I haven't even shared all the things I've done with my husband, and even so he thinks I've turned into a hippie. When I 'fessed up that I had quit using commercial shampoo and conditioner, his first question was whether or not I'd shaved under my arms lately.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Yes, I quit using shampoo and conditioner. It was partly born of the fact that I had severely damaged my hair a couple years ago with gallons of hydrogen peroxide, partly because I was starting to get dandruff for the first time in my life, partly because of the horror stories (whether they're true or not) that have gone around for years about the SLS in shampoo, and partly just because I was curious. Oh yeah and it's CHEAP.
I have two 8-oz freezer jam jars I keep in my shower, and a box of baking soda and a bottle of apple cider vinegar that I keep on the shelf in my bathroom closet. Every time I want to wash my hair, I put a teaspoon of baking soda in one jar, and about 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar in the other jar, and head for the shower. First things first, I dissolve the baking soda in about a half cup of water. I carefully pour it all over my scalp and rub it in. It doesn't lather up, it really doesn't do much of anything. It just sits there. But apparently it dissolves head grease or something. Anyway I let it sit while I wash off myself and shave (because yes I do still shave!) then rinse out the baking soda really well. Then I dilute the vinegar in another approximately half cup of water and I start by dunking the ends of my long hair into the jar, and then I tip the jar over the top of my head so all my hair gets some vinegar. There are conflicting reports on whether to rinse that out or not. I have been rinsing it out, but one of these days I may leave it just to see what happens.
My experiences: the first day, I really didn't have an opinion either way. It got the grease out (I hadn't washed my hair in like 4 days before I started this experiment) but otherwise I really didn't care one way or another. The next week and a half or so, my hair really felt like how hair feels when you fail to rinse out all the conditioner. It was driving me nuts, but I stuck with it. The conditioner-residue feeling went away in about the third week after starting this (your mileage may vary) but then my hair went through a kind of frizzy stage. It still goes through swings in texture... some days it'll be frizzy, some days it'll be silky, but mostly it looks the same. The frizz/silk is only when I touch it.
I haven't really noticed any miracles with my hair. About the biggest difference I've observed is that I have a little more body at my roots. My hair is surprisingly soft for not having any conditioner on it, but it isn't "the softest hair ever" although that might be leftovers from the H2O2 damage. I can see a definitive line in both texture and color where the damage begins. Unfortunately there are miles to go before it all grows out. *sigh* Another advantage is I don't have to wash my hair in every shower anymore. Of course the downside of that will be explained in the next part of this post. All these advantages, plus the fact this costs I'm guessing less than $10 a year, I think I'll stick with the no-'poo.
The next toiletry to go hippie is... deodorant! I made my own deodorant. Seriously.
Before I elaborate on that, I should share a joke I've been telling for a while. Whenever anyone mentions Pinterest, I go "oh I hate Pinterest, just what I need in my life is a website that makes me feel guilty if I don't make my own laundry detergent!" except the stupid thing about that joke now is that I'm making my own deodorant. WTF, me?
I don't remember where I got the recipe now but basically it's just coconut oil, baking soda, cornstarch or arrowroot powder, and essential oils.
I'm still not sure if I'm sold or not. One thing I've learned is that the odor control really doesn't work if I don't shower regularly. Even if I add more deodorant every day, it kinda loses its oomph after 2 days. Yeah yeah I know, who the hell doesn't shower at least every other day? Well, I'm a somewhat lazy housewife. I've been known to go 4 days between showers before, because nobody knows, because I never leave the house. Before I went no-'poo, my greasy hair would always be the when-I'm-due-for-a-shower indicator because I had naturally oily hair and about 36 hours would be the absolute limit on how long I could go before I looked just nasty and it itched like crazy. Well, now, I've gone 4 days between showers and my hair still isn't greasy. I should have mentioned that a couple paragraphs ago. Anyway, the point of my story is that now it's my stinky pits that tell me when I need a shower, but unfortunately a couple times I've missed the sign until after I was out in public. *sigh* I need to do a better job of showering regularly.
I really know how to paint myself in a good light, don't I??? *eye roll* I'm lazy and stinky. Yup, that's me!
The good news is it seems if I manage to shower regularly and keep my underarms shaved (because all those little hairs just provide more surface area for more stinky bacteria to grow and multiply) the hippie deodorant seems to work pretty well. So far. We'll see how it holds up to our miserable hot humid summers. I intentionally started it in November so I had a few months to acclimate to it before the season of hell. This isn't an antiperspirant. The baking soda and cornstarch/arrowroot powder can absorb a bit of moisture, but not much. So we'll see what happens come sweaty weather. Oh, and last week I started to notice a bit of oily reside on a couple shirts, but I think that was a case of putting on way too much deodorant and then putting a shirt on before the oil had soaked in. It appears to have come off quite nicely with only a bit of effort in the laundry. I'll give it some more time and experiment a bit with less deodorant, a bit of soaking-in time, and whatnot.
Of course another thing to consider is that what comes out of your pits is influenced by what goes into your mouth. But that's a challenge for another month.
At the risk of this being the LONGEST POST IN HISTORY, I have one more thing to share. December's project (and this one will go on longer, since instead of a daily test I only have a weekly test) is laundry. I have started using soap nuts instead of commercial detergent. I have a lot of other things I want to try. And the scientist in me wants to set up some controlled experiments.
Okay, signing off for today!
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