Learning Curve

In my very first post, I wrote that there would be many trials and errors during my transition to all things crunchy....yep, the first big (ish) error happened and it involved my hair. Well, not really big, just time consuming and slightly annoying. I will stick with big(ish)!

I gave up shampoo and switched to no 'poo 17 days ago ( yes, I've been counting). I thought it would be difficult to lose the squeaky clean feel and lather of conventional shampoo, but surprisingly it wasn't. Until last night.

Let me explain.... I have been trying to transition my hair/ scalp quickly to the no 'poo method by waiting at least five days between washes. I was fully prepared to go out in public with my hair a hot, greasy mess. To my surprise, it looked great for the fist three days, by the fourth day my hair was starting to look a little gross, but by using a natural, boar bristle brush, I was able to blend the oils into the dry ends of my hair. Win. Yesterday was the fifth day and at this point my hair was looking pretty bad. Again, I didn't mind because I expected this to: a. happen much sooner in the week b. it was mainly my roots/bangs c. I was planting my garden and had no plans to leave the house last night. I knew I was going to wash my hair (baking soda/ACV) later that night anyway, so I decided to try something new. I would attempt to deep condition my hair using coconut oil. I rubbed a palmful around in my hands until it melted and  applied it to my hair(avoiding the roots). By the time I finished it looked like I had just gotten out of the shower....but I was still optimistically excited that my new favorite, use it for everything, amazing gift from above, coconut oil would be the cure for my over-damaged hair. I left it in for a few  hours (that should be long enough to soak in and work its magic, right?) and got in the shower thinking, " I really just want to use some shampoo and feel clean!" I resisted the urge and washed using the recipe from my No 'Poo post. It was glorious! I haven't washed my hair for days and now it felt clean! After the final rinse, I got out of the shower and left my hair to air dry. The problem came when it didn't dry. The  coconut oil didn't come out! At this point, my conventional shampoo was calling but I continued to resist because I had come too far to just go back to the cycle of washing my hair everyday. So I came up with a solution....

1. Covered my hair in corn starch and turned on the hair dryer to heat the oil to melting point. The goal was to have the corn starch soak up the oil.
2. Get back in the shower and wash with double the amount of baking soda( 2tbsp./1cup water) and scrub, let sit for a few minutes, and rinse under hot water
3. Spray a mixture of 3tbsp. ACV/1cup/water and let sit for a few minutes, rinse under hot water.
4. Use a towel to dry some water off of your hair.
4. Blow dry

This process  took almost all of the coconut oil out, and I did it without harsh chemicals and stripping my hair! It will be a very, very, very, very, very, long time before I "deep condition" my hair with excessive amounts of coconut oil (or any oil for that matter) again!