THIS IS WHAT I DO. I KNIT, I COOK, I SEW, I MAKE THINGS, AND I TRAVEL, AS OFTEN AS I CAN.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

I did it myself - FAIL

That's a Mexican Freetail Bat.  He's climbing up a branch of our oak tree.  I found him/her on the stepping stones in front of our house the other evening and returned him to the tree.  NO, I didn't touch him!  I used a take-out container and a stick.  I think he may have been on the ground because of this crazy wind we have been having this month.

OK, on to the DIY - FAIL.  If you remember, I have done several DIY or as I call them MIY,  make it yourself.  It's not just a doing thing, you have to make the stuff in order to do it... am I right?  So, I've made probiotic soda like Kevita, aka Water Kefir or exploding beverages as my husband calls them.

I've  made dishwashing detergent that grew into a bubbling blob that took over my deck, FAIL.  I'm still looking for something that works.

I've finally found a MIY laundry detergent that I really like and have recently made my 3rd batch.  Each batch lasts me about 7 months!  The cost is so worth it, I'll let you know about that in a future post.

This past week I have decided to try making my own shampoo.  I had seen several blog posts on Pinterest and then in a weekly email from Mother Earth News with the directions.  Hey, if it's on Mother Earth News then it probably works, right?  I'm not about to go the NO Poo route. 

I had some coconut milk already open  in the fridge and it needed to be used.  All the other ingredients were a given as we keep those in the house all the time.  One of them being Dr. Bronner's Soap.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dr. Bronner's Soap and we use it a lot!  You can wash anything with it.... but NOT your hair.  Long story short (it's always a long story with me), my hair was squeaky clean, squeaky like brakes locking up on a semi-truck squeaky.  I couldn't get my fingers through it, so I couldn't get a comb through it either!

It didn't want to dry.  After blowing it with the dryer on every setting for 20 minutes, it still wasn't dry!  Normally my hair only takes 5 minutes to dry, it's short.

Look at this!  There's a comb stuck in the back!  This is after I rewashed it twice with regular Herbal Essences shampoo.  Once I did get it somewhat dry it felt like straw. So yesterday I decided to MIY my own remedy for that.  Why not have two fails in one week?

When I got back from my walk I was hot and sweaty and was going to wash my hair anyway because it was a dry ratty windblown mess, I decided a nice big dollop of coconut oil would be a good thing.  I'm a sucker for the coconut oil.  Hey, the comb slips right through my hair when it is totally saturated in grease!  I was sporting that 50's greased lightening look, even after TRYING to shampoo it all out.

Three shampoos yesterday and one this morning and finally my hair is somewhat back to normal.  My findings on this session of research is, leave it to the professionals.  Paul Mitchel and Vidal Sasson know what they are doing.  Just let them do it.

I wish Herbal Essences would bring back their original scent from the late 60's, anyone else feel this way?  How about Gee, Your Hair Smells Fantastic?  That stuff was nice.

Have a great 4th of July!  I'm headed west to the ranch and beyond this weekend... ROAD TRIP! 

5 comments:

Suzie said...

Hey, Judith! I loved your blog about shampoo. You are so funny! I love Dr. Bonners soap and we use it to shower and I use it on my hair so I guess it depends on your hair! I use both the liquid (best for bathing)and the bar. But I can't use it every, every day. And YES, I want original Herbal Essences back! I used it until they got all those fruity colors.

Have a happy 4th of July!

life in red shoes said...

Hello there! I'm laughing, sorry ;) Pinfails abound! I work with a group of gals that use WEN, an expensive no-poo goo. Their hair looks like hell, I'll stick with shampoo.
Glad to see you're doing well! I'm no longer blogging, Instagram is my new thing :)

Suzie said...

Judith, you are haunting my shower time! Whenever I am shampooing I am thinking of you! haha! You are so funny with your Dr. Bronners. I just wanted to tell you a story. Remember, I grew up in west Texas with all the hard water. We didn't have fancy shampoos and conditioners back then. I think we used things like Prell Shampoo. After the shampoo my mother would pour some lemon juice on our hair and then when she tried to comb it out, it was like your hair, all tangles, so she would use Suave on us. It was greasy but it helped get the tangles out! I think we are just so used to all the conditioners we don't even know what our real hair feels like. So, I used lemon juice this week after my Dr. Bonner's bar soap. It was wonderful! (and the water here is very soft!)

Just sayin'

judith said...

PRELL!!! I remember that shampoo, green in a tube like toothpaste. Mom always used Breck shampoo and conditioner on us. I remember that I didn't really care for the smell of the pink conditioner, but we would get raves for how soft and pretty our hair was.

judith said...

Red, be sure to come back to see me. I miss your blog. I haven't even tried the Instagram thing yet.