Is That Cucumber Salad I Smell, or Did You Just Wash Your Hair?

Years ago, before someone finally sat me down and lay the truth on me about things, things being my out-dated, fuzzy, bleached out, dried out pitiful rag of a hairstyle, I played the part of my own do-it-yourself stylist. 

I drug-stored colored and weed-whacker cut my own hair.  For many, many lamentable years.  Not because I was too cheap or poor to pay for the services of a modestly-priced stylist – I could have budgeted that in, for sure.  It was because I was scared.  I’d had one or two seriously hideous experiences in the chair of a lady named "Norma" who owned and operated small shop behind the city recreation department in my parents’ tiny home town, and I didn’t trust that if I ventured out of podunkville and let someone do my hair who’d actually, you know, studied hairdressing, I might NOT come out lookin’ like Buster Brown and Toni Tenille’s love child.

When I finally, in my mid 30s, decided maybe 18 years’d been long enough of a ban on professional hair care, I settled immediately into a relationship with a young lady who actually knew a thing or two about hair, and immediately set me free from my withered, whitened, coarse and woolly mane, uncovering (after a few months of intense un-doing of nearly two decades of my doings) a head of pretty decently healthy and hearty hair.  And people, I still feel inexpressable gratitude to her.

She had skills with the scissors AND with the foils/brush, plus she was a wealth of information about between-appointments haircare and gave me simple, practical advice, vs. selling me products.  One of the best little tips she gave me was the one that, to this day, I use on occasions when my hair needs a little extra boost to clarify it and impart a bit of extra shine.  And I don’t have to go any further than my own kitchen cabinets to get it, which you know my frugal heart adores.

Can you guess what the secret is?

It’s apple cider vinegar!  A great cleaner for projects all over your household, cider vinegar boasts a Ph level ( a slight acidity) that nearly matches that of human hair, and thus restores your hair to a closer-to-natural state after many washes and rinses with more alkaline shampoos, conditioners and the application of various products.  This rebalancing washes away residual build-up and helps the scales of the hair follicle to smooth down along the shaft, leaving hair clean, fresh and shiny. 

Worried you’ll smell like a salad?  Don’t.  Vinegar’s scent completely disappears from hair as it evaporates.  Sure, your bathroom’s going to have the faint aroma of pickles for about 20 minutes after you’ve rinsed, but after that, it’ll probably actually be fresher than before the treatment.  Not that I think your bathroom stinks or anything! 

All you need to do is grab a quart of cool water and 1/3 of a cup of cider vinegar and mix them together in a bathroom-safe container.  After you’ve washed and rinsed your tresses, simply pour the water/vinegar solution over your head.  Hold your head back and avoid getting the mixture into your eyes, because it’s vinegar – it’ll sting them.   YEOWCH.

After you’ve done that, the choice is yours.  You can wait a minute or two and then re-rinse the hair under fresh cool water, or not.  Either way, you’ll have soft, smooth, shiny hair after styling, for pennies.  You don’t need to condition after this treatment – I promise.  You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that one of the best products you can put on your hair is always sitting on a shelf in your kitchen, at the ready. 

And you have to admit – that’s a pretty great feeling.

(I know I promised a continuation of the discussion about heart health for this week’s post, only this week when I visited my OB, we talked about, you know, babies bein’ born and stuff.  I do have something fun and enlightening in the works on the healthy-heart front, though, and I hope to get it sorted out and ready for you next week, as long as baby hasn’t made his arrival by then.  Bear with me… I haven’t forgotten my promise!)

Megan is the owner and author of FriedOkra, where she writes about parenting, cooking, the South, and other good things in life.