My husband rarely compliments my hair outside of me fighting with my curling iron for two hours and sucking up a cloud of hairspray. One random evening, he reached out and grabbed my product-free, day-old hair and said, “Is that what your no shampoo is doing? Looks good.” I was shocked that the same man, who tugged on my belly flab noticed my hair that I did nothing to besides my no ‘poo routine. Since I started this two months ago, I struggled to find an easy and efficient routine as a mom to two littles. Mainly, I just wanted to have clean hair without spending any more time than I need to during my midnight shower because… two littles. I have a no ‘poo routine for when I can’t spare the time to wash with baking soda and the extra time rinsing and rinsing and rinsing it out and it is even simpler and just as great. When I’m crunched on time (or just want to get to bed as soon as possible) and need to ‘wash,’ I use a water-only wash with an apple cider vinegar (ACV) leave-in conditioner and my hair is clean and I’m in bed.
No ‘Poo Water-Only Wash + ACV Leave-In Conditioner {great tips from Hilda Blue}
What you’ll need:
- Hair brush
- 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (ACV)
- 1 cup of lukewarm water
- old t-shirt to wrap hair
What to do:
- Before getting into the shower, brush your hair to get out tangles and distribute the sebum.
- Combine 1 tablespoon of ACV and 1 cup of lukewarm water into your bottle of choice. Set aside.
- Under your shower head, wet your hair thoroughly then massage scalp gently for a few minutes, long enough to let water clean entire scalp.
- Apply ACV mixture to length of hair (do not apply to scalp) and work it through with fingers.
- Leave it on and once out of shower, wrap hair in t-shirt.
Tips:
- You can rinse out ACV, if desired (I do promise there is no smell if left on, PROMISE).
- Remove t-shirt and let hair air dry.
- Do continue baking soda washes if your hair is prone to be greasy/oily.
- If you’re battling oily hair, increase baking soda and reduce vinegar.
- Use water-only wash after workouts or just every day (no harm since it’s just water!)
Final thoughts:
The t-shirt trick is something I’ve done for years but makes perfect sense now. It causes less friction therefore less frizz caused by the harsh fibers of bath towels. Just wear the t-shirt turban long enough to capture excess moisture. Optimally, you want to air dry after a wash. My hair is greasy/oily so I noticed a difference when I water-washed more frequently like every other day versus once a week (like baking soda washes). I do baking soda washes (how-to can be seen here) when I know I am in need of one and I can spare the time and it’s worth it, especially for oily locks. The great thing about water-only is that there are no ‘side effects’ because it’s just water. The error in baking soda, for me, was that I either used too much and/or didn’t rinse well enough and my hair was super dry. I feel water-only wash is great for stretching clean hair in between baking soda washes used for my super greasy days.
Follow my No ‘Poo journey here.
Want to be even lazier? See a “dry shampoo” recipe here.