Shampooing your hair? You're doing it wrong!

So by now, you've probably heard about "no-poo."  Or perhaps you haven't.  No, "no-poo" isn't about abstaining from taking a crap.  "No-poo"is a collective term for methods of washing hair with no commercial shampoo, according to Wikipedia.  I guess I'm kind of on a track to being a "crunchy granola" hippy, although I'm sure there are many that would disagree with my definition of hippy.  


In college, I had an amazing Women's Studies professor who told us all about how every time you shampoo your hair, or put on deodorant, or lather up shave gel, you are putting chemicals in contact with your skin.  Your skin is the largest organ you have and will transfer chemicals into your body.  


Then I went to a "Arbonne Party," A.K.A. a gathering where someone tries to sell you a bunch of natural makeup and skin care products, and they were talking about the ingredients in skin care products and how most are petroleum based or have other chemicals in them.  Then I read the following paragraphs from in "What's in this stuff?" :


Many of us rely on the fact that the chemicals we use every day have been fully tested and found to be safe for humans.  But the reality is that there are about 70,000 chemicals currently in use, with 1,000 new chemicals coming on the market each year.  There are no basic safety data for over 43% of all chemicals in use today, and full safety information is available for only 7%.  Among the compounds commonly used in household products [shampoo, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc.], there are full safety data for only a quarter of them.
...
Nowadays, we ingest dozens of harmful and largely unevaluated chemicals when we eat conventionally grown produce; fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides all combine to make so-called fresh food a significant source of poisons.  When we eat conventionally reared meats, we are ingesting growth hormones and a myriad of just-in-case medications given to conventionally farmed animals -- not to mention the pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and fungicides contained in their feed.  
... 
In addition, when manufacturers try to reassure us that potentially harmful chemicals are used only in small amounts in their products, they are glossing over some relevant facts.  Each day, we are exposed to many different chemicals.  For example, we don't just use a shampoo once in our lives; we use it regularly  sometimes daily, and we use it in hot showers and baths, so that the chemicals become vaporized and are absorbed in greater quantities into our bloodstream.


Then I spoke with a couple people at an "Eco-Judaism" retreat about no-poo.  They said it was really easy.  You just don't use shampoo.  You can use apple cider vinegar to condition your hair.  You can use  a mix of water and baking soda, if your hair becomes greasy.  Everyone has their own way of doing it.  So I figured I'd give it a whirl.


I have greasy hair, but I also have TERRIBLE psoriasis on my scalp.  So I started out by using a mix of water and baking soda to wash my hair and then conditioning it with apple cider vinegar -- every day.  Through the last few years I've been on again, off again of the no-poo thing, but recently, I've been on it.  Instead of washing it every day like before, I'll shower but just rinse my hair with only water.  Then a few days a week I'll drizzle my wet hair with apple cider vinegar, then rinse it out with water.  


I love the way my hair feels.  I love that I'm not adding additional chemicals to my body.  I love that it is very inexpensive.  I love that my psoriasis is much less prevalent.  


If you're interested, here are some more websites with info on "no-poo."


"No-Poo" Livejournal Board
Green Upgrader
MSNBC
Naturally Curly: The Curly Girl Method

"Shovel your Shitspot" and starting positive habits

It's easy to imagine how a house can collect things.  Like a giant magnet, snapping up passing objects and hurtling them up the front steps into the hallway or the kitchen or the basement.

Or perhaps it isn't the house.  Maybe it's the inhabitants of the house, instead... like a row of tiny ants picking up a large bean or a small seed and moving it into the room and then going back out for another and another and another.

I have ineffective habits.  I don't like to use the word "bad" because that is so ethically and morally charged word.  I don't think habits in themselves have a negative or positive moral feeling but a feeling that they either make your life more happy, effective, healthy, fulfilled... or they don't.

One of my inefficient, negative leaning habits is the accumulation of stuff.  Being an "Anne-of-all-trades" I have so many hobbies.  I love to cook.  I love gardens.  I love taking photographs.  I love crafts of all sorts.  I love games.  I love books.  I love music.  And with each of these hobbies, I add another pile of stuff.  Lenses, paint, fabric, zippers, lemon-zesters, cookbooks, drawing books, plant books, paper, board games, dice, I could go on and on.  It is a lot of stuff.  It is overwhelming.

And it is a mess.  Ever heard: "A place for everything, and everything in it's place?"  Well, that's not how it is at my house.  There only a few places for a few things and everything else on the counter.  Or the dresser.  Or the table.  Or the floor in the corner.

My hubby and I also collect art.  I would say he is a curator, but he doesn't agree.  One thing we do agree on: the walls are for art.   The bummer of that is that if the walls are for art, then the walls are not for book shelves, or cabinets, or other places for "stuff" to call home.

So I'm disorganized.  I've always struggled with it.  I can remember being a little girl and going through drawers of toys and organizing them... then 3 days later it was like all that organization never even happened.  But the struggle is there.  I won't give up.  I've read Covey, Morgenstern, and tons of other authors on how to organize your life.

I have breakthroughs every so often.  I've been using google calendar to organize my time and it is working like a charm.  I'm still busy as ever, but I can look at my my calendar on my phone and quickly tell people if I can attend their event and I can even write it down right then, so I know I can't overbook it.

I've also been much better at grocery shopping and healthy eating.  Granted, I haven't mastered this, but each weekend on Saturday morning, I'll breeze through my vegan/vegetarian cookbooks and find 3 or 4 quick recipes I think my hubby and I'll like and then write up the name of the recipe, the book/page it's on, and then I'll make up my grocery list.  I'll go to the market or the whole foods and get everything on my list (plus a bit more).  This organized food shopping is much more effective than my old style: "I'm hungry.  Whats for dinner?  I don't know.  Let's go out and get something."

So in my battle with ineffective habits, I have found: Habithacker.

So far it has helped me to:

- clean up before going to bed.
- leave an area as clean (or cleaner) than when I got there.
- "Shovel my Shitspot":  This means to find a single place that tends to gather junk and make a regular - everyday - effort to clean it off/out.  For me:  that is my kitchen sink.

I'll let you know how this goes.  Wish me luck!