[Roxyllsk]

I'm going to give this a go today - I have straight, very shiny healthy hair. I'm a redhead and my hair is not too fine and not too thick, but tends to be flat and have flyaways. I do use a little product in it to keep my bangs in place.

I think I'm going to try the vodka with a little conditioner mixed in as my hair can be a little dry this time of year. Wish me luck !

I'll report back. I work from home most days so if it's bad no one has to know LOL!

[Roxyllsk]

Just did this - it was weird at first, my hair got all sticky with the BS / water. But then I rinsed and then did the ACV , then the vodka/water with a squirt of conditioner.

My hair was pretty much tangle-free, which I wasn't sure would happen because it got like a rat's nest when I was doing the BS. It also brought out a lot of red highlights in my hair, which is a good thing in my book. :-)

So I'm pretty pleased with my first effort.

[Beentheredonethat]

Yeah! Yeah. You definitely need conditioner for anything like dry hair. You've gotta make sure that super clean from the BS gets all smoothed out.

You know, I think it helps with grey, too. I have almost no grey hair, and I'm getting up there. My SO's theory is all of that product and things like blow drying makes you grey out faster. I pretty much do't do anything to my hair, ever, but wash it.

[jn4jenny]

I hate to say it, but after about five months, I hopped off the baking soda and vinegar train. It was fine while it lasted, and I liked it a lot better than regular shampoo. But I'm a very low-maintenance hair person who needs my hair to behave itself when it's left to its own devices, and while baking soda and vinegar got my hair squeaky clean, it also allowed my hair to do whatever the heck it wanted to do. My hair was stronger, cleaner, and also more willing to frizz out, curl in weird directions, etc. So as it turned out, I was blowing money on the other end with leave-in conditioners, or time invested in blow drying my hair, etc.

The tipping point was when I got an expensive, and very good, highlighting + hair color job. Baking soda and vinegar will strip hair color out of many people's hair because BS and vinegar are at opposite ends of the pH spectrum. Colored hair responds poorly to being taken out of a neutral pH zone. So after some extensive research online about what the BS/vinegar folks do when they get expensive hair coloring jobs, I tried Hair One for Color-Treated Hair, the generic version of Wen that BTDT has mentioned in a few earlier posts. I like everything about it but the price tag; even buying it in bulk with 20% off coupon codes at Sally Beauty Supply, I'm spending about $8 per month compared to maybe $1.50 per month for the vinegar and baking soda. But that's a heckuva lot cheaper than Wen, and my hair is so much more manageable/forgiving of air drying than it was on baking soda and vinegar. Just like with the BS + vinegar system, I'm only washing my hair 2-3x weekly.

I would still recommend baking soda and vinegar very highly to most folks, and I encourage folks to stick with it beyond that ugly 2-3 week mark. There's definitely an ugly adjustment period, but once your hair gets used to being cleaner and less full of buildup you'll be impressed with your hair's texture and strength.

[Beentheredonethat]

Well, that IS the problem! Once your hair is free and unfettered, those of us of the curly variety tend to get a bit too free and unfettered! I found the vodka helps with that. I also leave in a bit of conditioner/vodka if it gets like that.

I found the One really tedious to do. If you follow the directions, it takes a long time! I'm too lazy.

Have you thought of trying just baking soda, or just vinegar, or just conditioner? After the One thing, I just used conditioner to wash as someone mentioned, and that works pretty well.

[Hippolyta]

The baking soda would probably strip out color.

I have been using a vinegar rinse for eons. The trick is to dilute it. I use 1/8 apple cider vinegar & the rest is water that I boil with clove & rosemary in a tea bag. Put the whole thing in a giant bottle that I keep in the shower (it can be cold in the winter, so I put it on the floor so water will heat up before I use it). the clove and rosemary make it smell good. It may be placebo effect but I think the clove helps keep my hair color richer.

The acid in the vinegar lays down the hair cuticle, so there is less frizz & more shine. You can also rinse with cold water to lay down the cuticle.

Sometimes I do the conditioner only wash, but I can only do it for a day, hair gets to greasy after two.

[jn4jenny]

I found the One really tedious to do. If you follow the directions, it takes a long time! I'm too lazy.

For me, it's about the same time investment as BS/vinegar. I just start when I get in the shower, then do all my other showering tasks while the Hair One is sitting on my hair, then rinse at the end. And let's just say that the meticulous directions on the Hair One bottle are pretty anal and largely unnecessary. A lot of the waiting time is just time for the built-in conditioner to work, and I think they've skewed the wait times for people with REALLY dry hair. I also don't use Hair One as a leave-in conditioner after I get out of the shower, which again streamlines the routine.

That said, I'm sure there's some cheap homemade concoction that would get you 80-90% of the benefits of Wen or Hair One. They're just sulfate-free, pH balanced blends of soaps like glycerin, moisturizing natural oils like avocado oil, and a few other things. It would have to be pH balanced, but that shouldn't be rocket science, and it's easy enough to get pH test strips for the experiment. I'm biding my time waiting for some blogger out there to do the legwork for me.

Have you thought of trying just baking soda, or just vinegar, or just conditioner? After the One thing, I just used conditioner to wash as someone mentioned, and that works pretty well.

Baking soda is very basic (9 on the pH scale) and vinegar is very acidic (3 on the pH scale), both of which would be detrimental to hair color. That's one reason that the BS/vinegar regime works so well together: by the powers combined, they neutralize each other. It's my favorite combination for cleaning an oven (well, either that or leaving a bowl of ammonia in the oven for 24 hours so the vapors break down all the nastyness).

I've tried just conditioner. The buildup on my hair is terrible. My remaining hair conditioner has been reappropriated as shave gel, and it works marvelously for that.

[Sswor]

I tried the Wen as a time saver and it works well but ridiculously expensive. I tried the Sally Beauty alternative (Hair One) and it also works well but over a couple of weeks I just wasn't happy with how it was cleaning. I went back to the BS/V and my hair feels clean and stays MUCH less oily much longer then when I was using those one step products.

Honestly I don't think those products are worth the money. BS/V is great. I have no complaints and actually, it cleans my hair and scalp much much better then either the Wen or generic version. You have to use a ton of that stuff to actually get your hair clean.

[Roxyllsk]

I emailed the girls at work about this and that I tried it. 3 of them are going to give it a go and see what they think. One of them wanted to know if it was okay to take a swig of the vodka LOL.

I'll report back about their results. My hair feels alittle icky right now, but I think it's from riding and sweating and wearing my helmet this morning, not from the BS/ACV/Vodka

[Beentheredonethat]

I guess we all have different hair!

Roxy--AT least all of the appalled reactions to my putting vodka on my hair have stopped, but I'm betting more than a few people in here who use it also get some in their mouth.

I've never had any kind of smell with the vodka or icky. I'm sure it's just the sweat. In general your hair stays cleaner a lot longer so you don't need to wahs it as often, which is better for it.

[Roxyllsk]

I usually wash my hair every day - I don't like the way my scalp feels if I don't. And my bangs have a party when I'm sleeping and don't behave LOL.

I went out dancing with some friends last night and everyone was joking with me about the vodka in my hair. Good conversation starter !

[Bicoastal]

I went back to the BS/V and my hair feels clean and stays MUCH less oily much longer then when I was using those one step products.

My hair gets oily fast with BS/Vodka conditioner. Like have to wash it every other day fast. I'm too lazy for that.

[Beentheredonethat]

Well, time to bring this up again and check in and see how everyone is doing. Newbies giving it a shot?

I'm on a year and a half now and it's been great. And, as I seem to be at the age where I'm having real grey hairs, it seems to be keeping it at a minimum. Maybe the lack of chemicals aren't stressing my color, letting it stay brown longer.