13 days into going no ‘poo, I had an urge to dye my hair platinum blonde. When I get crazy ideas like this it means it’s seriously time to do my roots, because it must be looking shitty if I’m that unsatisfied. I dye my hair super blond and follow up with Punky Color, so I was a bit worried about what would happen. Would baking soda doom me to a life of natural hair?
Holy shit
The truth is that baking soda DOES fade color. The alkaline opens up the hair and makes it more porous, so it actually accepts color very easily. But for the same reason it lets it go just as easily too. Although I wouldn’t say it’s quite so much that you have to give up on either. The thing is, in a no ‘poo regime you wash your hair far less often than you probably did when you were using shampoo, and I feel like this helps to balance things out. Another thing to remember is that apple cider vinegar does the exact opposite of baking soda, which is why they compliment each other so well. Its great for sealing the color in.
So here’s what I think you should do. Wash your hair (or just apply baking soda as I do in a spray bottle) right before dying your hair, so it’s ready to soak it all in. When you rinse it out do it with water only. I used to use a bit of shampoo to get rid of the messy excess, but the funny thing is, the first time I dyed my hair after starting all of this was that a TON less color came out in the shower. It was like fourth or fifth shampoo hair vs first shampoo hair. This means two things. First of all, I did not re-decorate the bathroom and myself once again in avant-garde splashes of pink that just never seem to come out. Secondly, it seems that because of the baking soda, my hair was holding a lot more color than it ever used to. So because of this, it should be totally unnecessary to wash your hair again when you rinse your color. That excess I was trying to get rid of just wasn’t there. When you’re done, spray liberally with the ACV. This seals the cuticle and your color. And damn if it doesn’t make my hair the softest its ever been in my life.
Try as much as you can to then only wash your hair once a week. It will be easier to get to this point using no ‘poo than with shampoo. In fact many people go on from using baking soda to using water alone. By the time you need to dye again, it will be because of your roots, not because of color fade.
For the moment, I’m still not at that point yet. Almost, but not completely. My hair doesn’t get badly faded anywhere except by the roots, where the baking soda gets scrubbed in. It looks mildly bleached there. Everywhere else it’s never held up better. My tips used to look brown after about a month, now they’re still black. So this is great. It’s working and I’m on the right track.
So it’s been nearly two months now and I still haven’t fallen off the wagon. I haven’t used shampoo since January 31st. This is challenging, but I have no regrets and no plans to go back.
Skirting The Issue 