I meant to do a one-year anniversary post months ago with a No ‘Poo photo diary update, but of course that didn’t happen.
Ah well.
So I’m 16-ish months shampoo-free now, better late than never.
I haven’t been making much of an effort to make my hair Instaworthy these last few weeks, but that’s a story for another post; you’re probably here for the selfies and running commentary about my shampoo-free journey thus far.
To be completely honest the longer I do this, the more normal and less novel it feels - but here we go:
^^So just as the hype from the Daily Mail coverage started to die down I got this huge boom in website traffic without any referral information.
Turns out Yahoo! had picked up my story and they’re a bit more protective of their users’ privacy - something something techy stuff you don’t care about - basically LOTS OF LOVELY NEW VISITORS OHAIII.
^^Besides the UK, USA and Canada my shampoo-free story seemed pretty popular in Portugal, Spain and Croatia, and I was getting messages from people in Brazil and Holland saying I was famous.
Hah.
What I loved though was how much more accepting and like-minded people outside of the UK and USA were.
Basically I learned that all I’ve done is join the millions of women who already know how much more effective natural hair care is, big deal right?
^^I had finally bought enough natural and organic makeup to do a full face of it, plus my hair was behaving that day, hoorah.
I’ll get round to a post about the makeup sometime in the distant future, I’m sure.
And don’t think I didn’t notice how many more people like my Instagram photos when I’m not wearing glasses.
You superficial fucks.
^^Twice now I’ve curled my hair and it looks best two days later.
Did that happen in my shampoo days? I can’t remember. Whatever.
^^I’m a horror for avoiding the hairdresser. Seven months. Seven.
I’m not sorry.
^^See, there really is only so much you can say about No ‘Poo once you’ve found your groove with it.
^^That’s right, unstraightened.
Let all those Daily Mail bitches who said my hair looked like straw come back to my Instagram profile and shriek “SEE, it’s DRY AF.”
Then show me your unstraightened hair, bitch.
You know what upset me the most? That I let a couple of dumb comments influence my behaviour.
In case you hadn’t noticed already, I’d straightened my hair for all the photos I was posting publicly before this one.
To what, prove my hair wasn’t actually damaged?
To prove that you could look completely “normal” while being shampoo-free?
The Daily Mail readers were long gone by this point, and I was connecting with some amazing new like-minded people.
So I threw caution to the wind and showed my hair in all its wild, frizzy glory.
And it felt awesome.
^^Goddammit I WILL have lighter hair by the time my wedding rolls around.
^^Here we are, all dolled up with nowhere to go.
So I’ve been trying out different deep conditioning treatments using olive oil and coconut oil.
For a few days after I do notice that my hair dries nicely and doesn’t “need” straightening.
But my God oils are a pain in the dick to wash out when you don’t use commercial shampoo.
After two clay washes my hair still doesn’t dry overnight and it needs one more clay wash in the morning to get the rest out - and this is clay mixed with water instead of apple cider vinegar so it’s extra drying.
It feels like this process just undoes all the hard work of using oil in the first place, so I’m on the hunt for something new.
I’ve bought a few things to try out - one is an all-natural hair oil treatment by Hairy Jayne with much lighter oils.
It smells lovely, is easy to apply and is a lot easier to wash out, but that damn low porosity hair of mine still wants to cling onto it.
The second thing is “blonde henna” which I’ve been experimenting with.
It’s a herb called cassia obovata that deep conditions your hair and adds volume, it doesn’t dye the hair but mixed with certain herbs and flowers etc. it enhances natural highlights (recipe here, blonding bits optional).
I’ve started mixing mine with chamomile tea and lemon peel to add to the blonding effect and when my hair dries it’s actually a smidge lighter - it’s only really noticeable to me and Graeme but you’ll understand if I’m a bit excited.
Here’s a #whatatramp photo with my preliminary results (WARNING!! UNSTRAIGHTENED HAIR, PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED BY ALL DAT FRIZZ):
Pretty snazzy, right?
Oh yeah, Operation Blonde Bridal Hair is officially a go.
I’ll keep you posted.
Update December 2016: I got my no ‘poo mojo back and I’ve gotten into trying out new and different Ayurvedic herbs which are known for hair health and growth - here’s a quick guide you for to see which herbs might be best for your own hair type and also where you can buy them 🙂
