defeat

I know when to admit it.

I admit it.

I am defeated.

It's the baking soda. And the vinegar. But mostly the baking soda.

The poo-free experiment is over. Thank you for playing. It was a long three weeks.

Some time last week the Man asked me if I was ready to throw in the proverbial towel. The dialogue went something like this:

Man: So are you ready to use shampoo again?
Me: No.
Man: It's ok to say something didn't work. It gives you credibility.
Me: I'm not giving up yet. I'm tweaking the recipe.
Man: Well I think it's pretty clear why people use shampoo. It's kind of easier...
Me: I'm tweaking the recipe. It's going to work.

Yeah. No. It's not.

I should say the poo-free experiment worked out ok for him. His hair is soft and really feels fantastic to me. My hair though? Not so much. The main issue is that because of the length of my hair (long-ish) and the fact that's it's already on the dry side (except the scalp which is oily) I can't seem to get it to stabilize. Either I put something like coconut oil on it and it's a greasy slick or I don't and it's dry as hay. Neither of which is very attractive.

This is not to say that I couldn't continue to tweak and fiddle and make it work. This is just to say, I'm not going to.

It was yesterday that I committed myself to de-committing myself.

It was 10:30 am. I had just showered. My hair looked bad. My scalp itched. I couldn't get a brush through my formerly lovely locks. We exchanged looks. It was understood. I mentioned to the Man that I had seen what I thought was a nice organic alternative (not containing sodium laureth sulfate, the key chemical offender in most shampoos/detergents) at Whole Foods. For $10 per 13 oz bottle (both shampoo and conditioner, which I clearly need). This is about three times what I was paying for Pantene and it's in a plastic bottle. So fail on those counts. Baking soda and vinegar, $.50 per week probably. But again, cost was not my primary motivator and lo and behold Walmart carries the SAME brand. Avalon organics. The Walmart price is a smidge less at $6.47 per bottle.


All I could think about all day was going to buy shampoo.

And taking a shower.

My hair looked bad last night and I said to the Man, "How's my hair look?" (It looked bad. I knew it.)

He said, "Not bad." I said, "Really, it's looks bad you can say so." He said, "Yeah it looks a little like straw." I said, "I can't wait to wash my hair."

I never wanted to wash my hair so badly in my life.

I had dreams about shampoo. (Not really. I only had a dream about having to be a clothing model and not fitting in the clothing and not remembering how to apply lipstick. It's got nothing to do with this post but I think you can sense I have some issues with clothing at present.)

This morning I did yoga for a bit. I would have done it longer if I didn't want to wash my hair so bad.

Then I washed my hair.

I wanted to luxuriate in the silky softness of conditioner and the sweet smell of lavender.

But the baby was screaming.

So I just hurried up and washed and conditioned and got out of the shower. Then I laid down with the baby to nurse her (and stop the screaming) and she fell right to sleep.

And I fell right to sleep. With wet hair. For like 20 minutes.

I woke up when I heard the Man coming up the stairs. "Crap I'm getting your pillow all wet. And now my hair is going to to look bad."

Now it's soft but looks awful anyway.

Defeat.

Better luck tomorrow I guess.