Poo-Free (Belated) Week 4 Update/Challenge Conclusion

So, not only is this week's update almost a week late, but it is also half-assed.  My hair has been so normal that I didn't keep close tabs on my washing schedule or my day to day thoughts on its results.  How about we skip week 4's day by day, play by play and move straight into the results of the entire 30 day challenge, shall we?




Formulation as of today:
1 TB baking soda to 1 cup water
1/4 of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water (no rinsing!) 


Before Pictures:

Please excuse the horrible picture of me.  It just proves how adamant I am about showing how horrific my hair is from all angles.  Recall that these pictures were taken in NJ after I shampooed, conditioned, and then let my hair dry down without any styling products.

After:

For those who have followed the entire process you know that it hasn't been easy.  The results weren't tolerable until halfway through the third week.  I had difficulty with application, formulation, and the resulting flakes and grease.  After finishing out the entire 30 days I have come to following conclusions:

• This is not a miracle cure for bad hair.  If you have crappy textured hair and dandruff you are going to finish off the challenge with the same problems.
• Figuring out how to properly apply is frustrating.  I went through numerous different types of applicator bottles (all re-purposed from my kitchen) and have settled on an old dish soap container for shampoo, and a large plastic honey container with a pointed nozzle on the end for conditioner.
• Formulating shampoo and conditioner is a pain in the butt.  I eventually realized that using larger containers in the shower required less refilling and subsequently less mixing.  Of course you should only go that route once you've figured out what proportions work for you.  That being said, once I became sold on the process I filled gallon sized containers with my shampoo and conditioner mixtures so I refill my shower stash with the those every week or so.
• Not being able to use curl products or any store bought styling products at all is annoying.  My hair holds its curl pretty well as you can see in the after photographs but I would really like to be able to put something in it if I ever decide to wear it straight without having to worry about the struggle of washing it out.
• When I wear my hair curly I can't brush it.  Since I can't brush it, I can't distribute the oils from root to end.  This makes my scalp itchy and greasy after just a day or two. Annoying, but no worse then it use to be with store bought.
• I just did some research into adding tea tree oil into the shampoo and found this persons experience with the use of it in her own poo-free challenge.  I am most certainly going to run out and by tea tree oil.  My scalp has been flaking and itchy through the whole process and I am TIRED of it!  Figuring out the proportions of tea tree oil is going to be another fun challenge all on its own!

Until I just posted the before and after pictures and saw them side by side I thought the results are pretty much the same as store bought shampoo/conditioner.  I have reevaluated that stance.  Not only is my hair less poofy and frizzy but it isn't a battle to tame it. Add that to the fact that there are no harmful chemicals or ridiculous price tags and I'm sold!  I'm on the bandwagon for the long haul.  It's more work then buying ready made stuff at the store but it's worth it.  I am still fairly self conscious about the salad dressing smell the vinegar leaves on my hair (since I don't rinse it out) but I intend on figuring out a way of adding a pleasant scent to the mixture without effecting its conditioning properties.  I'm sure I will be posting periodic updates as I play around with the tea tree oil and other essential oils for masking the vinegar smell.

Sooooo.... Don't be a weenie; give it a try! What's 30 days in the span of a lifetime? A blink! You can do it! I know you can!