To be honest, I didn’t think I would last this long.
Throughout week two, I showered in the morning, only washing with water and scrubbing real hard with my fingernails. I left my hair down to see how it would look when it dried, and put it in a ponytail midday when I went to class (I’m in my final class for my Masters degree). During the first day of class, we had an ice breaker activity and had to tell something unique about ourselves. I confessed about the no poo and was met with surprising excitement. Instead of being grossed out or confused, they were intrigued and excited to watch my progression over the next few weeks.

Day 12 of No Poo
By day 12 (the day before I washed with baking soda again), my hair felt waxy and looked totally stringy.
I think things are starting to look up though. My husband’s hair looks great. I think the grease moved down his hair, and now is completely recalibrated. We both washed with baking soda in the first week, but that was the last time anything besides water (and my hands) had touched his hair. I used a tablespoon of baking soda, a drop of tea tree oil and a cup of water in my hair yesterday. I’m surprised by how good it’s looking. I was able to wear my hair down the last two days, without greasy embarrassment. I can see how this could really work.
I have high expectations for my hair. If after a few months, it looks okay, manageable, better than it looks right now…. then I’m not going to stick with it. My hair needs to look as good or better than it did before I started this no poo project.

Day 14
THREE WEEKS IN OF NO POO…
I constantly go back and forth between feeling really optimistic and thinking there is no way this is going to work. Things looked great after the baking soda mixture this week, but they got bad quickly after. It’s also crazy hot in Colorado right now, so that might have something to do with it. I keep hoping every week that the amount of time I am good after the baking soda will keep getting longer and longer. Anyway, here is what we’re looking at for the end of week three.
FOUR WEEKS IN OF NO POO….
It’s been four whole weeks now. Not much to write about because not much is changing. I use a squirt bottle of baking soda, water and tea tree oil every Friday. My hair looks awesome that day and on Saturday. But after that, it just lingers around in the “kind of greasy” stage for the rest of the week. It never gets awful, but it’s certainly not getting any better either.
A friend recommended a boar bristle brush. As soon as I use it, my hair looks super greasy and flat, but within a half an hour, it starts to look okay again. I’ve been wearing my hair down everyday, regardless of how it looks… and somedays, it looks pretty bad. The picture below shows what it looks like immediately after using the boar bristle brush.
Is this ever going to get better?