Vinegar Hair Rinse

As promised, here's some info on using vinegar hair rinse.

Many people are shocked when I tell them that my family uses a vinegar rinse in our hair. It's really not that weird. Just search the web and you'll find lots of references to it. Here are a few that I have read:

•  Little House in the Suburbs, 
• Chagrin Valley Soap (this one goes into a lot of detail and gives some recipes)
• official Heinz Vinegar site
• Urban Beauty Collective
• DocLocs: Sisterlocks

The science behind it is fairly simple. Think of the cuticle of the hair like shingles on a roof. When all is well, the shingles should neatly overlap, providing a protective barrier between what is inside the shingles (your house) and what is outside the shingles (the elements). Alkalinity (soaps and many hair products) causes the hair cuticle to open up, exposing the hair to the elements and making it drier, less shiny and more prone to tangles and breakage. Kind of like, if a storm were to raise the shingles on your roof, leaving the house exposed to the elements. Most commercial conditioners coat the hair to make it appear smoother, but do little to actually improve its condition (Listen closely to the TV ads for hair products, most are very careful to say it will improve your hair's appearance or will make it appear healthy, but they won't say that it will be healthier). This would be like putting a tarp over the damaged shingles, but not repairing the roof. Here's what the vinegar does. First, it removes soap residue left in the hair after washing, leaving hair less weighed down; and soap, by its nature attracts oil and dirt, so less soap left behind can mean that the hair looks and feels clean longer. Second, being a mild acid, it balances the PH and causes the cuticle to lay back down, leaving the hair smoother and shinier; thereby, repairing the shingles on the roof.


I had read about vinegar rinse for hair for years but had never tried it. I don't know why, it goes completely against my frugal nature to continue to throw money at commercial conditioners that weren't even working for me instead of trying the cheaper homemade alternative. For some reason, I always thought I would eventually find one that worked, but I never did. I'm not a very demanding person when it comes to my hair, I just wanted to be able to brush it without it feeling like I was yanking it out of my scalp, and it would have been nice to not have so much frizz. When I started researching my recipe for shampoo bars, I kept reading more and more about the vinegar rinses. After making the shampoo bars, but while they were still curing and could not be used yet, I decided to try the vinegar with the commercial shampoo. I was very pleased with how much smoother my hair was. It had a little more shine and a lot less frizz. But with the commercial shampoos (as well as "regular" soaps), I still needed to use heavy conditioners at least twice a week, as well as the vinegar to keep it nice. Still, this was an improvement. The real improvement, for me, came when I started using the rinse with my shampoo bars. The recipe for my shampoo bars was designed specifically to be highly nourishing. The oils that I choose are high in vitamin E and protein as well as natural moisturizers. The combination of the Moisturizing Shampoo Bars and the vinegar rinse have given me the smoothest, most manageable hair that I have had in 25 years, or more.  I no longer use any other conditioners. It has had as great of improvement for my 2 girls as well.

The "how to" part is really simple. Just put a little vinegar in a bottle, add water, pour on your hair after washing, rinse and have fun. The amount to use depends on who you ask. I have seen everything from full strength to 1 tablespoon per cup of water. I go for a happy medium and use about 1/4 cup(2oz.) in a 32oz. bottle and fill with water. This lasts me 1 to 2 weeks. The bottle that I use is just an old shampoo bottle with a dispensing lid. What type of vinegar is also a bit of a debate, Heinz says white, everyone else says apple cider. I don't think it matters as far as performance goes, but I use the apple cider. There are also different opinions about how long to wait before rinsing, and whether to rinse at all. This I believe, is just a matter of opinion and could vary for different hair types, experiment and see what works best for you. Talk about frugal, at the rate that I use this, it costs me about 4 cents a bottle.

Until next time when I'll ramble about..... "Jeremy the cow".