A kitchen standby with a side career as a multipurpose folk remedy, household vinegar has also worked its way into some people's grooming routines as an alternative hair care product — a conditioning rinse to restore shine to dull locks, according to health and beauty publications and how-to guides that tout natural products over, or alongside, traditional hair wares.
"It's an amazingly multifunctional, mild acidic that is useful for detangling and clarifying, balancing the pH level of your hair, and sealing the hair cuticle,"
says Gaiam TV, a multimedia health and wellness network.
Whether it's white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, these sour staples — diluted with water — are often paired with baking soda as a natural shampoo substitute, and are said by users to reduce the accumulation of residues from other hair-care products and from the scalp's own oil glands.
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"The acetic acid found in vinegar, in addition to neutralizing any left behind baking soda, is also a chelating agent, meaning it can grab hold of minerals and prevent them from building up in your hair [and] making it look dull,"
XO Jane reports.
Of all types of vinegar, apple cider vinegar is considered the most effective for getting rid of
gunk in hair, according to Livestrong, which cites "Hair Care: An Illustrated Dermatologic Handbook," by North Carolina-based dermatologist and M.D. Zoe Diana Draelos.
A writer for The Hairpin describes giving up shampoo entirely and adopting a weekly hair-care regimen that consists of only baking soda, vinegar and water: "[P]ut baking soda in your hair, rinse it out, put apple-cider vinegar in your hair, rinse it out. Repeat once every 5-7 days, washing with just water in the meantime."
Writing at The Mane Objective, a hair-care blogger credits a solution made of two parts water and one part unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar with "amazing" results: "With the ACV spritz, my hair was softer, shiny as the dickens, and had tons of definition and body."
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