Why I Haven't Shampooed My Hair in 8 Months

It's not as gross as it sounds.  If you know me in real life, you know that for years I have suffered with a skin allergy that turns my forehead a bright, scaly red. It has to do with my messed up auto-immune system and by the way, I also have a serious dandruff issue.   In the past 10 years, I've made many visits to the dermatologist and paid hundreds of dollars for special shampoos, ointments, etc.  It all helps a little but my best results so far had been a lessening of symptoms.  I tried changing my diet, sleeping more, exercising more or less, washing my face more, you name it, I've tried it.

Early in the year I was going through a particularly bad season of "the mark" but was having really good results with my home-made skin cream.  I started wondering what people washed their hair with in the old days.  It turns out they used baking soda.  Since my allergy was already so bad, I figured I didn't have much to lose.  I read a couple of articles to get the solution right, started using baking soda to wash my hair and vinegar in the rinse and I've never looked back.

Not only is my allergy the best it's ever been, sometimes it completely goes away for weeks on end.  Not only that, it is 10 times easier than shampooing.  In case you, like me, are turning into some version of pioneer/hippy and want to try it for yourself, here's the scoop.

Dilute 1 Tblsp of Baking Soda in 1 Cup Warm Water ( I double it in a big cup)

Dump the whole works on your dry head and gently massage your scalp.  If you let it sit two or three minutes it works better.

Rinse.

Dilute 2 tsps. of apple cider vinegar in 1 cup warm water. (For dark hair.  For light hair, see note* below)

Dump it on.
Rinse.  You can also put it in a spray bottle and spritz it on but then, obviously, you don't rinse so the smell hangs on a bit longer.

You're done.  It's quicker than shampooing and since you can buy the ingredients any where, no need to pack it when you travel.  I keep the baking soda in a travel container in my "to go" makeup bag.  It doesn't hurt your eyes so I use it on the kids too. Of course it's also really inexpensive

You can skip the vinegar but it does lay the cuticle down nicely.  My hair and scalp have never felt better . . . and I do smell a bit like a salad at times.

A few reminders:  Don't use white vinegar, it's too harsh.  Always dilute the vinegar in water; it's too strong alone.  Don't mix the baking soda solution and the vinegar solution or you just wind up with salt water.

*For light hair, use lemon juice instead of vinegar.

My hair has never looked better but you'll have to take my word for it because pictures of me are few and far between and I couldn't find one except from my recent trip in which it was coated with hair spray!  So sorry about the hair spray but I had flown until midnight and gotten up early!  So here I am with my friend Lea-Ann