Monday, 14 April 2014

Easy alternatives for green body hygiene

Face: Natural facial oils; if you don't strip your face by using soaps on it, your natural oils will always keep your face hydrated and beautiful. No dry face and no over-oiliness. I wash my face with soap maybe once a week to make sure it's not dirty and if it's dry afterwards, I use a natural moisturiser made with cocoa butter or shea butter. The other days I only rinse with water and dry with a towl, my face feels fresh and has a nice texture. You won't need to use any creams and hopefully your face won't age so fast either.
UPDATE: I've stopped using soap on my face completely, but I use coconut oil on my face every now and then to moisturise and clean it, works really well.

Hair: Refer back to my No-poo and Shamphree posts. You can wash your hair with all sorts of natural products to avoid shampoo and harmful products from hurting you and the environment. You can use clays, salts, lemons... Also try using just water if you are already no-poo. I wash my hair once a week with salts or clays and then half way through the week I do a water wash, to spread oils and to give my head a clean. I wear a scarf over my hair when I am out, therefore my hair does not get dirty from pollution and other street dirt. My hair doesn't get dirty so I only have to wash it when it is too oily. Check out my updates to see what I change in my routine, what homemade products I make and how I use them.

Toothpaste: Miswak or Siwak is a great alternative to many harmful toothpastes. Or go for a more natural toothpaste and do some research online (or even make your own toothpaste: find a recipe in my oral hygiene section and the update). You can also use your toothbrush without paste. Your brush does most or all of the work anyway, just make sure to get everywhere and to clean your tongue too.

Deodorant: I used to use Alum rock. It's a natural anti-bacteria rock. Just wet the rock and rub it on your armpits. It means you will still sweat but because the rock's attributes is to kill the bacteria, it means there is no smell! You really do need to sweat, so don't force it to stay inside your body because it will contaminate you. I used it after each shower and I didn't smell. Alum contains aluminium but you can get alum made of the good type and the bad type, so make sure you get the right one. If you want to avoid it all together then there are some lovely homemade recipes, and this is the one I make: coconut oil, baking soda and a few drops of lavender essential oil, smells really great! (Although I hardly use it: since I stopped using soap, I've also stopped smelling! check out my post on no-soap)

Body-wash:  Try using an all natural soap, made of vegetable oils if you want to avoid animal products like me, so read the label! Also try to wash with just water if you're not too dirty, or simply shower less. Your skin doesn't need to be washed every day so give it a rest now and then. When you don't strip all your sweat and natural oils you don't need to use moisturisers and other creams. If you want to try using less or no soap then get a body sponge or rose scrub to srcub your dead skin cells and dirt off your body or try the dry body brushing technique before your shower (I describe how to do this in the No Soap post). The important parts to scrub are your hands, feet, arm pits and privates (front and back), the rest of your body will get clean with just water. Update for body-wash: No soap at all!

Cleaning privates: If you wash yourself after every toilet use, the way I describe it in my no toilet paper post, then you can get by not using soap at all, because let's face it they're the really filthy parts because of what we use them for! (But please have a shower after each sexual encounter. Read my celibate marriage post for more info on sex) I write more about how to wash the private parts in my no-soap post.

Feminine hygiene: Refer back to my feminine hygiene post and the super update on how to make awesome cloth pads!

Nails: Cutting finger and toes nails often is recommended to stay clean. Keep them short, because short = clean and clean = healthy and healthy does = pretty.
Long, fake, over-decorated nails are just creepy and dirty... (well that's my opinion) because they can so easily accumulate dirt and spread/create infections.

Feet: Be barefoot as much as you can because it's best for them and the rest of your body. Do more research on the subject and clean your feet before bed, because a clean bed means you stay clean for longer.

Conclusion: Being green-clean means you don't actually do that much cleaning but if you use all these little cleaning methods then it means you don't have to do all the big ones, such as: soap showers and hair wash every day and what not. Some of these require some time for your body to become natural again, such as going without shampoo (check out my no-poo journey post).

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