haircare

since i don’t think i’ll be making hair products any time soon, i wanted to at least share why/how you can do it on your own/how easy it is!

so first the why. most people are used to some kind of liquidy-moisturey-pourey type substance for both shampoo and conditioner. the only way to make that is to use some kind of saponified oil. and the only way to make that is with soap-making ingredients, like lye. ever seen fight club? ya that can actually happen. i have no desire to 1. burn my hands or face off or 2. buy goggles and gloves for myself and the kitty who is always nearby watching me make stuff. (though that would be adorable.) i also am not interested in buying oils that have already been saponified for me because then i think in some way i’m compromising the integrity of my products. everything else is made from the simplest most straight-forward ingredients. i actually start from scratch. once i use soap, it’s a slippery slope (get it?) with compromising other ingredients in the future. make sense?

so since i decided that was out of the question i’ve done mounds of research on other methods. turns out the best came-straight-from-your-kitchen ingredients for hair washing really are amazing, but i’m pretty sure no one would buy them because ideally you would have a conditioning cream, a scrub, and then a cleansing rinse. without combining all of these steps, in my experience you end up with a hot mess (of hair). but who wants to spend this long cleaning their hair every time they shower? i mean my sister showers once every two weeks, so that would be fine. but you non-hippies out there would get really frustrated.

plus don’t lie, i know you’re all ridiculously addicted to your cucumbery/lemony/lavendery/rosey/appley/fragrancey shampoos and conditioners. i for sure know that you’re not going to just throw them out. especially because let’s face it, those chemicals make hair ACTUALLY feel like silk. (just so you know, that’s not how it’s SUPPOSED to look.) but since we’re all psycho zombies now, here are recipes for a way to clean your hair of the gunk that’s in it. just use them once in a while, once a week at the most.

conditioner

coconut oil: wet your hair some or leave dry and smother it in coconut oil. this should be done BEFORE showering, and can be left in your hair for up to an hour or even overnight. (based on how much unknotting you need to do.) works best if brushed through hair. you can totally skip this if your hair is super fine (as in thin, and SEXY.) or really short. we condition TOO often and i have been told that hair can be “over-conditioned”. you really don’t need to do this more than once a month. follow with scrub or this shit will never come out.

scrub

baking soda plus whatever essential oils you have handy: mix in just a few drops of essential oil and enough water to make a paste. scrub the shit out of your scalp with this mixture, the more the better. this is tough if you have really long hair that gets in the way, it can take a lot of scrubbing. it’s worth it i promise. and it’s only once in a while. like a bikini wax, but not painful. rinse out.

cleansing rinse

most definitely the most important part. you can skip everything else and just do this if you’re lazier than me even. just dilute about 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar with lots of COOL water (it works better i have no idea why shhh.) and pour into your hair, making sure it covers all tresses. you can leave this in (the stink will evaporate with the liquid) or rinse out if you can’t stand the smell for more than a second (like yours truly).

your shower will smell like a tropical salad. your hair will look awesome. you will have saved like $.20 and an extra wash with your pantene-herbal-fructis. oh and of course LESS CHEMICALS.

give me a shout out if you have any questions, and if you have any more information on this please share! also if you’ve tried this and want to let us know what your experience was like, i’d love that too. i’m always looking for new input and tips about all-natural skincare!