Experimenting with natural alternatives to shampoo and conditioner
Instead of shampoo, I have been washing my hair with either baking soda (diluted with water) or raw honey. For conditioner, I have been using diluted apple cider vinegar.
Why? Commercial hair care products strip your hair of its natural oils, causing overcompensation in oil production. These shampoo/conditioner alternatives cleanse and condition your hair without stripping it, so over time your hair should start producing oil at a slower rate. This means that instead of washing your hair daily or every other day, you only need wash it weekly.
Learn more here:
This appealed to me as I knew there would be many times throughout my trip when I wouldn't have access to running water. Washing my hair multiple times a week out of a bucket would be a pain. So I began using these alternatives in August, hoping to train my hair by September. (Within the first month I switched over to raw honey, for I learned that baking soda will actually damage hair over time due to differences in pH value).
Furthermore, many have testified that this experiment has given them the best hair of their lives, giving me another incentive to try it out.
It's been over six months since I started using these hair care alternatives. I'm sure you are all wondering how this went.
Best hair of my life? Eh. My hair became heavier, shinier, stronger, and, I believe, healthier. I used shampoo twice since August: once in October to get the Namibian desert dust out of my hair, and the second time about a month ago, simply because I missed shampoo.
And I'll admit, I prefer my hair after shampoo. It smells better, it has more volume, it is lighter, softer, and even looks blonder.
Nonetheless the experiment fulfilled its purpose:
I can go an entire 1-2 weeks without needing to wash my hair. And that has made my journey through Africa so much easier!
