No, I haven't given up on no poo; I just haven't been posting because I've been so busy during the last eight months. So I thought I'd give an update on how my hair is doing and what my current routine is.
I went for quite a long period of time where I was using nothing but weekly vinegar rinses and water-only washes, with very occasional baking soda washes if there was a lot of buildup. I actually noticed that my hair seemed to be getting drier over time when I was doing that, however; I was definitely not achieving the desired results.
So very recently, I went back to CO-washing. I've been CO-washing for a couple of weeks now, and I've seen a huge improvement in the moisture in my hair. I usually use Desert Essence Organics Apple Ginger conditioner, and find that it works pretty well for CO-washing, plus it smells great. I also occasionally use Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner to CO-wash, although it takes considerable more effort to make this one work effectively as a CO-wash. It is much thicker and has less slip than the Desert Essence, but with a lot of scrubbing and a very thorough rinse afterward, it does produce some nice results.
I know the most popular conditioners for CO-washing are Suave Naturals and V05, although I do have reasons for choosing not to use these. They are a lot cheaper, which makes CO-washing more affordable to do on a regular basis, but Suave Naturals also contain methylisothiazolinone, which
this NIH study found could trigger neurodegenerative disorders in humans; it was found to be highly toxic to neurons in culture. And V05 contains some other weird chemicals for which published findings in the Journal of Toxicity indicate may not be exactly safe. Although this is not irrefutably conclusive evidence, it is enough for me to keep it out of my bathroom. So, even though Desert Essence Organics and Aubrey Organics are considerably more expensive, I choose to use them for health/safety reasons, because I can identify pretty much every ingredient in both of them, which gives me at least a little peace of mind.
I usually wet my hair only three times per week. The other four days, I just take a shower without getting it wet. On one to two of those days that I wet it, I CO-wash. The remaining day(s) that I wet it but don't CO-wash, I do a water-only rinse. Since my hair is not unusually dry, as is typical with curlier hair, I have to wet my hair at least three days per week, or it will begin to look oily. At the beginning of my no poo experiment, my hair was pretty trashed; I guessed it was probably a 1c/2a type, which is pretty different from the 1a hair I had in childhood. However, as my hair gets healthier, it is not as dry, and I would call it maybe 1b at this point. As I rid it of damage, it seems to be reverting back to the way it was when I was a kid; straight and silky. Especially on days when I do just a water-only rinse, I will rub the ends of my hair with coconut oil that has had plumeria petals soaking in it (for added fragrance). This does a pretty good job of keeping my ends in good condition.
I haven't had a haircut in 13 months; I'm actually really afraid to go to my hairdresser, because I know she's going to want to shampoo it. Also, it actually is in such good condition; the split ends are very minimal considering how long it's been since I've had it cut. Alas, I do need to get it cut soon, because it is getting very long. Surprisingly though, it is actually still quite manageable at this length, just because it has sustained a lot less damage than it normally would have by the time it was this long, had I still been shampooing, straightening, etc.
I also want to address heat styling. I do as little heat styling as possible. The most I do is on days that I wet it, I will quickly blow dry the roots, but not the length, on low. I hate having wet hair right up against my head, so that is why I just blow the roots quickly and let the ends air dry. As for straightening or curling irons, I rarely ever use either one anymore. I used to use a straightener on a daily basis, because my hair was out of control. But now that it's getting straighter and silkier, it is for the most part, unnecessary anymore for me to straighten it. I rarely curl my hair to begin with, so this is reserved really only for special occasions a couple of times a year.
So that's it! Although I am always tweaking and evolving my haircare routine, this is the summary of what I've done for the last eight months and what I'm doing now. At the very beginning, I doubted it would ever be possible for me to not have to wash my hair every day, or that nine months down the road it would be in such good condition. The first couple of months were rough, and filled with really, really bad hair days. But there is light at the end of the tunnel! My boyfriend has even been no pooing for the last nine months with me, and he loves it too. He mostly does water only, and CO-washes only once every couple of weeks, but he can get away with that because his hair is so short.
There are a couple of things you can look for as symptoms of protein-sensitive hair. If, when using a conditioner that contains protein, your hair becomes drier, tangles easier, becomes more straw or hay-like, these are the first signs that your hair dislikes protein. These are not typically resolved by adding more moisturizing products to your hair. Increasing the frequency of conditioning with the protein conditioner, or continuing it over a long period of time will increase these negative effects on the hair. These effects can only be combated by ceasing to use the protein conditioner altogether and switching to a non-protein conditioner.
