My Shampoo Recipe:

1 part baking soda to 2.5 parts water

My Conditioner Recipe:

1 part Apple Cider Vinegar + lemon juice to 4 parts water

1 tsp coconut oil

½ tsp orange extract

Several pieces of the juiced lemon peels

I adore my hair. I’m not pulling punches here, people – it’s my best feature, hands down, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ll go to unprecedented lengths to keep it so.

I keep a hairbrush in my car and a mirror in my purse. I have to – otherwise I spend half my day looking for makeshift mirrors: in my cell phone screen, my iPod screen, a particularly shiny computer screen, glass bottles, tinted car windows, store windows, a sturdy pair of bifocals, a sunglasses lens, my rearview mirror, my side mirrors (not recommended while car is in motion), the freshly cleaned cheese case at the supermarket…the list goes on.

Once I was fixing my hair in the reflection of a superbly darkened car window when it began to slide down and the driver asked,

“Can I help you?”

“As a matter of fact,” I responded, “You can put your window back up; unless you happen to have a mirror in there I could borrow.”

Ok – so I have just-below-shoulder length dirty blonde hair (and, if you’re wondering, I did edit this several times to remove the following: glorious, golden, shiny, radiant, divine, beachy, sunkissed, halo), and I might think too much of it.

Of course, I’ve tried probably hundreds of hair care solution, but the flavor of the month is TRESemmé Healthy Volume shampoo and the matching conditioner. So why would I ever give this up for some “do-it-yourself” mixture of baking soda and vinegar? (Seriously, I’m not doing myself any favors in the fragrance department.)

Well, after doing some research on natural remedies, I found that shampoo in particular contains harmful chemicalsand strips your hair of natural healthy oils. As an up-and-coming hippie, I can’t have that.

My new shampoo contains about 1 part baking soda (my old friend) to 2.5 parts water. This is a bit stronger than some of the other recipes I’ve found, but I want my hair to be squeaky clean through the foretold transition period when your hair, confused by a lack of chemicals, over-produces oils for a time (perhaps my corn starch will come in handy again as a dry shampoo?).

For the conditioner, I’ve mixed 1 part Apple Cider Vinegar + (freshly squeezed) lemon juice to 4 parts water. Apple Cider Vinegar works to detangle and clarify your hair, while the lemon juice is a clarifier and a natural lightener. To counteract the smell of the vinegar (my freshly mixed conditioner smelled like Easter egg dye), I’ve added coconut oil, lemon peels and orange extract.

I can already hear my head spluttering insults at me through the all-natural aroma of vinegar.