Days 2-5: Boycott Sham Poo! Demand Real Poo!

This was from Actual Day 2:
Uch.  Well this is pretty boring so far.  It still looks pretty bad... sort of fluffy, flat and greasy all at the same time.  This is me looking dissatisfied with my hair situation: 

I didn't wash it or anything this morning, I just added some hair powder, willy-nilly, and attempted to brush it out with a boar bristle brush, fairly unsuccessfully.  Even if it doesn't look super gross, it feels very unpleasant.  Kind of gummy and weird, but that is probably due to the dry shampoo.

Day 2 is very uneventful!  I think that I might actually need to not use the dry shampoo, because that is probably going to interfere with the process of my hair finding its "natural balance." Or maybe not.  Let's be real, I am never going to just wash my hair with water and the magical breath of a unicorn!  There will always be something!

Day 3: Work Golf Tournament
Day 3 was the same day as the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Golf Tournament!  It was going to be a wet and humid day, and I was due for a hair washing, and I didn't want to bother blow drying it, cause it was going to be a big fluff ball, and I had to be there at 7AM. However, this meant that I would have damp hair around people.  Trying to be professional and all, I figured I should try not to smell like a salad. The vinegar doesn't really smell at all once your hair is dry, but the dampness of the day... I didn't want to be sitting next to someone in a golf cart reeking of dirty feet.  (Note that sometimes dirty feet smell like vinegar, particularly Pearce's feet).  Granted, I wasn't actually playing golf, I was just the beer cart, but still!  That means I would be coming into contact with new people constantly, not just a few who might get used to my offensive odor after a while.  So I caved.

WHAT?!  Did you really expect me to stick with this?  Reealllly now?  Come on!

But to be fair, I added some baking soda to my shampoo, which is the hippie stuff anyway.  No SLS for me! These are the hair cleaning products currently in my shower (next to the large-ass box of baking soda and the old jelly jar full of water and apple cider vinegar):

Kiss My Face Whenever Shampoo!

Avalon Organics Peppermint Conditioner

Sue is still sticking to the baking soda/lemon juice regimen and she told me today that it has changed her life!!  Her hair is already way less greasy than it was before, and she said even her face is less greasy!  This is totally awesome news! 

Day 4 was a non wash day, which is sort of nuts, because it was left over hair from the super humid day outdoors, and it was fine.

Day 5 would be today, and I used my shampoo with baking soda, and conditioner with a vinegar rinse at the end, and then I let my hair air dry!! (Just a regular day at the office, and I don't even like my coworkers enough to worry about stinking up the place).  My conditioner is peppermint, so it masked the salad smell pretty well.  The thing is that the vinegar actually does de-tangle hair incredibly well, and it makes it really smooth in a way that the hippie conditioner doesn't.  So why not use both?  I also used some silicone-free mousse and sea salt spritz, and that stuff also smells nice. 

This is me cheeeeesin it up!  I was going for beachy waves... it's more like a mess of hair, but I swear it looks decent in person... this webcam just does me no justice!  I'm not ugly! It's just the cameras, all cameras, really.

I think the real thing I took away from all the research that went into learning about hair is that I was going about things all wrong!  I have been using these super gentle, non-detergent shampoos for a long while now, and yet I was using silicone based hair products the whole time!  And I LOVE Morrocanoil, but that stuff is basically silicone and it builds up in your hair and you need a detergent based shampoo to get it out!  And then you need more silicones because the detergents dry your hair out so much!  It's a vicious cycle, and a brilliant marketing strategy for the hair product companies.  I need to invent something like that, become rich, and retire, STAT.

I learned that my hair has been really limp and lifeless and gross because of the silicone buildup! You can't have it both ways I guess.  Not with hair at least.  So I am attempting to eliminate the silicone based hair products, and already I am seeing a serious improvement.  But this sucks, because most hair products do contain silicones, and so I have a bunch of crap that I can't use if I actually decide to stick to this regimen (FYI: unlikely).  I think baking soda helps to get rid of the silicones, and I guess it goes away over time, but adding copious amounts of silicone everyday and not washing it out is not good (according to the internet). Whatever.  Either way, my hair is sooo shiny today, as is not captured in the picture, but I swear it was shining when I looked in the mirror!  I'm just so glorious.

That is the story, and maybe I can even get Sue to tell us about her Hairy Business.