I’ll still never forget the time when Jon and I were going to stay in his apartment before going on a trip and we had the following conversation:

Me: “Do you have conditioner in your apartment, or do I need to pack my own?”
Jon: “I know we just got married, and I promise I am not a crazy hippie type, but I don’t wash my hair.”
Me: “Ok, so bring shampoo and conditioner is what you are saying to me.”

So I brought my own and didn’t think about it again.

Until a few weeks later when I stumbled upon a blog post talking about going ‘No ‘Poo’. I then went down the rabbit hole and started googling others that had done the same thing. I became intrigued and decided to go ahead and try it.

Now let me back up a minute. For the past two years or so I’ve only been washing my hair with shampoo every two or three days and supplementing the other days with dry shampoo. My favorite kind of dry shampoo was the Bumble and Bumble aerosol spray from Sephora.

This was my favorite for a few reasons:
1) It came in a travel size, so I could take it on planes.
2) It provided SO much volume! It was like hairspray. Volume and helped hold my curls.
3) Remember when I was a brunette? Well they have a brown colored spray that was PERFECT for covering up my roots!

(Remember these days?)

The downside to so much dry shampoo? I felt like I had to wash my hair twice after I used so much of the spray. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

I’ll admit. I was very skeptical of the whole ‘no ‘poo’ movement. I mean I grew up washing my hair, there are millions of products dedicated to washing hair, and when I don’t wash my hair, it gets oily. But on the other hand, after a few weeks of washing every few days, my hair did adapt and wasn’t as oily, so maybe this wasn’t as crazy as I thought. Either way, I decided to go for it.

The first week wasn’t so bad, nothing a little dry shampoo couldn’t help (no, not the aerosol spray, the powder).

Then I ‘washed’ my hair with baking soda and rinsed with apple cider vinegar. First it is not easy to switch to something like baking soda that doesn’t foam up like ‘normal’ shampoo. I didn’t know if I was doing it right, or what it was supposed to feel like. Same with rinsing with the vinegar. Then I was *convinced* that my hair smelled of vinegar after the shower. Jon reassured me that it was all in my head. Right after using the baking soda/vinegar concoction, my hair was a bit oily at the roots. Google reassured me that this happens because your hair is still trying to correctly balance out the pH.

I am now 4+ weeks into the ‘no ‘poo’ thing, and LOVING my hair! It now has the same volume, naturally, that I had after using a bunch of product. Sometimes I wear my hair curly, and my curls are BETTER than when I used to smother them in mousse and hair spray. I am still working on figuring out what combination of baking soda and vinegar to use, but I will continue to experiment. I’ve also found that it is best (for me) to wash my hair at night and let the oils make their way all the way down my hair before styling the next morning.

Another perk? My showers, when I dont’ wash my hair, are SUPER quick! I use a shower cap to keep my hair nice and dry on those days. My mom bought be a super cute polka dotted one for my birthday last year. I don’t think she realized how much I would be using it!

Want proof? Here I am after ‘washing’ my hair with baking soda and rinsing with vinegar aka 4 weeks after I stopped using normal shampoo:

Here are some resources that helped me while I was trying to make the decision to go No ‘Poo as well as some of the products I use and some hairstyles I am excited to try:

Now, do you think I am crazy? Or are you going to try the No ‘Poo thing with me?