No-Poo Do: An Update

It's been a week now since I last used shampoo.

(It feels weird to say that. Like I'm rebelling against something!) This is what one week has gotten me:

Cons:
My hair just feels weird. I can't quite get used to the texture. It's not soft and silky, but not hard and gritty, either. Sunday I worked up quite a sweat, and it felt like I'd doused my hair in aqua net and then jumped in a swimming pool. Ew.

I miss the feel of lathering up shampoo.

I miss the scent of my shampoo. Baking soda and vinegar has no scent whatsoever once it is rinsed out of your hair.

Pros:
My straight, flat, shapeless hair actually has body. Even if I go two days without washing, it still has some life. It's not just my imagination, either - I've had several people comment that it looks fuller.

I can go a full 48 hours without washing and my hair doesn't look like a grease pit. It does start to get a little funky at the end of the second day, but it's nothing that a headband won't fix, and certainly not as bad as it was before.

It's cheap. I mixed up two cups of each a week ago and I still have some left.

Verdict:
I am defnitely going to keep at it. I suspect that I am still in the "breaking-in" phase, and my hair hasn't really adjusted yet. Although my hair looks much fuller, and it's masking to some degree the thinness on top, it's far too early to tell if it will really make a difference in how much hair I have.

Each time I wash it I spend a good 1-2 minutes just massaging my scalp, and I think that helps. Sunday, after I felt like I had helmet head, I wet my hair and just used the apple cider vinegar as a rinse. It felt smoother and softer, but it also was oily by the next morning.

At this point, the pros definitely outweight the cons, for much the same reasons as women wear heels - if it looks good, we are willing to endure a little pain/discomfort/irritation. I'm going to stick with it for a full month and see where I'm at then.