hair story

I'm a little obsessed with my hair, so I thought I'd try to get all my thoughts and feelings about it out of my system and throw it out into the void of the internet.

For the last several months I've been thoroughly dissatisfied with my hair, which may or may not have had negative effects on my overall sense of well being. Right now it's on the longer side, about shoulder length and curly. I've usually kept it short because when it gets long it weighs down the curls, and I really have no idea what to do with it. At any rate, for the last few months whatever shampoo and conditioner I was using was just crap. It seemed like it took all the curl out of my head. Before I had been using horse shampoo for about a year, and it was pretty good. My hair was usually shiny and bouncy. I switched however, which was just a huge mistake.

So I've been thinking lately about how to remedy my bad hair days for good. A couple of summers ago, before I switched to horse shampoo, I stopped shampooing my head altogether, with mixed results. I used baking soda to wash it followed by a vinegar rinse. After a while it looked good, but with it being summer and me being all sweaty it still seemed a bit flat. Also, I smelled like vinegar, especially when I sweat, which was all the time.

I wanted to try it out again, but I didn't want to smell like vinegar. While in the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks, I was still avoiding the whole vinegar thing when suddenly I realized the other day that I was probably just using too much vinegar. I never measured the amount, just poured a little in a cup and added water. So this time I was very precise and put 1 tablespoon of vinegar for 1 cup of water and put it in an old shampoo bottle. I did the same with the baking soda, since I also think I was using too much and it was drying out my scalp. 1 tablespoon for 1 cup of water. It's not that much, really. I also added a drop of lavender essential oil to the vinegar solution to add a nice smell to my hair.

I used it the other day and when I got out of the shower I instantly noticed a difference. My hair was so shiny! And it already felt light and bouncy. I left it alone, let it dry without adding any product (it dried very quickly I noticed) and voila! All day long I had big bouncy curls that kept their shape, and I didn't smell like vinegar at all. I've been doing it for the last week and getting the same result every day. Some people's hair has to get used to this sort of switch, but I think mine was craving it. So now, no shampoo, no conditioner, no product at all, and I think I have perfect hair. I may not even cut it any time soon (the only thing I knew to do to keep it curly). It's pretty awesome, even it if makes for a really boring story.