Search This Blog

Sunday, August 19, 2012

More Poo Free and Other Stuff

When I was going through my Poo free transition I was doing it online step by step with a group of women following my post and asking questions along the way. I thought I would take a moment to answer some frequently asked questions and tell you a little bit about my current Poo Free routine since it differs from my original post.
First things first. If you haven't read the original no poo post you can find it here

Now we will have some Q&A If you have other questions that I don't get to, please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will add them to the post.

1. Why go Poo Free?
I chose to go poo free for two reasons. Number one, I am trying to limit the chemicals in my life. I have the utmost respect for the human body and I feel like most of what I've been doing my whole life has been just mistreating it. If I had a beautiful classic car, I wouldn't wash it with chemicals that were going to dull and dry out the paint. The more I learned about our scalp, the more I realized that shampoo really keeps your hair from possibly looking it's best and certainly keeps you scalp from functioning the way it's intended to function. The second reason is money and big boxed retailers. I'm looking to save money, just like everyone else but I'm also looking to limit my dependence on big box retailers such as Target. I'm trying to buy more American made products and trying to shop more locally owned businesses. When I stopped using shampoo, I stopped buying it from Target. Good thing too because the bottle was small and it cost 14 bucks, and that wasn't including the conditioner.
2. How often do you wash your hair?
During the transition process (mine was 7 weeks) I only washed my hair once a week. The reason I say to do this is because your hair will go through such a terrible time no matter what you do. It's good to just stay consistent. Using too much baking soda can damage and even break your hair. You won't really know what your hair needs until the transition period is over. Once you get there, then you can experiment with how often you wash and what ingredients you want to use. Now that my transition period is over, I wash my hair every Wednesday and Saturday. This seems to work for me and I may wash a little less in the winter.
3. Doesn't your hair smell bad or at least smell like Vinegar?
I get this question all the time. People seem to think that if you just rinse your hair with water, it's going to smell bad. Never. If you hair smells bad there is something wrong, hair should not smell. I have people constantly tell me "Oh but I work out every day and I sweat" So do I and my hair has never ever smelled bad. As far as it smelling like vinegar, that doesn't happen either. If you have ever cleaned using vinegar then you already know that vinegar has a strong odor when wet but dries odorless. My hair actually doesn't have a scent at all. There are times when I may put a few drops of essential oils in my rinse to give my hair a pleasant odor, but I'd be lying if I said I do that very often.
4.Will this work on tangled, long, frizzy, short, curly, straight hair with scalp problems?
Everyone is different and I'm not a Dr. I don't even have friends that are Drs. I can tell you that every person that I've talked to that made it through the transition was happy with their results. I've had people tell me that they couldn't live without conditioner because there hair gets so tangled, then they tell me the tangles disappeared when they went poo free. I've had a number of people with different scalp issues claim that this has cured them. All you can do is give it a try and know that your scalp can not possibly function properly while using shampoo daily. I say, give your scalp the benefit of the doubt before you lay all the blame on your hair. For me, it has taken away my frizz, lightened my color, and significantly reduced the amount of hair I shed. I would guess by like 80%. I was a shedder, big time.
5. Are you still using the original formula from your post on your hair now?
Sometimes but most of the time I use a different rinse then I did when transitioning. I still put a tablespoon of vinegar for my 8oz water bottle, but I also add a tablespoon of organic lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of organic honey to that mix. I don't recommend trying new formulas until your transition if complete though because you will have no idea how well it works for you until you eliminate the excess oils coming from your scalp.
6. Are your kids poo free too?
Yes. My son has always been poo free and in fact, it's his amazing hair that inspired me to give it a try myself. My daughter on the other hand has always used shampoo and went through a transition as well. I will say, and I assume this is because of her age, her transition was only about 2 weeks long. She is 4. At first she was bummed out about not using her Strawberry shampoo and detangler, but she's over it now and I no longer need detangler for her hair at all.

If I haven't answered you question, please feel free to post one. I'm an open book as you may already be realizing. As far as other products go, my method has been as follows; when ever I run out of a beauty product I have a decision to make. Do I want to go out and buy more of this stuff, or do I want to learn about what makes it work and make it at home or find an alternative for it.
So far I've run out of
Shampoo
Deodorant
Body Scrub
and.....get ready...tmi feminine napkins
The alternatives I have found so far for these items have been less expensive and in all cases I'm happier with the product.
When I stopped using deodorant I didn't think I would make it more than a few days. I watch an episode of Dr Oz in which he talked about how B.O. is actually bacterial or fungal and not a normal part of life. Don't get me wrong, armpits at the end of the day aren't supposed to smell like lilacs on their own. That being said, there is a big difference between a little musky scent that you can't smell unless you are actually burying your nose in said under arm and smelling someone when they enter a room. I've found that using chemical products on my underarms such as shaving cream actually makes them produce an unpleasant odor. I started off using lemon juice to help kill bacteria but I didn't really find it effective. Now I use a combination of a deodorant stone and baby wipes for freshening up. You can buy deodorant stones online or in the natural beauty product isle of most stores. I bought mine at my local employee owned grocery store. ;)
They look like this
A deodorant stone is made from potassium sulfate and other minerals which are then crystallized in to a stone like this. They aren't sticky, or greasy. They don't stain clothing or dry out the skin on your underarms. It doesn't clog pours or stop your body from sweating (which is a bad thing to do by the way) it simply stops bacteria from being able to grow in whatever area you rub it on to. Mine cost me about 10 bucks I think, but I know it will last for months.....maybe even a year. For me, I can tell you it works. I love it, I'll never use regular deodorant again. After a workout or on a super hot day I do still freshen up with a baby wipe here and there, but that's because I'm sweaty not because I'm smelly.
Now the body scrub I"m using deserves it's own post, so I'm working on that one and as far as the feminine products, well again that's a story for another day. I'm running very low on face scrub so that will be the next endeavor and I'm dying to find an alternative to shaving cream.
One step at a time....right?

1 comment:

  1. coconut oil as shaving cream! you will get the smoothest legs ever!

    ReplyDelete