That's inspiring, theo!

I'm out of gifted-hand-soap-substituting-for-shampoo.  I haven't washed my hair since last Sunday.  I used to only wash it twice a week anyway, so it took until today to start looking a bit oily.  I'm a coward, so I rubbed some arrowroot powder in at the base, trying to avoid my scalp.  I'm not sure how much that messes up the no shampooing acclimation process.

eta:  I like the results.  I left the arrowroot powder in for a couple of hours and then did a 15 second WO rinse.  It has enough body and bounce again that my mom won't try to commit me when my parents come next weekend.

But. I think my hair is awesome. Haha. Also, I hung out with a boy and i went up to him and was like "Ayyyy boyyyy, wanna smell my greasy hairrrr" and he didnt think it was too gross! yay.

US...you are totally awesome!!  I busted out laughing reading that.

we went out on Friday night to meet up with a group of people from another forum I'm on, and I was brave my hair down.
I don't think it looked that bad, and it was in a pub, so was dark and that would have hidden the grease! Honest!

Do they smoke in pubs there? I don't know any way of getting ciggie-smoke smell out of my hair without soap and lots of it.

So I have a non-hair-washing win!

I said a while back that at 2 weeks since last shampoo I came clean* about what I was doing to some friends of mine, and all of them thought it was cool and though my hair looked and felt just fine... well just the other day one of them came up to me and told me she hadn't shampood in a week! She followed my example, and wanted to try it out to make a recent dye job last longer :D She seems pretty into it, and was committed enough to just go it alone a week without even telling me! I'm being supportive and providing advice and I think it's totally awesome.

As for me, I'm really enjoying suddenly being so chemical free, it makes me feel really happy. I'm pleased with how my hair looks and feels at 5 weeks, getting compliments and getting used to it being a bit different but nice in a different way. Washing with WO every second day, really like how it feels the day of the wash but less so the next, so thinking of trying to extend time between WO washes to see if it balances out a bit more, maybe to every 3rd day as the next step. It's a little bit dry so adding some coconut oil to the ends.

I'm not using facewash anymore, just a flannel and water then coconut oil as a moisturiser to make sure it doesn't get too dry. Would like to even wean myself off the facecloth because I think it's a bit rough on my skin and just use water so will probably start doing that. My skin has been fine until a few days ago when I got a few spots but I think that's time of the month rather than being unclean. Used baking soda, they are going away.

Basically the only "proper" body product I now use is soap! MPAGL is a scientist and has a vendetta going against dishwashing liquid and houseold cleaners, so I'm even cutting back sharply on those chemicals too. About to switch back to vinegar and baking soda for most things soon.

This is an essay, sorry folks! But now you are all caught up on where I'm at. How are you all going?

*Aren't I punny?

That's totally what I thought before I started using it as moisturiser, and again before I tried it in my hair! It seems really counter intuitive to add oil to your face or hair because you don't want either to be oily. The trick is to use tiny little bits at a time to gauge how much you need. For my hair I rub a little bit of the oil (maybe the size of a dried lentil) between my hands so that they are covered in a film, then just smooth/comb through the ends of my hair between my hands. For my face I do the same (without the combing). I wouldn't just slather on giant gobs of it, but if you have it on your hands it puts it on evenly and gently and a bit at a time so you can always repeat if it doesn't feel like enough. My hair just sucks it up,I think it quite likes it and there's no oiliness at all! I also wouldn't do it every day, but will after a water only wash while it's still a bit damp. I do have quite dry hair and it does feel different now I'm not getting the conditioner treatment, so coconut oil seems to be a good alternative. And it's ultra cheap, I bought a 400ml jar for $12 probably about a year ago, have used it as my morning and night moisturiser since then, and as general body moisturiser when I need it, and now putting some in my hair, AND have used a good amount of it making raw desserts... and it's still going strong. Now I can't even imagine spending $10 EACH on facewash, facial moisturiser, body moisturiser, deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner every month or so! Where the heck did I find all that money?!

I talked to one of my Chinese neighbours about her sleek, gorgeous black hair and she said that coconut oil is one of the tools in her hair-care arsenal. "And not wash it too much."

I talked to one of my Chinese neighbours about her sleek, gorgeous black hair and she said that coconut oil is one of the tools in her hair-care arsenal. "And not wash it too much."

Sounds like I'm on the right track!

Do they smoke in pubs there? I don't know any way of getting ciggie-smoke smell out of my hair without soap and lots of it.

although oww has already answered you.....kinda related.  We went camping at the weekend and had a fire and we got all smoky. I woke up on Sunday morning and smelt all smoky.  After a single WO wash it was fine.  I was surprised.

But I bet cigarette smoke would be much harder to get out.

The same night as the ball I took that hair picture for I ended up standing in an alleyway of smokers  for half an hour as we waited for our afterparty venue to become available. I came home and all my clothes and hair stank, but a water only wash did the trick for my hair too and I was a bit surprised. Thought it may have been because I had the hair lemonade in it so the smoke didn't stick? I dunno. But water is surprisingly awesome :)

Are y'all still practicing shampoo abstinence?