I’m going to share a secret with you. This is something not many people know, based on my fabulous lifestyle: I am not a person one would be able to consider a millionaire. Nope, these flashy threads are just a front. I buy my onions on sale and I pack lunches for The Max for school and I drive to the other side of town (town is 3/4 mile long) to get gas five cents a gallon cheaper. One thing I cannot bring myself to remember to thriftily do is clip coupons. I don’t buy the newspaper, it’s as simple as that.
This week as my shampoo bottle ran empty, I decided to try something different. My personal choice for hair care products is typically Suave. Honestly, the fifteen dollar bottles of Shampoo do a superior job to the 99 cent bottles of Suave. They just don’t preform fifteen times better, maybe one and a half to two times. So, when salon products cost $1.99, I will buy them.
After researching recipes for shampoo and conditioner, I realized I had all but one ingredient, Castille soap. Following a trip to town I had a bottle of the versatile cleanser.
OK, I don’t remember the exact measurements, but the shampoo consisted of Castille soap, water, and a tiny bit of oil. The conditioner was basically a restaurant salad, minus the meat. I measured and mixed and funneled the goop into old food containers.
This is not glamorous.
I was feeling smug as I brought my concoctions into the shower to test them. I lathered, rinsed, but did not repeat. I allowed the conditioner to set in my scalp for three minutes before washing the salad down the drain.
I got out of the shower and my hair was shiny. It felt clean. I thought I had successfully beaten The Man and his overpriced hair care products.
Two hours later, my hair still felt a little damp. I decided to blow dry it. After fifteen minutes under the hot air and with a red face I determined my hair was wet with oil. I was greasy. I’d been defeated.
Reluctantly, I re-washed my hair with the little bit of Suave I had remaining. Stupid crap cleaned off all the grease, and once again my hair felt normal.
So, strike one. But I am not going down just yet.
The Pilver 
There have got to be better recipes! I’ve thought about making shampoo here at home myself and probably would be doing that by now if we had stayed in Oregon at the farm. Perhaps it was the wrong oil? Maybe essential oil is what the recipe should have called for?
Yeah, gonna try less oil next time. Or none.
You should try baking your own deodorant.
You sound like you may have experience in this…expand.
Naw, I saw Taco do it on The League (funniest TV show EVAR)and it sparked an interest. But not enough to try it yet.
You should try buying a newspaper. Don’t even read it, just pull out the coupons. And then going to Walgreens-do they have one? H&B stuff is ALWAYS on sale at Walgreens and the flyer will even usually tell you which products have manufacturer’s coupons in the paper that week.
There’s a Wal-greens about 45 minutes from here. Haven’t been yet. Haven’t even heard of that shampoo, but now I have a mission.
I only get the weekend paper just for the coupons. It’s a small paper, so half of it is just ads, which I like, plus it was less than $20 for 6 months. I’m a big time coupon clipper. Sometimes I really annoy cashiers when I hand them a big stack, and they try to screw me over by asking me if I really bought 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper or whatever and I have to glare at them when they try to hand the coupon back to me. Just tonight I had some Indian woman glaring over my coupons like she was afraid I was handing her counterfeit $50s and not just trying to save $1 on 24 cans of Fancy Feast.
Oh, and do you make your own laundry detergent? I heard you only need Borax, baking soda, and a bar of soap. I’ve been tempted to try it.
I have not, but I will probably end up trying it soon. I would rather save money on that and splurge on good beer 🙂
Interesting, although I’ve heard rumors about people who apple cider vinegar instead of shampoo, and coconut oil in place of conditioner. Even though sometimes I wonder if the price of vinegar is less than that of a bottle of Suave, or V05, they aren’t the best, but they are cheap and get the job done.
I’ve tried vinegar, it works well for a stripping style clean, but I always end up smelling like a pickle.
I’ve only just recently mastered the art of making my own homemade beef stew. I’m not about to go messing around with cleaning products. I don’t want to risk losing even more hair. But if you can pull it off, I say go for it. Keep trying. At the least, it’ll make for good writing.