No Shampoo February

I know the name doesn't really "go", but September and November are both too far away to wait for one. Either way, I'm trying this "no shampoo" thing. It all started when a friend on facebook posted this. In this trend, people are swapping out shampoo for a baking soda paste and replacing conditioner with an apple cider vinegar rinse.
Basically, the idea is to get your hair to stop overproducing oil which is what its taught to do when we strip it with regular shampoo. The blog claims that when you stop stripping your hair and then pumping it full of conditioner, your hair will reach a natural balance itself which removes the need to keep up the constant shampoo and conditioner cycle. My first reaction was, "Gross! How can anyone who has an active lifestyle get away with this?" so I did more research. It turns out that several ladies who work out on the regular are also living the no shampoo dream. For instance, this girl did Insanity while only rinsing with baking soda and apple cider vinegar and she swears it did the trick. I'm becoming convinced. After all, baking soda is used to deodorize carpets and refrigerators.

Bloggers also claim that once your hair reaches its natural balance and is left alone to do its thing, it starts to grow like mad! I'm trying it! I'm not someone who is terrified about the health ramifications of shampoo or the environmental impact my six bottles of shampoo a year will cause, but I am someone with annoyingly weird hair that refuses to grow. I started straightening my naturally curly/wavy hair when I was thirteen. At that age, I didn't really think about the damage I was doing, so I didn't use a serum and didn't always wait for my hair to be perfectly dry before using the iron. To make things worse, I started dying my hair light blonde (instead of my natural dirty blonde) when I was around eighteen. All that plus a few rotten haircuts have left me where I am: split ends, "ombre" hair (because I've been trying to grow out my natural color for a year), and the same length because its too unhealthy to grow long.

My hope is that once I get my hair back to a healthy balance, I can keep trimming the ends and actually see growth. I really want long hair for my wedding!

I'll update you once a week to let you know how it's going.
-Stephaie