the oil slick

So my friend Sarah (of Nature's Mother) has always said her hair was her own personal Golgatha. It's super thick and wavy in an uncontrollable way. Except recently, she stopped complaining, and her hair started looking fabulous. You could call her hair "tresses"--it looks that good.
I asked what happened, and she said she stopped washing and combing it.
No joke. Apparently, this makes her hair much more manageable.
My hair, in contrast is completely manageable. Somewhat too manageable, in fact. Wash it and comb it, and it gives no resistance, and lies completely flat and lifeless against my scalp. It's thin! And super-fine! Luckily, it has some waviness, because otherwise I'd look like a holdout from the sixties (middle part, flat, stick-straight hair).
Before Lucy was born, I managed to get a short, "easy-care" haircut (that sounds so bad, like polyester pants). My hairstylist sold me very expensive, exploitative product, and told me to wet and scrunch. This makes the waves in my hair slightly wavier and makes the whole thing look tousled. (Or maybe that's just the midafternoon naptimes with Lucy).
Anyway, I kind of miss having hair long enough to put into a ponytail. Hack Mommy has long lustrous hair (You do, Melissa!) that she casually whips back into ponytails (that look chic! and stay out of the grabby hands of her toddler!). I'm a little covetous.
Except when I have grown my hair long, it has about as much life/luster as a broomstick handle. I always feel great about it, until I see pictures, where my hair looks like it has given up the ghost.
But the same "easy-care" hairdresser told me that if I were to stop washing my hair every day, I too might begin having fabulous hair. Even if I grow it longer.
The only catch, she said, is that your hair feels kind of gross for the first month.
A month of gross hair is a high hurdle.
But I decided to experiment anyway.

The first couple of weeks I was too chicken to actually not wash it. So I just used a tiny bit of this shampoo that has a bunch of organic ingredients and no surfacents, meaning when you lather, it produces almost no bubbles. And doesn't feel like it's stripping off much oil.
Except apparently it does, because my hair felt suspiciously clean, even after a few very cursory washes.
So three days ago I decided to start only washing my hair every three days. (One aadded benefit is that I only use a third as much shampoo. That's got to be sort of green, right?)

However, my hair, as promised, felt like an oil slick.
Ugh!!!!
Yestrday was day three, and I felt kind of self-conscious, because my hair looked like I was using Pam as hair spray. I pinned it all back so it might look like I wanted it slick. I actually got a compliment on my hair yesterday (from my friendly neighborhood midwife, who was, admittedly, distracted by her kids), so that made me feel a little better.
Last night, after much anticipation, I washed the hair. With the super-expensive, chemical-laden, exploitative shampoo.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Today my hair feels normal (ie, somewhat meek, but also soft and oil-free!). We'll see how long I can stand the oil slick this time.
If I can put my hair back in ponytails again without looking like a flower-child, it will be worth it.
If I can call my hair fabulous, and environmentally friendly, I might just win a medal.