Well, so far so good. I'm still "no 'poo" and still using the baking soda scrub with apple cider vinegar rinse.
This is slightly difficult to maintain when traveling, especially outside the US where I may not know the local word for either product. In those cases I've used a good scrubbing of my scalp under hot water, followed by a rinse with whatever acid I can get (any light colored vinegar or lemon juice diluted in water), and a cold finishing rinse. Works well.
A few times I've been traveling in the US and too busy/harried/tired to get to a store after a flight to get vinegar and baking soda, or I forgot. In that case if I've got no acid source (batteries are NOT an option...or I would have stolen them out of the remote at a variety of hotels), I do a conditioner only job. Just we the hair good, scrub the scalp with fingers to get up the 'druff and larger crud. Then glop on lots of conditioner and work it through well. Then rinse. Keep rinsing. Still rinsing. Always rinsing. Finally, a cold water rinse. It works OK but there is some itchy scalp from the chemically product my head is no longer used to and it doesn't last as long as the baking soda/ACV method on my hair.
It's been pretty easy doing this off-grid in the summer. A jug of water in the sun for the day is plenty hot enough to wash hair at night. For the cold water rinse...the ice water melting in the frozen jug in the cooler that's always there does the trick. well!
Winter off-grid with no home shower has been tougher. When I travel the first thing I do upon arrival at a hotel, if I drove, is get out the baking soda and ACV and have at it. Then again before I leave at least a rinse with vinegar and cold water. I've conditioner-onlied at the gym (where I shower most of the time) but it takes a while and one doesn't want to hog the public shower. I've also gone to a friends' house and bogarted a shower and hair wash.
It's nearly warm enough to go back to the outside washing which is my favorite now. Uses the least water and I throw the used water on the shrubbery so it's not wasted.
As for the hair. Still nice. Most days when I've washed my hair it's too slick to stay in a pony tail so that's about the only day it's down. People often compliment it. There are broken bits here and there, but there always were and they correspond to where my pony tail holder hits (yes, it's metal free, but my hair is thin and wispy compared to most), where my glasses hit, or some other mechanical breakage source. I don't think I can blame the no 'poo.
And pretty non-greasy even if I have to go 10 days without a wash. I do go to the gym and lift weights and get sweaty so it isn't that I'm just keeping it clean. There IS less dust in the winter around here so that does help keep the hair less grimy. Anyway, as long as I brush it well with a boar bristle brush a time or two a day, I can get away with 10 days without a wash. I'd rather wash more often.
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