"No Poo" Week 4 Update: Transition Complete but the Experiment Continues

Four weeks in and my hair is normal! Woo hoo I am so happy to have normal hair again!!!!

I have found that the mix I need is much stronger then 1tsp to a 8oz of water, I used about 4 tbsp to 8oz of water.

On a side note, I have made some mistakes this week....

My hair started to feel a little dry at the ends.  I read somewhere that this is a common side effect and adding oil would help, how much and what kind I couldn't remember, but as I stood in the shower washing out the baking soda I saw my bottle of grape seed oil and without thinking it through I poured some on the ends of my hair about up to my shoulders.  

I don't recomend ever doing that, it took 5 days to get the oily smell and look out of my hair! What you are supposed to use is Vitamin E or coconut oil.  Grape seed oil is much to oily. I finally got it out by using a little body wash on the oily spot only hoping it wouldn't negate all the progress I had made. 

My next mistake was trying real shampoo again, after the mess with the oil I thought it might be a good idea to restart the process. Ummmmm I can't even describe what my hair felt like after using the shampoo, it was like it was coated in wax, it felt horrible it was even squeaky!  I quickly re-washed with baking soda and finished my routine.

I now have my hair mostly under control.  I need to work on the dryness, after doing some more research of course :-)

If any of you have given the "no poo" method a try I would love the hear from you!

~Sara

"No Poo" Week 3 Update

Hi there everyone! I am now 3 weeks into my "no poo" trial. For those of you who read my last update, I was pretty discouraged with the results.  My hair was a disaster! It was so nasty that I could not run my fingers through my hair, and if I pressed strands together they would stick like I had glue in my hair.  My head did not itch, and it did not smell greasy. But the only thing I could do with it was keep it up and wear a head band.

Well I did some more reading this past weekend and found that the mix of 1 tsp to 8 oz of water doesn't work for everyone.  Some people mix up paste and find that it works better. When I started this experiment I had read that some people had a hard time getting the baking soda out of their hair once it was washed, so I went with the dilute mixture.  Well 3 weeks in and my hair had not adjusted so it was time for a change.

Today I made a much stronger mixture.  It wasn't a paste, but as I washed my hair I could feel the grit of the baking soda against my scalp.  This time when my hair dried it was soft and fluffy! I also discovered that I did not work the baking soda into the ends of my hair bc when the ends dried they were still sticky.

I can not tell you how relieved I was to have soft hair again!  My plan for the ends is to make the past and get the rest of sticky residue out.  I am hoping that by my week 4 update I will have this all figured out!

This is the top of my head with normal looking hair

 This is the patch (right about my shoulders) that is still sticky

No Poo Shampoo

Awhile back I posted about making laundry soap and body wash.  I then started using dilute apple cider vinegar as a conditioner, which I absolutely LOVE! Well my next big experiment is baking soda shampoo, or "no poo" in the natural living communities.  After reading about it I decided to give it a try.  I knew it would take awhile for my head to adjust to the lack of chemicals but I was confident I could make it through the transition.  Well I'm a week into it and absolutely hate the way my looks.  Its is so nasty/dirty/caked with goo that I have to keep it up and wear a head band.  I posted about it on the natural living community blog I read and the responses were either "I gave up before I made it though the transition" or "stick with it and you will love it." I also learned the transition can take up to a month :-( I thought it was a week.  Well I am determined to stick with it. I wear my hair up most of the time anyway, and the head band keeps my bangs out of my eyes.  So wish me luck and if you use the "no poo" method I would love to hear how you like it.

February New Years Resolution Update

We are more then half way through February so I thought I would do an up date on my resolutions, some of the ones that are going well are...
1. Reach my goal weight (I know it's probably on every ones list): I have been going to the gym at least 5 times a week.  My diet hasn't been the best though so my weight has remained the same.  I can however do more push ups then before :-)
2. Enjoy the time I can spend with my husband: G was at school or in the field for most of the year so far, but we were able to have a really nice Valentine's Day and I am trying to tell him how much love and appreciate him on other days as well.

3. Build an audience for this blog: I have 4 new followers! Thank you guys soooo much for reading :-)
4. Keep my etsy shop going year around: I have updated my etsy shop with spring items! My Etsy Shop
6. Take a medical billing and coding certification program: I decided to go with Child Day Care instead of Billing and Coding.  Child Day Care is something I can do and still be at home with a child when the time comes.
7. Find temporary employment until May: Woo Hoo I did it! I start my new job Thursday :-)
11. Replace commercial cleaners and beauty products with home made or natural ones: I have been working on this one by one.  So far I have made laundry soap, fabric softener, dog shampoo, my shampoo, body wash, and all purpose cleaner.
12. Before buying new, try to up cycle: For the most part I have been doing great at this!  I can not believe how much nice stuff people just give away.  I have gotten clothing and household items from neighbors and little or cost, and those things did not end up in a landfill. The 13th was my birthday though and my parents sent me some money and I invested in some new workout clothes (I did look for some gently used before I bought new but no luck). It was a good birthday!

13. Become a better mountain biker: First off G is rebuilding his old mountain bike for me.  I more advanced bike with be a big step up for me.  And more importantly I have been going to spin class 2 times a week.
Now it's time to work on the rest of the revolutions!

February in our world :-)

Finished Thursday: Body Wash

Well my soap project didn't go as well as I had hoped, it's my fault really I got to cooking away and wasn't paying attention to the directions as well as I should have.  The direction called for a gallon of water and just started with that instead of slowly adding it until I got a consistency that I liked.  My soap ended up much more watery then I would have liked even after waiting 24 hours and then blending it.  Maybe I didn't blend it long enough, but the directions didn't say how long to bend it for.  My soap is usable but I am considering blending it again, or even starting another batch but instead of adding water using this mixture for the liquid.  That may be too much soap though.  This mixture is very soapy and cleans very well.  I plan on making another batch my husband out of his favorite and when I do that I will be careful with how much water I add.

This week has been a long week, lots of hours at work, and I have been sick, none the less I have great new projects for next week!

New Project Monday (On a Tuesday)

Ahhh a whole day late!  Our internet is was down yesterday, at some point it was fixed but I ended up working OT at work last night and have no idea what time that was.  But on to this weeks post :-)

The great body wash experiment... 

Since last weeks laundry soap experiment worked so well I thought I would give body wash a shop.  Ideally I would like to use a bar of organic soap but I can't get it in the small town where I live so I giving it a shot with a regular bar of soap.  Here is the link to the recipe...

http://katiejgibson.blogspot.com/2012/01/frugal-home-series-part-4-homemade.html

Once again my trusty pot and cheese greater, plus soap and glycerin.  

The directions say to let the soap sit for 12 hours so stay tuned for the soapy results on Thursday!

Finished Project Thursday: Laundry Soap

After doing quite a few loads of laundry this week (it never ends around here) I have discovered that this homemade laundry soap works really well, not only that but I think it makes my clothes smell better then the store bought stuff!  I used my husbands favorite bar soap hoping to make the transition as smooth as possible.  The best part, he didn't even notice :-)

The next step is to make it a more natural by using an organic bar of soap, but that will a ways down the road since this made a pretty big batch.  Right now I am happy that it worked!

Next week I am going to tackle body wash!

New Project Monday! DIY Laundry Soap

I don't have a craft project to work on this week, but I do have a cleaning project!

One of my New Years resolutions was to use products that are natural and better for the environment, this was going to be a gradual transition for a couple of reasons one I didn't want to freak out my husband, and two I didn't want to just toss out the products we already had.  This week we ran out of laundry soap so I decided I would give that a try. I found this receipt on Pinterest 

http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html

and today I am giving it a try.

After the soap is made I will do some wash and see how it turn out!