shampoos

For those of you who know anything about me, you know that I love shampoos.  Like, different shampoos. tons of variety.  Prell, Suave, Aussie, Dove, you name it, I've likely tried it (if less than $10 bucks a bottle). I typically keep an entire buffet in the shower, so I can pretty much use a different shampoo every day.  I like how the constant rotation keeps build up from occurring so when you wake up in the morning, you don't have greasy hair.  I love shampoo so much, I typically ask for shampoo for Christmas, with the hopes that people will buy me a slightly more expensive brand that I've never tried before because they have some underlying guilt for buying me such a cheap practical thing that brings me happiness.

So, if you can't tell, I like shampoo. Except, now I don't use it anymore.

Rewind about 6 months ago.  I had already been through my major post partum hair loss and my regrowth was pretty good--- up to 1.5 inches, so I didn't look like a complete freak.  The hair that I managed not to lose was pretty long, but awfully thin and extremely stringing.  and would frequently get tangled.  I went an entire week trying my rotation of shampoos- deep cleaning, extra moisturizing, damaged hair--- nothing was working to keep my hair from looking like a limp rat's tail. 

I needed to try something. and I've heard about no shampooing.  people swear by it that do it.  They say the oily build up is extra the first few days, but then everything regulates, and you go back to your normal baseline production, rather than your hyped up "you just stripped you head of all its natural oils by scrubbing it with shampoo and now it's going crazy to replenish the horror you did to it" production mode.

I've always hated greasy roots- when my hair was a lot lighter when I was younger, they would literally be black if I made it back the 14th hour of the day and it would look like a bad dye job.  So I couldn't cold turkey it right away.

I had some Honest Company bath and body wash- bought a two pack from Costco- I'm always on the lookout for dye free and fragrance body washes for Liam since his skin is so bad.  didn't think to check until I got home the ingredients and the damn thing has coconut oil in it, which is one of Liam's HUGE flair up causes.  That stuff it literally EVERYWHERE these days.  snacks, candy, shampoos.

Anyways, if you have ever tried this stuff, it doesn't suds up. Like, it's not even a soap.  Like, I couldn't even shampoo my hair with it if I wanted to if I poured the entire thing on my head.

So I grabbed this out of the cabinet where it had been gathering dust, and put a quarter size squirt into my hands and massaged it into the very top of my head. Not the sides. Not the back. Definitely not the length.  Just the top.  where my head is the greasiest.  Again, it didn't suds up. I imagine that it bound up some of that oil that was there, but didn't completely strip it.  then I rinsed.

Finally step... 3 hugh squirts of conditioner down the bottle 8 inches of my hair (my hair was really long at that point). I rolled my hair with the conditioner like I was starting a fire with a stick all the way down to the ends.  and let it sit for at least 3 minutes.  No conditioner on top of my head. No conditioner at the base of my head.

that was day one. I repeated again and again the next few days.  and I'll be damned if my hair didn't start doing exactly what all those no-shampooers say it would do. started getting a healthy shine without excessive greasiness.

Now, I'm not an extremist.  Some people will shampoo every 2-3 days.  I don't do it that often, but more like every 4 to 5 days.  And since I've cut 7 inches off of my hair, I no longer due to conditioner part (almost too short, and I feel like my natural hair oils are able to take over at this length).

I sort of had the ultimate test the other night- I didn't shower the other night (and I always shower at night- have this OCD thing where I can't get into my bed dirty). But I was staying somewhere else, and my co-sleepers were Beckett and a random dog, so I went to bed without showering. 

And when I woke up in the morning, my hair was fine.  Slightly more texture to the roots, but nothing I would define as greasy. and not a different color. and not digusting to run your hands through.

So, these days I still have a shampoo buffet in my shower.  It's just not getting used as often.  on my 4th or 5th day, I still want variety to pick from.

If you're thinking about getting my something for Christmas-- go ahead and walk on pass the shampoo aisle this year.  I might need some conditioner though:)