breathe, breathe in the hair

Friday, aug. 8, 2008   |   0 comments

Just over a month ago, I read a post over at Angry Chicken that mentioned the benefits, both financial- and scalp-happiness-wise, of washing your hair using nothing but baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Not at the same time, of course—since that would cause your head to turn into a volcano of a science fair—but staggered, with the baking soda as the shampoo and the apple cider as the conditioning rinse.

My love of home remedies being slightly stronger than my since-childhoood-in-Marin distaste for hippie schemes, I decided to give it a try. And for the past month, I have indeed been washing my hair with 2 cups of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of baking soda (double the usual amount, but I have troubling amounts of hair) and rinsing with 2 cups of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar—it’s all how-to-ed in satisfying detail over at Babyslime.

And I am here to say that I’m very happy with the results! My hair feels good—when it gets wet, gone is that American squeakiness, where your fingers sort of stutter down your head. Instead, my hair feels…supple? Elastic? Childlike? And there’s a lot less tangling. Best of all is the smell, which I for some reason keep describing as “lake-like,” a description that I know sounds boggish and silty and generally unappetizing. But I’m talking about that fresh, comforting, elemental smell of an exhausting childhood day spent sunning and diving into non-chlorinated waters. That smell. And all the people I’ve forced to “smell my head” this past month seem to agree, or at least are not repulsed!

Also, my hair actually looks better, or at least less puffy. And not at all dirty-hippie lank, as I feared.

All in all, a very successful home remedy experiment! Unlike the clove of garlic the internet once convinced me to try as a cure for a yeast infection, an experiment which was…not quite as successful. Suffice it to say that if you’re not single when you start stuffing your infected parts full of garlic,
chicken-style, you very soon will be. But you’ll still have that yeast infection to keep you company.