Making your own shampoo and conditioner / zelf gemaakte shampoo en conditioner

I have been using only organic shampoo's for the past few years and even though these often smell delicious and already offer you a way less agressive experience of hair-care, nothing in the world...can compare to my experiences after I started washing my hair with baking-soda / natrium bicarbonate!

After reading into the topic of living a "Poo-free" life beginning of this year (as it is been discribed a lot on the internet; meaning 'shampoo-free') and its benefits to your hair and the skin on your head, I got so curious I just had to try it. Anyway I was kind of fed up with the extremely high prices of organic body-products in The Netherlands ('our' organic shampoo's prices start at around 8 euro's / 12 dollar), and this is truly the cheapest alternative in the world, once you know where to get a big box of bakingsoda for a decent price ;) My darling Dutchies: go to Ekoplaza, any Asian store or order it online (Jacob Hooij) and get yourself a kilo for about 5 euro, this should be enough to clean your hair, make your home-made toothpaste and home-made deodorant, for up to a year!! :D

Next to that, making your own basic shampoo is by far the easiest thing in the world
for all you really need is bakingsode (Sodium Bicarbonate) and water :)
I have been using this recipe for over 3 months now and it is going crazy-well. Over time you will be able to use less and less of the bakingsoda and (as I understand correctly from all the more experienced 'poo-free stories' I've read on the web so far) at some point you will be perfectely fine using NO shampoo OR bakingsoda at all and just washing your hair with water. It will be clean and shiny, non-greasy or too dry, for it will refind it's own perfect natural balance.

This is what I am heading for - I will keep you posted as I go along ;)

But right now - just using the bakingsoda so far, these are my experiences:

My hair always used to get greasy quickly and so I had to wash it every other day to keep it looking decent. I've got long, straight hair so this used to take me quite some time (washing+drying it) when you looked at this on a weekly basis. 

After using the bicabonate-technique just ONCE I could already enjoy clean hair, with more and longer lasting (!) volume then any shampoo has ever been able to provide me with. I enjoyed a non-greasy head of hair for 5 days instantly without having to wash it another time, before it started to feel just a little greasy again! I was stunned, thinking; WHY in the world did we ever start using agrassive soaps that dry our our skins and leave us with dandruft if one natural product can do this??

That first time I used two full tablespoons of bicabonate dissolved in water in a standard size empty shampoo bottle. It was a messy process because I hadn't discovered a right way to do it yet - which is WHY instead of giving you just the recipe I will also share with you the best way (I found) to use it, because it took me at least 4 weeks to perfectionize this technique and there I found some do's and dont's around washing your hair this way that might be helpfull for you to know :)

HOW TO USE IT:


- start with plenty bicabonate if your hair gets greasy quickly and you always had to wash daily/every other day before using this technique. 'Plenty' means: 2 tablespoons of bakingsoda dissolved in water in a empty (easy to squeeze) shampoo or dishwash-soap bottle. Start with less if you've got dry hair by nature or dandruft. In both cases; if you feel you need a conditioner afterwards for your hair or just the ends (I use this for the 'lower half' of my hair)---> keep on reading for another 2-ingredient ultra cheap 100% organic solution for that :)

1 - Put the bakingsode in the bottle first, using a small funnel (Dutch:trechter), then add some really hot water 1/3rd to really dissolve the bakingsoda in it (it will start to foam for a bit) shaking it around. Then add lukewarm water untill filled up completely or 2/3 rd of the bottle, depending on how long your hair is. The longer your hair, the more water you need. I use a 75% full bottle for my long hair.

2 - Apply the solution on DRY hair, this way you can 'feel' where you have 'been' with the solution on your head - which you can not when you step under the shower first and then start squizing this mix on your head, since it does not foam at all.

3 - It won't work if you do not work for it a little as well by really, really 'scrubbing' your entire skull :) Every part that you want to be clean, really rub your fingers around on it! Not only is this very healthy for your skull, giving yourself such an intense head massage kick-starts the bloodflow and actually stimulates stronger and healthier hairgrowth. Dandruft will dissapear (I've read amazing results with this technique from people who got rid of that issue almost as soon as they started using baking-soda) and all grease will dissolve into the salt-mixture and drip out of your hair.

Note: the solution will turn even more white and since it will drip everywhere - a friend of mine told me it left white stains all over in her black-tiled bathroom. They wash off easily but you may want to make sure you're in the shower-area while you do this...lol.  I personally just wait turning on the shower during this whole process and 'massage it all in' hanging with my head above the (white) sink.

4 - After all this rubbing, just let it sit in your hair for about 3 minutes not doing anything. I usually roll it up into a bun on top of my head and leave it like that while stepping under the shower. 

5 - After these 3 minutes, rinse it out with water again rubbing your skull so you will wash it all out. If all went well, you will feel instantly how squicky-clean your hair feels  ;)) 
 
6 - Now if it feels almost a little bit too dry (definately on the ends) after all this - and certainly when you used it for the first time and maybe used too much bakingsoda; then this is a 100% home made organic conditioner you can use :) 


Make a solution of 50 % organic Apple Cider Vinegar (Dutch: appelazijn) and 50 % water in an empty spray-bottle to condition your hair and leave it instantly untangled, soft and shiny :) I just spray it on the lower part of my hair, down to the ends - you don't need that much (you can feel by moving your fingers through your hair where it will untangle easily now and where you need more).  Don't worry; you will not smell like vinegar afterwards ;) The smell completely dissapears after rinsing it out. You can use this same solution many times, and just leave it standing in the shower for over a month.

Now if afterwards your hair dries a lot slower then usual or seems to stay 'greasy'; you probably didn't rinse out the bakingsoda well enough / or didnt leave it in long enough (I had this happen to me once or twice, funny how just one spot of the hair on my head seemed to be unwilling to dry haha). Also this whole thing is just a matter of patience and experimenting; you will need to find the perfect amount of bakingsoda/water solution that works best for you. Once you have, you can gradually decrease the amount of salt you use to wash your hair and work yourself 'up' to a completely poo-free life, never having to buy any chemical stuff for your hair at all and just enjoying the natural beauty of it :) I admit I looked like a fool for a few days while experimenting with it - but now I can say; it was well worth the effort.

More testemonies: recently found this other amazing experience-story (click here) of a young woman who stopped using shampoo all at once for 20 days and after that discovered the baking soda (and ACV technique I use as well, see her before- and after pics and read her story :)

Questions I get from people around me is whether my hair won't start smelling bad and I can tell you it just doesn't smell at all, it 'smells' neutral after using this process, which is fine ;) But if I do like a little bit of a nice smell afterwards I just add that later by mixing a drop or 2 of my favorite essencial oils together with 1/3 a teaspoon of a neutral oil like olive-,avocado, coconut- or abricot oil, and just rub that into the ends of my (dry) hair for some extra delicious hair-care and parfum in one :)

Another question is whether or not this whole thing is taking me a lot of time; honoustly, it did in the beginning because I messed it up a few times at first. But now I've got the hang of it and I really really enjoy the process of the head-massage and then rinsing it all out and the way it feels (So incredibly light and clean!!) And now it truly saves me time, on a weekly base I think it saves me more then an hour or two all together.

 Another plus I have discovered while using this new shampoo-technique is that I can wear a head or headband during the day / being outside without getting my hair look flat or instantly turn greasy because of it :) I love to wear hats or headbands (from the twenties or sixties) but I also love to be able to take them of when I arrive at someone's place and not look like an idiot hahaha! Thank you baking-soda solution and thank you to all the peeps out there informing others on the noo-poo lifestyle :) I hope this explenation will help others to also give it a try. If you feel like sharing your own experiences below, please share so we can all learn from them :)

Also, we help ourselves and the environment by flushing less chemicals down the drain / and using them on our bodies. So really; the greener you go - the cleaner you go, detoxing yourself and your surroundings on the way ;)

Keep on loving and nourishing yourself, so you can love and nourish others :)

Sunbeams on your shiny hair ;)

ps

* I have started working on a scented version of the bakingsoda-shampoo for special occasions ;) with also an extra ingredient for more shine-effect in it right away <3 I will post more on that as soon as I found the perfect balance for this recipy, so stay tuned ;)