Hi there, so you want to start dreads and want it to be as cheap as possible. Well, throw away your comb or brush and you have begun your journey. How cheap is that.
When using the baking soda (BS) wash, it is not necessary to use cold water, when rinsing with Apple cider vinegar (ACV) it is not necessary to rinse with cold water. Just use your regular shower water, at the temp you normally do. When you are all finished, then you do a cold head rinse, as cold as you can take. Doing it for everything will freeze you and is not necessary.
The BS will exfoliate your scalp without scrubbing, but needs to be on 10 minutes minimum. The ACV needs to be rinsed out within one minute or it will over condition the hair. If you have an oily scalp, you can skip the ACV, as your natural scalp oils will restore your PH balance. You can still use it every couple of weeks if you want, as it softens the hair nicely.
You should wet your hair first before adding the BS, otherwise most of it will just run off. Think of a sponge, when it is wet, it absorbs more water, when dry, it takes longer to suck it up.
A bulk food store is the best place to buy BS, nice and cheap. To save on money, just use the 1/2 cup BS to 5 cup water ratio.
I have included a map to see what water type you have, it is hard to tell exactly where you are, there is hard water and softer all around you. If you have hard water, you will have to do one of two things for the BS mixture:
- boil the water first, let the minerals settle in the bottom and then pour out your 5 cups, not disturbing what has settled at the bottom. BS does not mix well with this
- or you can purchase bottled water, I use a water cooler size container that lasts forever, and use that
You can use your regular water to rinse the wash out and for the ACV, no problem there. Hope this helps you out......peace 
updated by @the-barrellady: 02/05/15 10:12:49AM
