No More Shampoo

I have stopped using shampoo.

This is not as drastic as it my sound. My boyfriend didn't even notice. No this isn't a crack on his powers of perception, my hair looks basically the same.

I had a brave friend march ahead of me on this, a little over a year ago she stopped washing her hair. She went through two months of grease-ball and then her hair calmed down and looked great. I myself did not want to go through two months of grease-ball, so I didn't even entertain the notion. In June she informed me she was now washing her hair with a mud mask adapted from the Terresentials hair wash. As you may notice I put a link to terresentials in an earlier post, (like 6 months ago) I had used this hair wash five years ago and loved it, only it was too expensive for the amount I felt I needed to use. After two months of remembering and then forgetting about the new hair cleansing options that had opened up for me I ran out of shampoo. My hair needed to be washed desperately, so I used an egg and some apple cider vinegar. My hair came out so lovely and clean, I immediately called my friend for the hair wash recipe.

I have read online that many people go through an adjustment period of two to three weeks after ceasing to use soap products on their hair. I went though one day. In the two weeks after I started using the hair wash I got a new job, performed in a chorus in front of a thousand people, and got dozens of complements on my hair.

My hair is lovely and longer than its ever been in my life. And I'm not spending $10 a bottle on stuff that says its organic on the label while the Environmental Working Group says is carcinogenic.


Are your body products toxic? Check http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1 a site run by EWG that I love love love.

Organic Skin Care

My face has be acne-prone since I hit puberty. It drives me nuts! For the most part I have stayed away from the chemicals we foist on little girls telling them their skin will be clear. Instead I voted for the health food store stuff, only to later find it also filled with chemicals. After careful searching I found two companies I can truly support, Terressentials and Grateful Body. Both are food grade organic, both have about a six month shelf-life, and they are both expensive($20-$30). Less expensive, and less endorsed by yours truly, is Aubrey organics, which have a pretty solid ingredient list, aside from the occasional "fragrance" or "Aubrey's Preservative" listing. I have seen a few peoples skin clear up on these products, just not mine.

My skin seems to be the most addicted to its acne. My personal favorite beauty line-up includes, washing my face with yogurt (homemade of course), making regular scrubs with cornmeal, and using a clay mineral mask. Not that it has made my skin completely clear, but every step I take makes it a little better. Recently I began working at a spa that uses Ayurvedic products called Shankara. The owner hooked me up with some teeny tiny bottles of cell activator and blemish oil. It appears the acne is going away, for real this time. I am amazed. These products are beyond what I would normally consider an acceptable cost, but they work so darn well($30-$55).

Yogurt Face Cleanser:
Yogurt
Pinch of Salt
pinch of baking soda if you have blackheads

Smear all over your face and neck, let it sit for 2 minutes, rinse it of with lukewarm water

*a note on yogurt: I recommend full fat yogurt. If you are vegan, or for some other reason milk yogurt is unacceptable, try to find grain yogurt, such as oat or rice milk yogurt, not soy yogurt. Soy has a tendency to attract free radicals, rather than neutralize them.*


links:
terressentials.com
gratefulbody.com
shankara.com


More on my skin as it becomes clear.