No-poo for Social Distancing

I have been a good citizen and practicing social distancing during the COVID19 pandemic.  Since my only interaction with coworkers are through virtual meetings, emails and texts, I've decided to test out this no-poo method once again.

I've been curious about this no-poo method, because I still remember the days when I was little (about under 8 years old), I would wash my hair once a week.  My hair felt soft and I don't ever remember having dandruff at that time.  Dandruff wasn't even a problem for me in high school.  I can't remember quite when it started, but dry scalp is now an issue I have every Canadian winter.  I get about a day and maybe 2 of clear scalp then my skin starts to shed like a molting snake.

I have tried this no-poo once before, where shampoo is replaced with baking soda and vinegar-water mix in lieu of conditioner.  I didn't like it too much.  Honestly, my dad uses baking soda to tenderize meat, so I felt a bit weirded out and worried about leaving residues to be sitting on my scalp.  Maybe it's okay, but I really don't know.  Now with the social distancing, here comes my opportunity to try the no-poo again and this time I've decided to test out the water only method.  Hooray for working from home!  My coworkers can't smell my hair nor see the dandruff buildup if this fails.

Pre-Experiment:
I wash my hair about every 3 days, if day 3 falls on a Friday and I'm not going anywhere for the weekend and not seeing anyone, then I let it ride till Sunday.  On day 2 or 3, like mentioned previously, my flakes are huge.  I can sometimes pull out a flake large enough to see about 4+ holes where the hair follicles grew out.

My hair also shed a lot, and my friends joke I leave a trail of hair-crumbs (hair not dandruff) wherever I go.  I am hoping the experiment may also help with that.  Although I have an abundance of hair, so hair loss is not an issue.

Day 1 to 9:
I started to just let my hair "au natural", without washing it, until I felt pretty gross out with myself. Which is about 10 days!  Weird enough, my hair felt a bit oily and then the oily feeling went away.  The flakes were smaller by the 10th day, being broken down.  I didn't brush my hair at all during the 10 days.  My hair would shed just like before.

Day 10:
I work up and couldn't handle the hair smell anymore: I wanted to throw my pillow out.  I used a regular brush but I have researched online and the boar bristly brush is apparently the thing to get.  I shall order one when I get to it. There was a lot of hair shedding from the brushing.  I also tried to get the dandruff out by rubbing my scalp with my fingertips (not nails) followed with brushing.

I used an herbal mix with water to wash my hair.  The herbal mix is my own concoction of perilla leaves, mint, oregano "bouillon".  Previously I have mixed it with castile soap and used it as my shampoo.  I noticed my hair wouldn't shed as much whenever I used it, which is sparingly.

I am not convinced the water will cleanse my hair enough.  Hence after the shower, while my hair is still damp, I sprayed my homemade hair spray.  The aim of the hair spray is to kill bacteria and give my hair a fresh scent.  The spray contains a mix of essential oils, Argan oil, witch hazel and vitamin E.  Then I blow dried my hair as usual.  (I've been told never leave my hair wet, as it will cause headache at old age.  I listened.)

What I noticed:
  1. My hair didn't feel clean.  It was as if, there are still some kind of residue (sebum?).  
  2. After the blow dry, it felt and looked very voluminous. 
  3. My hair looked clean, however there are still a lot of flakes, though very small ones.  I wonder if I was suppose to rub the scalp and brush my hair more to get rid of it at pre-wash.  
  4. My hair smelled clean, I'm happy with the homemade spray.

Next, I will wait more days until I am grossed out again for the next wash.



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