DISASTER!!! What did I do wrong?

[dixie_belle]

Hi Ladies!

I am new here, and I'm in a bit of a quandary.

I am trying to eliminate all chemicals -- whether in cleaning products, personal hygiene, or food production -- replacing with natural/organic alternatives. Before I found this forum, I had heard of the no poo BS wash. I started it about 3 weeks ago.

Everything was fine for the first week. The second weeks, the hair closer to my scalp seemed clean, but the length, from about 4-5" down didn't. By the end of the second week, I caved and went back to shampoo and conditioner (no cone). Oh, I was rinsing with ACV this whole time. My hair didn't feel all clean, and the ends were very dry.

So I started looking at deep conditioning. I'd heard of using mayonnaise, olive oil, various other kinds of oil, egg concoctions. So I looked around here at several different threads. Then I gathere my ingredients, and my courage, and took the plunge. I combined EVOO, raw honey, 1 egg, a little sweet almond oil, a little castor oil, and a few drops of EO (lavender, rosemary, lemon). Put it on damp hair, wrappe in saran wrap, then a warm towel, and let it sit for a couple of hours.

Then I rinsed it out with water, BS, and ACV rinse, and went to bed. This morning, my hair was still half damp, and looked very oily. Except for the ends, which looked fried. So what did I do wrong?

It was so bad that I went back and washed again this morning with regular (no cone) shampoo and condiitoner. My hair still doesn't seem right. I guess I should say that (although I haven't measured in inches), my blonde hair is down to my waist.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks. I'm looking forward to learning even more from y'all.

Dixie Belle

[Wind Dragon]

What dilution were your BS and ACV mixes?

[dixie_belle]

BS I had a tablespoon in 32 oz of water, and 1 c ACV in 32 oz of water, when I rinsed out my homemade conditioner.

When I started BS 3 weeks ago (caved after 2, just now going back), I had only heard of using not more than 1 T to make a paste, which was basically applied to the scalp. I assumed that was why the hair several inches down started feeling not really clean, since the BS only really got there as I was rinsing it out. I rinse the BS out with water before the ACV rinse, which I also rinse out with water.

Thanks for any insight.

DB

[spunkymonki87]

Based on what I've read (and experienced myself), most people have negative results when using baking soda and ACV together. Check out this thread.

[Milena]

Well, baking soda is a chemical, too, and I don't think it's very good for your hair. I think there is a reason why they make professionally formulated haircare products (besides, obviously, making money, like anybody who sells something).

I guess that's not what you want to hear, but if you want to go natural, I would recommend natural haircare products rather than foodstuffs.

[Pani_Mniszek]

Welcome to the boards, dixie belle!

One cup, or eight ounces, of vinegar in a solution of 32 ounces of water is, if my arithmetic does not fail me, a solution of one part vinegar to four parts water. This is about twice as strong as I have ordinarily seen recommended. The rule that "if a little is good, more must be better" definitely is not automatically applicable to acids. (Mind you, I use an ACV rinse myself.)

As to what you did "wrong," what I think you did to make your life more difficult for yourself for the short run (not necessarily "wrong") is that you tried a lot of new things all at once. So it's really hard to sort out which product, or combination of products, was the culprit. For the oiliness, I would *suspect* the EVOO, which is notoriously hard to wash out (how much did you use?); as to the fried ends, I'd wonder if the BS might not have been too harsh. From reading both your posts it wasn't clear to me whether you had ever applied it as a paste to your scalp or had only used a dilute BS/water solution. Another possibility is that your hair does not react well to protein, and the protein in the egg did not sit well with it.

It is extremely tempting to experiment with all the ideas you read here. Bear in mind that some "natural" recipes for hair care can, in fact, contain chemicals, albeit "natural" ones. Naturally occurring arsenic is, after all, still arsenic (no, I don't know of any current hair recipes calling for arsenic...).

Good luck.

Pani M.

[rainkitty]

Dixie Belle,

I've also tried going natural in a variety of ways. I've been pretty successful overall, but you have to be prepared for some experiments (both good and bad) along the way.

Personally, I have gotten bad results when using oil and honey in combination previously - it made my hair very crunchy when applied straight. It's also very, very easy to use too much oil in a mix like that. I just tried a mix of yogurt, honey, and oil, and I put in way too much oil. One wash took care of it for me, but it might take a couple of times for you.

Take some simple experiments first - and maybe even use a commercial shampoo/conditioner (or commercial CO) as a baseline for your hair that you can always fall back on when an experiment goes wrong. Establish what kinds of oiling (what oils, how much, how applied) your hair likes. Then try some combination deep treatments, since they're harder to get right.

Good luck experimenting!

Cheers,
RainKitty

[spunkymonki87]

Originally Posted by Milena

Well, baking soda is a chemical, too, and I don't think it's very good for your hair. I think there is a reason why they make professionally formulated haircare products (besides, obviously, making money, like anybody who sells something).

I guess that's not what you want to hear, but if you want to go natural, I would recommend natural haircare products rather than foodstuffs.

It's only "foodstuffs" if you deem it so Oils and butters can be thrown into the same pot and deemed unusable due to their more common roles, but that does not mean that they're not benefical to hair and skin. Have you ever tried clarifying with baking soda yourself?
Most of the time, negative results happen due to lack of (correct) information. dixie_belle, your proportions of baking soda to water may also be off in addition to using it together with ACV. This LHC article has a lot of information about baking soda and how to use it, among other related things.

[Wind Dragon]

dixie belle, I recommend you read the first post in this thread carefully (ETA, whoops! spunkymonki87 snuck in there whilst I was occupied.) (ETA again: never mind, different thread. I'm just going to go over there now, 'kay?) Note that this particular method (the one I'm using, incidentally,) calls for the baking soda to be fully dissolved in water. That solution is your wash. I use one tablespoon of BS in two cups of water. That is then rinsed out, then I condition the length, rinse that out and then follow with a very weak ACV solution (one tablespoon or less to a liter of water, much weaker than in the instructions,) as a final rinse.

Since you were rinsing out a paste rather than a solution, consider that some of it may have not rinsed completely out of your hair. Then consider what happens when you add vinegar to baking soda. Just a theory, mind you.

Egg is also cleansing (I've used a concoction of egg and oil and honey successfully as my only shampoo for a few weeks at a time,) and probably shouldn't be used in any kind of "treatment" except the protein kind. Further experiments when you already have a problem leaves you not really knowing which things might have been responsible for what.

Your ends likely either need clarifying, and/or very gentle treatment and conditioning for a while. You might try going back to your usual shampoo, (perhaps diluted, which I highly recommend) and conditioner for a while, concentrating on the ends until things seem more normal.

[dixie_belle]

Thanks to everyone for the tips and suggestions. I do have a commercial shampoo and conditioner that I used this morning, and it got everything out. Overall, it seems no harm done, I guess. But it doesn't seem particularly well-conditioned, either. Mosly like it was before. Ends still a little drier than I'd like, though.

I used 1/4 c olive oil, basically followed a recipe from another thread here, with a few drops of EOs added in. I got some cocunut oil to try, only its solid. Is this the right stuff???

When I used BS previously, I did it as a paste applied only to the scalp. This time, I diluted it in water that got poured basically all over. When I used the ACV rinse with the BS a few weeks ago, I noticed the first day that my hair was SO much less tangled than usual. I was very impressed. The only problem was that during that second week, the middle part of my hair (not the ends, not near the scalp) didn't seem clean, seemed naturally oily or something. It was kinda weird, being in the middle that way, which is what made me think it just wasn't getting clean with the BS paste at the scalp only.

You're right, I did try a lot of new stuff all at once. I kinda tend to go gung-ho when I first start something, especially if I'm enthusiastic about it. I guess I don't really like the idea of "experimenting" with my hair, in case I really screw it up.

My first "experiment" with BS and ACV a few weeks ago was great the first week or so. If I hadn't developed the not-clean feeling in week 2, I'd probably have kept going.

I think it was Benjamin Franklin who described his efforts to develop the incandescent light bulb not as multiple failures, but as learning 2000 ways NOT to make a light bulb. I guess this latest experiment is definitely how NOT to treat my hair. It may be that if I had shampooed the concoction out with commercial shampoo, it would have gone better.

Thanks again for your tips, suggestions, and encouragement. Now I need to learn how to do updos. I love the way they look, but I've never been able to get them to stay up with my hair this length.

Thanks again,

DB

[Basketcase]

coconut oil solidifies below room temp, so its the right stuff , if you run the jar under hot water, it will liquify good stuff

[Pani_Mniszek]

1/4 C. of EVOO. Hm. For comparison purposes, when I use coconut oil on my hair I typically use less than 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Pani M.

[serenitygal]

1/4C of EVOO? Yeeps!
When I first tried going natural, I mixed up some honey, lots of EVOO, and some rosmemary, cooked 'em together, and poured them over my hair. Ghastly mess, that was. Took several days to wash out, and by the end of it (didn't have LHC as a resource then) my hair was so damaged from the repeated full-strength shampoos that it would've been better not to use the mix in the first place.
You might try getting an organic or natural (and perhaps unscented) shampoo, diluted somewhat. Two friends of mine with severe chemical sensitivities (nasty asthma attacks around many chemicals and all fragrances, among other things) use Stoneybrook Botanicals products (the unscented versions). They say that it works well and doesn't cause flare ups. I use their products, too, and can say that they work GREAT in SMTs, etc.
As far as leave-ins go, I'll use a dab (think 1/8-1/4 of a teaspoon) of shea butter. I melt it in my hands (similar to coconut oil), rub it into my elbows and knees, and then run my hands LIGHTLY over my braid, with a little extra on the tassle. Any more, and I've got a nasty case of the greasies.
HTH, and welcome to LHC! I know all this can be really overwhelming, but hang in there; you'll figure out the best routine for your hair eventually and after that it'll be a lot easier--though experiments are fun!
PS-Trivia buff that I am, I love the quote--but would have ascribed it to Thomas Edison.

[dixie_belle]

Thanks for the tip on HOW to oil.

I used 1/4 cup because that was the amount listed in the recipe, but obviously it was WAY too much for me.

So, to update ...

I washed with a no-cone commercial shampoo, followed by no-cone commercial conditioner. That was Monday. It got the goop out, but my hair still didn't feel normal. I have since washed it once more with shampoo, conditioner, and a white vinegar rinse. The one thing I loved about the ACV rinse a few weeks ago is that my hair has never been so tangle-free as when I used it. But I used much less in my 32 oz container.

My hair now feels mostly normal again, so at least I didn't ruin it. The white vinegar rinse also made my hair very tangle-free/easily untangled. The only real difference from before the failed experiment is that my ends still seem drier than before. So I was thinking of trying the coconut oil on them.

So, I REALLY appreciate the tip on oiling. I've been reading about misting ... either with EO or a drop of honey in filtered or distilled water. I really want my hair to be more moisturized and shiny. Would misting help?

Thanks,

DB

[sapphire-o]

Did you try oiling your hair after wash as a leave in? Many of us do that. It would definitely make hair shinier. Use a drop or two at a time, rub between your palms then into your hair from ear down. There's an oiling tutorial in the article section you can check out. I see you have fine hair, be very careful not to use too much oil. Fine hair is easily weighed down and can look greasy with just a few drops.