'll continue to be lazy for at least a bit more. In any case, over the past few weeks, Friday morning has been my cave-in-and-wash-with-naturoo day, the day I sort of get fed up with the oily feel of my hair and/or the paranoia actually sets in. This past Friday, though, I had been binge-reading anti-baking soda no-poo blog posts, had not managed to acquire a pH test to determine how potentially damaging my own mixes might be, and also had not managed to find time to seek out rye flour to attempt a rye flour-based shampoo. What's a girl to do?

So, I opted to be daring, did my usual water-only rinse, and swept in to work with my hair down, air-drying on the subway, with only a slight care in the world. No one sat me down to ask me if there was a reason I was neglecting personal hygiene, so I'm guessing it looked completely normal. Phew! And, as it turns out, I think that was kind of the break I needed. I'd been locking myself in to the idea that I couldn't possibly last more than a week, when the truth is, I could probably go for longer. I should at least try, right?

Not bad for 3 hours of sweating while walking around in the sun.

Yes, my hair feels oily to the touch, but only at the very back of my head and, honestly, not as oily as it did say the first week of this whole enterprise. And yes, you can see some separation of locks happening, but I can live with that. (Oh the benefits of doing this with long hair.) Today, I let it air dry in the sun as I traipsed around Brooklyn, and it felt completely normal in the breeze. What's more, as far as I can tell, no one has noticed a difference! Either that or they're all being fake nice to my face. Speaking of which, quick shout-out to my fellow Bella Voce Singers for a lovely concert last weekend, and for—at the very least—being bemused by this blog. I DO hope (and believe) that I can slot you all into the former option, not the latter :)

What's Next?

So with a vacation looming, I think I'm going to hold off on ending this current water-only phase until just before I fly out OR my hair achieves previously unseen levels of oiliness (whichever occurs first). I'm sufficiently scared by all of the BS-is-bad-for-your-hair chatter to avoid a return to that method (though I WILL, I swear, test what's left of my mix...at some point. That said, I did manage, in all my errands today, to acquire some rye flour, courtesy of Whole Foods.

Not just for baking, apparently, though baking will also happen.

I also picked up some Shea Moisture Yucca & Baobab Thickening Shampoo as a low-poo option, if and when I'm ready to go that route. I'm bringing this with me on my trip, in case I need something more than a WO wash but without requiring that I find either BS or rye flour and ACV while on a cruise ship. (Though that would be an amusing request for shipboard services, I'm sure. "Um, could I ask your kitchen staff for a favor?") 

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial (sulfate-inclusive) shampoo: 22

# of days since last BS+ACV wash: 8

Significant Other Check (immediately after WO rinse): "There's a slight smell, but it's barely noticeable. It's not pleasant or unpleasant, it just smells like wet hair."

Partner in Crime Check: "Have I mentioned that my level of jealous increases every time we talk about this?"

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 2/10

Put It to the Test!

I love these guys. Also, they're totally on the right track. When in doubt or when curious about something, put it to the test!

Over the past week or so, Jenn and I have been alternately terrifying ourselves and soothing ourselves by continuing to seek out and read others' recaps of their experiences with going no poo/shamphree (depending on which term you like best), including those who have, per the title of this post, put this method to the test. The biggest scare? The chemistry of what we're doing.

Baking soda is an alkaline substance, which makes it great as a cleaning agent. Apple cider vinegar is an acidic substance, which no-pooers use to neutralize the baking soda and return your hair to a good balance. Here's the thing, though—when they say that baking soda is alkaline, they mean REALLY alkaline.

Here's one of the best blog posts I've found that actually walks through the pH ups and downs of the BS/ACV technique, the not-at-all-scary-sounding Baking Soda Destroyed My Hair. (Seriously, go read this.) Basically (hehe), the sebum coating on human hair has a natural pH of somewhere between 4 and 5 (slightly acidic). This protective coating keeps your hair healthy and shiny. ACV has a pH of 2–3 (very acidic) or 3–4 when diluted, which makes it great at neutralizing a highly alkaline solution. An alkaline wash like baking soda cleans your hair by opening up the cuticles on your hair and an acidic rinse like apple cider vinegar closes them back up. Simple. Here's the thing, though—that opening up of hair cuticles that baking soda does? That's exactly what you do to your hair when you get it dyed—opening up the cuticles allows the dye to soak into your hair, resulting in longer-lasting color. And what happens when you dye your hair frequently (say once a month)?

Yep, exactly.

Now imagine doing that to your hair once a week. Oh, dear.

What this means for me, I have yet to determine. Jenn is trying some alternatives right now (but I'll leave it to her to update us all), and we've both been eyeing interesting posts about the benefits of rye flour. In the meantime—again, back to the theme—I still plan to test the pH of my own solutions. I wonder where they'll land... I, meanwhile, am bound for a 10-day vacation in a week, so I need to figure out a travel solution soon, if only because I don't really care to carry baking soda and apple cider vinegar with me (the logistics of the vacation make it somewhat impractical to mix on the go). Perhaps a low-poo for travel?

That said, I feel like my goal is clearer now: Reduce dependency on any kind of shampoo (no-poo alternative, low-poo, or other) to about once per month. I'm tracking at about a week's worth of water-only rinses right now before I'm fed up with oiliness, so I'd definitely like to extend that.

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 20

# of days since last naturoo (BS + ACV): 6

Significant Other Check: "No, it doesn't look oily, just unkempt." (In response to my request for a check shortly after waking up.)

Public Perception Paranoia Check: 3/10

Has YOUR Hair Ever Been Perpendicular to Your Face?

Last Saturday I washed with Baking Soda and rinsed with Vinegar.
On Tuesday I rinsed.
On Wednesday. I played softball. Here's what that looked like:

I'll confess to not always wanting hair
that defied gravity

I'll remind everyone that it was like 91 last Wednesday. And no, thanks for asking, but we tied. There was no way in hell that rinse was going to last that long. As it was, my hair was a greasy mess. But why wash it that morning when I knew I was going to have to wash it after softball? 

I walked into the shower, and my tube had the same issue that Edwina's tube had. It was crusty (and not in a...wait...crusty is never sexy). I added water to it. Shook it like it owed me money (cause, honestly, that GoToob was NOT cheap!), and squeezed some out. It seemed a little thick, so I added a bit of shower water to it before massaging it onto my scalp. Finished with the vinegar rinse. Huzzah!

NO. There was no "huzzah" to be had. The first real time I massaged my scalp with the baking soda mixture it felt great, soft, blowing. Wonderful. This time? Straw. If I were a mule I'd eat my own hair it was that dry. I was dejected.

The fault of the internet is the lack of
impact on senses outside of sight. 

Trust me, that's me looking dejected with straw like hair.

I was rather worried about what the baking soda was doing to the color I put on my hair (yes, I know...let me remove some chemicals from my scalp, but keep others on my hair...I know it's non-sensical, but this whole naturoo thing to me is out of vanity anyway so there!). Enter fabulous hairdresser (I'm calling her Faha from now on so I don't have to type out "fabulous hairdresser" each time) . I called to make an appointment to get my roots dyed. I warned her that I've "been doing that natural shampoo thing."
"Oh, ok," she said in a quite non-judgmental tone. "What does your hair feel like?"
"Well, greasy," I admitted, "and today it feels like straw too."
She went on to say that she hasn't had many clients that continue with it after they start trying it, and she usually tries to dissuade folks from it, but that we'd talk about it at my appointment on Saturday.

Saturday rolled around. My hair was only just starting to feel almost like hair again, but it was still straw like, and tangled. Faha lifted strands. "I don't like this," she said.
I sighed. Honestly, I don't like it either. I'm giving it the good ol' college try. If it doesn't work itself out in two months, I'll have to figure something else out. I also told her I thought I was done with the baking soda regiment due to what it's done this time. "You could try using just conditioner," she said, giving me an out. I told her I'd think about it after this trial period ends if it's unsuccessful. She did say "You know, they used to use baking soda in the 20s and 30s," I nodded, she kept on, "and there's a reason they invented shampoo."

This is the part where I'm torn between whether that reason was cleanliness, softness, and body, or if it was the commercialism that my skeptical self suspects.

She lathered the dye on my short tresses. She read her magazine, and I sat there knitting. She moved me to the sink, let it sit on the ends for a bit, and then rinsed the dye off, and washed using only conditioner.

Cheating has never ever in a million eons felt as good. The color, the color is beautiful. The movement, it swings. She rolled the edges under. It had a sheen (that was NOT grease!). It was light and fluffy and wonderful. This was "huzzah" worthy!

If you could feel the silky softness,
this photo would mean a LOT more.

And honestly, I have to say, that was saturday and it's almost Tuesday and it still looks pretty good. Granted, it's only two days, and that makes sense, but still.

Anyway, I do mean it. I'm done with the baking soda. Next up will be a honey and aloe gel mix from Code Red Hat. I picked up some aloe gel from Whole Foods (nothing like a trip to the aloe area of Whole Foods to make you realize how much you're NOT a hippie!) and I apparently have a honey hookup from Bee Raw and am super psyched to use this very tasty honey (I might have opened it today to taste it before using it in naturoo...). So that'll probably happen on Thursday morning after Wednesday's softball game. Stay tuned!

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 19 (the conditioning at the salon doesn't count, right? It wasn't really shampoo...)

# of days since last naturoo: 4

Masseuse Check: It looks really good, Jenn!

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 3/10

Steady as She Goes...

I've now done my second naturoo, with some slight tweaks, and only very subtle changes taking place, so far. Per Signficant Other, my hair's been a little flatter lately, but per Judgmental Coworker, my hair has looked basically the same throughout this whole process. (Sorry, Jenn.)

Here I am one day pre-naturoo, second time around:

Second verse, same as the first.

As with the same time last week, my hair was fine up until this day, when it just felt very greasy to the touch. It's hard to tell there, but even when up in a ponytail, there was obvious separation of strands happening all over, so it was almost definitely time. I say almost because, well, I may have been hankering to naturoo again so I could play around with the mixes, rather than actually needing a naturoo at that point. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Getting Better, or Getting Resigned?

On this point, I've got far less to be negative about than my partner in crime. While she's been going through some very obvious and significant transition, I'm either proving to be a late bloomer or a quick adapter. Compared to last week, my hair followed basically the same track: steadily getting oilier but not terribly noticeable until 6th day post-shampoo/naturoo, then fluffy and more voluminous immediately post-naturoo. One possible change is that while there was a very noticeable and unpleasant waxy feeling to my hair during water-only rinses (which transferred its waxiness to the palms of my hands), I didn't notice waxiness nearly as much these past few days. Of course, it's not like I've been carefully measuring waxy buildup, so I may just be getting used to that feeling. Still, I remain hopeful that it is actually decreasing, meaning that my hair is actually experiencing a transition of some sort.

One day post-naturoo. Also, zero days post-trim.

That said, other than the obvious oily buildup after about a week, I can't say that my hair has gotten any better or worse, so far. I did venture out for a trim, armed with the knowledge that hair dressers on the web have alternately sworn not noticing a difference with no-shampoo hair or absolutely hating how it feels when they handle it. I go fairly infrequently to a little salon in Chinatown staffed entirely by Cantonese-speakers with very little English (and I understand maybe 10 words in Cantonese), so if Mae did have a problem with how my hair felt, I have absolutely no idea. Oh well. Onwards!

Totally Unscientific Measurements

Oh, I nearly forgot! I adjusted my mixes a bit, partly based on some conversations with Jenn and how she's been altering her mixes—we really need to post one of our chats, soon—and partly out of an urge to just modify something to see if it had an effect of any kind.

With that in mind, when I went to do my naturoo this week, I found, to my dismay, that the little squeeze bottles Jenn and I got are definitely not well sealed. A crust of baking soda had extruded itself around the edges of the cap, leaving only a little water and undissolved baking soda inside. Not to be deterred, I shook up what was left in the bottle to use as normal, but ran out about halfway across my scalp. Doh! Pre-coffee me can be extremely lazy, so instead of getting out and measuring out exact new proportions for a refill, I just added water to the nearly empty bottle. An experimental squeeze proved that whatever was left in there still had that slippery feel, so I figured it was fine. Yep, that's what I used to naturoo.

On the vinegar rinse side, last week's scent nearly bowled me over. Though I initially complained bout the vinegar smell (which, by the way, I could smell coming out of my pores when I sweated for a day or so after), I think the real culprit was the rosemary oil—clearly too overpowering a smell for my delicate sensibilities. I also noticed that when I picked up my vinegar rinse spray bottle, a slimy looking skin had formed on the surface of the mixture—the oil, separated out, perhaps? In keeping with my totally unscientific approach, I fished that skin out and discarded it (gross), added 4 more drops of lemon oil (the scent I really wanted), and added a random amount of water to dilute my mix from 50/50 to...something less concentrated. Gave it a shake and then sprayed away!

Was this better? Worse? My answer so far: About the same, but lemon-scented vinegar was WAY better than rosemary-scented vinegar. Let's see if this naturoo's effects last the same length of time. In any case, I'll probably be a little more measured next time, because, you know, for (hair) science!

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 15

# of days since last naturoo: 1

Judgmental Coworker Check: "Your hair STILL looks completely normal."

Significant Other Check: "Honestly, it's been a little flat, but it looks fine."

Hairdresser Mae Check: [something I didn't understand—I'm terrible]

Public Perception Paranoia Check: 1/10

I Rinsed

I could feel the grease in my fingers. I could feel the fluffy part in the back go slick with grease. I wasn't optimistic. So I used the apple cider vinegar rinse by itself. Hoping against hope that the acid could cut through the grease better than water alone. Thinking: "We shall see...the day is early still." 

I'm not like Edwina. When I smell vinegar I think of fall. I see red leaves on the ground and apple crisps in a recycled cardboard plate. It reminds me of the first time I went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival. Stopping at a booth of wool yarn rich in lanolin and warm despite its scratchiness. I remember picking up a brightly colored skein, bringing it to my nose and inhaling it deeply. Smells of hay, sheep, oily shears and vinegar swarming my brain. The rush of supporting the farm by buying a skein (or 2, or a whole sweater's worth, why not come out and say it?) and knitting with a yarn steeped in color, locked in with vinegar is what I think of when I smell vinegar. I have actually found myself knitting more these past two weeks than in previous months. Perhaps some subliminal motivation? At any rate, I don't mind smelling like vinegar and besides, I just assume that others can't smell my hair anyway. 

The lesson of the day is to keep a boar bristle brush at work so I can brush my hair there when I get in, after my hair dries so I'm less self conscious about the greasy separation. After I got in tonight, here's the result:

Looks smooth, doesn't it?

It still feels soft under all the grease, which I'm interpreting to mean that it's clean. I was pretty surprised by that, I must say, but there you have it. Plan is to wash again tomorrow night when I get home from softball.  

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 13

# of days since last naturoo: 4

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 7/10

Dyer Consequences

Wednesday I washed my hair with the new, more potent formula. I really dug in and scrubbed my scalp more than I had on Tuesday. Really laid into it. Results were actually pretty great.

Day of second naturoo experience, everything is groovy!

There was a breeze. My hair moved. It moved! It was fine and felt just like it had been washed with traditional shampoo! We have a winner!

But (there's always a "but," isn't there?)...

Further research is leading me to worry about the effects of the baking soda on the dye I use in my hair. To the point where there has been a nightmare where my hair dresser refuses to dye my hair because she heard I'd been using the baking soda mixture. A friend who goes to the same hairdresser I do was telling me the hairdresser told her that dye doesn't take well to hair that's been washed with baking soda and vinegar. Panic has ensued. I looked into alternatives like Dr. Brommer's Castille Soap, and found a comment by the makers that it's not good for dyed hair. I looked at honey washes, but found that not everyone finds that actually cleanses hair. I've looked at coffee grinds, and might try that next.

The thing I'm finding the hardest about this whole experience is that it's all based on others' experience. There really does seem to be a lack of science and professionals weighing in. That creates a dearth of hard and fast rules of what you should and shouldn't do, and I rather like rules. They help make it so I don't have to think ALL the time, just some of the time. I did, however, find a page on the blog: How To Hair Girl that seems to be an experiment of how the baking soda solution works on dyed hair. I'm taking solace in that experiment for now. The goal is to wash the hair only once a week, so minimizing the baking soda will be good in the long run for my scalp and my dye. I hope that it's just an issue of getting through the transition phase unscathed.

So I repeated Wednesday's process on Saturday, since I had a family event to go to. Similar results. Softness, but stopping short of the volume I've read others experiencing elsewhere. That was the last time I washed, and today we're getting back to greaseville.

There's a bit of separation going on...

I'm not feeling too too bad about this, but I doubt it's going to make it until Saturday. You can't see here, but the roots are really growing out, so that means making an appointment with my hairdresser for more dye. I'm hoping to be able to see her on Saturday, when I'll pepper her with questions about this natural thing, and see if she has any pro tips/tricks to share. Since I don't want to wash right before I see her, if I can hold out until Wednesday to wash again, I think that might work for everyone involved...

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 12

# of days since last naturoo: 3

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 5/10

It's So Fluffy!

So I have now used the naturoo and the results are FLUFFY.

Learning a bit from Jenn's experience, I emptied out my little 2 oz. bottle of (very weak) baking soda mix and started from scratch. In went about 2 tsp. of baking soda and enough water to almost fill the squeeze bottle (with just enough room to shake it well). The result is definitely not as gooey as what Jenn has settled on, but also stronger than what we had initially. I also added 4 drops each of rosemary oil and lemon oil to my apple cider vinegar mix (which was a 1:1 ratio in a spray bottle).

Washing with the BS mix was definitely strange—because I'd opted for a very watery mix, I had to be really careful about squirting it out in small amounts and immediately scrubbing it into my roots with my free hand. I worked it all along the front of my scalp, then my natural part going back over my head, and finally under at the nape of my neck. I could feel it cutting through the accumulated oil as I went, but I'm not sure I ever got the "slippery" feeling other blogs have mentioned. That said, it is SO weird not to feel it lather. Then, a really good rinse of water, making sure to get my hair and scalp soaked through and through.

And on to the ACV rinse! At first spray, I was sure I'd made a mistake. I have a shower with high glass walls, so the vinegar smell was almost overwhelming, but I soldiered on for (hair) science! From what I've read, you're supposed to focus on getting it into the tips of your hair, rather than your roots. That said, the acidity of the ACV is supposed to balance out the alkalinity of the BS mix, so I just sprayed it all over, taking care to lift sections of hair and spray them on both sides before using both hands to rub it in. Again, rinsed really thoroughly.

Salad, Anyone?

And OMG I smelled like vinegar and rosemary. So basically, a salad I'd made the other day. Especially while I was toweling dry—with my hair all around my face, I didn't care if it felt clean or less tangled because there was a cloud of rosemary vinegar scent around my head. ACK. There wasn't much I could do about it though without being late for work, so I just went through the usual motions: towel dry, detangle with comb, brush with boar bristles, air dry. As far as I could tell, I still had a salad dressing miasma wafting around me, so I was not looking forward to facing the world, though Significant Other took several deep sniffs, even pressing his face right into the back of my head, and declared that it was barely noticeable unless he really "dug for the smell." Hmph, liar. (Also, sweetheart.)

I was sure, getting onto the subway, that I'd get wrinkled noses and disapproving glances, but...I didn't. And, to my surprise, as my hair air-dried (which it did a lot faster than it had during my water-only days), I noticed the smell less and less. By the time I got to work, my hair was almost completely dry and the smell was noticeable to me only when I ran my fingers through the still damp sections at the back of my head.

And it was CLEAN. No more waxy feeling on my hands. The dry sections already felt light again, as they used to feel after a commercial shampoo. And, well, see for yourself:

See? Just like a unicorn.

Now, that photo is actually taken the next day, after a water-only rinse, but the results are the same as the day of my first naturoo: light, fluffy, slightly wavy, clean hair with zero smell (though I got a waft of rosemary when my hair was wet again). There's been no noticeable oil build-up since yesterday, so it still feels great. And, as Significant Other pointed out, it's got some more volume than it did during the past week. Hurrah! I'm ready for another week :)

Bring it.

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 8

# of days since last naturoo: 1

Significant Other Check: "You look great!"

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 9/10 yesterday, 1/10 today

On the 6th Day, I Contemplated Shampoo

SIX DAYS. I'll be honest—there was point before we started this when I didn't think I'd last two days without shampooing my hair. And here I am, rock you like a hurricane. No, wait, took the wrong path there with my brain.

Silky-looking business in front...

As you can see, my hair is still looking pretty normal, if a little lighter than usual. (That has nothing to do with forgoing shampoo—when the sun starts to appear with more regularity, my normally dark hair goes for a reverse tan. Also, invest in a good camera, trust me. No, iPhones do not count.) I've been extremely lucky not to experience the overly-greased, heavy flatness that I hear can happen here. Nope, my hair is still moving with the wind (sorry, Jenn) and is, if anything, showing less of a tendency to tangle at the nape of my neck.

...noticeably oily party in the back!

That said, it definitely FEELS oily to touch. When wet—I rinse it with water daily—it feels oddly waxy, and that waxy feeling transfers to my hands, which is a little unpleasant. I can definitely feel that oil transfer when I touch my dried hair, too. And, while I haven't been checking the back of my head every day, I finally got around to snapping a pic of it again and the hair back there is definitely separating out into oily locks, which does not look so good on (mostly) straight hair. (Aside: Hi, waviness, since when did you extend that far up?)

Anyway, this has been a fun week of going from paranoid to not, but I'm probably just about due for my first date with naturoo (h/t: Jenn). Stay tuned!

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 6

Significant Other Check: [hits snooze and snuggles closer]

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 2/10

And, as a bonus:

1 Naturoo

I did it. I washed with natural shampoo. It felt like washing with water even though I knew there was baking soda in it. I'm strange, and actually like the smell of vinegar (it reminds me of newly dyed/washed skeins of yarn!), so I was never worried about the smell. What I worried about was how that naturoo was going to get rid of all that grease. It worked. Sort of.

(L) back of hair is still greasy
(T) but look at the soft hair by the nape of my neck!
(B) still pretty greasy, though

This morning in the shower got weird. I'm so used to commercial shampoo that when I squirted the bottle of our Naturoo and realized it was mostly water, I got confused. To my credit, I was still under-caffeinated. Where is the lovely goopy consistency I know and love? How do I handle this? Well, I decided to handle it by squirting the tube right into my hair near the scalp. I tried to rub it around, but there's only so much rubbing around of water you can do before you start to feel useless. I sprayed the vinegar solution on my short tresses. Rinsed and toweled off.

My normal routine is to comb my hair with a wide toothed comb and get on with my life. It takes my hair about a half a day to dry, and like I say on the sidebar, I like to minimize the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning, so there's no blow drying when it's this warm out. Not until noon did I finally get what's going on with my hair. When I left this morning, I still felt grease and was not optimistic about this day. However, around noon, pulling my fingers through my hair, rubbing the nape of my neck I was surprised. What's this? Is it soft? It feels clean! I got it clean, it just doesn't look clean! GAH!

It's the worst nightmare, right? Being something, but coming off to others as something else.

I had to switch to Naturoo to wash my hair every day. Even with commercial shampoo I was only washing it every other day. While one wash of commercial shampoo could just whisk away all this grease, I'm not giving up that easy. A change is in order.

So, our original recipe, which you may remember from yesterday's post, was 1 tablespoon of baking soda for 1 cup of water. In the post-mortem research of today's wash, I found a blog called "The Hairpin"(now on the sidebar because it's one of my new favorite informative blogs on the subject) where the woman used a 1:1 ratio of baking soda to water. When I came home tonight, I took out my GoToob and mixed a concoction of equal parts baking soda and water. With the grease the way it is, there's no way I could handle work and a professional function after work without washing my hair, so we'll give that a go tomorrow.

Hopefully the magic potion.

You can tell the new recipe has a much more milky appearance. If this doesn't work (but if the Care Bears exist it will surely work!) my next step is to find an air tight container I can put some baking soda in to take out in clumps while I'm in the shower. I have also heard of this working, and clearly it's the most drastic case.

Hypothesis # 2

I'll bet that we started this recipe backwards. I think that our sebum creating scalps are in party mode right now like highschoolers when their parents aren't home and we probably need a higher concentration of baking soda to start with. Once our scalps get used to the fact that we're expecting them to do their own thing they won't want to party anymore and will settle down to watch some Game of Thrones with a friend and a beer. Accordingly, we'll need less of the baking soda to tame them. 

Jenn's Current Status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 6

# of days since last naturoo: 0

Concerned Coworker Check: "It looks great! It doesn't look wet anymore!" (never has such a ringing endorsement been doled out so cheerily)

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 7/10

UPDATED: The Halfway Point

UPDATED: I lost the ability to count and originally reported this halfway point as 3 days in, when in fact I was 4 days in. Hurrah!

Well here I am, 4 days in, and I feel...fine.

As taken by Judgmental Coworker (again, a loving moniker).

Hey, I DO have white hairs!

I've definitely noticed that my hair feels heavier and slightly oily to the touch when I run my fingers through it, but so far, it's passed the Significant Other, Bemused Colleague, and Judgmental Coworker (that's actually not a knock against her; we revel in our shared judgment) Tests. (I'd say that it's also passed the Skeptical Friend Test, but I haven't actually seen her yet...) Which leads me to...

Hypothesis #1

When we started, Judgmental Coworker pointed out that we should try to have hypotheses we would test out during this experiment—hello, scientific method! Well, one such hypothesis incorporated the assumption that based on the differences in our hair—Jenn's is short and thick, mine is long and and less dense—that Jenn would have an easier time transitioning than I would. That said, we also need to keep in mind that I am running about 2 days behind Jenn, so I should really be comparing myself to her 2 days ago.

So far, I've been rinsing every morning with warm water, making sure to massage my scalp with my fingertips and rubbing the full length of my hair under the shower spray to rinse off as much daily crud as possible. This was especially important yesterday after walking more than 17,000 steps (per my fitness tracker—yes, I'm one of those people) and sweating like a very nervous, not particularly suave bandit. After showering, I towel my hair dry and let it sit wrapped in a towel to catch more moisture for a few minutes, then detangle with a large-toothed comb. One it's a little drier, I brush it all out, both topside and underside with a natural boar bristle brush. Then it's air dry from there during my morning commute. 

After all that, I feel like my hair doesn't look very different from a typical shampoo day, and I haven't noticed any itch in my scalp, either. So here's a thought, which will either be born out or proven wrong as this experiment continues. Instead of the length of my hair being a detriment, I think it's actually giving me a greater surface area over which to distribute the oil building up at my roots. Maybe?

Let's see where I'm at when I hit day 5!

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 4

Significant Other Check: "Looks fine to me."

Judgmental Coworker Check: "Your hair looks surprisingly normal!"

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 2/10

It Might Just Be That Time

Huzzah for that weekend, there. I'm hoping that it helped get a lot of oil out of my system (I know the road is longer still). I think starting this project in the middle of the week was great as it allowed a lot of greaseballness to happen this weekend.

The downside of short hair is that I can't just put it in a bun.

But yeah. That's gross. I'm trying my best to pull a 90s slick hair style with it behind my ears. Sorta like Trinity from The Matrix:

Almost, right?

They wouldn't have had shampoo on the Nebuchadnezzar, right? I did tell my husband I wanted to be like Trinity. I think this might be as close as I can get as I'm 90% sure my leather catsuit wearing days have ended.

No one at work has said anything yet, but really, why would they? They're nice people and nice people keep their judgments to themselves. I have a dinner tonight with former colleagues. At least two of which check my facebook so they might know why my hair looks like crap.

So let's see what happens tomorrow morning when I wash with the naturoo (that's what I'm calling natural shampoo since I'm too lazy to continually write baking soda & Apple Cider Vinegar and "bs" means something else in my world.). I can remember only once when I was looking forward to a shower this much. The day I returned to civilization after being at Burning Man for a week.

Jenn's Current Status

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 5

Significant Other Check: not available - thank god we're on opposite schedules

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 8/10 I'm getting through it by sheer determination...

The Secret Formula

It's really not so secret. We've been scrubbing blog after blog to figure out what the exact proportions of baking soda or apple cider vinegar to water are. What did we find? It depends.

It sounds like it all boils down to this: for the baking soda shampoo replacement, add baking soda to water, mix well, use. If you're not happy with the results, add more baking soda or add more water and try again. General rule of thumb, based on our extensive research, is that if you are seeing a lot of oil in your hair post-wash, add more baking soda, and if your hair is drying out, dilute it.

Mixing the Magic Stuff

Being utter novices at this, we're going to start with the absolute basics. 

First step: How much baking soda to how much water? At this point, we looked things up and discovered that a lot of folks start with a mix of 2 Tbsp. baking soda to 1 cup of water. Luckily, we bought squeeze bottles that hold 2 fluid oz. Doh. Not to worry—we do ok with math. (Jenn: Well...one of us does.) And, of course, a handy bottle of tea tree oil to add to each washing. As many others have pointed out, tea tree oil is a great natural way to treat various scalp issues, including dryness (which might crop up while we figure out the right baking soda mix) and dandruff.

Step 2: This was a lot easier to figure out. Most everyone we checked with recommended a simple solution of 1 part apple cider vinegar to 1 part water.

So, our list of equipment and ingredients:

The stuff that makes the stuff.

• For the "shampoo":
• 2 fl. oz. GoToob squeeze bottles
• 1 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1 cup of water*
• teat tree oil (add couple of drops each time you use the shampoo)
• For the conditioner:
• 8 fl. oz. spray bottles
• 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water

* For the Record: We used lukewarm water, which required a bit of elbow grease to get the baking soda to dissolve. We might use warm or hot water next time to speed it up. (Edwina: It was totally fine!)

And we're ready to get started! Next step, hold out without using any shampoo or conditioner for as along as we can (up to a week), then use these mixes for the first time. Fingers crossed!

Will it work? Stay tuned!

Next time on 2 Girls, No Shampoo: Who will break first?! Place your bets.

PS: While writing this, I also stumbled onto a post on Refinery29, "The Great No-Shampoo Experiment." Interesting to see others' experiences with going no-shampoo!

Edited to add:

Jenn had to change the formula a bit to get a result that worked for her. Here's her first change to the formula: 1 Naturoo
She also re-found a blog we both found inspiring called The Hairpin. She even added it to the sidebar for easy access!

It Itches

I was debating whether I wanted to wear a shower cap, or if I wanted to rinse my hair while doing this experiment. I opted to rinse it, hoping it'd feel better. It's pretty greasy. It's separating from itself. I bought a boar brush in the hopes that it would help smooth the grease around, and maybe it would help scratch my scalp (did I mention that it's insanely itchy?). I thought it did a little of the former, even if it didn't scratch my scalp at all. Then I looked at the before and after shots. 

Can you tell the difference? Because I certainly can't.

My hair is slightly smoother, but not noticeably so. However, it felt smoother and it felt like it looked better, so I'm going to just go with it and ignore the fact that it's just a placebo for now. 

Pro tip: If you're going to do this, do not cut your fingernails right afterward. They will never alleviate the itch as well as longer ones, a comb, or a backscratcher. I'm hesitant to put more oil on my hair when it's this greasy, but I really hope that tea tree oil helps this itch, or this is going to be a really short experiment!

Jenn's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 3 
Significant Other Check: Said he'll check for smell while cuddling before bed. Strangely not interested in cuddling until it's time to sleep... 
Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 5/10, It feels kinda gross, and my niece definitely noticed, but I think I can pull it off...no one at the comic book store or Best Buy said anything about it...but then...

To 'Poo, or Not to 'Poo

I tried to resist using that post title, I really did. But a story about Hamlet was playing on the radio and I found myself facing a true dilemma—the first of many to come, I'm sure, as Jenn and I embark on this shampoo-less journey. It was a crisis of conscience, a choice of dire proportions, a decision to eclipse all decisions! Well. Ok, so maybe not quite so dramatic. 

The heart of the matter is this: Today is the first day of my commitment to a no-shampoo life, and I was good and virtuous and had a great workout at the gym. A great, energizing, sweaty workout. Crud. 

Now, as I've divined from a close reading of others' experiences, the rule of thumb to help your scalp acclimate as quickly as possible is to hold out without using any form of shampoo for about a full week. After that, you should try to use the baking soda shampoo maybe 1–2x a week, or when your hair gets sweaty. Lo and behold, here I am exactly one day out from the last time I used shampoo, and I've got sweat-soaked hair.

After several agonizing minutes of debating my next steps and practicing decision avoidance by feeding the cat, putting away dishes, hanging up clothing, and even (yes, it's true) checking to see if anyone had actually stopped in to read the one post we have up on this blog, I really couldn't hold off any longer. 

Have no fear, friends, I did not give in to temptation. Freshly showered with (exceptionally, terrifically, stupendously) well-rinsed hair, I'm ready to see if a shampoo-less post-gym shower works. Thank goodness it's a weekend and I can blame any poor results on apartment-cleaning efforts!

Look, it's a weekend.

Edwina's current status:

# of days since last commercial shampoo: 1

Significant Other Check: "Do whatever you need to do, sweetheart."

Public Perception Paranoia Scale: 7/10, "So glad it's not a workday!"

Welcome to our experiment!

I'm Jenn, and this is Edwina.

Jenn (L) & Edwina (R). There may be a quiz later...

We've heard so much about this no shampoo movement that we're curious. Now, curiosity killed the cat, and we happen to like cats, so we figured that trying it out ourselves would be the most humane thing to do. We thought we'd describe our experience here, mostly for ourselves, but if others can learn something from us, all the better!

One of the cats we saved by choosing to satisfy our own curiosity.

As we're curious beings, we have questions. And as slightly scientific beings, we have metrics as to what our current status of hair care is to compare against in a couple of months. Let's dive in, shall we?

Edwina's current status:

No fuss, all muss.

How often do you wash it?

Every morning (or midday, on lazy, sleep-in weekends). For the past 2 weeks, though, in prep for this experiment, I've switched to using shampoo and conditioner every other day at most, and rinsing with water only on off-days.

Which hair products do you use?

Garnier Fructis Volume Extend Shampoo and Conditioner

What is your hair porosity?

Low, according to the "float hair in a bowl of water" test found here

Describe the consistency of your hair.

I currently sport a head of fine, mostly straight dark brown hair that is about 22" long. I used to get a body wave done every year or so—never quite got over my childhood envy of non-Asian friends with curly hair—but haven't done it in about 18 months. That said, my hair definitely has the tiniest bit of a wave to it, and is not just stick-straight.

Is your hair oily?

Not really

Jenn's current status:

Work it, girlfriend.

How often do you wash it?

Every other day and after my hair gets sweaty

Which hair products do you use?

Herbal Essences Color Protect Shampoo and Conditioner; some sort of concoction of organic hair dye my hairdresser uses; occasionally: sea salt spray, Moroccan oil

What is your hair porosity?

My hair holds onto water better than a ShamWow!

Describe the consistency of your hair.

It's fine and straight, but gets wavy when it's longer. The back grows MUCH faster than the front does.

Is your hair oily?

Not generally

Questions we're hoping can be answered in the process...

• How will it affect my hair dye?
• Will my hair get thicker?
• Will I magically attain full volume hair? (Still chasing this dream, as evidenced by Edwina's choice of hair products.)
• Will my hair get wavy?
• Will my natural hair color change at all?
• Will my scalp get less itchy?
• Will I shed less?
• Whose hair will take to it more quickly?

Still with us?

To sum up: we're curious. Hopefully, you're curious. Check back in—we'll have plenty to say once we get this experiment rolling!