Squeaky Clean?

Well I'm trying the whole "no-poo" thing, as in no off-the-shelf-tongue-twisting-ingredient-filled-shampoo.  Really, it's more of a quasi-poo if you will.  I'm not so sure about the whole just using baking soda bit, but found during my pinterbrowsing this blog and then found this other blog.  I went off of the second blog, mostly because I didn't feel like making my own coconut milk...

In the spirit of Make-Do-March, I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl since I just happened to have all the ingredients (or at least the essentials) in my kitchen.  Here's what I ended up using:

• 1/3 c. Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap (I have the Almond scented)
• 1/4 c. Coconut Milk
  (left over from making pancakes, coconut milk instead of milk milk makes for AWESOME pancakes by the way...)
• A smidge (as in less than the tsp called for) of walnut oil
  (In my mind walnut > olive oil for hair.  I have absolutely no justifiable reason for this hierarchy...)

Just swirled it around in a liquid measuring cup

You end up with about 3/4 c. of the quasi-poo.  Hmm, I don't really like this whole hyphenating with "poo" so I think I'll just call in shampoo...  Supposedly, you should only need about 1 tsp to wash your hair, but seeing as I have twice as much hair as the average person, with it being super long and all, I'm sure I'll need more than that.  :o)

I had some nice glass bottles that appeared to be good possibilities for being the shampoo vessel and would look pretty, but I was cleaning out some jars and bottles and saw this...

I had just finished up a bottle of Sriracha (don't worry, I have two more HUGE bottles of it!), and the squeezability of it just seemed to perfect.  Easy application, less going down the drain because I spilled it all over the place from a cute but less practical glass... So, I threw aesthetics out the door and went with the practical choice.

I just poured the shampoo mix in...

I realize this is a pointless picture in the sense that people know how to pour liquids... but I was impressed with my ability to pour and shoot at once, so I'm posting it gosh darn it.

Easy peasy.

So there you have it.  Natural, made from my kitchen, shampoo.  AND repurposing a Sriracha bottle.  Supposedly this stuff has a shelf life of about a month.  I'm pretty sure I'll have used it all by then.  :o) 

As a daily conditioner kind of person (long hair = frequent opportunity for awesome tangles and crazy static, especially in the winter up here!) I had to figure out what to do post-shampoo.  The answer: Apple Cider Vinegar.  I actually started this before I tried making my own shampoo.

Pretty bottle

All it is about 4-5 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (acv), and tap water (I filled up the old Grolsch bottle with water to the neck, then filled the neck up with the acv.  I'm all about estimation when it comes to measuring spoons).  Again, super easy.  Just pour it and enjoy smelling like vinegar french fries (at least that's what it reminds me of... I LOVE vinegar on crunchy french fries... mmmm...)  So needless to say I'm now craving boardwalk fries when I condition my hair, but I guess that's better than finding the smell totally repulsive.  That's one thing for sure, while the shampoo smells pretty good, the conditioner isn't quite the same nice scent as what you get off the shelf...  Good news though, the smell of vinegar doesn't linger after you rinse your hair!  :o)

Bragg

Side note: I've been using Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar mixed 50/50 with water as a toner of sorts at night.  This acv has supposedly done awesome things for skin, so I figured why not.  If it works, its wayyyy cheaper than buying various facial cleansers and again, I can read the ingredients without sounding like a 1st grader with major decoding issues... :o)


I tried the homemade shampoo with the acv rinse tonight.  I had some pretty grimy running/hat hair for it to tackle, so we'll see how it did.  If it's a disaster tomorrow morning, at least I'll have a chance to fix it with some store bought stuff before I head to work!  Here's hoping it worked!


**Oh, and another side note.  The quinoa, that I don't think I rinsed well enough, Kevin and I had Monday night didn't settle too well with our stomachs.  I felt like I ate balls of lead, not little puffy quinoa...  Anyways, that kind of derailed the whole menu plan for the week.  Only thing I actually did up making from the proposed menu was more bok choy (There is so much left that I swear it seems like the package hasn't even been opened yet...) and the eggplant parm.  I'll post the eggplant parm recipe and pictures later.  Perhaps tomorrow...   Anyways, no surprise here.  I make plans and something throws a wrench in them.  Good thing I'm generally a go with the flow kind of kid! :o)