Oatmeal "Dry Shampoo"

I am not proud of it, but my “no shampoo” experiment has actually turned into a ‘throw anything you find at your hair, as long as it’s not shampoo”. Seriously, I’m a week away from grinding up egg yolks and mayo.

Breakfast Gone Wrong:


So, I washed IT (IT=hair)Friday night. A day ahead of wash schedule, cause I like to live on the edge and it was really hurting for a washing. I wanted to try on wedding dresses Saturday, and you can't feel like a princess with what I got going on upstairs. Jill at Bluebonnet Trails sent me a test chunk of mild soap she’s got, to hold me over till she makes a batch of shampoo bars. It's made with cammomille, coconut oils, lemon and lime oil, and sodium hydroxide (neutralized lye). I wasn’t sure about this sodium hydroxide business – so I only used a little bit, lest it strip my hair like a shampoo. It didn’t. It foamed nicely, just a little, and felt clean. I scrubbed. It felt clean. But there was still that ‘waxy’ feeling, like when I didn't use enough baking soda that one time. So gross. I'm considering burning my towels.

I like the way the soap cleaned in that it didn’t dry IT out at all. So, I figured, I’d ignore it for another 3 days straight, and then do the soap route again, but use a nice amount this time, since it didn’t’ seem to be drying or stripping.

By the way, it must be said, that I have, like 2 inches of roots at this point. Because baking soda strips hair colour, and I didn’t wanna recolour while I’m actively dumping soda on my hair, and I had this grand plan that in two-three weeks, I’d be washing with nothing but water, and enjoying beautiful, full, shiny, bouncy, cavewoman hair. Yeah well.

I'm going to post some pictures here, but I am not proud of any of them. Please don't copy and use them in your children's science projects as "disgustig exhibit A".

So, I went about my business Saturday, slightly greasy looking. On Sunday it looked pretty clumpy. It doesn’t smell, and otherwise behaves like clean hair, so I could slum it with a scarf today, but I do have a job in the ‘outside, people world’. And the outside people world frowns upon greasy looking chicks. But I didn’t want to wash it just yet. Oh, what to do.

I remembered somebody SOMEWHERE talking about blending up oatmeal for a “dry shampoo” of sorts. Apparently, at this point, I am the sort of desperate that will follow any type of hair advice that I may have seen on internet, or that came to me in a vinegar fume induced vision.

So I briefly consult with Google, get a thumbs up, and spend some time in the kitchen blending up Jesse’s oatmeal.




Let me tell you, when you read online that you can brush it out, it is a dirty, dirty lie. You will have a head full of oatmeal.



(I spared you the r e a l l y clumpy, stringy, pre-oatmeal picture)

Pros:
IT got ungreasy, soft, and full.

Cons:

I was really nervous taking a shower afterwards, picturing all this remaining oatmeal getting caked in my hair as soon as it got a whiff of H2O.

And, in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t dump in oatmeal, shake my head out, and expected it all to fall out. I put it in. Rubbed it around. I’m thinking about posting a picture, but I kinda think this kind of dirty needs to be kept off the internet. And then I brushed. And combed. And brushed. And cleaned brushes, and cleaned combs, and brushed again. Over the shower. But then I had to clean the shower, cause there was all this dirty hairy oatmeal in it. So, then I just went outside. Completely freaking it out that it didn’t completely stop raining, so I’d have oatmeal in it’s breakfast -dish state in my hair.

Jesse came outside under the pretense of feeling bad for me and keeping me company, but, really, he wanted to pretend he was me and ask me a hundred questions, all of which were different at first sound, but really every one of them boiled down to: “What on earth would make you think it’s OK to put oatmeal in your hair”. I told him that Aveeno makes oatmeal shampoos, which is why I chose oatmeal over corn starch. Plus, I got to play with a blender. Plus, I figured, since I couldn’t grind up oatmeal super fine – the slightly largish flakes would make their way down via gravity. Well. I was wrong. There was oatmeal in my hair. Correction; there IS oatmeal in my hair.



Jesse’s giggling fits aside, and my ruined combs (3 of them) aside, my hair is degreased. And doesn’t feel waxy. And presentable enough to come into work. So there. Trudging on till Tuesday, when I’ll be giving the soap bar thing another try. Of course, it's a rainy week in SoCal, so I'm completely paranoid that I'll be walking outside and all of a sudden have strings of oatmeal runnign down my neck and face. Sigh. Shudder.