no poo

Shampoo that is! Last summer a friend of mine told me she stopped washing her hair. Of course this comment immediately made me look at her hair. Well, it looked normal so I was intrigued. She said she was only using baking soda. I filed this away as interesting  but didn't think about doing it myself. But as things often do, this idea brewed in the back of my mind. When I was younger it didn't matter what I used to wash my hair as long as it wasn't done too often or too infrequently. Too much and it made my hair dry and frizzy, too little and it is an oily mess. A washing about every 3 days is just about right. Then one day my head slowly starts itching more and more and I get dry scalp. I tried all the typical shampoos for this and while they sort-of work they mostly don't.
So I figure it won't hurt to try the no-poo method. I get a dollar squirt bottle from walmart and fill it half way with baking soda, fill with some warm water, shake, squirt on my head, rub it in, and rinse well. It turned out fine but didn't help my scalp completely. Then I read about a vinegar rinse and figured I'd try that. After doing a little research I decided to add some fennel too for dry skin. I now steep some fennel in warm raw apple cider vinegar for about 30min then bottle the vinegar in another squeeze bottle. After my "wash" with the baking soda I squeeze the vinegar right on my scalp in the places where I need it the most. It is very refreshing! Then let it sit while I finish washing. I rinse well and voila! My head no longer itches and I have no flakes! I do feel I need to wash it more often but that's ok since it isn't stripping my hair of all it's natural oils so I don't get the dry frizzy hair. I also find that if I do happen to go too long between washes, it's hard for the baking soda to remove all the oil and it takes a couple "washes" to get it back to normal. I also find that a good long rinse is important. Don't worry, the vinegar smell doesn't stay. My hair doesn't really have a scent to it at all.
So, give it a try! It's MUCH cheaper than shampoo and no harmful chemicals. I could even use my shower water as grey water for the yard if I was otherwise able to (it's illegal here!!!).