There is a movement that has been around for quite some time and is catching on again in certain circles. It’s about getting back to basics and going natural with personal care products. Two of the products being replaced are shampoo and conditioner. Yep – no more daily shampoos followed by slathering hair in conditioner. I bet you’re thinking, “EWW!” but I can tell you that it really isn’t as bad as all that.

Let me take you back a bit. Before Pantene, Nexxus, and Ted Gibson were on the scene, people had to find  a way to clean their dirty, smelly hair. There was no air conditioning, so people sweated. A lot. Folks spent a lot more time outdoors, gardening, tending to livestock, getting water, choppping wood. Add dirt to the sweat. A lack of indoor plumbing called for very creative methods of completing the task, as bathing was not part of the every day routine.  Women wore their hair in braids or found ways to keep it pulled back and/or covered. Men either wore a head covering or kept their hair short.

Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece had bath houses and beauty rituals that were reserved for royalty and the upper class. For the rest of the population, harsh soaps that left behind a not-so-attractive film were used on ever-so-rare bathing days. In later times, the use of perfumes and wigs were used by society’s elite to hide or mask a filthy scalp.

It wasn’t until the 1800′s that the practice of cleansing one’s hair for health purposes began to gain popularity. (It is my theory that by being clean people just felt better.) A desire for soaps that left less residue and smelled good led to the invention shampoo as a commercial product. In 1930 Dr. John Breck Sr. created a Ph balanced formula which sold in salons. His son Edward began an advertising campaign in 1937 using real women as models for his ads. Cheryl Tiegs, Jaclyn Smith, Brooke Shields and Christie Brinkley are counted among the  “Breck Girls”.

Prell shampoo, manufactured by the Proctor & Gamble Corporation, made it’s debut in 1947. Their marketing strategy was aimed at “women who wanted their hair to have that radiantly alive look.” Breck’s advertising campaign was a stroke of genius. Real women could identify with the girl-next-door types in the ads. These campaigns and others like them appealed to the average American woman.

As science became more involved in the shampoo making process, more ingredients were added. Now there was not only water and detergents, but a veritable laundry list of chemicals most of us would be hard pressed to pronounce. These combinations of ingredients created a cocktail that left hair stripped of its natural oils and in need of conditioners. Conditioners are made to put oils back into the hair that have been stripped out. So … shampoo & strip the hair, then add oils back in. Does this make any sense to you? It doesn’t to me, either.

I made the switch to natural soap several months ago, only washing with a commercial shampoo product MAYBE once per week. I have been doing my best to only wash my hair every 3 days or so, longer if I have nowhere to go. Sounds gross, I know, but it’s really not bad at all, just a little greasy at the top.

Which brings me to this post. I was chasing rabbit trails, as I often do, and came across a recipe for a simple, inexpensive homemade shampoo recipe of baking soda and water. Now our daughter Sara has been in cosmetology school, and one of her classmates told Sara not to use commercial shampoo products. She suggested instead a vinegar and water solution. Sara liked it very much, and could go longer in between shampoos, but still felt the need to “cleanse” her hair every so often. (I hear y’all saying, “Yeah, I  would too!”) The vinegar rinse is supposed to be a very good hair conditioner, leaving hair soft, shiny and manageable. So I decided to give the two a try.

I mixed up the baking soda shampoo first, reusing an ordinary 20 oz. soda bottle with a repurposed liquid dish detergent lid for a topper. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of baking soda and 2-3 cups of water. That seemed to liquid for me, so I increased the baking soda to 1 cup and only used 16 oz. of water. For the conditioner, 2 oz. of cider vinegar combined nicely in a well-rinsed liquid dish detergent bottle along with 1 quart of water.

Naturally, the shampoo is not going to lather. Shake the bottle well, as the baking soda will have settled into the bottom of the container. squirt some of the mixture onto your hair and work into the scalp. Go ahead a give yourself a good scalp massage while you’re at it! Rinse well to avoid any powdery residue and follow with the vinegar solution and rinse again.  You will use more than you might with ordinary store-bought conditioner, but that’s okay, as it only costs pennies to make! The smell is minimal, and after the final rinse, you don’t smell like a salad.

I have to say that once I got out of the shower, my hair felt silky, like I had just had a shampoo & rinse at the salon. It was easy and pain-free to comb through. I let my hair air-dry, just to see what it did. (My hair is in between straight & curly, so it often frizzes with air drying.) The result was better than I expected. Still a little wavy, but oh-so-soft! I’m going to sleep on it without brushing through, and see how it looks in the morning.

Research tells me that it will take some time to get used to this combination on a regular basis, but once I do, my hair should require less washing than ever. I’ll keep you posted!