It all began a few months ago, when I came across this blog. Let me begin by telling you that this girl, named Alex Raye, has the most gorgeous hair I've ever seen. And she uses this no poo method that has caused raves in the beauty blogosphere. When I came across her blog, I was devastaded by the condition of my hair. Although I haven't straightened it for months and let it air dry, my hair got to that moment where I honestly thought there was no solution for it. Seeing all the beautiful results of this method on so many blogs, I was blown away. I just has to try it, it was like what's the worst that can happen now? What was I aiming for, honestly? The WO (water only) method that sounded in my head like perfection. I could just imagine myself having the most beautiful hair and getting rid of the chemicals that haven't helped me in years.

A few words about my hair:  long, damaged from the middle to the ends, healthy on the upper side of my head.

I decided then to take a risk and try this method hoping that my hair will somehow revive and then go to that WO method. I was very optimistic at the beginning, something that motivated me to go on. I've been on the no poo method for more than a month but to me those weeks were like months. I was so focused to observe the results, to take pictures of my hair and I even managed to keep a hair journal in the first 2 weeks which will be summarised below. So I started washing my hair using only baking soda and water and then condition with apple cider vinegar and water. I must say, I have used this rinse of ACV a few years ago and really did like the results. Using this method, I managed to go 4 to 5 days between washings and no, my hair wasn't that oily as I expected. This is how my first 2 weeks went (from my hair journal):

Day 1 of washing: The hair felt a bit dirty when I touch it and didn't look that good. Looked kinda sticky.

Day 2,3 post wash: Hair looked much better, but did not smell that good. I've used dry shampoo on the roots.

Day 4 - second wash: I managed to detangle my hair so easily! Looked much healthier, had a certain glow...

The next few days my hair had it's moods, a day was looking good, curly and bouncy, the next was looking like I haven't taken care of it in years. I managed to use this method without getting depressed, because it's really hard to keep up with these opposite moods and go out in the world all smiling and happy. No. It was really hard to get through this transition period, because this was the transition! After a few weeks I noticed that my hair was getting on that straight line. I felt it smooth, I saw it and it was shiny like it was healthy! It's so dissapointing using all those expensive products with zero result and just imagine what I felt when I saw these results on my hair. I was amazed and told myself I've discovered the wheel, haha!

And then, one day, everything stopped. I just couldn't find the right balance between these two parts of my hair, the top and the buttom one. Either my hair got cleaned on the roots and dirty from the middle down, either the other way around. And then I told myself I won't give up since I saw those results, I wanted them to last. I tried to change the way I apply the 'baking soda shampoo' on my hair but nothing worked. I even watched tutorials on Youtube to see if I was doing it wrong. I've tried every possible way and nothing. And then, then I was really dissapointed.

I had to go back to using shampoos but I didn't want to use something with sulphates and silicones, right? That is the purpose of BS hair wash, to get rid of the chemicals and use a natural alternative. I bought myself a shampoo that I still use but instead of getting better everything got worse....I began losing so much hair that I got scared. I still lose a lot of hair, there are days when it's the normal amount and days when it's falling like the Niagara waterfall. Just kidding here.

The conclusion?

I am still not sure what went wrong and what I could have done differently. The thing is that now, when I am using regular shampoo, my hair is silkier and shining. But it still breaks easily, that's why I am using protein treatments once a week. Another thing that it's worth mentioning is that during these few weeks my hair got longer, so it did grow using this method.

This is how my journey went, unfortunately this was not a good experience for me and I will not repeat it. I will stick to my shampoos, deep conditioning masks and protein treatments, stay away from any source of heat and let it grow.

If you've had a similar experience and you want to share, please do that. I'm sure you'll help someone out there.