No poo - day 1

I look around at my bathroom and I see plastic tubs full of expensive gunk, expensive gunk to change me into something I am suppose to be - pretty, healthy, perfect, smelling alluring.

I've recently made the choice to reduce my environmental impact by changing to a vegan-ish diet. So what's the point if I'm still buying and wasting tonnes of highly processed products to make myself more... more what, and at what expense? 

Obviously as I've quit my job one of the expenses I want to save is money. My shampoo of choice for my frizzy and never perfect, curlyish hair is between £4-£10 per bottle, plus there's the conditioner, the frizz tamer, the mousse. I'd estimate that we go through two bottles a month of conditioner and one of shampoo. That's £12-£30 a month, >£150 a year.

Then there's the environmental impact. 40 plastic bottles, at least, a year. To wash my hair, all going to waste. The impact of making those bottles and the contents. 

I'm not you're average hippy and I'm all for technical advancement, but even I'm starting to wonder what the inevitable impact of all this consumption is, on the environment, on people. Consumption that seems to be - for the sake of it, ignorant, selfish consumption. I'm not even sure if the contents of this bottle I spend so much on is any different than the 99p brand. I'm surrounded by marketing which makes me think I should spend more, but do I actually need it?

I could spend hours researching the true impact, trying to justify that one brand is better than another, or more ethical, that without advancement in shampoo some other advancement wouldn't have been made. But, I only have one lifetime. The most sensible solution seems to be to check whether I actually need it... not just this bottle, but any shampoo at all. If I don't, why would I need to spend time on justifying using it.

Here I am, day one. No poo they call it. I've had a shower, I rinsed myself and my hair with water. It was quick, I don't smell. My hair doesn't feel greasy (yet) I'm told it will and it will take a few weeks to adjust. I might need to come back to this when I've finally left my job and the need to 'fit in' is no longer a major consideration, but I've got a few days until Monday so I might as well give it a go in the meantime.