Day 1: Getting a Head Start

Before I jumped in hair-first (I think that's really funny, can you tell?) I consulted a blog that a friend pointed me toward to get some ideas.  This was when I really decided I was going to do it... because if you check out the most recent photos of this chick's hair it looks really magnificent.  I actually didn't read her whole blog, just flipped through a couple dates on it and looked at a few things she linked to.  But I do want to give her credit since I also am obviously creating a blog as well... gotta give credit where it's due.

So after my decision to go shampoo-less today was my last shampoo, so to speak.  Friday is the last time I truly washed my hair.  Today I washed it with very little shampoo mixed with about a teaspoon of baking soda.  My reasoning for mixing instead of cutting out the shampoo cold-turkey was that on Friday I had used a little bit of product to tame and boost my curls and I wanted to make sure to get that all out... I'm sure it was mostly just me being a little wary of the cleaning power of the baking soda (see below).  I rinsed with a cup of apple cider vinegar mixed with about 1 1/2 cups of water.  The baking soda/shampoo mixture  sudsed up okay so it still felt like I was really washing my hair, and the vinegar stunk (of course) and burned my eyes but my hair felt so soft and tangle-free I was pretty happy.

After my shower I combed it and did a towel-wrap thing that 'plopping,' which I (once again) read about in the blog above.  The method for plopping is described here along with some other really cool resources for curly haired people.   It looked all right, but my curls didn't really stick together.  As my hair dried it looks shiny (not greasy shiny, just light-reflective shiny) and it felt lighter and cleaner.  When I got to work my co-worker said my hair looked great today...

I looked a little more into baking soda and it's uses and found several things that both uplifted and slightly scared me.  It can be used to clean things... for example baking soda can be used in conjunction with apple cider vinegar to... clean your sink drain.  It can also be used on your toothbrush (have you noticed how many toothpastes have the Arm & Hammer symbol??), in the tub for rashes and itching (and on that note I did notice my skin felt silkier, which could be coincidental), and in many other ways.

So far I'm happy.