Anyone tried baking soda as shampoo?

[Marian]

As a dirty-granola-hippie type, I am interested in the concept of using baking soda as shampoo and apple cider vinegar (ACV) as conditioner. I hear it might work better for people who are able to go a couple of days without washing anyway, which is not me.  I'm waiting until I have a week off where I can try it out and not have to go in public if my hair gets too gross, haha.  In the meantime, has anyone out there had experience, whether first-hand or through someone you know, with this method of hair care? 

[SoftwareGoddess]

There was a recent discussion on this topic here: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/are-shampoos-and-conditioners-necessary/.

[Sid Hoffman]

Considering I can buy a gigantic bottle of cheap shampoo for $2 at the store and have it last 2-3 months, I haven't felt the need to try anything else.  To me, it seems to be an area where the finished products are cheaper than trying to do it yourself, similar to how my $3 frozen pizzas aren't quite as good as making it myself, but the last time I did a homemade pizza it was about $18 and took a heck of a lot longer than 20 minutes to make.

[Autodidact]

Yes, once when we were really hard up and we can't use cheap shampoo because of allergies, we used baking soda/vinegar for the whole family.

Amazingly it worked fine, but we didn't like smelling of vinegar.

Just mix baking soda into a paste rub in hair. Rinse. Rinse with vinegar (you don't need apple cider, white will do, actually any will do but malt stinks too much) rinse off. Done.

You can do it every day if you like. Or just do vinegar only one day and the soda/vinegar the next.

Note. Mix the vinegar 50/50 with water in a cup and pour over head. Make kids shut eyes!

[renter4evah?]

As a dirty-granola-hippie type, I am interested in the concept of using baking soda as shampoo and apple cider vinegar (ACV) as conditioner. I hear it might work better for people who are able to go a couple of days without washing anyway, which is not me.  I'm waiting until I have a week off where I can try it out and not have to go in public if my hair gets too gross, haha.  In the meantime, has anyone out there had experience, whether first-hand or through someone you know, with this method of hair care?

I did it for about six months a couple of years ago. I felt like it made more of my hair fall out than normal in the shower. I think that's because there's increased friction when you massage your scalp with the soda/water mix than there is when you use shampoo. Also, my scalp would get really itchy. I had read that I would adjust after a while, but I gave up after six months.

[Autodidact]

Further note....I wouldn't go back to it. Shampoo is much simpler.

[Pigeon]

It didn't work for me and my head smelled bad. You can buy shampoo so cheaply it seems not worth it to me.

[Metta]

I tried it and my hair did fine as far as getting clean goes but it also caused my natural color to fade so much that I considered dying my hair to get my color back. Ended up just waiting for my hair to grow past the faded portions. My guess is that it works better on blondes since they don't mind their hair getting lighter.

[ash7962]

I've been experimenting with it for almost a year.  If you research it you won't find 2 people who suggest the same recipe, and all the people doing the suggesting are bloggers (aka random people on the internet, like me :p).  With all that in mind I still tried it because I don't like the commercial shampoo with all its synthetic chemicals that totally strip my hair of its natural oils.  Before I go into my journey, I want to say that I think different ratios and mixtures work better for different people/hair types.  So with that in mind I have dark brown hair which is also straight, thin, and fine.  I used to use commercial shampoo and conditioner every day, and went "cold turkey" when I swapped to the baking soda/apple cider vinegar.

Here's basically my journey:
Phase1:  I started off with 1 tbsp baking soda to 1 cup of water, and 1 cup apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water.  I poured about half the baking soda mixture over my scalp (not through the entirety of my hair), rubbed my hair around on my scalp, and then rinsed it out.  Then I sprayed the apple cider vinegar mixture all over my scalp and hair, massaged the ends and my scalp a bit, then let it sit while I lather up and do the rest of my routine, finally rinse it out.  I had to play around a bit to get to this final routine, but this is what worked for my transition phase.  Took me about 6 weeks to totally transition and I was washing my hair every 2-3 days.  During transition I was a bit more oily than normal, but putting your hair in a pony tail helps a lot to hide the oily days. 

Phase2:  A few months later I started to realize that I was losing a lot of hair in the shower and finding a lot of stray strands of my hair on my clothes.  I was slightly alarmed but didn't want to switch back to the shampoo/conditioner so I did a bunch MORE research and found that people were saying baking soda is not actually good for your hair because of how basic it is (basic as in PH level).  Shampoo has the same deal, its basic, and that's supposedly bad for your hair because your hair/scalp is naturally acidic.  So, I basically stopped using baking soda and started just rinsing out my hair every couple days then using the apple cider vinegar (it helps me comb my hair out post shower).  Since I had already transitioned from washing every day, this was mostly enough.  I do get some build up though, so I will use the baking soda about once a week and also use a little bit of shampoo maybe once a month.  My hair stopped falling out and its been feeling pretty silky and strong.  Lastly, I found that getting the boar bristle brush and brushing through the hair twice a day really helps with reducing the oil buildup since the oil becomes more spread out across my hair.

[Elliot]

Baking soda isn't great for cosmetic uses. It's to alkaline for hair and skin, and too abrasive for teeth. 

[ABC123]

I tried the baking soda thing for a week. My hair was a hot mess and I gave it up. But I found that I do really like ACV instead of conditioner so the experiment was useful.

[surfhb]

I think the point for the OP is that store bought shampoo and conditioner contain cancer causing chemicals.       Some natural soap and a dab coconut oil is all I use

[thatbrowncat]

I used baking soda shampoo with apple cider vinegar for my conditioner.

I loved the acv conditioner! My hair felt light and bouncy after i dried it.

I had difficulties with the baking soda shampoo though i. had an increased bout of hairfall with this Shampoo regimen! i was frightened, to be exact.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I've been using it for several months. My hair is possibly a little less manageable than when I used shampoo, but it's never been so squeaky-clean. I wash only every fourth day, which probably keeps any problems to the minimum. I use regular white vinegar to rinse. It's a minor pain, but since I find I can go twice as long between shampoos, it balances out.

(Here's a blog post with my recipe and description of setup: http://frugalparagon.com/2014/04/18/dont-put-shampoo-on-your-grocery-list/)

[FrenchMustache]

Yes shampoo is cheap but full of crappy toxic ingredients. Your skin is not a barrier against these toxins but a carrier!

Anyway, i have tried the baking soda method and acv rince but was not sold, also due to bad experiences i read on the internet. I decided ro wean my hair of washing all together. I too washed everyday. I tried to quit cold turkey but that was not a success haha but now since about a year i have been washing a little later every time. I can now go about three weeks without washing and my hair looks fine! When i do wash it i use a shampoo bar with minimal toxins and rince with ACV.

Also added benefit , i discovered that my skin works much the same way and have stopped showering daily. I just shower about once or twice a week (usually when i am in the pool, so big savings!) and whenever i need it i take a little 'whore bath' haha meaning just a washcloth here and there.

[Elle 8]

I tried it for a couple weeks.  I liked the way it made my hair feel; softer and less frizzy.  I have thick, dry, frizzy hair.  I didn't stick with it because it seemed to take more time, so more wasted water.  I think my problem was that I was so paranoid that the baking soda would leave a flakey residue and the vinegar would leave a smell, that I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed.  I probably didn't need to rinse so long, but like I said, I was paranoid!  Maybe I'll give it another shot.

[sarah8001]

Be very careful with this. I tried it for a few days, but my hair felt like fine sandpaper, and felted up. It was almost impossible to brush, and felt like cheap acrylic felt. It's definitely not for all hair types. I forget what ratio of baking soda to water I used, but I read several blogs before I tried it, and probably took it from one of them.
For reference, my hair is fine, and has to be washed every day or it looks like a greasy, dirty mess. I was hoping to find a more natural hair regimen that would be less drying, since everyone who cuts my hair insists that it is too dry, and that that is what causes the greasiness, and that if I could skip washing every other day it would be much healthier. I also tried skipping every other day (still nasty greasy on the off days after several weeks), alternating shampooing with just a water rinse (still greasy) and ditching shampoo and only using conditioner (this worked best, leaving my hair less greasy, but took a long time to rinse out and lots of conditioner - I'm back to shampoo and conditioner every day)

[ShaneD]

I tried the baking soda/vinegar routine for about 6 months, but the combo of my fine hair and our area's really hard water just never resolved. Going to try again when we move to a different area.

[Sofa King]

Considering I can buy a gigantic bottle of cheap shampoo for $2 at the store and have it last 2-3 months, I haven't felt the need to try anything else.  To me, it seems to be an area where the finished products are cheaper than trying to do it yourself, similar to how my $3 frozen pizzas aren't quite as good as making it myself, but the last time I did a homemade pizza it was about $18 and took a heck of a lot longer than 20 minutes to make.

I concur.

[PatStab]

Use the baking soda in some shampoo, it will clean hair spray and gunk out of your hair.  Mix vinegar with warm water to rinse your hair

When I was growing up we used this to extend shampoo, it was much cheaper and we were far from wealthy.  Baking soda with salt added does a wonderful job in place of toothpaste. 

You can also use baking soda to scrub bathroom fixtures.

A really good cleaner is ammonia, baking soda, and vinegar.  Don't put the vinegar on the soda or it will foam, add in after water has been added.

[Kaydedid]

Tried this, baking soda really dried out my hair unless I only used it once a week, and hair looked really greasy most of the time (am blonde with fine hair).  Now I just use the expensive 'natural' shampoo 2x a week, with some cornstarch in between washings if needed.  Total shampoo cost is 1 bottle ($10) every 3-4 months, which is worth it to me.

[Marian]

There's some good feedback here!  Sounds like the whole "wash with baking soda" part of it might be a little iffy (I'd never heard of people's hair falling out from it, eek!), so I'll probably avoid that for now, haha.  But I do want to avoid the super cheap shampoos that are full of petrochemicals and whatnot, so I like the sound of FrenchMustache's regime:

...When i do wash it i use a shampoo bar with minimal toxins and rince with ACV. 

I've heard of the shampoo bar before... I might try that out!  (Also, 3 weeks without washing?? Impressive!)