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.