Shamphree - week 2

HEY! This blog has moved.

Loads more Shamphree info at CAREFUL KIM.

I've made it through another week of Shamphree. This week was interesting and a small variable threw a spanner in the works. It was my birthday and I travelled home to stay with my parents for a few days, from Manchester to Northamptonshire. A mere 3 hours on the train but enough to seriously mess with my experiment. I'm putting it down to the water.

After a bit of research (just now, I just googled 'hard and soft water', ha!) it seems that Manchester (where I live) has 'very soft' water. In Northamptonshire the water is 'hard', meaning it is rich in minerals. That will explain why the tap water at my parents' house tastes really good and the water in Manchester tastes like chemicals. I found that the 'hard' water at my parents was RUBBISH at washing the bicarbonate of soda from my hair. Useless. 

I Shamphreed my hair twice in the second week, compared to 4 times in the first week. This was because I had so much hard work, and just couldn't be bothered. Also because the bicarb didn't really come out, so my hair was kind of bulky with it. In a way, it was alright, I had thick hair that had a lot of body and it would kind of 'stay' when I tried to body it up with my hands. But I couldn't run my fingers through it. It looked good, but it didn't feel good. It also didn't feel greasy as quickly as in the first week, probably because it had the bicarbonate just sat it in for days. 

Both times I washed it at my parents' house, I had to re-rinse afterwards. This didn't help much. It was frustrating, I felt like I had ocean hair for days, without the lovely ocean. On the plus side, I found peppermint oil at my parents' so I tried this with my 'conditioner', and it smelled incredible! My head felt so fresh and tingly. The only other change was instead of cider vinegar, I used lemon juice. That could possible be the reason that it was so hard to get the bicarb out, but I don't think so. Of course, I'm no expert. There could be complicated reasoning for my Shamphree headache in Northamptonshire, it could be down to the composition of the water and way that reacts with the alkali bicarbonate.... but I don't know for sure.

Also, I've lost my camera cable, so no lovely pictures of my trip, my caked in bicarb hair or my birthday. 

I've now just done my 7th wash, the first of week 3. I'm sat here with wet hair waiting to see what this wash will bring! It's always an adventure. It's hard to tell, because of the bicarby hair I've had for almost a week, but it seems like the greasiest hair I've ever had (wash 3?) is behind me. I'll keep you up to date.

Oh, I have this picture already, a delicious whisky and lemon cheesecake I made last week. The recipe is a James Martin one... from here. It was very.... indulgent, calorific and delicious.