No-poo and trees!!!

I'm keeing up with the no-pooing. Saturday, after three gym visits, I washed my hair with only 2 tbs white vinegar in a cup of water. Out of the 8" of hair I have, 7 were perfect, 1/2" was dry, and the other was... well, not oily, but it definitely felt sweatyish. I tried brushing my hair out with a natural bristle brush, and I don't know if it made any difference. Through the three days, my hair felt progressively better, for some reason.

Yesterday, I tried sprinkling a tsp of BS on my dry roots, and then rinsing with 1/2 c WV and 1/2 c water. I don't know if there was enough BS to make any difference, but the WV felt nice. Again, the ends felt a bit dry, but the roots felt less sweaty (I think the main culprit for them feeling wrong on saturday is that it was muggy as all hell, and it took my hair forever to dry!) and I had a ridiculous amount of volume! I don't completely dislike the feel of my hair, but it is definitely different than what I'm used to. I am hesitant to use more BS, after that overdose last week, but I might need it.


In the tooth department, I posted over on Naturalliving on LJ about all this, and someone responded with this amazing list of the abrasiveness of many toothpastes!
http://www.kingtooth.com/files/TOOTHPASTE_RDA_VALUES_5-30-08.pdf


In completely unrelated news, I HAVE TREES!!! We bought them on saturday, and they delivered them yesterday morning ^_^

This is Dan, jumping on the shovel like a pogo stick.

This is not a corpse, but a network of very healthy, 3" wide roots that were exactly where we wanted to put the tree, and couldn't tell until we'd already removed 10" of dirt. They belonged to a maple that got chopped down three years ago o.O I think it was a dwarven tree canopy, of those underground dwarven trees, which of course Dan would be forced by his dwarven nature to find. (Dan is a D&D dwarf. Honest! He has all the stats.)

Lightning bug ^_^ and the house ^_^

The tree on the left is a redbud, and the one on the right is a magnolia. Hopefully, within a year, they will be big enough to offer shade to that bay window that is our dining room/nerd quarters.

Damnit, Molly!

So, Knitter's Underground has a sale on their sock yarns, so I bought 10 Sedrun, 15 Wildfoote and 9 cotton skeins, all 50 grams and $2.50. So yeah. 34 skeins of neutral yarn. So if you are in a swap with me, guess what you will be receiving! Well, except for the cotton, which I hope to make a hoodie out of.

I'm glad I was only going for a very quick run to pick up #2 circs and a $12 lace spindle...

You love me! You really love me!

Well, probably not, but some of you actually leave comments!

Dory said... Baking soda is the shit. I use it to clean all my sterling and once I'm done scrubbing, my hands feel really smooth.

My mother swears by cleaning her silver with a lemon peel dipped in BS. That way you can clean the surface without removing all the deeper tarnish that is supposed to be there.


Jamie said... I did my first no-poo last night, and it worked REALLY WELL. My hair, which is usually really coarse and dry unless I put a ton of leave-in conditioner in it (I was already only shampooing three times a week, because even with a moisturizing shampoo my hair just gets wiry), was really soft and manageable. I used, as recommended, one tsp. of baking soda in a cup of water, plus a little honey because I have such dry hair; then I rinsed with apple cider vinegar diluted with water. When I got out, I rubbed a little bit of lavender essential oil (with jojoba as a carrier oil) into my scalp.

My hair and skin are super dry, but I like the BS rinse so much so far that I don't think I need the honey. I did try to rub some jojoba oil onto my scalp after my bath yesterday, since I'd done a number on it, but it mostly staid on my really thick hair. It felt nice and soft, but a bit greasy until it managed to disperse itself fully by the end of the day.


supepome said... Yay! I'll have to try the facial scrub idea, thanks for the tip - I already use bicarb on my hair and teeth. I still find I have to use a teensy bit of regular toothpaste afterward though, because I can taste all the yuk it's getting off my teeth. I think I might try making a mouthwash with some water and a drop of peppermint or tea-tree oil. Doesn't half shift those terminal-caffeine-addict stains though :D

I haven't had any problems with foul aftertastes. I love that I can eat right after I brush them in the morning (and even drink orange juice!) without wanting to gag. Tea tree oil, on the other hand, really repels me. My roommate swears by its antibacterial properties and uses it every single time he gets any small scrape or scratch. But if you like it, whatever floats your boat!

As far as caffeine stains go, most products contain peroxide. You could rinse with that after the BS! Though it will cure all the wounds you might have in your mouth, and not in a fun way. I know HP is H2O2, while BS+vinegar=CO2+H2O, but I'm tempted to try brushing with BS and then rinsing with vinegar and seeing if the chemical reaction helps the stains at all. I remember reading a story once of a bride's teeth getting stained with red wine or coffee right after an intense bleaching, and that champagne then helped get the stain out because of the bubbles...

Whatever you do, don't brush your teeth for half an hour after drinking sodas! They weaken the enamel, which is then easily brushed off.

Oh, Baking Soda, how I love thee...

Last night I played soccer again, and decided to not wash my hair so I could OMGBLOG! about it. The wash seems to be holding up, though the roots are slightly greasy and the ends a bit dry, but nothing compared to the regular shampoo days. My scalp is itching this morning, and I'm assuming it is because of the sweat. Though at least my head doesn't smell! And the pits, still rockin'!

I did, though, try brushing my teeth with baking soda, and loved it! I've had a bone to pick with toothpaste since I was 7 and would always get nauseous on the school bus (this is where my dental hygiene habits went to the shitter). I'm constantly trying out different brands, in the search of something without mints, and found a very decent hippie cherry one from Nature's Gate, but I ran out and keep on forgetting to buy more (the hippie store has odd hours).

So I dipped a moist toothbrush in some baking soda and brushed away (it just tasted like a bunch of salt). This was a bit better than just a brush, thanks to the abrasiveness of the BS, and a lot better than your average toothpaste! I think it is because of all the surfactants in regular toothpaste, that you get a mouth full of foam, and it is hard to tell if you reached all the crud. I have often brushed my teeth and then gone on my merry way, only to feel that I hadn't done anything, and was getting nauseous.

So yeah, teethbrushing + BS = WIN! I was reading the website, and they also recommend mixing 3:1 with some water as a "mild daily face scrub" that I will try next time.

ETA: Ok, I couldn't take it any longer and showered again. I'd been scratching my scalp so much this morning, that I had minor abrasions, so the BS burned a bit, but it calmed down quickly. I also did the face scrub, and that was nice. The less water you use, the more abrasive it is, so you can mix it accordingly.

Adventures in Smelly Hippie Land, part two: RTFM

I think I'd mentioned that I did the no-poo thing wrong the first two times. Well, this monday morning I finally got it right. I dissolved a TBS of baking soda in a full cup of hot water, and slowly poured it on my dry hair, soaking all of it, and then rinsing as normal in the shower.

Monday: Holy crap was my hair curly! It hardly ever gets past a lazy wave, but you'd think I'd just come out of a vapor room. Also, it dried a lot quicker than it normally does, enough to not give me swamp-neck. My hair felt Clean, with the ends maybe a tad dry. Then again, I have Very Dry everything, and haven't come within ten feet of scissors since last july. Dan also said it looked a bit lack luster, compared to what it normally looks like.

Tuesday: still really curling out of my ponytail, but feeling smoother.

Wednesday: My hair now feels like it normally does. It is still not greasy; I haven't gone to the gym (because I'm a lazy slob), but it's been 80 F and I was running two experiments yesterday that burned the crap out of coal samples. My hair has a thick, voluptuous wave, is finally lustrous (without being greasy) and feels pretty much like the end of the day when I used good shampoo and conditioner (I used to be addicted to Redkin's So Soft).


As far as the deodorant, the original mix is still doing well. I'm not too fond of the smell of shea butter (though it is very mild and I only smell it at first) and I am definitely going to have to cut it in the next mix (jojoba, maybe?) but it is definitely doing it's job. I think saturday I didn't put it on completely over one armpit, or didn't use enough, so later in the day it really smelled on that side. I was able to put on more and completely get rid of the smell, something that never worked with regular deodorant.

Another thing I've read people ask on other blogs: Does it leave a white stain? Not at all. Most of my shirts are black, and there is a slight trace from my old deodorant that hasn't washed out of all of them yet, but nothing from this one ^_^

As a side note, whatever I have left on my fingers, after use, I rub on my elbows. They are feeling nicer because the baking soda buffs them a bit, and the butter moisturizes. Same for when I tried it on my ankles.