I haven't washed my hair with shampoo for 6 weeks

Yup. You read that right.

I haven't washed my hair with shampoo for over 6 weeks.

And those of you who have seen me on a regular basis can vouch that my hair is not greasy or dirty or smelly or gross in any way. Why? Because your hair doesn't actually need shampoo.

Let me back up. This started right before my Daniel fast, which was near the beginning of February. When I mentioned that I was going to do the fast, my friend Kyle asked if I was going to be not shampooing my hair for the duration of the fast. I sort of laughed it off, and made a comment about how my hair wouldn't be very happy if I did that. But he was actually kind of serious and told me that I should research it, and I figured, Hey, the guy's in pharmacy school, he was a chemistry major, he probably knows what he's talking about. Turns out he really did.

I started looking online, and found out there is this whole "go green" movement that involves not shampooing or conditioning your hair. It's called "going poo-less" (I know, hilarious). This lady's blog post was the most helpful one that I found: How to wash your hair without shampoo. She also gives a pretty good explanation as to why it's actually better for your hair in the long run. Basically, your scalp naturally produces oils that help keep your hair strong and healthy. Shampoo strips that oil off your hair and tries to do the work instead, so your scalp produces extra oil to replace what's been stripped by the shampoo. It does clean your hair, but it cleans it too well, and your hair gets confused. Then when you don't shampoo your hair for a few days, your scalp goes overboard producing oil, and so your hair looks greasy. The more you shampoo your hair, the more often you have to shampoo your hair.

Per her suggestions, I started washing my hair with a solution of one tablespoon of baking soda for every 8 oz of water. As a conditioner, I use a solution of one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar for every 8 oz of water. Initially, I used the solutions every day. After about a month, I started using it three or four times a week. It's amazing how well it actually works. My hair doesn't come out smelling like vinegar. I had a transition of about a week and a half where my hair was slightly more greasy than usual, but nothing crazy or out of control. My hair is still soft and silky (in fact, I think I've gotten more compliments in the last month and a half about how soft my hair is than I have in awhile). And the best benefit of all: It effectively gets paint out of my hair on the first try. Seriously, I used to have paint in my hair for months at a time because regular shampoo couldn't get it out.

It's definitely something worth trying, especially if you want to save money on shampoo and conditioner, which can be ridiculously expensive... this method is dirt cheap! Especially if you just steal baking soda and vinegar from your mom's kitchen cupboard. :) But even if not, baking soda and vinegar aren't THAT expensive. And since I'm diluting it with water, I only use a few tablespoons of each in a week's time.

Now if only I could find a way to do this and still get my hair to smell like shampoo... because I really just liked the smell of my shampoo. My hair doesn't smell bad now, it just doesn't really have a smell at all. And I kind of miss the Dove shampoo smell.