The Baking Soda Experiment!

Baking Soda has a multitude of uses outside of baking. You can use it in household cleaning, for stain removal, as a gentle body/face scrub, as a deodorant, or even as a natural alternative to shampoo.

When I heard about people tossing out their expensive hair care products and going the baking soda way I was somewhat skeptical, but at the same time intrigued. How could something that I use to remove tricky wine stains be any good for my hair?  

Thus, began my month long "baking soda experiment". The first couple of weeks was a pretty big adjustment (apparently this is normal as hair needs to begin rebalancing natural oils) as I experienced lanky lackluster hair. I was just about ready to give up and return to my long-loved, chemical-laden Nioxin when things began to fall into place.

Now my hair is shiny, smooth and manageable to the point where I really can't tell the difference. Can you?

All you need is baking soda, apple cider vinegar and water for this super simple, two-step hair care alternative. While some of you might shy away from trying this method for fear of your hair smelling like apple cider vinegar, I assure you that's not the case. Once rinsed, no apple cider vinegar smell should remain!

To wash my hair, I now mix ~2 tbsp of baking soda with a cup or so of water (I honestly can't be bothered to measure) and rub it into my hair and scalp. This takes some getting used to at first as the baking soda method lacks the foam of traditional shampoo. Once I have massaged the baking soda solution into my scalp and hair, I rinse thoroughly and follow with an apple cider vinegar rinse (again 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar mixed in a cup or so of water). The apple cider rinse does not need any time to soak in - rinse it out immediately for best effect.

For more information, Liz Wolf's Skintervention Guide is a fantastic resource on the "no-poo" method  and other natural skin and hair care solutions.