No-Poo, Episode 1: Hair Rinse

Back in the day I heard about using apple cider vinegar for shiny, healthy hair, and being a stupid kid with scraggly short hair, longing for victoria secret model waves from the confines of my angsty pimpley teenage life, I went ahead and just straight-up dumped pure apple cider vinegar I found at 7-11 on my head.

So obviously it didn't do anything beneficial, my mom yelled at me for staining the tub, and I abandoned the idea until I grew a brain and read about it a few months ago. After thoroughly researching and reading testimonials of the trusty women on my favorite organic hair care subreddit, and from a recomendation from a specific user, I decided to make a 2 week long challenge out of it, much like my honey challenge.

ACV has tons of uses, skin, hair, externally, internally, so while I can't show you with photos how it aids in my digestive process (and I think I should limit poop talk to about once every 6 months or so) I can give you photo evidence of what it does to my hair and skin.
This week I will be trying two things: Apple Cider Vinegar After Shower Skin Toner, and Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse for after shampoo.

What the hell is NoPoo and why would people want to not poop?
"Going NoPoo" refers to stopping the use of shampoo and conditioner, and rarely washing your hair at all. The concept derives from the notion that washing your hair often dries out the scalp and hair by stripping it of it's natural oils, thus making it compensate by overproducing oil, creating greasy hair and causing you to wash more. By going NoPoo the idea is to 'train' the scalp to revert back to its natural order of cleaning itself with the natural oils it produces, at a normal rate, so that you no longer have to use shampoo and your hair adjusts to being cleaned by it's own natural oils. It takes a long-ass time to adjust and many women say that it's a grease-fest for months before it adjusts. There is also the idea of "LowPoo", using organic shampoos that do not contain sulfate or parabens like most shampoos that we use, and our scalps are used to.

 I've been eyeing the NoPoo (no shampoo, no conditioner) method for a few weeks now, and it's been recommended that before going NoPoo to slowly ween off washing your hair and introduce ACV, which is a popular method of cleaning hair instead of using shampoo and conditioner. The last 6 months I have been washing my hair every other day, because I have an overly greasy scalp and dry ends. I often go longer than that on weekends and holidays from work. My issue is that while my hair might look okay when not washed, it feels like I've dipped my head in wax and drives me crazy.
The funny thing about wax-head though, is that it's safe to say that it correlates to my shampoo use, in a horrible vicious greasy cycle.

Now I will document my experiences last night with this ACV Hair Rinse Recipe.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar per cup (200 ml for my metric pals)
Handful of rosemary
2 tsp green tea
Mint Leaves

The ACV is necessary, the herbs are not, but have read that rosemary is very good for hair, also it smells rad. it is VERY important that you use organic, unfiltered, ACV. Heinz apple vinegar is not going to do anything for you hair.

 This time around I gave myself a well rehearsed pep talk.

"It isn't guaranteed to work for everyone.
Every woman has a different type of hair.
It will not burn your hair off.
This isn't 2003, you're not an idiot anymore."

The tea i used is a mix between green and black, green tea is great for hair growth and black tea is apparently great for brunettes. Awesome, cause I didn't have any pure green tea, just my Arabian Night.

First bring the water to a boil, I used 4 cups and 4 Tbsp of ACV, Then add the herbs. Turn the heat off, cover and steep for 15-30 minutes. Strain the herbs out and either put it in a container or spray bottle.

Two days of unwashed goodness. You can either spray the mixture on your hair after shampooing or pour it. I poured the mixture on mine, and next time I'll try spraying. First I dipped the ends of my hair into the container and then poured, to be sure I got it all. Then, massage into the scalp. The directions for the rinse I found said I could either rinse it out with cool water or leave it in for "deeper conditioner", aw hell, I'll leave it in.

Dry hair before rinse.

Dry Hair after rinse

and different light that makes my color look weird.

When my hair was drying I panicked, because it was the first time in ages I didn't put smoothing cream or oil in it before I let it air dry, but it soon calmed down. Next time I will try spraying and adding some coconut oil to the ends to give it a little more moisture. I'm a bit skeptical though, while my hair looks shiny and nice, it feels rougher than usual, but I will attribute that to it being the first time I've used it and my being used to drugstore products. I was also worried it might effect my color, which it did not, in fact, it made it a little richer, especially in the back.

For more info on ACV Rinses, mosey on over here: http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/idascorner/shampvinegar.aspx