The No Poo Experiment

Shampoo, that is. I've been reading a bunch of stuff about never using shampoo and am ready to take the leap. If I let my hair air dry, it immediately frizzes and is not really wavy but not really straight, either. I'm curious to see if this method will cause it to lose the frizz and actually wave or even curl. Basically, the concept is that shampoo strips your hair of its natural oil, causing it to over produce to compensate, which is why most of us shampoo everyday or every other day. Then, most conditioners contain some kind of silicone, or "cones", which coat your hair and give it a fake shine and softness. By cutting them out and allowing your scalp to regulate the oil production, you end up with healthy, shiny, silky hair. We'll see.

Now just because I'm not using shampoo, it doesn't mean that I'm not washing my hair. I started this morning using a baking soda and lemon juice wash. I'm not sure why the baking soda is safe, meaning it doesn't strip your hair, but apparently, it doesn't. So that should've gotten rid of all the build up from the cones. I just mixed about a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup with water and dumped it on my hair. Then I massaged it all around and scrubbed my scalp good. After rinsing that out, I poured a bit of lemon juice in the cup and added water. I did the same thing with that. Some people use apple cider vinegar, but since I hate the smell of vinegar and didn't want to keep getting whiffs of it throughout the day, I thought lemon juice would be my best choice. Now if I would've remembered to get some cone-free conditioner yesterday, I would've used that last.

My results for today? It was a little more tangled than normal while combing it out, but I think the conditioner would've helped that. Overall, it doesn't feel much different than it did yesterday when I used the cone shampoo and conditioner and I'm getting that frizz as it air dries. That was pretty much to be expected. I was a little nervous about not shampooing since I ran this morning and got pretty sweaty, but it feels clean.

I won't be doing the baking soda wash everyday, mostly just when I feel like it needs an extra cleaning. Tomorrow, I'll just use the cone-free conditioner to wash with (co-wash). Some people experience a transition period where their hair is adjusting the oil level needed, so I'm hoping that doesn't happen to me! My timing isn't great since we are going to Texas on Friday, but I couldn't wait to get started and see how my hair responds. I may be sporting a lot of pony tails until it gets itself worked out.

In other news, London had a endoscopy done, where they stuck a camera down her throat and all the way into her intestines, and it all looked normal. She also had an upper GI, where she swallows some barium and they watch it go down on an x-ray, and everything looked normal there, too. There is one more swallowing test that we can do, but I don't think I want to subject her to more tests. She is gaining weight and growing, so I'm crossing my fingers that she'll just outgrow it. I have also been taking her to the chiropractor to get adjusted. He told me something to the effect that the are a whole bunch of nerves at the base of the skull that have to do with swallowing and spit-up, so he's been working there. She wanted to eat almost every hour and a half yesterday, so maybe something is working.