Wednesday, May 6, 2009

THRIFT + STYLE: The Hair Experiment

So, I've always had problems with a dry scalp and, consequently, dry hair. Over the years, I've gotten more gray hair, continually colored or highlighted it, and have watched it change from thick and curly to course and wiry from pregnancy to pregnancy. Like most ladies, I've experimented with a variety of shampoos and conditioning treatments, from cheap drugstore brands to expensive ones from salons. They all work for a bit, but always seem to have some unlikeable side effect like making my hair feel sticky or oily or stripping my expensive highlight job. About nine months ago, in a postpartum dry scalp funk, I started to do some more online research about natural remedies and came across a magical recipe starring these two simple household ingredients:

Oh wonder of wonders! Two things that we have always had in our pantry have changed my world. I first read about this solution here and immediately gave it a shot, altering the amounts for my short hair. I use two reusable plastic breastmilk bottles that came with my pump that I never used to mix 1 tablespoon baking soda with 4 oz of water. I pour it over my hair in the shower once or twice a week (there has been lots of research done about only washing your a few times a week), paying careful attention to rubbing it into my scalp. I leave it on for a few minutes, rinse, and create another mixture with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar mixed with 4 oz of water, pour that on my head, and rinse. I was reluctant to believe that my head wouldn't smell like Easter eggs once I got out of the shower but Evany was right. It really does smell like I've been swimming in a mountain lake. And my hair feels noticeably soft and clean and shiny. I was admittedly sceptical of this at first (can it really be that easy? or cheap?), but I've been doing this since August and love the results. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

1 comment:

  1. What? Really? Who woulda thunk. Yet another thing to add to my "have to try" list.

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