Product Promotion!

So I know this whole project is in large part about eliminating products, but after getting back to a hard-water wonderland, I needed some sort of shampoo to keep my hair from becoming a greasy mess. I heard about the bottle-free, mostly-made-with-natural-ingredients solid shampoos at Lush and bought Jumping Juniper, their formulation for oily hair. It arrived last week and has been working wonders. I've only used it three times, a few gentle swipes each time. No lather, very subtle scent, leaves my hair happy and clean, and only with two or three synthetic ingredients. If no-poo isn't working out for you, this is a reasonable alternative. Considering the number of washes you get out of these solid shampoos, it's an economical and eco-friendly alternative to the bottled variety.

My old aerosol of shaving cream is running very low, so I'm starting to think about alternatives. Lush sells shaving creams in tubs, but I'll see if I can't find tube or tub shaving cream in a store before I have something else shipped to me.

A couple of things to try.

A couple of bits of knowledge that are making life easier/friendlier/tastier/cheaper:

1) Stovetop Popcorn
The packaged microwave stuff makes something as benign as popped corn unhealthy. It's pre-flavored and, no matter what I do, it burns. Whether you burn it or not, you've still got about forty kernels that haven't popped at the bottom of the bag. And then, of course, there's the packaging. To avoid these things, I bought some popcorn kernels from the bulk bin at my local fancy-pants grocer and, with this method, popped all but six kernels without burning a single piece of popcorn. Flavored it with sea salt and pepper medley at the request of my housemates, although I was hoping to do cinnamon sugar. So many healthy and delicious flavor possibilities!!

2) I came across this instructable yesterday and tried it with my double-edged safety razor. As a result, a blade I was getting ready to throw out it worked like new. Same principle as a leather strop with straight razors of old, but using jeans instead. Take your razor and draw the blades backwards about ten times down about half the length of a leg. (Maybe use an old pair, since doing this might wear them down.) Do ten more backward strokes up the leg. And that's it. Also, to extend the life of razor blades, make sure they aren't wet when they're not being used. Blow the water out from the cartridge or open up the top of the safety razor and leave it somewhere dry.

3) I made a big pot of couscous for dinner a few nights ago and have been enjoying the leftovers since. Eating cold grains for breakfast is wonderfully easy and hearty and delicious and they'll make a great side for any meal. A tip I picked up from Food Matters.

4) I live with a couple of people who are OBSESSED with seltzer and buy the canned stuff regularly. This led me to investigate home carbonation systems. Again, initial investment is higher, but in the long term, saves money and reduces waste. For example, this. If you're going to be drinking seltzer for the rest of your life, worth the $90 and CO2 cartridges. To broaden this point, consider any food habits or other routines that cost you money and create waste on a regular basis. Now go on to Google and see if you can find an alternative.

In the whispy words of Michael Jackson, "make that change."

The New Routine

It has been almost two weeks since I moved into my apartment for the school year and there are a few things that are relevant to you all.

First, I received two books that I ordered: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman of the NY Times. I finished reading the latter. The book does cover a lot of interesting facts about the effect of the American diet on our earth and our health, but goes on to repeat this mantra, "more fruits and vegetables, fewer animal products," one that I'm already following now that I'm cooking for myself. (I've been sautéing vegetables, eating salads, chomping on cucumbers, cooking pasta and rice with the occasional sausage or yogurt thrown in.) But Bittman, whose NY Times column, The Minimalist, I follow religiously, also included more than 75 recipes in the book as well as tips for cooking more efficiently and healthily. And for anyone who's looking to lose some weight, have more energy, and significantly cut their effects on the environment, this is a good book to read. (Did you know that for the average American, cutting meat from your diet for a year has a greater effect than not driving for a year? I didn't. That's big.)

Second, the hard-water situation here has suddenly made me less optimistic about my no-poo status. My hair was greasy and dandruffy this morning, and I decided to sneak a tiny bit of shampoo. (I mean less than a centimeter in diameter. Still does the job.) I did some research on the No-Poo LiveJournal community about dandruff and found some interesting things. One suggestion was using a 1:1 white vinegar to water solution on your scalp occasionally. Another was to use ginger tea or dissolved ginger powder. I also found people saying that a tea rinse was good for their hair. (Rosemary seemed to come up with dandruff, for some reason.)

Someone mentioned a solid shampoo from Lush. Intrigued, I decided to check out the website. (Here.) Soak and Float was the dandruff one, which apparently smells like campfire, but the idea of a solid shampoo is intriguing. Lush products are all vegetarian, many of them contain only one or two synthetic ingredients, and this eliminates the packaging troubles of bottle shampoo. They also seem to last significantly longer than a bottle. If I decide to go back to occasional shampooing, I will definitely consider trying one of these.

Oh, what a beautiful morning.

I just had the most wonderful morning.

Mr. Sun woke me around 8:00. I rolled around in bed for a bit before gathering up a couple of cloth bags, my wallet, and shopping list and rode my bike over to the local farmer's market. Granted, a lot of things were overpriced, but I spent the cash I had on my person to buy some fruit, squash, tomatoes, apple cider, honey, and peanut butter. Rode back home, unloaded my milk crate (which is connected to my bike rack with cable ties), and headed out to the local grocer for everything else I needed to kick off my first ever cooking-for-myself experience.

I left the store without a single plastic bag, not even the little ones you use for produce. (Ultimately, my carrots, apples, lettuce, and spinach ended up in the two cloth bags I had brought.) The woman at the register was very understanding and loaded my purchases back into my shopping basket so I could load them into my milk crate outside. After a stop at a cafe near the grocer (where I picked up a half-dozen bagels and had a lovely surprise encounter with some friends who were abroad last semester/year), I found a route home that was easier than any I'd tried before.

The great thing about having to cart things around with your own strength is that you think seriously about what you need and don't need. You buy food for a shorter span of time and fewer things are likely to go bad and get wasted. I ended up cutting out some snacks that were on my list because, with a little thought, I realized how unnecessary they were for the next few days.

I'm hoping to keep a similar routine while the weather stays nice. I'm lucky to live near a lil' old town where everything is accessible by bike. And since I can never get myself to exercise for exercise's sake, this is a perfect way for me to get into better shape without feeling like I'm wasting time.

To top it off, as I pedaled into the final stretch of my ride home, I listed off adjectives to describe how truly awesome the day is and how wonderful the whole morning has made me feel. Ahhhhhh, to live.

Another Wake-Up Call

AHHHH. I'm so sorry about the neglect. My lifestyle changes became a status quo and I had little to share. But this has changed! New information has come into my life and new inspiration has sprouted from it.

I posted about No Impact Man, the movie, but in a visit to a bookstore/cafe recently, I found No Impact Man, the book, on the shelf. Since I had read about a fourth of it in the store, I bought it and finished it within a few days. There is no doubt my love of this book springs, in part, from the fact that a reader like me is a member of author Colin Beavan's figurative choir. But the thing that I love most about this book is that, unlike many works so far in the environmental movement (say, An Inconvenient Truth or The End of Suburbia, neither of which I've seen but both of which I've heard plenty about), which just scare the shit and hope out of you, Beavan has the ability, through his experience, to combine scary, mind-blowing statistics with personal anecdotes, throwing in the occasional piece of religious or philosophical wisdom, namely about waste, want, etc. and ultimately leaving you with a sense that there is something you can do as an individual.

Sure, 80% of consumer products are made to be disposable, our country is set up so that most of us can't get by without a car, and there is little we can do directly about how our energy is generated/distributed/wasted, but individuals account for the majority of spending in this country. While each person can't take down the unsustainable status-quo on their own, if consumers as a group speak out against wasteful products with their wallets, industry will have no choice but to respond.

The trouble is hopelessness. Individuals feel that they cannot make a difference, government doesn't feel significant pressure to take action, and we all go on with our lives as normal as climatologists shit their pants in fear. What people need to understand is that doing things that are good for the environment is not about sacrifice. It's about changing habits, many of which have led to the deterioration of our health and happiness as a society. Television is one that Beavan tackles. Another is the food industry, which fills livestock with hormones that end up in our children and ships produce from across the world that could just as easily be grown regionally. The chemicals we put down the drain come back in our taps. There is so much more. Beavan shows us, as many have tried, that ultimately, it's not about the earth and environment. It's about people and our ability to live happily and healthily on this planet.

I'll stop with the preaching now, but I highly recommend picking up this book. I've already passed it on to someone and want to share it with as many people as I can. If you decide to buy it, I suggest you do the same. Ignorance is bliss, until we have to pay for abusing our planet and ourselves.

Some more good reading, from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: Why Bother? at the New York Times.


So yes, from grandiose and global to puny and personal. I recently moved into my apartment at college, where the water is hard and my hair is responding to the change. Before coming back to school, my family moved into a house with a water softener and I took a few swims in a pool, so my hair was picture perfect. We'll see if I need to make any major changes to water-only.

I've started carrying around a handkerchief to use in place of tissues, paper towels, paper napkins, etc. I've found out where I can compost food scraps on campus, which given my fruit and vegetable consumption, will reduce my trash contributions significantly. I considered buying a growler at the local brewery, which can be refilled whenever you want. But unfortunately, the local brewery has closed down. But if you are a beer drinker and have a local brewery, see whether they have a similar option.

I've plugged my computer, router, and computer accessories into a power bar. If I'm not using the computer for anything, I shut it down and turn off the power bar. Leaving the lights off whenever I can get by with the natural light in my room is something else I'm trying.

Also, I'm thinking about buying some terry cloth and sewing some washable panty liners. While the prospect of using reusable pads alone is a little much for me to handle, when paired with a menstrual cup, the maintenance will likely be minimal. When I get around to the project, I will post details.

I'm part of this training program right now and our school's sustainability representative came in to talk to us. She asked us to think about and share an eco-confession and an eco-celebration. In my head, I considered the changes I've made in the last six months and can confidently say that the amount of shampoo, conditioner, and face wash I would have flushed into the waterways, the feminine products and packaging I've kept out of the trash, and the energy I've conserved–-though insignificant day-to-day--is considerable over time. I'm living as comfortably as I did in February and am filled with hope that there is more I can do. And remember, you (yes you) can make a difference. Take on changes one at a time and before you know it, your celebrations will outweigh confessions.

Make Your Own Lip Balm

Make Your Own Lip Balm from CraftTutorials.net

What I've been looking for. All I need is some beeswax.

I caved.

I got in the shower this morning, my hair greasier than usual, and lazily skipped the dry corn starch treatment, thinking that the baking soda I had in the shower for my face would hold the solution. It didn't. Baking soda made my already greasy hair both waxy and greasy. If it wasn't early in the morning, I would have known that this is the effect it had before. Anyway, I had no time to be experimenting before going to work. (Although, apparently, I had time enough to blog.) I wearily reached for the shampoo bottle and squirted a dime-sized blob into my palm, worked it into a bit of a lather, and massaged it into my scalp. I feel like I've betrayed my own cause.

But you know what? I've gone without shampoo for almost five months and I fully intend to go back to a no-poo or at least less-than-conventional-poo lifestyle. Although shampooing for the first time after it has fallen out of personal habit and favor makes me realize why people give up on no-poo so often. Shampoo provides a predictability that no-poo cannot. It smells like sex-candy. And a little goes a long way.

Now that it's properly clean, I can confidently say that my hair definitely feels better than it ever did when I was shampooing and conditioning daily. Even if you don't give up shampoo, try to wean yourself gradually. Use less per application. You don't need it to lather on your head for it to be effective. Take a little in your palm, rub it around in your hands, and work it as far as it will go. If necessary, repeat. (I did two applications: top and sides, then crown and back.) See how much you can cut down without your hair looking any less clean than it would have with the amount you usually use.


In other news, I went a week without apple cider vinegar and could feel the effects: breakout, lethargy, tightness of clothing, etc. I've been making it with warm water and mixing honey into it recently because it's deleeeeecious. Facial routine is unchanged. Also, I ran out of Burt's Bees lip balm and have been using the super-artificial, super-effective moisturizer that I use on my elbow-rash on my lips. I'm thinking that with some beeswax and minty oil extracts, I could make a lip balm of my own, but in the meantime, this will have to do.

No Impact Man

I followed this blog for a little bit and remember reading that they were making a documentary.

No Impact Man: The Movie

Looking forward to seeing it, whenever I get a chance.

I think I've made it.

Since a brief vacation into New York City, where the tap water is wonderful for washing hair, I've cut corn starch and am living water-only, no-nonsense hair care. One thing I've started since, however, is blow drying. Energy inefficient, I know, but the principle that something is cleaner if it dries faster definitely applies to hair too.

A thorough brushing, some scalp massage, and good rinsing. I'm not using my boar bristle brush anymore, although it may come in handy if a sebummy build-up occurs around my roots. And a hand-held shower head with a power-mode is excellent for getting water pressure down to your scalp.

Tips for a Life Less Plastic

In the fall of my freshman year of college, I was enrolled in a wonderful English class called American Dreams. We discussed a variety of issues, from the suburbs to music to consumption to security to environmentalism, reading articles and excerpts to supplement each topic. The one that stuck with me most was called Polymers Are Forever, written by Alan Weisman. In it, Weisman discusses the origins of plastic, its ever-expanding place in human consumption, and its environmental consequences, including the North-Pacific Gyre, the largest mass of garbage in the world. I definitely recommend reading this article. It is eye-opening.

Plastic is by no means an enemy. Without plastic, the computer I'm typing this entry on wouldn't exist and we wouldn't have great cheap, reusable, break-proof, flexible, heat resistant, water resistant, tarnish resistant, great plastic products. We'd be chopping down more trees, mining more metals, etc. The enemy here is disposable plastic: grocery bags, packaging waste, etc. As Weisman addresses in his article, plastic doesn't biodegrade like most of the other things we throw away. Even "biodegradable" plastic only does so in very specific conditions, none of which are found in landfills or the ocean. So here are a few ways I've been trying to reduce plastic (and other) waste.

First on the list is one in Weisman's article. If you still haven't stopped using commercial body wash, face scrub, or exfoliants, check the ingredients for "polyethylene." Some such products use all natural exfoliants—seeds, salts, sugars, ground up shells—but the ones that don't use tiny, tiny plastic beads, which drain directly into sewers and waterways, ie. ecosystems. Most plastics are at least wrangled into landfills before blowing off into the environment. These beads go there directly. There are plenty of natural exfoliants: oatmeal, baking soda, brown sugar, salt; the list goes on. Ditch the product with plastic beads. (And throw it away, don't drain it.)

Other common disposable plastics are saran wrap, ziplock bags, and other disposable means of food storage. If you use a ziplock bag, try to wash and reuse it. Avoid saran wrap by using reusable containers like tupperware, jars, or even by putting a plate over a bowl instead of wrapping it in plastic.

Try to reduce packaging waste by buying products that aren't individually packaged. This applies to packaging materials other than plastic too. For example, buying loose leaf tea instead of individually wrapped tea bags with staples, strings, and tags, or using a French press to make coffee instead of buying filters for one-time use and disposal. Granola bars, biscotti, Life Savers: these are but a few examples of products with individual plastic wrapping that I see from where I am sitting in my family's kitchen.

Buy things in bulk whenever possible. (Check this shit out. This is what every grocery store in my utopian dream world looks like. That blog, which I was reminded of when I typed this entry title, is a great place if you're interested in the environmental aspect of a blog like this.) I'm fortunate enough to live in a town with a local dairy where you buy milk in glass bottles and take the bottles back when you're done. Take advantage of establishments like this when possible. Everything you pull off the shelf at the store, think about the waste that results once you've had your way with it. Can it be reused? Composted? Recycled? Even if you don't go zero-waste, being conscious of the remains of your consumer choices will help reduce your impact on the environment.

The thing that made me sit down and type this up right now was doing the dishes with a scrubbie dishcloth that I just crocheted out of cotton yarn instead of using the clean and firm plastic sponge that just replaced the dirty, limp, empty husk of a sponge we just threw away. A cotton dishcloth or scrubber is machine washable and will probably outlive a plastic sponge. And when it comes time to retire it, less worry about its particles lasting forever. If you don't knit or crochet, you probably have a friend who does. If you don't have a crafty friend, a dishcloth is a perfect place to start learning how to do it yourself.

Use a bar of soap instead of buying liquid soap in a plastic container with a plastic plunger whose reuse requires a large plastic bottle if you do make the choice to refill it. Reuse that empty deodorant stick by filling it with your homemade deodorant. Buy a box of baking soda (cardboard box!) and a bulk container of shea butter instead of over packaged face wash, exfoliant, toner, and moisturizer. Get a box of corn starch (paper bag in a cardboard box!) instead of plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Buy a dental floss that's actually made of waxed floss and not plastic.

Use a reusable mug instead of the paper cup, cardboard sleeve, and plastic lid you get at the coffee shop. I don't care that the cup and sleeve are made out of 100% post-consumer recycled materials. It doesn't change the fact that your actions could leave them 100% out of the trash.

Take canvas bags to the grocery store, and if you forget them and end up with plastic bags, reuse the ones you can. Use grocery-sized plastic bags for trash instead of those big ones that will let you throw away gallons of stuff before you have to face the voluminous results of your waste. If the bags are holy, ripped up, or otherwise unusable, take them back to the store for recycling.

Be creative with things that could easily become trash. Make a planter out of an empty plastic bottle or milk carton. Make compost out of food scraps. Make yarn out of the hair your pet sheds (if you're feeling creative and unusually resilient to disgust and scorn). Visit some DIY sites like Instructables for inspiration or just do a Google search if you're looking for ideas.

Come up with techniques of your own following the basic guidelines of REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. Think about them as first, second, and third resorts in that order. Because if you think about it, recycling is only environmentally friendly compared to throwing something into a landfill. If you can keep something from entering your front door, awesome. If you can keep it from leaving your house in a trash can by making it into something useful, fun, or cute, good. If you can send it away to get processed into something else, okay, fine. But be conscious of what ends up in the trash and creative about keeping things out of it.

Home-Made Deodorant

An Instructable on making deodorant out of corn starch, baking soda, coconut oil, with optional additions for smell and skin care can be found here.

I've been wondering about this for a while. Deodorant and toothpaste are the only commercial hygiene products left in my arsenal. Switched to Tom's of Maine but... this is cheaper.

Sugaring, Hard Water & Apple Cider Vinegar

It's been a while, I know. I've learned a lot since my last post.

First was sugaring. I did it with my sister, the owner of the legs you saw in the illustrated sugaring post. The process was something like this. We put two cups of sugar, 1/4th cup of water, and 1/4 cup of lemon juice in a small pot, mixed it up, and heated it up. Once it melts, it will start boiling. You have to let it boil for a while, stirring it to keep it from burning. The bubbles from boiling will be thick and white, so to check the color of the sugar, take the pot off heat occasionally. It'll start out clear. Stop when it's a dark amber color.

We poured the molten sugar into a heated up mason jar. It took a long time to cool and we didn't wait long enough. Take a butter knife and dip it into the goo. You should get a fairly solid bridge of stretched sugar that once lowered back to the surface of the sugar retains its shape for a good five or ten seconds. Play around to find out what works for you. The first time we did it, the goo wasn't cool/hard enough, and it did a mediocre job. We left it to cool for a while longer and it was far more effective.

The process is similar to waxing (I suppose, although I've never waxed in my life). I used a butter knife and spread the goo on a strip of my leg in the direction of hair growth. Make it thin and even. Put a similarly sized strip of cloth (thin cotton or muslin) on the goo-patch, rub it to make sure it's properly adhered, wait about ten seconds, and then pull it swiftly opposite the direction of hair growth. Try to keep the force you use to pull parallel to your skin. It can sting a bit, but any visible irritation I had afterward was gone by the next day.

One nice thing about sugaring is that you can wash the sugar and hair off the cloth with warm water and it's not bad for the septic system. Also, you can leave the sugar in the jar for as long as you want and quickly reheat it in the microwave whenever you want to sugar again. (I did it for a minute and it was way more melted than it needed to be. Do it in five or ten second zaps.)

The first time I sugared my legs, I had let the hair grow for about a month. (It was probably between 1.5 and 2" long.) I have thick body hair, so the results were pretty phenomenal. There were some stragglers left, the thicker of which I pulled out with tweezers. Similar results with my armpits. And while the results last longer than shaving, unlike shaving, the hair grows back unevenly, with longer stragglers, faster growing hairs, etc., so I'd have to wait a really long time for sugaring to be effective again. But it's a good way to clear the field if you're going for a seasonal BANG sort of hairlessness. I'm going to be shaving with my double-edged razor until things even out again.


On to the hair. As I mentioned before, the hard, well water situation at home was giving me trouble with my hair. It got pretty greasy and dandruffy, and since baking soda and vinegar didn't work as well as I hoped, I went for a thorough brushing, a corn-starch application and massage, more brushing, and a thorough rinsing. It worked really well, surprisingly, and I've gone four or five days without washing my hair without it getting noticeably gross. So, if you're in a hard water situation, try some corn starch, scritching, massaging, brushing, shaking, and rinsing.


I found raw, organic Bragg's apple cider vinegar at our local fancy-pants grocer, and it's taste is much better than the distilled stuff I got in a jug at the ghetto-ass grocer I go to during the school year. It's doing wonders for my bowel movements and I'm sleeping much more soundly than I was without it. I've been drinking it twice a day, morning and night, for about a week. It's been effective in aiding digestion. Maybe a little too effective. So I'm going to cut down to once a day and see how that goes.


So, there we go. Summer is a lazy time, and I'm glad I can get away with not bathing regularly without as much trouble as I used to encounter.

Control, Variant, Results

So you know how I mentioned that I'd stopped drinking apple cider vinegar a few weeks ago? And how a few weeks into starting the internal apple cider vinegar routine, I noticed that my usual bra was fitting loosely? Well, the opposite effects are now taking place. Pants are noticeably tighter and I've started popping out of the smaller bras that I'd resorted to wearing while doing the apple cider vinegar. I believe it's time to start with the vinegar again.

Also, the hair situation is kind of odd. I'm thinking that the combination of hard well water at home and a different kind of apple cider vinegar (distilled, maybe?) have led me to greasy, dandruffy hair only a few days after doing my vinegar, baking soda, vinegar routine. I managed to get most of the dandruff out through rigorous scritching, brushing, shaking, as well as messing it around with a wet washcloth in the shower and ending with a hot rinse and cold rinse. But it's still greasy. I'm going to go grocery shopping today and see if I can't find an undistilled apple cider vinegar, if not a raw, organic one. (I've seen Bragg apple cider vinegar around as a favorite.) Or maybe even trying a different vinegar for my hair, like rice or white vinegar.

Unplanned Test

The last couple of weeks, crazy pack-and-write-and-move-and-help-to-pack-and-move weeks, have finally come to an end. In the midst of it, I stopped oil pulling and vinegar drinking. I think I should bring the vinegar back, as I felt notably less sluggish when I was doing it. We'll see if vinegar was really the source of that energy once I reintroduce it.

Also as a result of the hectic schedule, I went for over a week without showering and/or doing anything with my hair. By day six, my hair was a little danderful and greasy, although not disgustingly so. Most noticeably, it got a little itchy. I took to wearing a hat to keep myself from scratching and making the dandruff situation worse. Putting off washing my hair until getting back home ended up being a test of how much my scalp's activity has changed since I stopped using shampoo, and the results were pretty good. After a whole week without any help, it was not nearly as bad as after those first few days after I decided to stop using shampoo.

I'm growing out my leg hair for sugaring fun.

Sugaring Victim & Solid Routine

Guest contribution by my sister, who experimented with sugaring and sent pictures and descriptions of the process and results.


This is the goop, cooling in a pot.


This is the goop, looking goopy on my sister's hand.


She applied it to her leg using her fingers, which she does not recommend. Instead, use a tongue depressor to apply the goo against the grain.


Initially, she used a no-cloth method where you just pull the crap off your legs, but resorted to cloth after disastrous results (which are pictured below).


As you can see, the right leg looks like it's been a victim of domestic abuse. Pulling the goo off by hand was apparently difficult and bruised like crazy. On the left leg, using cloth to remove the goo and hair (against the grain) was easier and had better results.

I'm looking forward to trying this. We're planning to make a party of it.


In my own progress, I think I've reached a point that requires less experimentation in terms of hair and face care. I'm down to weekly baking soda washes and apple cider vinegar rinses with daily or every-other-daily water only washes. (I say weekly, but it's just determined by when my hair gets unmanageable by non-washing means.) If the problem is just grease and I don't have time for a full-fledged shower, I put some corn starch in my hair, brush it in, remove as much as possible by shaking it out or rubbing it with a dry washcloth and then just rinse out the powdery remains in a quick head shower. When dandruff is particularly noticeable, I saturate my scalp with undiluted apple cider vinegar and let it sit for ten to twenty minutes before getting in the shower and doing the normal diluted baking soda and diluted apple cider vinegar routine. I also cut my hair really short, which makes the whole thing a lot easier.

Face care has been somewhat simplified. On a daily basis, I scrub and exfoliate with a baking soda paste and follow that with a shea butter face massage. When I have some free time, I do a honey mask after the baking soda scrub for twenty minutes, if possible, which helps with acne and such. I read that massaging pure shea butter into your skin can help to reduce pore definition, and I think it's working to some extent. I take a quarter-sized lump of shea butter, melt it down in my palms, rub it onto my face, and then massage it around in little circles. Usually, I do about two of these applications to get everything evenly moisturized. You'd think that putting oily buttery things on your face would make it more oily, but I'm starting to think that the opposite is true. Kind of like with hair sebum, face sebum won't overproduce unless it's being stripped away.

I also got unbelievably sunburnt this weekend and have been putting apple cider vinegar on it after reading that this helps. I'm convinced that apple cider vinegar can be used for every ailment.

Oil pulling might be doing something, but I'm really not sure. I'm continuing out of curiosity, but mostly because I have nothing else to do with this bottle of sesame oil.

Brighten That Smile

Even before oil pulling failed to deliver on its promise for whiter teeth, I looked into various methods for removing tooth discoloration with household items. I have tried a couple. One was easier to execute than the other.

Both of the methods involve Hydrogen Peroxide (3%). A lot of people on the internet seemed to be using it as a mouthwash, which bleaches your teeth and temporarily bleaches a lot of other parts of your mouth. I tried this, only to be stopped short by my gag reflex. It was impossible for me to do for more than a few seconds.

Researching deeper, I found someone who suggested brushing your teeth with Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) and baking soda. By pouring Hydrogen Peroxide and sprinkling baking soda over the bristles of your toothbrush, the application is more focused and direct than the mouthwash method. I have a feeling it's doing something. I took a "before" picture in hopes that I will be able to chronicle progress and ultimately show off results.

My dilemma now is how often I should do this in order to get positive results. Baking soda is pretty abrasive and, used daily, can damage enamel. But if you don't bleach at regular intervals, it's possible that progress will be unbearably slow or altogether stopped.

And so, another experiment begins.

Hm...

After a week of oil pulling with sesame oil, my teeth don't seem any whiter and I think I'm getting more zits (although that could be due to any number of factors). Also, my eyes seem dryer than usual. Apparently white teeth are the first sign that oil pulling is working for most people. I have read that sunflower oil works in a few days to whiten teeth, so maybe it all depends on the oil you use. A lot of people suggested extra virgin olive oil as well.

I'm not sure if this is really worth my while, but for the sake of experimentation, I will continue doing this every morning. I might change the oil in a few days, since sesame doesn't seem to be doing me any good.

Hair Removal with Thread and Dexterity, etc.

If sugaring is the alternative to waxing, then threading is the alternative to tweezing. Threading was mentioned repeatedly in my search for alternative hair removal methods, but I never thought to look at how it was done because the general consensus was that "the ancient art of threading is difficult to learn." But this week, in my Instructables Weekend Builder, there was this article: How to thread eyebrows. With a little practice, it's not that difficult and seems less time consuming and tedious than tweezing. If you've got a foot of thread lying around, give it a try!


I washed my hair on Thursday morning last week with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Over the following weekend, I didn't even do water-only washes. By monday, it was starting to get greasy, but with brushing and a few water washes, itchiness is completely under control. Dandruff is starting to be noticeable, so I'm trying a method my mother recommended: pressing a piece of gauze into your brush before brushing. It seems to attract a lot of excess bits of things and also makes your brush easier to clean afterward.

Something else I tried this week was corn starch to cut down on greasiness. When I put it in initially, starting from the back of my head and brushing it through, my hair felt very not-greasy but it had a theater-old-person, grey and powdery look to it. I could have probably brushed it out (with a brush first, followed by a dry washcloth) but decided to wash my hair instead. That restored some of the greasy feeling but I think it's better than it would have been without the corn starch treatment. (If you have corn starch, you should also use it to make oobleck.)


The last thing on my initial list of life changes has finally been put into effect. That routine is oil pulling, which is not as terrible as it sounds. It involves putting a tablespoon of oil in your mouth (sesame or sunflower oil is recommended) and swishing it around, drawing it through your teeth, chomping, swishing some more for twenty minutes or so. There are all sorts of theories as to why this works as a detox—the oil bonds to phlegm, bacteria, viruses and doing this in your mouth clears your entry-orifice, receptors on your tongue that are connected to different body parts, etc.—but apparently it does cure and prevent a wide spectrum of ailments. It also makes your teeth whiter and stronger, prevents dark circles around the eyes... the list of potential health benefits is long. I figure it probably won't do any harm and we'll see if it helps anything. This, like nasal irrigation, is a remedy of Indian origin; Ayurveda or some such.

I bought a bottle of unrefined sesame oil at my local organic food store. The sites I read recommend untoasted, unrefined, cold-pressed sesame or sunflower oil for best results. Right after waking up, before eating or drinking anything, put a tablespoon of oil in your mouth and swish it around for twenty minutes. I decided to start waking up a little earlier and reading the news and checking email while doing this. Don't swallow the oil, because apparently it get increasingly bacterial and nasty as you swish. Either practice responding to the swallowing reflex without actually swallowing (probably something you do naturally when brushing your teeth) or spit out the oil and finish the routine with a new tablespoon. At the end of twenty minutes, spit the oil out into the toilet (it should be white), rinse your mouth well with water, and drink two or three cups of water. (I brush my teeth afterward and do my morning apple cider vinegar drink, followed by an extra cup of water.)

I've been really phlegmy since starting this yesterday, but according to practitioners of oil pulling, the first few days may see symptoms of illness worsening as the detox starts. I am getting rid of a lot of phlegm, which strikes me as a good thing. The first time, not gagging was a bit of a struggle and I felt pretty gross afterward, but apparently that's expected the first time. Doing it again this morning was a lot more pleasant and I don't feel nearly as weird as I did after the first time.

Here's the EarthClinic page on oil pulling with instructions and user feedback. Please do some outside research before starting this. I'll report back with results if and when they show.

Wiping the Slate Clean

Baking soda and apple cider vinegar do wonders on a greasy head. My hair is fluffier and softer than it ever was with shampoo and conditioner (not unlike the first time I washed with baking soda and vinegar). I got into the shower a half an hour ago and it's almost completely dry already. Considering the state of my hair yesterday, this is miraculous.

I think that starting water only from an already greasy head of hair was not ideal. I'm not sure how quickly my hair will grease up this time, but hopefully I can go for another week-or-so without it getting nasty. I'd like to think that leaving it grungy for a while helped my scalp realize what was up and maybe even made my hair a little healthier. But I have no idea.

Also, I stopped using my apple cider vinegar toner because the lines between my nose and the corners of my mouth seem more pronounced than before. It might be completely unrelated, but I'm going to see whether this makes a difference.

Unsought Benefits & Update

I was going to save this update for a day where I had more to report, but I noticed something this morning. I've been noticing it for the last few days.

My favorite bra, which was always on the big side, is now more ill-fitting than ever. My boobs have shrunk.

It's more than any monthly fluctuation in cup-size I've experienced before, which has me believing that I've lost weight since I started drinking diluted apple cider vinegar daily. I didn't weigh myself at the start of this, because weight-loss wasn't one of the benefits of apple cider vinegar that I was seeking, but I definitely read a lot of people's happy recommendations who were drinking it for this very reason. For anyone who is looking to lose a little weight without doing anything at all, give it a try.

An update on hair: I got my boar bristle brush (and safety razor) in the mail this week. I tried the brush , and I think it did a lot to distribute oils, but there's so much crap in my hair now, it just looks more evenly grungy than it has. I've been pinning it back, which is how I wore it a lot when I was shampooing, so that's not a problem. It doesn't itch or smell, but definitely don't want to run my hands through it. A few days ago, I thought I had reached peak greasiness and that the only way it could go was cleaner. Guess I was wrong.

I am taking a weekend trip and would like to look presentable, so I'm going to cave on water-only and do a baking soda wash and apple cider vinegar rinse with a few drops of orange essential oil, which I've read can help with sebum control.

Whether you decide to keep shaving or not...

Unlike the earth-child you'd think would be responsible for a blog like this, I take time and money to keep unwanted body hair in check. Since I don't wear shorts or sleeveless shirts frequently and don't have a luvah to impress, I don't shave as regularly as some, but it's still a grooming routine that seems unnecessarily expensive and wasteful. I've been using a Venus razor since middle school and have always wondered why the replaceable razor heads are so damned pricey. If it was just about money, finding a cheaper disposable alternative wouldn't be hard. But disposables are wasteful, whether you're throwing away the razor head or the entire razor every time the blades get dull.

One of my new year's resolutions was to eliminate plastic disposables from my life, so I've been thinking about buying a safety razor for a while. Safety razors, which replaced the straight razor of Sweeny Todd fame, will give you a much closer shave than disposables and are cheaper long-term. (You may be as interested as I was to know that King C. Gilette's innovation of the disposable razor inspired a fascinating business model. Also, if you're having trouble visualizing what a safety razor looks like, here's the one I just ordered and a Google image search.) Like a menstrual cup, the initial investment is more expensive (anywhere from $20 up), but considering the price I'm paying for Venus razor heads, it will pay for itself after a while and, with proper care, can last a lifetime. The only thing that you throw away with a safety razor is the dulled, double-edge razor, which I imagine you can sharpen if you want to get the most out of it. It might even be recyclable in some places.

Recently, an even cheaper, less wasteful alternative called sugaring has caught my attention. The principle is similar to waxing and the results last just as long, but you can make the "wax" with household ingredients: sugar, lemon juice, and water. Cheap, water soluble, and safe to put down the drain or in a compost pit. Unlike wax, the sugar mixture doesn't stick to your skin and will hurt less and cause minimal damage to your epidermis. It's recommended that your hair be at least 1/2" for this method to be effective, which means that you'll need to suffer through a brief werewolf period, but it's cheap and you can do it easily with access to a stovetop. I don't have 1/2" leg hair, a stovetop, sugar, or lemon juice, but once I get those things, I will definitely give sugaring a try. Shaving has always caused issues with my skin, so it'll be fun to compare the results.

If you have the necessary ingredients and are ready to try, do a Google search for "sugaring" to find loads of websites with recipes and instructions and let me know how it goes.

Progress?

Rather than address a specific topic, I'm gonna use this post as a report of sorts.

I got my pound of shea butter and bottle of orange essential oil in the mail on Monday. I have been using shea butter as a moisturizer on my hands, face, and lips. I broke out a little on the cheeks, but that may have started before I got the butter and could have to do with hormones, insufficient sleep, and experimental face washes, among other things. I've read that people whose lips never responded well to petroleum-based lip moisturizers have had success with shea butter, so I'm hoping the same will be true for me. And I just mixed up a batch in my double boiler (canning jar in a rice-cooker bowl) with some honey and orange oil, which smells less nutty than plain shea butter. It's cooling in the fridge right now, but I used some of the liquified stuff on my hands, face, and lips, and it's quite nice.

NO [SHAM]POO: Water-only washes are keeping my hair from smelling but doing little else so far. The natural oils are still around, as promised, and my hair is greasy, especially in the back. There's some dandruff emerging as well. I'm hoping that the boar bristle brush and patience will get me through this eventually. Using baking soda and vinegar worked on a greasy head of hair when I was on spring break, but I have a feeling that the water quality at school (really hard) doesn't react well with those ingredients. I'm not too concerned about grossing people out (as long as they can't smell me from a distance) and have been pinning my hair back when I need to look presentable. If it gets out of control, I will try baking soda and vinegar again and let you know what happens.

TEETH: I tried using baking soda as a toothpaste but didn't really like the results. There were a couple of spots where my gums started bleeding and I didn't really feel like my mouth was all that clean. I also read somewhere that baking soda alone is too abrasive to be used every day. I have no idea if that's true, but I've been sticking to my toothpaste. If I don't find a cheaper alternative by the time this intensely minty tube of Crest runs out, I'm planning to switch over to something more natural like Tom's.

FACE: Like I said earlier, my face is a laboratory right now. I've been experimenting with baking soda and honey, either combined in that order or using them alone. I think my face is confused about how to react to all this change. I'll figure it out soon.

New! Water Only Routine

Yesterday, I took a shower and tried a new water-only routine that I found online. Water-only requires more physical involvement to distribute sebum from the root to the shaft of your hair rather than relying on the chemical powers of baking soda and vinegar to wash it away.

A user on the "no 'poo" LiveJournal—who had been doing water-only for a year with only three mild white vinegar rinses in that time— described his routine as follows. Before showering, brush your hair really well to distribute the oils and to remove dead skin, loose hair, and other crap from your scalp. Massage your scalp to loosen up more crap, and brush again. Once you're in the shower, the key to successful washing is massage and temperature. Rinse your hair and massage your scalp with warm water, do the rest of your shower duties, and, before getting out, rinse your hair thoroughly with hot water and gradually decrease the temperature to be as cold as it can be.

Water-only proponents of "no 'poo" rely on the power of boar bristle brushes to distribute oils. My crappy plastic brush gave my hair a powerful static charge and didn't do much to spread out the sebum. There was lots of dander and loose hair though, which I did my best to remove before hopping into the shower. But I just ordered a boar bristle brush, so hopefully I'll get it sometime next week. Changing the water temperature was also much more difficult than taking a cold shower. I imagine this is also something you shouldn't do if your immune system is weakened.

Overall, My hair looked and felt better than it had after the most recent tries with baking soda and vinegar (which I probably overdid in the first place), but since yesterday, it has gotten pretty greasy. I'll keep going with the water-only and try to hold out until the special brush gets here. But thinking back, my only successful attempt with baking soda and vinegar was on a really, really greasy head of hair. I'll figure it out one of these days.

Nose Breathing

This is kind of a mini-routine, but it has led to a bit of a change.

There is a lot of information out there about the superiority of nasal breathing to mouth breathing. Your nose regulates the air passing in and out of your body, warming, filtering, and dehumidifying it. Breathing through your nostrils allows your lungs to absorb 10-20% more oxygen than when you breathe through your mouth. And mouth breathing can cause or exacerbate asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, and, uhh, snoring.

Now I'm no mouth-breather, but there are times that I don't really have any control over how air is going in and out of my body. When I sleep, for example. After reading about people using Chin-Up Strips to keep their mouths closed while they sleep, I've been taping my mouth shut before I go to sleep (not tight; just enough to keep my lips from popping open) and have been sleeping more soundly since. I haven't put many controls on any of the changes I've been making, so I can't be sure about the effectiveness of any single method, but I think that the first night I used the tape was a better night of sleep, even before I started taking ACV internally.

If you have trouble sleeping, snore, wake up with crap-mouth, or have a more serious problem like asthma, give it a try.

Cold Showers: Not as bad as you think.

I was reading about natural shampoos and remembered later that someone had mentioned cold showers in passing. Out of curiosity, I did a Google search, which is what first led me to EarthClinic.

While the thought of showering with cold water was really unattractive initially, I read up on some of the benefits. Cold showers, unlike warm ones, encourage your body to produce its own heat and improve blood circulation, especially to the skin. It is more energizing than a warm shower, although a lot of people reported that they were sleeping better after switching to cold showers. Some people have reported that rashes and other skin issues went away after switching to cold showers. Others claimed that it improved their immune systems. The most fascinating reports were from people who suffer from depression and anxiety who say that a cold shower works more effectively and instantaneously than any drugs they've been prescribed. It seems like cold showers do have an effect on your nervous system and brain chemicals. Not heating the water reduces your carbon footprint and you're less likely to veg out and waste water with a cold shower. Not heating the water also reduces your utility bill.

In the experimental spirit that has taken over my life, I decided to give cold showers a try. I have really bad circulation, some skin problems, and have been known to get a little anxious from time to time. It was shocking initially; occasionally, my body was forced to take really deep breaths. It was unpleasantly cold, but with a little bit of time and massaging, it became less uncomfortable. I stayed in for about ten minutes, doing my "no 'poo" experiments and washing.

The thing I liked most about the cold shower experience was getting out, but not for the reason you think. When you get out of a relaxing, warm shower, the warm water on your body cools while the warm stuff evaporates and the vapors around you condensate. Something like that. It's cold is what I'm trying to say. You rush to towel yourself off and get into some warm clothes. When I get out of a cold shower, I was toasty warm. I dried off slowly and comfortably and put on my robe, which was quickly filled with the heat radiating from my body. Your shower has to be longer than three minutes for this warming to take effect because it has a lot to do with improved circulation.

I won't be continuing with exclusively cold showers because my new, water-only, hair washing method calls for temperature changes. I've also read that a lot of people just end their warm showers with a few cold minutes for the benefits of circulation and skin, which is what this "no 'poo" method calls for as well. I have a feeling that transitioning from warm to cold will be more difficult than taking the plunge, but I'll report back in more detail once I've tried.

COLD SHOWERS SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN IF YOU'RE MENSTRUATING OR SICK. A cold shower is dangerous when your body is weakened. If you decide to take a cold shower, start by exposing your extremities to the temperature before getting to your core. Sudden temperature changes to your core can be dangerous like hypothermia. I start with my feet and legs while I brush my teeth and follow with my wrists (exposed circulation points) before taking the plunge.

Face Care Simplified

Facial care products cater to a vast array of specific consumer needs: sensitive skin, anti-wrinkle, acne reducing, pore refining; the list goes on. I was yet to find a commercial product that works for me and, as my cleansers, washes, toners, creams, and ointments were getting down to their last few applications, I dreaded going shopping for a new series of expensive products, which were likely to leave me disappointed again.

My skin is fairly unusual. I have really defined pores, which mean chicken-skin spots on my arms and legs, and clogged pores, blackheads, whiteheads, zits, and general roughness on my face. Until recently, I was buying anti-acne products thinking that the cause of my skin problems was primarily chemical rather than physical: bacteria, hormones, grease production, what have you. But I've realized, years of unsolved skin and hundreds of dollars later, that it's more about the size of my pores and their tendency to get clogged with dirt, debris, oils, etc. I was investigating pore-refining washes, toners, and moisturizers before my "no 'poo" adventure led me to EarthClinic, where I have been reading about the many, many uses of simple household products to cure various ailments.

I still don't understand how exactly the site is organized. It's driven largely by user input and you can browse it by looking for a certain ingredient or a specific ailment. Some pages have concrete information published by the site; others are just compilations of people's experiences, experiments, successes, and failures.

In any case, I've found a few tricks for facial care, all of which I tried today.

The first is using baking soda as a face wash. It removes facial grease and exfoliates gently. I used really warm water to rinse and thoroughly wet my face in hopes that open pores would react more effectively to washing. I made a small mound of baking soda in one of my palms, added enough water to make it into a paste, and massaged it into my skin. Keep it off your lips if you don't want to taste baking soda afterward and don't get it too close to your eyes. When you feel sufficiently exfoliated, rinse it off. I noticed a significant difference in my skin after one wash: my pores looked smaller and my face felt smoother.

Another thing that acne-prone people recommend washing your face with is honey. You might wonder "how the hell," but it ended up being less messy than I expected. You can either dilute it a little with warm water, rub it all over your face, and rinse it off, or you can apply a thin layer over your whole face, leave it on for ten minutes, and wash it off with warm water. I tried the latter, and not only was it the most delicious facial mask I've ever used, but it washed off really easily. Honey is naturally antibacterial and antiseptic, which presumably prevents acne. It is relatively acidic, which might balance the effects of the baking soda a little. Aside from these characteristics, I have no idea what the benefits are. After the honey mask though, my skin continued to feel good.

In the massive list of uses for apple cider vinegar, I found a lot of people using it as a toner and taking it internally, which benefits your skin as well as other functions and organs. I took my first two doses of apple cider vinegar today (one tablespoon of vinegar diluted in two cups of water. I add a spoonful of honey to improve the taste.) and applied undiluted apple cider vinegar to the acne prone areas of my face—cheeks, forehead, temples, and jawline—with a cotton swab. It burned initially but the unpleasant sensation went away after a few minutes. If it's too abrasive, you can water it down. People claim that they apply apple cider vinegar to zits before going to sleep and wake up to find them gone without a trace. We'll see how that goes.

These processes can be pretty drying, but no more than their commercial counterparts. I'm waiting for a pound of shea butter to arrive in the mail, which I bought for my lips but is a good natural moisturizer for faces, especially for people with acne problems. Until then, I might use some commercial moisturizers that I have left over.

It's awesome when your all-natural cosmetic ingredients are cheap and come in bulk. I bought a four pound box of baking soda for $2.79 and a gallon of apple cider vinegar for $3.99 today. These are going to last me a while and I can use them to solve an endless variety of problems. Bath scum? Not a problem. Yeast infection? How about a vinegar douche. (That takes a brave and desperate woman.) Heartburn? Don't mind if I do. High cholesterol? Hit me with the ACV.

A Life Without Shampoo: Introduction

The decision to try to live without shampoo was the only one so far that I didn't find on the internet. It is also the decision that led to my current attempts to eliminate other commercial cosmetic products from my routine, which in turn inspired me to launch this blog. My muses in this effort were two male friends of mine who, I recently found out, are fully adapted to "no 'poo" lifestyles. (It's an unfortunate name, I know.) Their hair is soft, beautiful, healthy, and clean. You would never suspect that they haven't used shampoo in months.

While most people's initial reactions are of disgust and disbelief, the concept makes sense with a little thought. Using shampoo daily, as most Americans do, strips your hair of its natural oils (known less pleasantly as sebum) and, in an attempt to maintain a balance, your body compensates by producing tons. Your hair gets greasy, so you wash it again. Rinse, repeat. This vicious cycle is one that shampoo manufacturers have decided to take advantage of. Selling shampoo also means selling conditioner. Convincing consumers that they need to wash their hair daily to smell and look good means selling more of both products. This is another example of a product that doesn't seem like a financial drain but that you will spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on in a lifetime.

The truth is, you don't need shampoo. Even if you think you do, you definitely don't need to use it daily. Shampoo as we know it didn't exist until the 1930s. It is a glorified soap that has been formulated to smell flowery, lather like a detergent, and rinse easily out of hair. A recent story on NPR put it nicely into historical perspective. In 1900, it was normal for women to wash their hair once a month. Ten years later, the New York Times published a column saying that it was okay (meaning they could, not that they should) for women to wash their hair once every two weeks. But even today, most Italians and Spaniards only wash their hair two to three times a week. Dematologists and stylists agree that shampooing your hair more than that is not good for your scalp or your hair.

Add to this that shampoos come in plastic bottles and contain all sorts of chemicals that you don't want in your body or in the environment. Bank/Earth/Self. Get it?

I have had a fairly tumultuous relationship with my hair. It is fine but thick, voluminous, and wavy. It's gone from shoulder-length to layered short to military sheared to long, longer, longer still to bob to mohawk and back to layered short. It's been bleached and dyed almost every color of the rainbow. The haircut I have now—which I got by pointing to a picture of Rihanna in a crappy fashion magazine and telling the stylist that I want it to actually be short—is the first haircut that I've been really happy with. In terms of bathing and shampooing, I realize in retrospect that I didn't start showering and shampooing daily until my junior year in high school. And since then, not surprisingly, it seems like my hair gets greasier much faster than it ever used to.

Adapting to a "no 'poo" lifestyle is something that a lot of people give up before reaching their goal. Since the glands in your scalp are used to overproducing sebum that you would usually wash away with shampoo, most people experience what "no 'pooers" refer to as a "detox" period, which is just a loaded name for a transition period. During this time, which seems to vary from person to person, your hair is greasy and unattractive. People formulate different methods to keep it from smelling, from getting overly greasy or dry, and it seems as though there's a lot of trial-and-error before a miraculous and natural balance is established on your head. But people who've made it work promise that your hair will feel and look great if you can tolerate this gross period.

At the date of this posting, I have gone a week and two days without shampoo. I was on spring break when this all started. Since my last shampoo two Tuesdays ago, I have experimented a little with the standard washing and conditioning method that you'll find all over "no 'poo" discussion boards: washing with diluted baking soda and rinsing with diluted apple cider vinegar (both in a ratio of one tablespoon to a cup of water). My hair was incredibly greasy by the time I got my hands on some baking soda three days after shampooing. I got into the shower, wet my hair, massaged the diluted baking soda into my scalp, rinsed it off, and followed with diluted rice vinegar, which was the only kind we had around. My hair felt great when each ingredient was in it, but when I rinsed them out, my hair became a wet, sticky, mat. I was worried that the process hadn't done anything. But once my hair air-dried completely, I realized both the baking soda and vinegar had done their duty. My hair was softer and fluffier than it ever was after being shampooed.

But this was only the beginning. Reading extensively about issues people were having with "no 'poo," I braced myself for battle. I returned to school two days after my initial baking soda, vinegar wash, carrying a sandwich baggie of baking soda. I worked in the dining hall on Monday evening and decided to wash my hair after the shift. It was far less greasy than it had become in the days after my final shampoo. I didn't have any vinegar, so I just used the baking soda. As expected, the results weren't as spectacular as they were with vinegar on a really greasy head. Rather than looking soft and fluffy, it looked weighed down and felt like it was covered with a waxy residue. I did the same thing on Wednesday with similar results.

Today, I finally got a chance to bike down to the grocery and pick up a big box of baking soda, a gallon of apple cider vinegar—which has a ton of other uses that I'll get to in another post—and lots of other heavy stuff. I was sweaty and gross after my strenuous bike ride back, so I figured it'd be an opportunity to try again with the vinegar rinse. The waxy residue is less extreme but didn't really go away.

Since being a little disappointed by what I expected to be a vinegar miracle, I've been looking around on the "no 'poo" LiveJournal community and now think that transitioning from shampoo to baking soda and vinegar to water-only rather than just dropping everything at once seems to only prolongs the process. People who have successfully transitioned to water only do occasional salt or baking soda washes and conditioning rinses depending on the state of their hair but don't have regular washes or rinses. Rather than changing things chemically, water-only washers do a lot of brushing, combing, and massaging, to physically distribute oils from root to shaft. They also use changes in water temperature to help alleviate greasiness and waxiness, which is something I've been playing around with anyway. (Again, for another post.)

Now that I think about it, my two muses didn't bother with baking soda, vinegar, tea, and other things. They just tolerated the greasiness while it lasted and celebrated when it was gone. I'm going to do some investigation of specifics and will report back.

This is much more complicated and experimental than anything else I'm attempting. I will be posting updates for a while.

Drain Your Nose

I read about nasal irrigation while researching menstrual cups. It seems like people who take the initial step of making one change in their personal care will likely find other ones that they want to try. I didn't actually start irrigating until the spring of 2008 because I was convinced that I needed to buy special equipment for it. Silly me-of-the-past. If only I knew then what I know now.

Unless you have chronic nasal congestion and are constantly popping Sudafed and blowing your nose, nasal irrigation won't replace a regular routine or product. But if, like me, you occasionally get stuffed up in the nose, it's a good, cheap, all-natural option. Your nostril cavities meet under your nasal bone at a mucus membrane. Proper nasal irrigation drains mucus and debris from your nasal cavity and moistens that membrane. A cleansed nasal cavity makes for better nasal breathing, so if you know a serious yogi, then you've probably heard about this.

The technique is simple. Fill a "neti pot"—which looks like the lamp from Aladdin—with a warm saline solution, lean over a sink, stick the spout into one nostril, tilt your head so the spout-plugged nostril is higher than the other, and pour. Repeat on the opposite side. Blow your nose.

It's easy to do and if you aren't all clogged up, you can breath through your nose, which, as the best yogis know, is far better for you than mouth breathing. (I'll be addressing this issue on its own in another post.)

I struggled at first to get the right salinity and temperature. If the water's too cold or too warm, it's really, really unpleasant and probably not very good that delicate membrane. Same goes for having too much or too little salt. According to the Wikipedia article on this, a solution of 9% salt is standard. (Note: Don't try pouring water through your nose if you don't have salt. Using water alone stings and will dry out the membrane in your nose. My neti pot arrived in the mail before I got a chance to buy salt and I couldn't wait try it out. Dumb, I know. Getting to the grocery store requires considerable effort when you live on an isolated campus and eat in a dining hall.)

The main reason it took me a while to start nasal irrigation is because I wasn't excited about buying a neti pot. I eventually bought the Himalayan Institute's overpriced plastic one on eBay for much less than the $30 they sell it for, but in retrospect, a teapot that no one uses would probably work just as well. I assumed that the official product was somehow special. It's not.

I don't irrigate regularly, but the process lessens the buzz-kill of nasal congestion, whether that's a problem you have often or occasionally.

The Cup That Started It All

This post will benefit ladies only. If you don't have a vagina but have a lady-friend with menstrual problems, I invite you to read on.

People don't generally make small talk about how they deal with the menstrual menace. It is, after all, an unsavory topic. For generations, mothers and older sisters have quietly instructed blossoming young ladies about how to deal with this monthly occurrence. Typically, these instructions come with a sack of sanitary pads or a box of tampons. When my thirteen-year-old uterus decided it was ready to make babies, I was directed towards pads by an aunt, used them for a while, and then out of curiosity decided to give tampons a try. Unfortunately, a single attempt triggered my first wave of menstrual cramps. The whole experience turned me back to pads, which, as many people know have problems of their own: leaks, smells, discomfort, etc.

During my senior year of high school, I stumbled upon a LiveJournal community dedicated to menstrual cups. I looked at the websites of four-or-so menstrual cup manufacturers and found all sorts of reasons to buy one. On average, a woman spends upwards of $50 on feminine hygiene products per year for approximately forty years. At around $30, a menstrual cup pays for itself in less than a year. The ones made of medical-grade silicone are non-porous, meaning they won't harbor bacteria or viruses and can be sanitized by boiling. Tampons and pads are made of synthetic materials that will never, ever decompose, and contain chemicals that you don't want in and around your vag-hole or in landfills and water systems. So not only is a menstrual cup a money-saver, it is also better for your body and for the environment. Here are some visual comparisons (from the manufacturers of the Keeper), and a comparison chart and compelling advertisement (from the manufacturers of the Miacup). None of the data seems to match up, but you get the idea.

How do these things work? The bell-shaped cup is "folded," inserted into the vag-hole and pops open and into place just beyond the pelvic bone–the ridge at the front of the vaginal canal. (Here's a diagram.) Since the cup isn't absorbent like a tampon, it can be safely worn when you're anticipating your period but not actually menstruating, which takes away the anxiety of being unprepared for blood; say, in an airplane, on a dinner date, or at a concert. And when you start menstruating, you empty the cup as often as you need to by pulling it out, dumping the contents into the toilet, rinsing or wiping it off, and reinserting it. I have never had to empty my cup more than three times in one day. The only guideline that manufacturers give is to not leave it in for more than twelve hours, only because you'll forget where you put it if you do. Silicone softens as it warms, so when it's inserted properly, you can't feel the cup and you're free to swim, do extreme sports, go camping, and travel far and wide without wasting space in your suitcase.

The downside? I could tell by a lot of the posts in the LiveJournal community that using the menstrual cup takes a lot of patience and effort to get used to. It's especially hard for people who aren't familiar with their own genitals, but if that's the case, it gives you an opportunity to familiarize yourself. Women who made it work were confident that they would never go back to pre-cup products and routines.

I decided to buy the DivaCup—a silicone cup manufactured in Canada that seemed to be getting good reviews—the summer before I went to college. It definitely took a few cycles to find a method that worked well for me, but practice and patience were key. The LiveJournal provided a lot of helpful advice. Proper insertion was the hardest part of the process to master. Sometimes the top of the cup doesn't open fully. Other times, the cup creates a vacuum. When it doesn't work, you just have to take it out and try again. But remember, you can practice even if you're not menstruating.

The trick with insertion is finding the right folding technique. The fold you choose changes the ease of insertion and expansion once it's inserted. This illustrated page of various folding techniques is probably the most useful post in the entire LiveJournal menstrual cup community. I use the origami fold, inserting the cup with the folded side down/back and it usually works on the first try.

I haven't completely eliminated other feminine hygiene products from my life. For the first few days of each period, I us a panty liner for back-up. It adds up to about three panty liners a month: No big deal. If you're feeling more extreme, you can buy or make a few washable liners. I haven't ventured into that territory... yet.

An important thing to consider when deciding what menstrual cup to buy: Some cups, like the Keeper, are made of natural gum rubber. Natural rubber (latex) is a porous material and can harbor bacteria and viruses. They can increase the likelihood of yeast infections and other nasty thangs in your 'tang. There are also people with latex allergies. As a general rule, when it comes to genitals, always go with non-porous materials like silicone or, in other situaitons, glass and metal.

Also, some manufacturers will allow you to return the product within a certain time frame. The DivaCup used to have a policy like this, but doesn't any more. The manufacturers of Miacup, however, will let you return a cup bought on their website within six months if you decide a cup isn't working for you.

I got my period on vacation last winter when I wasn't expecting it and had to spend two days without my menstrual cup. It was hell. I had forgotten how much of a hassle menstruating is without my money-saving, environmentally friendly pal.

I highly recommend giving menstrual cups a chance and making this investment for the sake of your wallet, the environment, and most importantly, your own comfort and well-being.

Introduction

If you've showered with warm water your whole life without any problems, you aren't likely to consider the alternative. The same goes for washing your hair, cleaning your face, clearing your sinuses, getting rid of a headache, or (for the ladies) dealing with menstruation. You grew up using products and methods that seem to work for your household and everyone else. Grocery stores are stocked with a huge variety of personal care products, each with a very specific use. Sure, you might switch to a different brand of decongestant, a different scent of shampoo, a different kind of face wash, but have you considered eliminating these products from your routine completely?

I didn't start thinking about making these kinds of changes until I stumbled into some unfamiliar internet territory. The year: 2006. I was a senior in high school and, in a series of aimless clicks, found an online community of women cautiously considering, familiarizing themselves with, or enthusiastically endorsing menstrual cups. The concept was alien to me: a reusable silicone cup that eliminates the need for chemical-laden feminine hygiene products that will definitely end up in a land-fill and, over the course of a woman's life, cost a significant sum of money. From the posts, it was clear that getting used to using the cup took some patience, but women who persevered insisted that they were glad they did.

Saving money is probably the driving force in this entire effort. I'm frugal and practical, so if there's a cheaper alternative that works as well as the accepted standard, I'll try it. But, like the menstrual cup, many of these alternatives work better than the status quo and have the added benefits of reducing waste and keeping the chemicals that are present in many personal care products out of the atmosphere, our water systems, and our bodies.

In my research since, I've noticed that almost every discussion leads me to another economically and environmentally preferable alternative to our normal purchases and routines. For example, researching how to go "no 'poo"—which has nothing to do with constipation and everything to do with eliminating shampoo from your life—led me to various uses for baking soda and apple cider vinegar, as well as new approaches to bathing, all of which I plan to try.

Clearly, the internet is a great resource and network, but a lot of the sites with useful information about these kinds of lifestyle changes rely heavily on user-provided content, leaving huge amounts of information disorganized and hard to navigate. Since I've already learned a lot about the changes I've made and plan to learn more as I rethink daily routines, I've created this blog as a place to share my lessons and experiences in what will hopefully become an organized and helpful reference for a variety of alternative methods of grooming, preening, feeling, and living.

DISCLAIMER: I have very little knowledge of chemistry and biology and have absolutely no medical background. Use new methods and products at your own risk. I am the guinea pig of this experiment, and my results will not be the same as yours in many instances. This blog is meant to act as an introduction to the methods and ingredients of a cheaper, greener life. If you do decide to try anything mentioned herein, I would highly recommend doing your own research to get a greater spectrum of opinions and information. And if you learn something that's worth sharing, bring it on back!