I have been 'off' shampoo and conditioner (in the traditional sense) for almost a month now, and although I'm not jumping up and down about how awesome my hair is, I'm not planning to purchase any shampoo again anytime soon.

My hair is starting to seem less greasy on a regular basis, although it still looks and feels slightly greasier than it used to (immediately after a washing), it lasts for a couple of days as opposed to the less than 18 hours I used to get out of it. 

So, all told, it's not so bad that I want to go back to spending an insane amount of money on products that didn't really work anyway.

Here is what my hair looked like today:

Slightly greasy looking at the front - but not so much that it's obviously grease...

And this looks pretty good - although I've had a bit of an issue with static.  I haven't used any products except occasionally a teeny bit of hairspray to make the little hairs at the top of my forehead stay down.  I should also note that the color in my hair is entirely natural - those are not artificial streaks you see...

Recently a friend (who happens to be in the medical field) downloaded a YouTube video for me to watch called "23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?". 

I recommend it, and found it challenging, but at the same time it made me want to scream in frustration.

I'll explain.  The video is based on the fact that walking daily - even if only for 30 minutes a day - is the single greatest thing we can do for our health.  It details a bunch of studies and statistics about how it decreases various illnesses and as a whole increases a person's lifespan by potentially decades.  The '23 and 1/2 hours' refers to the amount of time you 'can be a couch potato', according to the video, which simply pleads with people to spend at least 30 minutes a day getting exercise.

I understand that 30 minutes a day is a short amount of time - and really shouldn't be a complicated thing to accommodate into my schedule.  My frustration, however, is that it really isn't quite fair to say that for 23 and 1/2 hours we are being 'couch potatoes' (although I'm sure some of us are).

Today I woke up at about 7, fed and changed my one-year-old daughter.  Made breakfast for each of us, and then did a bit of cleaning in the kitchen while my daughter played.  Then we went downstairs while I threw the cloth diapers into the laundry and folded some of my daughter's clean clothes.  After she was done playing, she went down for a nap while I had a bath and did my daily devotional homework. Then she woke up at about 11:30, and was basically ready for lunch, so I got some ready for both of us, and spent some time planning our meals for the week, which involves a bit of researching and checking the freezer and pantry for ingredients.  Then my daughter played again, while I played the piano and folded and put away more laundry. 

At about 2pm, I was about to get both of us ready to go for our daily walk and Celia decided she was ready for another nap... it is now nearly 3 and I have to clean the living room, vaccuum, clean the kitchen and start making supper all before 6pm when I start teaching piano.  I should also mention that living in Saskatchewan in winter, going for a walk involves bundling up quite thoroughly, which can take about 10 minutes all on its own. 

Today is my easy day - most days I start teaching at 2:30 or 3. 

Again, I understand that 30 minutes is not a lot of time, and I should definitely be able to fit it into my schedule - however - it is not always so easy for a stay-at-home Mom to get everything done that I need to - especially one as flighty and unorganized as I am...

For the first couple of days of not using shampoo, my hair looked beautiful - although it still felt greasy - so I was encouraged to continue with the baking soda routine.  After a few days, it began to look greasier - although still not nearly as greasy as it would if I had simply stopped washing my hair.  I had been warned by various blogs that some people experience a sort of 'detox' period, and so after about a week I was far enough into the regime to back out and too stubborn to reconsider.

It has now been two and a half weeks.  I have started to wash my hair less often - once every other day, instead of once a day.  My hair still seems greasy to me, but I discovered that if I rinse my hair while scrubbing (baking soda seems to be hard to completely rinse free) for long enough - it makes a difference.

So, for now I continue because the lack of toxins from commercial shampoos and conditioners is logically the healthier choice for my hair, and although my hair is not (yet?) beautifully clean feeling, I'm still waiting out the detox period and hopefully it will sort itself out.  It is also MUCH cheaper than hunting for an effective product at $8-$15/bottle...

Not that I'm overly excited about this, but my daughter is officially weaned at less than 13 months!

She had gone down to breastfeeding only twice a day - first thing in the morning, and right before bed at night - and she just lost interest.  She would dawdle, twiddle and jabber at me, but she completely stopped drinking... It works out well anyway, since this week I started piano teaching again, so my husband is now officially capable of putting her to bed without my help.

It's a sad thing, though.  So far she's my only child, and I have no guarantee that I'll have more, so it could be a closed chapter.

My baby girl is growing up!

My hair has been dry all day - I even curled it!  My hair didn't stay in curls, which isn't unusual, but I was hoping it would work better...

Although it still feels slightly greasy, it doesn't look greasy at all.  So far so good...

A while back, I was talking to a friend about how annoyingly unmanageable my hair is.  She suggested trying the 'poo free' method of hair cleaning - for those of you who don't know, this involves not using shampoo or conditioner in favour of baking soda and apple cider vinegar, respectively.

Lately I've been trying to cut back my costs around the house, as well as replace as many 'chemicals' in my house as possible with natural ingredients. (It just makes sense to me that we should use as many natural items as possible, since the animals we are are likely not made to use all of the processed junk we do...).  Also, because my hair is ridiculously tangly, I am always using a TON of conditioner, which gets pricy, as well as constantly trying different brands and products to find something that leaves my hair more manageable.  Nothing has worked, so I was quite willing to try anything.

Yesterday was Day 1.  As prescribed by various websites, I mixed 1 Tablespoon of baking soda with 1 cup of water, and used this ratio to fill an empty shampoo bottle.  The same ratio was used to mix Apple Cider Vinegar with water into an empty conditioner bottle.  In the shower, I poured about an eighth of the soda mixture onto my hair, worked in as much as possible, and then rinsed.  My hair felt heavy and a bit greasy.  Then, I poured the same amount of the cider mixture onto my hair, worked it in as much as possible, and then rinsed.  The vinegar smell is a bit strong for a minute, but it goes away as soon as it is rinsed out.

Typically, after one missed shower, my hair is noticeably greasy.  I have even tried in the past to simply rinse my hair with water if no shampooing product was available, and I have walked out of the shower with greasy hair.  Simply put - my hair needed shampoo!

Yesterday, however, my hair looked great.  It felt a little bit heavy, and 'sticky', but it looked light and airy and very not-greasy.

Today is Day 2.  I washed my hair the same way as yesterday - I forgot until after I rinsed that most websites suggested only rinsing with cider vinegar every 3 or 4 days, so I'll skip that step tomorrow... So far my hair is still wet and in a towel, but I'll keep you posted.