The Natural Shampoo Experiment

As most of you know, I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. A lot of time. There are a ton of "natural/homemade" versions of everyday products on there, and since I am a BIG fan of saving money, I've been spending most of that pinning time looking at all of these natural recipes.
Then I found this. I have to admit that I was really tempted by the whole no shampoo thing- it's easy, it's cheap, and it's supposed to work.

Why are all these people not using shampoo, you ask?

Well, according to Simple Mom, the stuff in shampoo is bad. Not evil-bad, but not really good- bad. You know that oiliness you get after a day or two after washing? It's natural. And good. And the reason it drives us all crazy is that there is a lot of it. Apparently that oil is good for your hair and shampoo's (and conditioners) form a sort of protective layer over your scalp, preventing the oil from being released. So once that layer has started to come off, your scalp dumps a ton of oil to make up for what it thinks your hair is missing. Or something like that.
Going natural (in Simple Mom's case- just using some baking soda once a week) is supposed to fix that, resulting in nice hair without having to actually 'wash" it often.

I have no idea how accurate that information is, but she has been doing it for over two years now and swears that her hair is better than it was before. That I like. But there is a major ick factor for me, so I decided to go a different route. Why did I tell you about the no-shampoo thing if I wasn't planning on doing it? Because the whole oil thing can still be taken care of in a less icky way- by going "natural."

So here's my recipe:
1/4 cup castile soap ( I am a big fan of Dr. Bronner's, especially the lavender one, which is the one I used- you can find it in health food stores like Sunflower and Whole Foods)
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. sunflower oil (supposed to be carried in major grocery stores, but the only place I could find it was Sunflower...go figure.)

I just poured it into an empty shampoo bottle and used a few "handfuls"- it's watery, so it's easier to just pour some on your head.

I finished it up with a few squirts of a mixture of half apple-cider vinegar and water. (It smells terrible, but the smell goes away once you rinse.)

My thoughts: the shampoo feels strange. I'm used to the creaminess of regular shampoos, so putting what is essentially soap on my hair is weird. But it smells great! The vinegar, as previously stated, smells awful. But, it actually feels just like conditioner and detangles immediately.

So there is supposed to be an "adjustment" period- where your scalp is supposed to get used to being able to release oil without a barrier. Which means a few weeks of oily hair. I think. I'm not looking forward to that, but maybe it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully I will stick with it long enough to find out. And if , for some reason, this shampoo doesn't work for me, I will probably invest in this line. It's expensive, but amazing.


Oh and if you're wondering, the creepy neighbor is avoiding me now. I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. And I'm pretty OK with it.