I'm starting to read up on cleansing conditioners like WEN and Hair One. As far as I can tell, the idea is to to mostly condition and to cleanse just enough to keep you from getting greasy...but not stripping away too much natural oil.  Check out this post from Katie at Blush & Lace.

http://blushandlace.com/2012/12/06/make-your-own-wen-style-cleansing-conditioner-or-buy-the-drugstore-dupe/

She even makes her own cleansing conditioner with mostly conditioner and just a touch of shampoo!

Loving all of the personal experiments with these products.
Here's a stylists review of WEN after trying it herself.

http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/2013/04/wen-my-experience-and-thoughts.html

And one comparing Hair One to WEN.

http://relaxedhairhealth.blogspot.com/2011/06/hair-one-vs-wen-battle-of-all-battles.html

I decided to try the make your own cleansing conditioner idea.  I used a dime sized amount of shampoo and a silver dollar sized amount of conditioner, mixed them together in my hand.

I wet my hair and massaged it in...there was no lather.  Then I let it sit on my hair for the rest of my shower and then rinsed it out.  Here is the result:

I'm pretty happy with it....though I'm noticing since I haven't been skipping a day washing, I'm getting more flyaways.  I need to go back to washing every other day...and mix it up a little, between, baking soda, cleansing conditioner, and diluted shampoo.

Addict

I have been craving shampoo.  I wake up thinking about shampooing my hair. I'm fantasizing about having my hair washed by someone else at a salon. When I go into Walmart or Target, I go down the shampoo aisle and smell all of the different shampoo 'flavors.'  I'm not gonna lie, I miss shampoo.

So today, I woke up feeling an oily, itchy mess, I felt like a greaseball. My hair was so dirty on 'no wash' day that I had no choice but to slick it back in a ponytail when I went to work.  And so, my friend shampoo and I had a visit.  I only had a couple tablespoons of baking soda wash in the no-poo bottle, so I squeezed a half teaspoon of amazing smelling shampoo into the no-poo bottle, and filled the bottle with hot water and shook it up.

I figured, if I use very little and dilute it, hopefully it won't have such a harsh detergent effect. Just a little taste couldn't hurt, right? The result, clean, manageable, really ridiculously good smelling hair. I have to say I feel pretty for the first time in several weeks. Now, whether that feeling is directly related to shampoo, or some other contributing factor, I'm not sure.  But I'm thinking that both baking soda wash and shampoo-lite have a place in my life.  Balance.

I gathered up all of my bottles of  hair stuff that were in and around the tub so I won't be tempted to shampoo while in the shower....I placed them under the sink.

There are so many of them,  I don't even know what to do with them.  I started comparing the ingredients to the ingredients listed on my body wash and they are almost identical...so maybe I should use them as body wash/shave gel? I guess it's that or throw them away.  But...if the chemicals are too harsh for my scalp..then aren't the chemicals too harsh for the rest of my body??

Speaking of bottles of lotions and potions, I'm suddenly very aware of all of the bottles on my counter, bathroom cupboard, and a big blue plastic bin. Hmmm.  Someone once said to me, "Oh wow, your bathroom is full of girl stuff." I'm seeing it now.  He was right.  How on earth do women acquire so many bottles of soap, cleanser, salt scrubs, sugar scrubs, toner, moisturizer, body spray, lotion, body butter, etc?

This is out of control.  Something must be done.  I wold like to try to use up a few things at a time and toss the bottles.  I feel bad just tossing it all in the trash, even though I don't use half of it. There may be some spring cleaning in my future.

Third Baking Soda Wash

No wash Friday

Second Baking Soda Wash

Did my second wash with baking soda, followed by vinegar rinse.  I have to say, I like what I see.  My stick straight hair looks like it has developed a slight wave.  I think I should be in a Pantene ad (except for the fact I'm not using shampoo).

Not washing my hair today.  I'm pleased that I still look pretty presentable.

Note: I have noticed that my ears and forehead are super oily today. Guess it's not just my scalp that's adjusting to not having a daily visit with shampoo.

First Baking Soda Wash

Well, I woke up this morning and ran my fingers through my hair.  It felt soft and healthy, but I felt like a grease ball. I tied it back, put a stocking cap on and went out to shovel snow.

Came back inside, and it was time to try the baking soda wash for the first time.
I combed my hair and used the squeeze bottle to distribute the soda solution through my dry hair along my roots (I used about 1/4 cup of the solution). I massaged it into my scalp with my fingertips and used a wide tooth comb to comb it through my hair.  I let it sit while I brushed my teeth and hopped in the shower.  I massaged my scalp a little more, rinsed, combed, rinsed and combed again.

Then it was time for the vinegar rinse.  I squirted it down the length of my hair and the ends (I used about 1/4 cup of the rinse solution).  At this point, I was thinking I smelled a little bit like a salad. I let it sit in my hair while I finished my shower.  Then it was time to comb, rinse, comb and rinse again.

I let it air dry.  I always let my hair air dry except on special occasions, like for weddings or a special date. This is the result:

It's soft and clean.  It feels like it has a little texture, or is maybe a little thicker than normal.  Usually my hair is fine and limp and has a million flyaway/baby hairs. All I've done to it today is let it dry, flip it upside down a few times, and brushed through it once.  I'm still amazed that baking soda cleaned my hair so well. I'm also happy to report that I don't smell like a salad in the slightest  :)  Very promising. I'll be keeping this up.  Stay tuned.

I've been doing some research on no-poo and shampHree.  Lots of good sites out there.
I think one of the best is How to Hair Girl. Roxie Hunt blogs about all things hair, but has great posts and videos about going shampoo free. I have to give her props. Everyone thinking of getting rid of shampoo should all go check out howtohairgirl.com

A lot of the articles I've been reading talk about how back in the day, women had beautiful hair, because....they only washed it once a week, and they didn't use harsh chemicals that stripped the oil from their hair, and they brushed their hair 100 strokes a day. My mom would sit my sister and I down before bed every single night and brush, brush, brush our hair.  I had amazing healthy hair as a kid; it went to my waist.  Guess I should start brush, brush, brushing again.

 In her blog, Roxie talks about how Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about using baking soda and vinegar on her hair.  So it seems this really isn't a new trend. It's actually getting back to basics.

I'm going to no-poo in the morning.  I've mixed up my little bottles. The small bottle has about a tablespoon of baking soda with a half cup of water in it.  The larger bottle has two tablespoons of white vinegar and two cups of water in it. Wish me luck!

Several friends of mine have inspired me to go no poo.  Basically, you ditch shampoo, and either use nothing, or you use a baking soda wash and vinegar rinse you make yourself. I've done lots of googling and while there are lots of blogs on the subject and on people's experiences, I only found one 'photo diary.' There is a transition period where your hair will look stringy/greasy/awful, but it seems no one (except one person) is willing to document their awkward hair days to let newbies know what to realistically expect.  This transition period can last a couple weeks to a couple months.  My plan (feeling brave at the moment) is to document my no poo experiment, including the bad hair days that are sure to come, hopefully followed by the good hair days to come. I last washed my hair with traditional store bought shampoo on Sunday February 16th. This morning I did not wash my hair, and this is what it looks like...