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No ‘Poo Update: White Vinegar Experiment

4 by Becky Striepe on April 27, 2011

White vinegar

How many of you guys are doing the no poo thing? It's been just about a year since I went back to shampoo free life, and I'm loving it!

New to No 'Poo?

No Poo is short for No Shampoo, and refers to a hair car method where you "wash" your hair with a baking soda solution and rinse with diluted vinegar.

To start, you massage your diluted baking soda into your hair, let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse. Follow that up with your vinegar solution, and rinse that out well. The ratio of baking soda to water and vinegar to water depends on your hair type and the climate where you live, so it's best to experiment until you get it how you like. To start, I'd try 1T baking soda in 1/2c water and the same ratio of vinegar to water. If your hair is greasy, up the baking soda. If it's dry, back off the baking soda and try more vinegar.

No 'Poo White Vinegar Experiment

We got a reader question about the vinegar part of the no 'poo regimen, and it was so interesting I thought I'd do a little experiment! First off, here's the question:

I was wondering why you recommend ACV over white vinegar? Any benefits of one over the other?

Honestly, I'd been using apple cider vinegar (ACV) because that's what I've always used, but it does have its down sides. ACV costs more than white vinegar and it has a much stronger smell, in my opinion. After a little googling to make sure it wouldn't make my hair fall out, I decided to swap in white vinegar in place of my regular ACV.

It's been about 3 weeks or so since I made the switch and I don't really notice any difference. I haven't changed the amounts I'm using, so my very unscientific conclusion here is that swapping out vinegars is just fine, if you prefer white vinegar over ACV. My husband is very sensitive to vinegary smells, so I think I might stick with the white vinegar. The smell seems to take less time to fade than with the ACV, which is nice.

I'd love to hear about your no poo experiences. Share away in the comments! There are also some great tips for different hair types in the comments on my no poo post from last June.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by cafemama

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About the Author:

Becky Striepe is a green blogger and independent crafter with a passion for vintage fabrics. She runs a crafty business, Glue and Glitter, where her mission is to make green crafting and vegan food accessible to everyone! You can find .

Twitter Follow Becky Striepe on Twitter: @glueandglitter
  • Ankle

    For whatever it’s worth, I’ve been using baking soda for about four years. I hate using anything else, anymore — my hair ends up getting greasy much faster after a day or two with commercial shampoo. As to vinegar, I’ve only used apple cider and that only very rarely, as my hair is extremely short.

    • Becky Striepe

      Thanks, Ankle! I tried doing the no poo thing without vinegar a few years ago, and it went very badly. My scalp started to have a sort of musty smell (maybe from my bike helmet?). Based on your experience, though, maybe I could cut the vinegar down to once a week or something?

  • http://www.growingherbsforbeginners.com Rhonda Daniels

    I use shampoo, but do like a good old fashioned hair rinse! You can use herbs like lavender, rosemary and mint in your vinegar to improve the scent and many herbs also help with conditioning ,too! If you don’t want to wait several days to a week for your herb vinegar to ‘brew’, a few drops of essential oils can help with reducing that vinegar smell :-)

  • http://www.styloparker.com/ stylo parker

    Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.

    There’s nothing wrong with replacements si king as they have the capabilities.