Today I washed my hair for the first time with baking soda and rinsed it with white vinegar, that was it, no chemical laden shampoo and conditioner for this girl.  After about 7 hours it’s dry and not nearly as frizzy as normal, it’s also fairly soft.  I’m pretty please with the results overall but it will take some time to see how my hair reacts to it and tweak it to perfection.

I asked Waldo if I smelled like vinegar and he said No.  I asked him if it was soft and he said it had a dry quality about it.  This set off a 10 minute super fun conversation about making homemade hair masks and me deciding to try an avocado mask along with maybe a leave in spray of diluted green tea.

Today was also the fifth time I used oil to clean my face and a green tea ice cube as a toner.  I poured a teaspoons worth of almond oil into my palm and massaged it all over my face for about 1 minute then I took a warm damp washcloth and laid it on my face for 10 to 15 seconds and then wiped the oil off.  I rinsed the washcloth and repeated three or four times.  Then I grabbed a green tea ice cube and ran it all over my face, this is a little lot cold so I don’t let the ice cube sit on my skin in one spot for too long.  I don’t want to do any damage with the ice.  I pat my face to keep the tea from dripping on the floor and then I’m done.  My face is already looking much better and I feel good for doing something for myself.

I have made homemade hair masks (bath fizzies, face masks, bath salts, body splashes, bath cookies, etc) and used the Oil Cleaning Method in the past but for some reason (fell in love and lost track of time) I stopped making and using them, even though I love the result.  I’m on a quest to get back to making these wonderful (sometimes easy to make) masks, salts, etc and taking better care of my body.  I haven’t used baking soda in my hair before but I haven’t been happy with how my hair is reacting to store bought poo lately so I thought I’d give it a try.

Tell me, have you ever made a hair mask or stopped using shampoo?  Do you have any questions or tips for me?

I stole the term Pantry Potions from C of Random Thought and Musing from the Island, I hope she doesn’t mind.  C let me know if you do and I’ll come up with something else, but it won’t be as good.

People were so interested in baking soda from my last Mama time (pantry potion) post that I thought I’d throw a few more things out there.

I took a bath last night and figured I’d try to do something nice for my skin while I was shaving so I dumped about a cup of baking soda into the warm water. It’s such a small thing but really makes me feel nice and soft when I get out. If I had any of my essential oils handy I would have added a few drops of lavender for relaxation.

Before I took my bath I sprinkled baking soda all over the tub and got my sponge wet and scrubbed. It worked really well to clean my tub. I am going to see how it handles the sink tomorrow. I’m on the look out for good working safe non-toxic cleaners and so far haven’t liked the one I see more often; vinegar in a spray bottle with some water.

If your hair is a little greasy but you don’t have time to wash it right away you can sprinkle a little baking soda in it and then shake it out and brush it well and you should be good to go. the baking soda will absorb the grease. It’s a really good cheap alternative to expensive dry shampoos. I’ve used this a few times when I had extremely long hair and it worked pretty well. As I have darker hair I had to make sure I got it all out so I shook it and then toweled it off too.