Using Vinegar to Wash your Hair: Reset the Hair Microbiome
Shannon WienerShare
Washing your hair with vinegar: a shift in consciousness
I was conditioned to use conditioner. The thought of quitting was laughable. I legit thought I would never be able to brush my hair without it.
YOU MUST SHATTER THE PARADIMNS YOU WERE CONDTIONED BY! Who told you that you have to use shampoo? What made us think that? What else in life were we taught we must do? Question everything. Discovering that I do not need conditioner is validation that things are not as they seem.
As you embark the journey of hair health, start living from the mentality that your hair goals are already met. Your hair is already healthy. No external thing can impact how you feel towards your hair. What is it that you want out of this? Is it to have longer hair? Thicker hair? Feel the feeling of your ideal hair. You must start here.
PHASE 1: the RESET (2 weeks)
As you begin washing your hair with vinegar, the first few washes will feel ecstatic. Your hair will be silky and smooth, as if you had done a deep conditioning protocol. This is the first time removing years of residue.
If you choose to use the vinegar along side of your normal washing routine as a deep clean conditioning, you will not go through the phases of total reset but you will absolutely still benefit from the polyphenols feeding the biome and can still incorporate all the other tips in this blog. However, if you choose to challenge the paradigm of shampoo/conditioner, this next part is for you.
Wash 3-10 might make you question your decision to quit using shampoo, but stick with it. There is a temporarily greasy phase, but there will be a sudden shift where you do the vinegar wash and suddenly your hair is no longer oily. You will notice you can go more days between washes, your natural oils are in tact, if you have curly or wavy hair - the waves will sit more softly. Once you make it through this phase, you are literally good to go for LIFE. Are you open to challenging your belief system and trusting your body's natural regulation of oils?!
Hair Goals: Growth, shine, natural
Diet
Along with your washing protocol -- try altering your MIND diet, sunlight exposure, stress levels and eat whole foods plus ferments.
Our personal protocol is to eat our body weight worth of protein in grams per day, walk at least 10K steps and decrease our fat intake... Seems rational-- low fat, high protein and 10K steps. We were told Keto was the way - eat more fat, but personally we find that fat stores all the toxins. In a world full of pollution, it feels good to eat less of it and be lean. The Earth's natural signal comes through stronger when we eliminate toxins and get rid of the diet dogma.
Check in on your MIND diet - this one is important because your hair literally grows from the fertile soil of the mind. Watch your thoughts, make sure they align with what you want. Live from the wish fulfilled energy.
Topical Care
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Scalp & Hair Rinse (2–3x/week):
Pour 2tbs or more, depending on how much hair you have, over wet hair/scalp, massage gently, let sit 2–3 min, rinse. I personally use the Salty Aloe Hair rinse as my shampoo/conditioner. - If you choose to stick to shampoo and conditioner with your vinegar cleanse, use natural ones. Avoid soaps that can kill the good scalp bugs!
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Get a filter for your shower! Chlorine kills the biome
PHASE 2 - Now that you are out of the GREASY awkward phase (weeks 3-4)
Goal: Support healthy microbes (gut + skin) and rebuild moisture barrier on your scalp. Let's populate the biome and then keep it fed.
Diet
Eat fermented food. Lock in on your MIND diet. Drink vinegar in your water. Continue eliminating the fat where the toxins are accumulating. Increase protein, avoid empty calories.
Topical Care
- Continue washing with vinegar this is all you will ever need
- Make fun hair masks with things from nature, do whatever feels good for you and your hair
Maintenance (its a life long journey)
Now that you have been locked in and focused for this past month, it is time to maintain. We often find ourselves at peek fitness/light body, only to slip back into old behavior. This requires a frequency shift that will last forever. You are no longer your old self. This new version of you makes decisions from the spirit and recognizes when their pain body tries to reattach. If you slip, your progress is not lost, you stand back up the next moment and choose from the spirit.
This new version of you has healthy hair. You live from a place that your hair goals have already been met. Wish fulfilled mentality.
Goal: Transition into sustainable long-term rhythm.
You may want to read the following blog post to understand the power of shifting your consciousness and how this actually heals your hair.
And our Culinary Cosmetics blog post can help you discover other ways you to incorporate vinegar into your beauty and healing routine. :)
