CBM Beauty Tip #2

In addition to Larissa's great money-saving tip for soap-y products (although personally I would replace the liquid softsoap with Dr. Bronner's), we have also been trying a replacement for shampoo and conditioner recommended by our squad leader at the Food Coop: baking soda and vinegar!

I was pretty doubtful - after all, I have long, highly over-washed and over-conditioned hair, and I like it that way.  But our squad leader told us her #1 beauty product is baking soda: she uses it to brush her teeth (ok, that I had heard of), as face scrub (hadn't heard of it, but makes sense), and as shampoo (what?!?). And that she uses apple cider vinegar as a replacement for conditioner (seriously?!?!).

Trying to put my skepticism aside, I took a closer look at her skin and hair, and have to admit that they are both quite lovely. So I decided to give it a go myself.

For the shampoo, you wet your hair as you normally do and then put about a tablespoon of baking powder in your hand and massage it into your scalp, then rinse as you normally do.  I absolutely LOVE this, and will keep this one well past CBM.

For the conditioner, I've just been kind of pouring organic apple cider vinegar on my head and hair.

This one I'm less sure about, and it may just last for CBM only, although the jury is still out on it's performance. I find it hard to use (since it's not viscous like conditioner and so just runs through my fingers/hair) and the smell is, well, not what I'm used to. However, although it doesn't de-tangle quite the way that conditioner does, my hair is really soft all day. To counter the smell, I've been spraying my hair with a water and lavender oil mixture that we use on Sasha's hair every day (see Larissa's post below about daycare + lice prophylaxis!).

Bottom line: while I'm not sure I can recommend that you replace your conditioner, I highly recommend that you give the baking soda shampoo a try. You might just find a lifetime of shampoo-savings is in store for you!