Hi,

I have been searching online for a simple, natural DIY shampoo and conditioner that will leave my hair looking, feeling and smelling great...

There are some infos about mixing egg with lemon, or egg with bicarb soda, etc, but I am not sure about trying it out because lemon and bicarb soda might be too harsh on scalp and deplete the natural oils.

Anyone here know of a great way to clean our hair, the natural, healthy way?

Many thanks,

Won't smell great (generally a faint scent of vinegar remains after rinse), but it makes my very thick, course, crazy curly hair very soft, tangle free, and managable. I 'wash' with baking soda, rinse that out, then 'rinse' with apple cider vinegar, and rinse again. The baking soda cleans (I only apply to my head, work it in a bit to the roots, and let the shower rinse it down through the long locks), and the vinegar (applied to scalp, and locks) balances my hair and scalp, and makes it very, very soft. If I want my hair to smell a bit better, I will then give my hair a quick wash with a simple, organic, lavender shampoo, or use a tad of my homemade goat milk soap on my hair (I rarely do this, though).

Shampoos and most soaps strip your scalp/skin of natural oils, and causes severe imbalance. Your body then tries to correct this by pumping out excess oil, causing your hair to get greasy shortly afterwards. Then, to top that off, shampoos leave a residue on the hair and scalp, making your hair tempermental, and clogging pores, wrecking further havoc over time, and causing you to need to wash daily to have that 'fresh, clean' hair. Effectively lining their pockets from your 'need' for daily shampooing, and gradually killing you and your scalp with junk.

With the baking soda and vinegar, I only have to 'wash' my hair maybe 3 times a week at most, and just wet it and comb it out the other days, and it stays fresh, well behaved, and easy to care for in spite of it's thickness, length and unruliness.

HTH some,

Barucha.....

Yahaloma

thank you so much for sharing, Yahaloma, I enjoyed reading your post and will definitely try your way.

I'll let you know how it goes...

thanks again!!

Thanks for the tips, Yahaloma!

I've yet to try ACV, but I've successfully used baking soda as a shampoo before to remove the smell of chlorine from my hair (good as a body wash to remove the chlorine smell from your skin too).

I also have curly hair and mine is extremely long (I can sit on it). I'll have to try the ACV/BS combination especially if it will help alleviate some of the tangles. I spend anywhere from 10 - 20 minutes each day just combing the tangles out after a shower.

I pretty much shampoo my hair as needed and have found that coconut oil is my hair's best friend in keeping it moisturized and restoring some of the natural oil lost in shampooing. I used to use olive oil, but coconut oil is a little heavier without making my hair greasy and it feels softer once it dries. Any other suggestions on good oils? I haven't tried Carol's Daughter products yet, but have heard that they're also very good.

Again, thanks for posting this. I'm always interested in good hair care tips.

~Free

hi Yahaloma,

I tried using the baking soda and apple cider vinegar on my hair like you shared... I didn't realise how soft my hair would feel after using the ACV! The first day, hair looked fine, but come second day, it was back oily..

I went back to using organic shampoo (which I got from the supermarket). However, after meeting you in the chat room, I tried the B.Soda and ACV shampoo again, but the very next day it was super oily...I guess it doesn't suit my hair type? Or perhaps I put too much in? hmmm... if I don't put in ACV in my scalp, it'll be dry because of the baking soda, but if I do, it'll become oily...

Should I kept trying it every day as soon as hair becomes oily, until the oiliness goes away?

Perhaps it works for some and not for others... ?

Look forward to your feedback

shalom, FreeIndeed,

was wondering, how did it go?

Hey Free,

I have naturally curly hair too and it is THICK! I don't know if you know the actress Rachel True.. but my hair is exactly like her's except for the color.





I have used Carol's Daughter Products and I like some of them.. others they can keep! LOL! I do love her spray in conditioners though! The Tui Leave In Conditioner is awesome. And the Tui Smoothie. I also like Black Vanilla Conditioner. I just smells heavenly! It conditions and hydrates the hair very well. She has some nice oils too for the hair that make it sooooooo soft.

Only thing about CD is that I just find some of her products to be a little strong with the smells.. like the HAIR BUTTER was just ridiculously strong. You can barely use the stuff.. I have some but I use only a teeeeeeny bit on my hair line. It's a nice way to smooth the edges if you want to pull the hair back.

Carol's Daughter carries this product called HAIR MILK. OH MY..it's wonderful! It has Vitamins C and E with a hint of lily of the valley fragrance. It gives the curls definition and shine. And what I like about it is that it is NOT greasy at all. It just hydrates!

A couple of places you can get her products are www.hsn.com , www.carolsdaughter.com , www.sephora.com Or you can just walk into Sephora and get some. They can be a little pricey but some of her products like the specific one's I named are DEFINITELY worth the money.


What I like is CURLS! Check this website out:
http://www.curls.biz/

Oh my goodness their CURLS MILKSHAKE is unbelievable for people of color with curly hair.... OHHHHHHHHHHHH I love it. LOL! Since you like Coconut.. you may like the CURLS COCONUT SUBLIME MOISTURIZING CONDITIONER. The stuff is expensive as all get out though! UGH! Now I do like the fact that if a person not of color has curly hair they can benefit from some use of certain products from this line.

Another good line that people of color with curly hair that are of color rave about is this one:
http://www.missjessies.com/

And Mixed Chicks is awesome too:
http://www.mixedchicks.net/

Mixed Chicks was created literally by two "mixed chicks". They are multi-racial friends that have naturally curly hair and got tired of the products for curly hair on the market. They said products for white women were to drying for them and products for black women were too oily so they came up with their own things. The cool thing about their products is that they can be used by anyone with curly hair..the person doesn't have to be of color. As long as they have curly hair..they could benefit from some of these products.


Now I have heard of people using Coconut Oil, but I have never tried it. I have tried the Olive Oil..I use it as a hot oil treatment every once in a while. Where do you get your Coconut Oil, Free ? I think I might be interested in trying that out.

Oh have you tried OJON ? They have this really strange product called...OJON RESTORATIVE HAIR TREATMENT. And I am telling you this stuff works WONDERS for damaged hair. I had a lot of damage to my hair back in the day because of dying it..and OJON worked wonders on my hair!

Check this out:

Ojon® Restorative Hair Treatment is a unique, highly-concentrated hair rejuvenator and scalp nutrient made with Ojon oil the same rare oil used for over 500 years by the Tawira Indians of Central America known as "the people of beautiful hair"™. Its healing effects, documented by clinical testing, are dramatic and immediate. Dry, damaged, color-treated and processed hair becomes restored, fortified, extraordinarily shiny, silky and manageable, right from the first treatment. Even healthy hair shows a noticeable improvement.

Ojon works by penetrating deep into the hair shaft, healing hair from the inside out to provide long-term benefits. As it repairs and seals the cuticle, it traps the nutrient oil within each strand of hair. The result is stronger, fuller, resilient, frizz-free hair that resists damage. Despite its potency, Ojon is a remarkably lightweight oil that never weighs hair down.

The balance is comprised of natural anti-oxidants, natural preservatives and a touch of fragrance. Ojon is color safe.

More than a hair conditioning treatment...
A small dab of Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment also makes an effective leave-in conditioner and shine enhancer.

Now it does have an "interesting" smell. Some people like it and some people can't stand it. Personally, I don't mind it because I use it sparingly anyway. But it works like charm to help strengthen.

You can check out the entire line at: www.ojon.com and www.QVC.com has some incredible deals on OJON products.

Take care,
Missy

hi Missy,

I enjoyed reading your post and will definitely check out some of the shampoos and conditioners if I see any here.

Thanks!

Sorry, Blue Sun, I've not been able to get back on the forum for a couple weeks.

It could be a couple of things going on with your hair. Number one possibility is that you are not eating a diet that agrees with your body chemistry, and it is out of whack, causing your skin to pump out more oils than necessary. Our skin is our biggest organ, and is a primary means for expelling toxins. When a person has exess oil issues, it usually means that there are a lot of things going in that shouldn't be, or are unbalancing. So, first, look at how you eat. For me, I've found that my acne I suffered from most of my life is a sure fire sign that I've been eating poorly, among other signs I've come to recognize, but never made the connection until the past couple years.

The other thought, that I explained on the chat, was that your body may still be trying to figure out how to act balanced again, because it spent all this time pumping out oil in over drive trying to keep up with your usual routine, which very likely was stripping oil out as fast as your body could pump it. Sometimes our bodies need some time to get balanced again, and relearn how to behave correctly.

Also, if your hair type is fine, thick or thin, oil runs through such hair much easier, and an over active scalp is much more noticable. My hair is course, THICK, curly, and long. Oil shows up around the scalp first, but still isn't very noticeable on me because of my hair type. My hair mostly absorbs oils. In fact, I actually ADD oil to my hair at times, to define the curls more, coconut oil.

If you can't or don't want to try to see if your body can work itself out, I'd be VERY leery of any commercially made shampoos, etc. There are some good products out there, but watch for parabens, petrolium, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (degreaser) and Sodium Laureth Sulfates (foaming agent), or any name you can't pronounce, and isn't a botanical name for a plant. There really is no need for all the chemicals that are put into products, but people are rather 'spoilt' on having things foamy, or a certain texture, etc, and they are duped into thinking it actually makes a difference in quality. Also, people have been conditioned to look at individual issues, rather than the whole picture, much like spiritual health, and they don't try to find root causes for issues that may be cropping up. Much like allopathic doctors, they look to treat the symptoms, but not the problem itself.

Life is a journey, and part of it really should be spent trying to get things balanced out (no I am not talking New Age/Ying/Yang stuff. It really is scriptural), so don't give up, or just go for the bandaids/quick fixes. Try to find the root of the problem, and fix THAT. That's my advice.

Shalom.....

thanks for your reply, Yahaloma,

yes, I agree with you, it's what we eat... I read somewhere that eating 70% raw food will help build up our bodies back to their healthy state.

I guess I eat too much chocolate.

Regarding the ACV and baking soda as shampoo, what I'd like to know is, if I put them in today, and the next day hair becomes oily, do I put them in again straight away? Like, put them in each day until the oiliness becomes less, then put in less... is this how you go about it?

I have Organic Care shampoo and conditioner here which I'm using, they've got plant ingredients, and are cruelty-free (not tested on animals) and doesn't have any harmful chemicals, like sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate, ammonium lauryl or laureth sulfate, mineral oil, parabens, propylene glycol or dye... it'll do for the time being, however my hair does need shampooing every day.

Let me know how often should I use the ACV (i.e. use it every day if hair still oily the next day?).

Thanks!