No shampoo (week 7)

[mistress_elaine]

At the end of last week, I found myself complaining about the way my hair looked after water-only washes. It looked fine after bicarbonate rinses, but far less so after water-only washes. Well, guess what? All that changed in Week 7, during which I finally seemed to put my horrific adjustment phase behind me. With the exception of an ill-advised

Comments

[gkingsley]

Yay! So glad to hear things are improving for you.

If you're interested in reddening your hair, have you looked into henna? I've become a henna convert. It's good for your hair, it thickens fine hair just enough to be noticable, and the color is spectacular.

If you're interested, let me know and I'll give you all the information I've amassed from my own research.

[mistress_elaine]

Thank you! As you'd expect, I'm quite happy with the way things are going at the moment. I suspect it won't be long now before I can go completely water only. Yay

[supercarrot]

it washes out wonderfully with just a little bit of brushing under the water and some ACV. (in fact it washes out better than back when i was using shampoo) but make sure you have a designated hair towel, because there will be color leakage for the next 2 or 3 washes.

but i have thick hair, so i can brush it while it's wet and not have a problem. i've heard it's not that great for thin haireds.

anyway, most of it comes out without brushing if you want to allow it to dry before brushing.
(check out the henna tag)

[mistress_elaine]

ACV, eh? That'll be interesting. So far my experiences with vinegar have been quite bad, but I'll give it a shot. I'm sure a very little bit of vinegar won't hurt...

My hair doesn't really seem to mind being brushed when it's wet, despite it being thin and fine. I actually have to brush it while it's still wet, or it will be hard to style once it's dry -- even more so on no poo than before.

Anyhow, thanks for all the advice, as usual! :-)

[gkingsley]

I was originally concerned about no-poo and getting the henna out of my hair. However, I discovered that if I fill my tub with water, and hang my head over the side, swishing my hair through the water, most of the henna comes out with no problem. Then I get in the shower, and rinse completely. Sometimes I use BS to finish getting the henna out, but sometimes WO does the trick.

I always do a test strand, and I always henna within a day or two of clarifying my hair. That's probably left-over paranoia from when I used to dye my hair with commercial products.

If you're really worried about having too much orange in your hair, you could always add a bit of indigo to the mix.

[mistress_elaine]

The tub thing sounds useful. Of course, I don't actually have a bath tub at my place (just a crappy old shower), but I'll try using my rather large kitchen sink instead. I'll see how far I get with water only; if that doesn't work, I'll try either baking soda or vinegar. Doesn't sound too complicated...

I've never heard of indigo being used in hair dyes, but it makes a certain amount of sense. If the shop where I buy my henna stocks stocks indigo (which I'm not sure it does), I'll try some. Thanks for the tip!

[plymouth]

If they don't stock it you can buy it from Henna for Hair. In fact you can even buy a sample for just a buck: http://www.hennaforhair.com/samples/index.html

[mistress_elaine]

Sadly, Henna for Hair's one-buck deal doesn't apply to non-US residents, and their overseas shipping fees are rather ridiculous. Thanks, though -- I definitely got some useful ideas from the site!