My hair is very fine, and often it starts to look greasy less than 24 hours after I washed it. I hate it. I really wish I could train it to be washed less often.

Sue, how long is it? While weaning off frequent washes, wearing it up or braided disguises the greasy look.

(I, err. Wear mine in braids when I've over-oiled it. Which happens almost every single time I do a full on oiling.)

I rinse my hair in the shower between washings, but I still do shampoo it a couple times a week.

In other news, I have changed my sheets and scrubbed the kitchen floor and now I'm going to Macy's suit sale.

I went shampooless when I was backpacking in Europe after college (so the tragic manky phase didn't matter so much). I rinsed it throroughly in warm water (preferably a bath tub) and brushed it a lot. Eventually the oils balanced out and my hair was pretty much long, shiny, and gorgeous without any product.

When I got home I eventually went back to shampoo, it was generally quicker and easier (though that might not be true with short hair). I still only use shampoo every two or three days.

Sue, how long is it? While weaning off frequent washes, wearing it up or braided disguises the greasy look.

It's shoulder length with layers. But aside from a hat or a kerchief, there's not much disguising the greasy phase. It's really nasty. The reason I did it over New Years was that I was sick, so I was housebound and didn't care how narsty I looked. I do want to try again soon.

What do you use proportion-wise for the baking soda mix?

In non-hair news, I believe I've discovered ginger growing in my herb garden.

Or at least something that looks a damned lot like it.

Plei, you really need to come over and mock my lack of knowledge and educate me on what the hell I've got growing in this garden.

What do you use proportion-wise for the baking soda mix?

A teaspoon per cup of water for straight baking soda. Spray bottles work well for application. For the shikakai mix, I tend to just make a paste and work it through my roots.

It's really nasty. The reason I did it over New Years was that I was sick, so I was housebound and didn't care how narsty I looked. I do want to try again soon.

Start diluting your shampoo when you use it, and you should be able to start washing less frequently pretty quickly. I did it by accident, because I was using a solid shampoo that I'd grated up and had started dissolving a pinch of it in water before using.

Plei, you really need to come over and mock my lack of knowledge and educate me on what the hell I've got growing in this garden.

You need the Sunset garden book!

Ginger as in wild ginger (asarum)? Heart-shaped leaves? Pretty much all you have to do is bite it to be sure. Regular spice-type ginger can't take a frost. If you have leaves that look like that type of ginger, it's probably a ginger lily.

I found my Batman t-shirt! Makes outside clothes worth it. It had gotten mired among all my other black T shirts.

I went no shampoo, not for hair reasons, but for scalp reasons. I don't know if it helped much. My hair has changed so much in the past five years, I don't know what it's about. But if I'm keeping up with it, it shouldn't be long enough for its condition to matter.