Day 83

Well! I feel like the experiment is going well, though it has certainly taken a turn. I felt like the BS was really drying out my hair. I loved the body, but it seemed to me that there was some damage going on. I know that hairdressers use BS to strip color out of the hair, and it's used as a cleaning solvent... it's harsh! But I didn't want to go back to washing my hair every other day with harsh commercial chemicals. I was at an impasse.

I had a little sample bottle of Burt's Bees Herbal Remedy shampoo. It's basically oils and fats, with essential oils and teas in it. That's it. No SLS, no parabens, no silicones, nothing. Since I was getting really wary of BS, I decided to try it, last week. After all, it's in my house already, may as well use it. It worked well. It did not strip my hair completely of oils, and felt shiny and soft. I used my old Aveda conditioner as well, it seemed the most benign of the stuff I have left in the house. I was pleased, and had an unexpected bonus: I can go a full week now without needing to wash it. I still did a water only rinse every day or every other day, and resorted to a ponytail by day 4 or so... but still! My whole endeavor is based around not washing my hair as often, and consuming less.

But it left me in a quandry. What to do? I didn't want to go back to BS. I know some other folks have had trouble with BS as well, being too drying. I don't have enough knowledge on what really makes a shampoo to make one myself- I know that oil can remove oil, to a degree (that's the basis of castile soap), which is great if you don't want to strip your hair. So I went shopping, for something I can use until I come up with an alternative myself. (Maybe I'll give castile soap another try. Hmmm.) I scoured Whole Food's beauty aisles, and shockingly only found a few that really did not have SLS, parabens and silicone. I wanted the least ingredients. Burt's Bees is a good contender, as well as Kiss My Face. I went for Kiss My Face, it had nothing fishy in it, mostly essential oils and so forth.

I like the results so far. I can tell the oils are not stripped from my hair. Today (the photo above) is day 2 from a wash with it. So, yes, I am using shampoo, but I'm tired of ruining my hair. This will be what I use until I figure out what I can use that isn't damaging. Meanwhile I am working towards using the product less and less, I need to be brave and go beyond 7 days now. Inch by inch! If I do that, then this bottle will last me a long time anyway. I feel bad that I chickened out on the BS, and thus the experiment, but my hairdresser commented during my last haircut that I had to lay off the hair dye... and I haven't dyed my hair in months!!! I had to get a lot cut off just to get it back into health, and I'm trying to grow it out! Not worth it...