step into spring with no shampoo

Things have been rather tight around here and as I signed up to spend free January, which I may add I failed as I bought my youngest a carpet for his bedroom!, I am watching our pennies carefully. Now poverty is relative of course and when I say I have no money, I mean I have no money except to put in the gas and elec meter, sometimes not even that these days, so I end up borrowing it off my mum, can you believe it, I'm 34 and I still borrow money off my mum!! nuts.

Well it was one of those weeks and we had ran out of shampoo, I normally spend £6-£7 a bottle on shampoo as it is chemical free and as with all things that are better for you it comes at a higher price. I have very thick hair and when it gets dirty, it makes me have headaches so I needed to give it a wash. I had a browse around the net and found this site

I followed the instructions and rubbed the bicarb into my scalp, it felt sandy and gritty, I didn't really like the feeling to be honest, it seemed easier when I added a little water to make it more runny, my hair was very tangled and felt like a damp dog, but when I added the vinegar rinse it untangled by itself, the smell of the vinegar was really off putting to me because as a child I had long hair, to the back of my knees and my mum used to rinse my hair in vinegar (lots of it), so I was thinking of that. Oh and probably because I only had malt vinegar in the cupboard! When dry my hair felt cleaner and pretty OK, this only lasted a day though and I'm not a girl to be washing my hair every day as it takes nearly 6 hours to dry.

Next up on my no shampoo idea was bicarb, vinegar followed with conditioner (still had this left) - bad idea, my hair was awful, real clumpy and waxy.
Completely by accident after finding out my soap running out and I didn't have the £3 for a new bar ( I told you chem free stuff is expensive!) I bought a bar of 99p olive oil soap

This one from our local health food shop, it is available at Holland and Barratt and other local health food shops too I'm guessing, well back to the no shampoo thing.... I needed to clean my hair so squeezing half a lemon into an old shampoo bottle and adding some water to it, I jumped in the shower, rubbed this soap all over my hair and rinsed with the lemon mix, ohh it was too lovely, my head felt so clean, my hair was totally smooth. After towel drying it and scrunching it into a hairband to dry off on it's own, I was amazed when I took my hair down, it was all curly and shiny and gorgeous. My youngest put his face in my hair and said it smelled good enough to eat!
I saw my friend who I had not seen since Christmas and she commented on how healthy my hair looked, you can imagine her surprise when I told her what I have been using. We have all been converted no to no shampoo, I only wished I had done it sooner.

Also I have a girl crush on a lovely gardener who I discovered quite by chance -Alys Fowler (who I think should change her surname to flower). I know I am sooo behind everyone else in all that I do but I missed her series last year so my lovely BF got it for me off the comp and put the entire series onto disc so I spent two nights in complete grow your own heaven. She is totally different from most grow your owner's in that she doesn't use formal lines, it is a mish mash of a bit of all sorts - I like that. If ,Like me, you are less than formal in anything you do and you haven't discovered her, I urge you to, it will make your day and her clothes are super cute too, I want to be her friend and have cups of nettle tea in her garden whilst discussing how beautiful the nasturtiums look, so Alys Fowler if you happen to read this, please be my new friend ;)