| Natural Products Purchase, musings |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|05:46 am] |
Tonight I convinced Dad to go to Wild Oats with me so I could look for some of the natural products I wanted. I'd only been there very breifly once, so I was happy to be back. It is fairly yuppiefied, but I really felt like I was at "home". I was ecstatic to see Bust, Ms. and Adbusters on their checkout newsstands (I don't know if Bitch was there, we only had 40 minutes before closing so there was little browsing)
I picked up some Nature's Gate peppermint natural toothpaste. I think I will go over other day or so with it so that I'll still be getting flouride.
I also go some delicious smelling honeysuckle soap (that was superpricey), some pure Aloe Gel, Coconut oil (which doesn't really smell like coconut), some triphala (which regulates the GI tract and helps some people lose weight, we'll se) and a Neti Pot and some sea salt. I didn't check the pot for size indications and it is ceramic, so it might go back. I was just excited to see it there. I want to wait to get some distilled water before I use it anyway. I may have gotten something else but I forget.
I am going to try and take the multivitamin mom had bought for me during the school year. It's three a day so that sucks, but I need to just deal. The triphala also says 2 pills a day, but I think I will start with 1. I need to seriously try and discipline myself. I got an email saying my yoga booty ballet should be coming soon. I'm still mad about their misleading price, but I guess it will probably be worth the money. If not, I could ebay it and get some back.
I wish it wasn't so difficult for me to keep a schedule. My parents failed miserably on that front, and I think it affected me in my school performance because it was paired with lack of dedication. I know I got all of that directly from Mom and she got it directly from both of her parents. Dad and his mom are both very disciplined and regular people. I wish that would have worn off on me. It is SO hard for me to change. Even in college I was still bad with keeping a proper schedule. Self-discipline is a serious virtue that I am lacking. This is my biggest hinderance to having a better life, which goes hand in hand with my laziness. |
|
|
| No-Poo Day #6 |
[Jul. 24th, 2006|02:40 pm] |
I think that may be the longest I've ever gone without washing my hair. It was 2 1/2 days pretty much, before I got into the shower. I went through the usual routine (just as a note, I ran out of both solutions today)
Washing and conditioning actually felt a lot better today than it has before. It didn't seem as greasy and "waxy" feeling as it has been.
Washed with the peppermint soap again in just the "stinky spots".
Brushing my hair out was time consuming since it was pretty snarled. I noticed a lot of white dots (skin flaking) when cleaning the comb. I think I need to try to white vinegar treatment, but there is not WV in the house.
Once my hair was dry, it looked really great. My curls were very tight and well formed and looked really nice.
Maybe I did have a detox period? I'm not sure what it means. But I think it's time for a haircut, my hair is about mid-back and is starting to look awkward. I am dreading this hugely since I am petrified of getting a bad cut without Jenny as my hair guru. I also will not like spending $50 but it will probably be worth it. |
|
|
| No-Poo Day #5 |
[Jul. 23rd, 2006|12:38 pm] |
|
No washing again today. My hair felt pretty yucky, but not as bad as the 'poo days. Not a whole lot to report really. |
|
|
| No-poo Day #4 |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|09:28 pm] |
I was relieved to be able to wash my hair today. It felt pretty yucky, but didn't look as bad as my unwashed hair in the 'poo days.
I think I really need to get used to my hair still feeling sort of oily after I wash and ACV it. I think that's why I overcompensated so much with the ACV before and it got icky. That feeling seems to go away once my hair is dry.
I think the urge to want it squeaky clean feeling is going to be hard to get over. Oil is deemed BAD in our culture, so shampoos strip everything. Thus, the need for conditioners. I need to learn to accept and work with my body's natural oils.
My hair is more noticably fluffy without the product build-up, so it gets slightly out of hand. I want to make the mousse formula I've seen and see how it works, but I think I need to buy some items first.
I used that sample bar I have of the Burt's Bees peppermint body soap. It was pretty nice, had a bit of a tingle to it.
I'm trying to change Marty over to the no-poo formula because his dandruff is acting up again. I rubbed tea tree oil into his scalp and that gets rid of it and seems to prevent the rebuild for awhile but not permanently. I think the commercial dandruff shampoos are making his problem much worse, only one seemed to really work well at all and it was around $6 a small bottle, if not more. I am thinking this will work for him, but I am going to ask in some communities about any specific recommendations. |
|
|
| No-poo Day #2 |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|07:47 am] |
When I got up after the first day, my hair still felt pretty good. Usually I am SO ready to wash my hair after sleeping on it. But I probably could have gone another day and been fine. But I didn't want to push it on my second day, so I went and washed again.
I think I got overzealous with the ACV. I know I put TONS on when my hair still felt a little greasy after the baking soda. I washed really well, but I think it was still too much. When I got out of the shower and my hair started to dry, my roots were fairly oily looking, but not too bad.
My hair was really soft again and again there was no smell left over from the ACV.
Verdict: Still happy, but I think I need to watch the ACV in the next days
--
Along with the no-poo I have also decided to try and cut out using soap all over my body. I still am using Dove Frangrance Free because my experiences with more natural soaps weren't great and I haven't found one I like very well.
I rubbed my body with a wet, textured washcloth all over to get rid of dead skin cells, any surface dirt that may linger, etc. I used soap only on ears/neck area (that ares has a tendency to get quite oily which is likely related to my hair being on it. The no-soap scrubbing didn't seem to cut it so I uesd sm) armpits, "privates" and feet.
It seemed to be successful since I felt just as clean, but my skin didn't feel as dry as it sometimes will. I will likely continue with this.
I also need to investigate into a natural deodorant. The ones I have tried have really irritated my skin so I need to try more. I've heard that rock crystal works wonders so I will try it out. |
|
|
| No-poo Day #3 |
[Jul. 21st, 2006|07:49 am] |
Well today was my first day without a shampoo.
By the time I got up, Mom and Dad wanted to get something to eat and didn't want to wait for me to take a full shower. My hair seemed to be doing alright, it was moderately oily, but not hugely so. My scalp didn't feel very itchy.
I washed up with soap like I had done in the previous days. I felt clean, even though I didn't wash my hair. That has never really happened in the past.
Towards the end of the night/early morning, the itch and usual feel of unclean hair was setting in. It probably would have been better if my hair had been as clean to begin with as the first day.
I'm curious how well the baking soda will clean my hair now that it is greasy.
My main problem with not washing my hair daily is that because of the curl, I can't brush it and it gets tangled and poofy/frizzy looking from sleeping on it. I think I will make that natural "mousse", but I think I need to buy ingredients. I hope to go to Wild Oats soon to just browse in general and get the things I need.
Verdict: Pretty good day without washing. Curious how it will be to skip days later on.
I am learning so much about natural products I am starting to feel overwhelmed with it all. |
|
|
| No-poo Day #1 |
[Jul. 19th, 2006|07:23 am] |
I'll write more background info later on about my switch to no-poo, but I want to keep a diary about my transition to using the baking soda and apple cider vinegar on my hair.
I mixed up the stuff and put it in two big disposable cups since I didn't have any old shampoo bottles that I felt would get clean enough.
I got in the shower and rubbed my scalp down with my fingers under the running water to try and dislodge some dirt and oils before starting.
I then poured the baking soda solution on. My general impression was that I didn't feel like it was doing much, it is certainly very different than using shampoo. But from what I've learned, later doesn't really do much of anything. We're just so used to it in our culture.
I dosed my head with it and rubbed it into my scalp and my hair. I was wanting to get it everywhere so that it could help get off the buildup of the old products. I did notice my hair felt hugely tangled, but that isn't much different than how my hair feels with shampoo.
I then let it sit for awhile and then got out the hairbrush I use on my scalp and then massaged my scalp some more then washed it thoroughly out.
I then doused on the Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) all over my scalp and hair. I rubbed it in really well and let it sit for a while. I think I did the hairbrush as well to try and get any build-up and dandruff. I did notice that my hair felt softer.
I was worried about getting my hair untangled after all this and I was surprised by how easily the snarls came out. I usually have to work at least a little bit with shampoo as well, so there wasn't a big difference.
Once my hair dried it didn't look hugely different than if I had used the old shampoo/conditioner routine. But I did notice that when I rubbed my fingers around on my scalp that there was little odor or oiliness, whereas I would often still feel some with the shampoo.
My hair dried to be fluffy and lovely. My curls looked really defined and nice.
Verdict: Incredibly happy. I was so surprised that there was no oiliness. I wondered if maybe the lack of "detox" was due to only using shampoo on my scalp (leaving the ends unwashed) as was described the the Curly Girl book for probably two years now. |
|
|
| Gravitating to nature |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|07:04 am] |
Well, becoming a feminist has changed the way I think about a lot of things. Healthcare and Personal care (ranging from personal items to cleaning items and so on) are something that I have started to more carefully scrutinize in the past couple of weeks.
It's probably been a year now since I started questioning the items that I use in daily life. This can have a huge range of items, from menstural products to shampoo and soap.
I started with the menstural products, because I think as a woman that is something that is undeniably important, even though in many way we are taught to not think of it as so. I think I first learned about alternative menstrual products through the blog of this woman I had stumbled across, apriljoy. She became big into experimenting with new products and she mentioned the divacup. I had never heard of such a thing and was intruigued and followed her link. I was pretty much flabbergasted that such a thing existed.
No one had ever told me. I was furious I hadn't known of this ages ago. But I had lived a life that was in a complete bubble of popular media saturation. Diva cups won't be a huge money maker the way tampons and pads are. They aren't disposable, so there is no renewable income. You can't run a big business that way.
But stumbling across them was a beacon of light to me. The whole concept was perfect to me. I had always hated tampons, my body just outright rejected them and they wouldn't stay in place and just made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't love pads either, but they were the only option I knew of. I became especially cranky when most companies made the switch to that awful plastic lining. Whoever thought women would want plastic clinging to their cooch obviously has never worn a pad before.
Diva Cups solved everything. They're made of medical grade silicone, so the chance of developing an allergy is minimal (unlike the latex Keeper, which worried me). They are REUSABLE, I had always thought about all the pads going into the landfill and wondered why there wasn't a better way. I knew about washable pads, but that system just wouldn't work for me. I knew I wouldn't keep up with washing them. But the diva cup you just pop out and wash with some mild soap and then rub with some alcohol and then it is ready to go again.
My period has never been so worry-free before. I quickly learned the proper way for insertion and removal and had no problems at all with leaks (some women take longer to get the hang of it though). It sits relatively low, but it isn't a problem like with tampons, it can't absorb anything or harvest bacteria like tampons can. And best of all, no unknown chemicals are being infiltrated into my body through my most sacred of places.
That was just the start of overhauling my life. I am on the journey now to eliminate more useless toxins/products/processes/etc to make my life more natural and happy. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
caitlinaturally's journal
content