Sweet Love and Ginger

Natural Living

No-poo Day 1

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Today marks the beginning of a new hair journey for me guys. I’m going to get on board this crazy no hair washing train that’s going around. A couple of my best friends are already doing it (and one for over a year) with some pretty amazing results, and it’s supposed to make my curly hair beautiful so why not?

 

I’m already half way there since I only really wash my hair once a week or so, more often if I have a particularly sweaty workout. I’m not really one to do much styling on a daily basis, and up until this past Wednesday I hadn’t had a hair cut since my birthday in February (yes that’s six months ago). I didn’t need one because my hair had been pretty healthy, but I thought that six months should be a good maximum for length between haircuts. You can read more about how I got my hair to be this long and this healthy here. It’s pretty simple really.
So this is my plan: I’m going to start off by washing my hair with baking soda and rinsing with apple cider vinegar when necessary (hopefully my current 1-2 times weekly). As for styling if it is actually required I’m going to use coconut oil, because you know it’s used for everything these days. I have been using this for the last few weeks instead of my usual products and I really like the results. It helps the curls stay silky without making them crunchy. I can run my fingers through the curls and they bounce right back like nothing happened. It’s great!Some things I am afraid of: I have A LOT of problems with dry skin (Gingers are meant to live in rainy places). I switched last year to an all organic soap (it is made in HI, however they started in VT and still have a small shop there so it’s local, double bonus) and so many of my problems just disappeared. I still have issues with the skin right around my hair line, you know forehead, behind my ears, and the base of my neck. It’s super embarrassing and I have been using head and shoulders to combat it, but it doesn’t always work. I am really hoping that switching to something more organic will fix this as well. But I suppose time will tell.

At the absolute minimum I am going to shoot for a month, but ideally I would like to give this change a solid 6 months before I decide if it’s a keeper.

Wish me luck!

I will let you know how this experiment goes in a few weeks. Any thoughts, comments, or info is greatly appreciated.

The Lazy Girls Guide to Getting Long Hair

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I have read hundreds of these kinds of posts, and articles in hopes and prayers that something will make my hair grow longer faster, and the fact of the matter is that your hair simply grows at one rate and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it, some of us are lucky and it seems to be faster than others.
According to Sheldon Cooper it grows at 4.6 yoctometers per femtosecond, which is less than half an inch per month. I’m a nerd. Moving on.
The Lazy Girls Guide to Getting Long Hair

I get comments and compliments all the time on how fast my hair grows, how long it is and how amazingly still healthy it is at that length. Since I have chopped my hair off and donated it several times since the age of 12 I thought I would share my few secrets.

  • Don’t cut it. I have heard all kind of things about every 6-8 weeks, and getting the dead ends off and all that but the fact of the matter is the more you cut the slower the growth. Logic people! I only get my hair cut every 4-6 months or more. There have been times where it’s been almost a year. Basically I just watch the ends when they start to get bad it’s time to go.
  • Don’t style with heat. I know a lot of you are cringing right now, but heat damages hair, that’s a fact. The more you use heat the more damage, and breakage and therefore less growth. I only use heat once or twice a month, the rest of the time I just let it go naturally, occasionally adding some leave in moisturizer to help out the curls.
  • Don’t Wash it (that often). I only use shampoo on my hair 1-2 times a week, more if I have some hard workouts. I still wet my hair when I am in the shower, and sometimes use conditioner, or apple cider vinegar, to help the curls out, but that’s it. If I don’t wet my hair for a few days I use backing soda as a dry shampoo.  I love Katie’sPost on dry shampoos, there is so much to talk about there.
  • Take your vitamins. B vitamins are great for growing strong and healthy hair and nails. I take a basic multivitamin with iron, because I am a little anemic. I can totally feel the difference if I don’t take them for a few days, and also see the difference in the strength of my nails for sure.
  • Oil, egg or avocado scalp massages. I don’t know if these actually do anything for you, but I have issues with really dry skin, especially in the winter. I do these once a month in the winter time and they do wonders for my dry skin, they may do something for strengthening the hair at its root, or maybe they do nothing, but they do feel awfully nice. Here are the basics, you can find links all over the internet for hair masks with other ingredients.

Well now if I have not cemented in my hippy nature with this post I’m not sure what else will. Basically there’s only really two things here required of you, if you take the last point as anything worthwhile, and the rest is about being lazy, or hippi-esque. Call it what you will but this is my method and it works great for me. If you have anything else to add I’d love to hear it!