The Failure of No 'Poo

All right everyone. About three and a half months ago, I started using cider vinegar instead of shampoo, on the recommendation/double dog dare of the ever-hip-and-trendy miss Ryan. I blogged a bit about the initial greasiness (which was gross but I persevered!) and proceeded to mostly wear my hair up. There were many advantages to using cider vinegar, the ultimate nature-born hair cleansing and conditioning agent, and also some disadvantages. Let me just outline them for you:

Advantages:
1. Cider vinegar takes away dirt without stripping your hair of its natural oils the way that shampoo does, so my hair was super soft
2. Did I mention lots of natural oils? Yeah, that helps your hair be easy to style too
3. It's super not expensive at all, and easy
4. Washing your hair with something you can find in the kitchen is super cool and it's helpful to know that in a natural disaster I would be able to use natural products to be more appealing than the vast majority of mud-soaked, fungi-smelling women

Disadvantages:
1. My shower smelled like a friggin' salad
2. The liquid I used to wash my hair was the color of pee
3. Mom kept thinking I was weird for taking the cider vinegar to the bathroom with me
4. Remember those natural oils? I just couldn't take it anymore. I could've starred on Jersey Shore (On a side note, the National Italian American Foundation wants me to sign pledges decrying the treatment of Italian Americans on Jersey Shore and my answer is heeeeeeeelllll no. Italian Americans have given our country excellent food and unbeatable music, but due to the whole abortion ban Catholicism has got going on they've also given us an overabundance of unintelligent faux-gangsta Guidos. It's my view that you can't have any one without the others so I'm keeping my tomato sauce and letting the bargains of Jersey Shore hang themselves in the media)
5. I just really missed lathering. There's something weird and not clean feeling about your hair without lather. Am I right or crazy here?

Anyway, no 'poo was NOT working out. I was having severe grease and flake problems. And yes, I tried doing the baking soda rinse thing (it just left baking soda in my hair and my mom looked at me even MORE sideways for taking the box of baking soda to the bathroom with the cider vinegar). I know the response of people who've had the no 'poo method work for them is going to be "NO 'POO: UR DOIN IT WRONG" but I don't care. I caved and bought a $1-an-ounce bottle of high-end, 100% sulfate-free 100% vegan hippy dippy shampoo. It's working really well - it isn't making my hair feel all dry like normal shampoo did before - my natural oils are still there, they're just...less. I can wear my hair down now and everything. And it smells like mint and lavender and it's good for the environment and costs too much.

And now I want an iPhone. And I don't think that's a coincidence.