Hair Care from the Pantry

My mom and I have a theory about being pregnant with boys.  I don't think it applies to everyone; however, we both noticed some fun benefits from having boys, long standing benefits, well for her.  For example, she told me that when she was pregnant with Jameson she noticed she stopped having to shave her legs as much, lo and behold, I noticed the same thing.  I stopped getting ulcers in my mouth when I was pregnant with Sterling, I chalked it up to the natural toothpaste I was using to try to help, but after a while I went back to Crest, and still had no issues with them... 

Until I was pregnant for round two!  The difference between myself and my mom, I had a girl after the boy!  Don't get me wrong, every little inch of that girl was worth it.  However, the things my mom noticed that changed for the better have lasted through the years, I started noticing things going back to normal when I got pregnant with Ann Elizabeth.  Honestly, that is when (when the benefits started undoing) I realized that getting pregnant with Sterling was when some of these things started to occur.  I mean it would be totally worth it to get pregnant again if I knew I were going to have a boy just to get some of those things back.

Here's another example, I've always had dry hair/split ends. Even in high school when you go through that I-have-to-use-oily-hair-shampoo-everyday-to-take-care-of-this-scalp stage, my ends would still look unhealthy, even just a week after a good hair cut!  One day out of the blue I noticed I hadn't had to deal with split ends any more.  Guess when that started - during pregnancy with Sterling!  Guess what I began to enjoy with Ann Elizabeth - split ends again and dandruff!!  I've never had dandruff!!

I tried shampoos for dandruff, nothing helped. My mom suggested that medicated "tar" as she calls it, because that is what it feels and pretty much smells like. I just couldn't stomach it.  I figured it was just a weird pregnancy thing and would go away after my hormones leveled out.  Um...nope!  If anything it has gotten worse.  I'm not even sure what I am experiencing is even so much dandruff as dry, achy, painful scalp.  It's like that feeling you have when you wear a pony tail all day and then you take it out.  But my head feels like that, pretty much, all of the time

I've done a lot of "hair" research since we decided on Ethiopia as our adoption country.  I like being prepared, and when you feel like you want to do something on the adoption front, but there is nothing to do, you research things, like how to take care of your child's hair, because I had no clue.  Anyway, I learned a lot about hair and how to keep it healthy.  And somewhere along the line, when I thought I was going to claw my scalp off, I decided I've got to do something.  I remembered reading about washing African hair in baking soda and vinegar when doing the research for my child's hair (African hair is also very dry) because the chemicals in commercial shampoos just dry it out so much.  I started looking into it more and thought, hey, at this point it's worth a shot!

So...today was my first day to use this method.  (It's baking soda and water for shampoo, apple cider vinegar and water for conditioner.)  Here are my thoughts so far:

• So cheap, and I like cheap!
• Easy to do, one ingredient + water for each
• Vinegar stinks and I don't want to smell like a pickle, although my hair is still wet now and I don't even smell the vinegar smell.  However, I know sometimes after your hair dries and then you get it wet again like with sweat or swimming or something and smells can come back, and again I don't want to smell like vinegar.  I don't know that it is worth it if that is going to be the case, but from all the websites I've seen, that hasn't been a complaint.
• It is really weird washing your hair with no suds/did I get it all clean?/maybe next time start with it dry so I can tell when it gets through my hair?
• My hair feels noticeably softer already! The website said it would, but I was very doubtful of this. 
• My scalp feels a tad itchy, but that could be in my head.
• The site also said it takes about two weeks for your oils in your head to adjust which means that I will probably have oilier hair for a little while, that should be interesting!
• I've got yet another foot on the "hippy" street. I think they call it "cruchy" now, this all natural stuff, but that just sounds weird and gross.  Homemade laundry soap, homemade cleaner, homemade shampoo, what next?  I'm going to have chickens one day, aren't I? :I
• If this goes well I'm probably going to try it on AE and see if it helps with her eczema.
• I really like a nice smelling shampoo!!!
• I'm not sure yet, but maybe it will help with volume, too.  It is starting to dry some now and it does feel fuller/lighter, but that remains to be seen, I guess I need to go blow dry and update in a week or two!

Easter pics coming soon!  My camera freaked out halfway through the day, so I'm not sure what I have on it. I'm going to have to get my mom's card soon!