DIY Beauty: Baking Soda & Apple Cider Vinegar Clarifying Rinse

Yet another DIY post! You can tell that I have been on a roll in my kitchen lately.

After jumping into a friend's swimming pool recently, I came out with the worst godawful build up on my roots which no amount of shampooing could remove. My hair was flat and with all that shampoo, my hair frizzed and I went around looking like a triangular shaped poodle for a while.

When I first went Curly Girl last year, I read a couple of things about using baking soda as a clarifying wash and using apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinses right after.

"Euw," I thought, "no way am I going to use something that abrasive on my hair." I use baking soda and vinegar to clean my kitchen and the way it cuts through grease! And, the fizzling noise! Do you think I am really going to do THAT to my hair?

Or so I thought at the time.

After glaring at my lifeless roots for the n-th time (n representing an unknown quantity, I used to be a calculus geek), I marched over to the computer, yanked out every bit of information I could get on using baking soda + ACV, got what I needed from the kitchen and went into the shower stall.

Result? Squeaky clean hair with volume. All the build up was gone, my hair was shiny from the ACV rinse and one quick hair mask later, my hair was nicely moisturised, bouncy and showed signs of pretty waves.

I like.

If your itchy fingers have been activated and itching to try this, you need:

For the baking soda wash:
1 tablespoon of baking soda mixed with 3 tablespoons of conditioner (I have fairly long hair which needs a LOT of product but if you have short or fine hair, 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 3 teaspoons of conditioner should suffice. Just remember that the ratio is 1:3)

For the ACV rinse:
1 tablespoon of ACV to about 1 litre of flitered water. (Some people prefer using 2 tablespoons but my hair seemed happy with 1)

Now, hop into the shower and wet your hair throughly. Gloop the baking soda + condish mix all over your hair (don't dump everything on your hair in one shot, apply it over your hair in parts). Concentrate on covering your roots first and let whatever is leftover slide to your ends. Then massage the concoction into your scalp for about 3 minutes as if you are washing your hair with ordinary shampoo and concentrate on your roots as that's where the build up is.

Rinse everything out of your hair with normal water and then pour the ACV rinse over your hair. This will seal your hair cuticles shut, balance your hair ph and leave your hair looking shiny.

Your hair will be feeling really squeaky clean to the touch by now. You can either give your hair a final rinse to get rid of the ACV smell and hop out of the shower or quickly run some conditioner through your ends to provide some moisture, rinse and then hop out of the shower. My hair is pretty dry so I apply a hair mask (it really sinks in because everything was cleaned out by the baking soda) followed up with some conditioner before doing a final rinse and stepping out of the shower.

Using baking soda as a clarifying wash works well but because it is pretty abrasive, I would probably only use this once every 3 weeks or whenever pretty bad build up happens on my hair. I think people with sensitive skin should avoid this too.

The ACV rinse leaves your hair looking unbelievably shiny. I am tempted to use this after every hair wash (lots of people do it) but I don't think my boyfriend can put up with the smell of ACV. He looked ready to keel over when at the smell and I had to rinse my hair pretty thoroughly to get rid of any lingering scent of ACV.

Which brave souls are willing give this a go?