Hallo!
No soap:
For the past 45 days I've stopped using soap (except on my hands). For a year I haven't used shampoo or any un-natural chemicals on my hair so I thought "why am I using soap on my body?". During the year I've mainly been using soap on my feet, privates and bum, armpits and hands - and simply washing the rest of my body with water and a sponge.
(7 months update: I love being no-soap! My showers are shorter and fresher and I feel more free. It's been 7 months now since I last used soap, except on my hands. I have a delightful natural, clean scent. My husband doesn't use soap either and I find that he smells better and better as time goes by. Today I found that he smelt so fresh and just really delicious! Humans have a natural scent just like all other animals. And just like all other animals, we like and even enjoy the scent of our own species. It can take a while for the natural scent to come back after years of chemical mixing, but eventually it comes back, and is so worth it!! I still wash my hands with soap because they come into contact with a lot of dirt and germs, and it seems to have been proven that using soap on hands helps in decreasing or avoiding a lot of contamination. But the un-exposed body parts do NOT need soap washing.)
Research:
Before doing this, I did some research on not using soap and how to wash the private area naturally. I found out that the body does not need to be washed with soap (except the hands as there is some research which suggests that since humans use soap on their hands, a lot of disease has been avoided). The body creates its own oil that is needed to keep the body clean and protected, but when we use soap we strip it all off and leave the body vulnerable, so it gets dirty, dry or greasy and even stinky. Another point is that apparently by stopping soap, the body is less smelly because it regulates itself better. Some soaps are really damaging and even create imbalances in the body's hormones - which is very unhealthy! The private area also (which is what I was more worried about washing properly) doesn't need soap. Apparently a lot of people tend to know this - but I didn't - you should only use water on your privates! And that includes the bumbum too. (I've heard that coconut oil or white vinegar are good ways to kill any fungus or smells and is a good idea to use after menstruating for example or if -God forbid- you have an infection down there.)
Water showers:
I have several showers a day to wash myself completely with water only. Each shower takes about 4 minutes so I'm not wasting too much water. I also wash my privates every time I go to the toilet (in this way) to make sure I stay clean at all times (this is necessary in my life to be able to carry on with my daily religious rituals). During my shower I clean every orifice very well because this is where infections and dirt get into the body = ears, nose, mouth, navel, vagina and anus (and eyes, but I don't wash inside my eyes). As well as the orifices, it's important to wash all the hairy parts of the body by giving a good scrub with your hand or sponge. The armpits are the ones I wash the most thoroughly until any smell goes (but luckily I haven't been smelling lately). And finally the feet. I wash in between my toes and the whole foot. It's also good to wash feet during the day whenever they are dirty or damp or any 'not normal' situation. For my religious rituals, I need to clean my feet several times a day, also if you're a bare-foot person then you'll need to wash your feet a lot. The main thing is to wash them before getting into bed so that you sleep clean. I've had to use soap in between my toes twice because it got itchy and I thought it was because I didn't use soap, but it turned out to be just my toe nails getting long and digging into the toes around! So I can go no-soap, worry-free again even on my toes.
Dry skin brushing:
In my shower I do not use a sponge or brush, I only use my hands and the shower water. BUT before every shower I've also started Dry Skin Brushing. This is to stimulate the lymphatic system and to revitalise my body as well as getting rid of dead skin cells. I find that it also leaves my skin clean and soft, which means it doesn't require scrubbing in the shower.
Deodorant (natural):
I haven't used any deodorant since transitioning to no-soap, but I've read that some people go really stinky for the first few days so they went for a natural or homemade deodorant to help during that time. I have noticed that I smell nicer, I really like my natural smell and no one around has noticed any change. Even my husband hasn't noticed any difference. No smell is a great smell! Because my sweat used to be quite smelly... This is also affected by clothes. If you wear synthetic fabrics then this will make your sweat smell. If you wear natural fabrics then your sweat will not be affected by it. If you do want to use deodorant you can make a lovely homemade one or I would recommend using Alum rock (yes Alum come from aluminium but check the ingredients because sometimes it's made of the bad type and sometimes it's made of the good type). The easy and lovely homemade one requires 1, 2 or 3 ingredients, depending on how intricate you want to be :)
Natural Deo:
option 1: Rub some coconut oil on your armpits
option 2: Rub some baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) on your armpits
option 3: Mix baking soda and coconut oil in a little tub and apply it to your armpits
option 4: Mix baking soda, coconut oil and a few drops of essential oils for a delightful scent (I use lavender and it smells so lovely) mix it in a little tub and apply it with your fingers.
So, how to be a no-soap person? It helps to use the Dry Skin Brushing technique and why not try a natural deodorant to add a little scent.
Have you ever thought of going no-soap? What do you think about it?
Love J xx
PS it's been around 3 years now since I used soap on my body and I wouldn't go back. It seems silly and wasteful. I still use soap on my hands and occasionally on my face if I've been in a polluted environment. The doedorant I use every single day is the coconut oil and baking soda mix.
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Oral hygiene update (oil pulling and tongue scraping)
Hi everybody!
Peace be with you all!
I've been away for almost 3 months, living on an eco-farm in central France! It was so super! During this time away I've had time to learn, re-learn and practice some new, green, cool stuff. They used Ayurvedic medicine to treat and prevent illnesses there and they were vegetarian too.
I had already read about oil pulling a while ago and just couldn't get down to doing it but it was recommended for me because it doesn't only serve as a great mouth wash and teeth whitener but also to clear out the sinuses and so many other ills! I always have sinus issues and other respiratory infections. So I decided to give it a go. When oil pulling, we should try to do it everyday for a month minimum before deciding whether or not it works for us. SO here I go, on an oil-pulling month!
The oil I use is roasted sesame oil, and I put some black seeds in the bottle, because black seeds are great for teeth health (and overall health).
The next thing I added to my routine is tongue scraping. Funnily enough I bought a pack of 6 tongue scrapers off ebay months and months ago but only used one very un-frequently. Now, I read that it's a very ancient Ayurvedic practice which, like oil pulling, helps for over all internal cleansing.
So, now, thanks to all the research I've done and thanks to other awesome bloggers and youtubers out there I've managed to transform my oral hygiene routine to this:
-Oil pulling for 15 minutes
-tongue scraping
-teeth brushing (baking soda and water)
-tongue scraping again
-water mouth wash for 1 or 2 minutes
This routine is the first thing I do when I wake up. Oil pulling must be done before eating and drinking anything in the morning because it gets rid of all the bacteria build up from the night. Our mouths are full of toxins and bacteria that have come out of all our organs and tissues through out the night and risen up to our mouths to get out of our bodies, but if we drink or eat when we wake up we just take it all back into our bodies! So we must get rid of it all first and oil pulling is just great for that!
where I got a lot of info from:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NehqUEFLFc8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRXUWEDMAz4
I will be doing this daily, morning routine for at least a month and see if it helps my health.
peace out!
Peace be with you all!
I've been away for almost 3 months, living on an eco-farm in central France! It was so super! During this time away I've had time to learn, re-learn and practice some new, green, cool stuff. They used Ayurvedic medicine to treat and prevent illnesses there and they were vegetarian too.
I had already read about oil pulling a while ago and just couldn't get down to doing it but it was recommended for me because it doesn't only serve as a great mouth wash and teeth whitener but also to clear out the sinuses and so many other ills! I always have sinus issues and other respiratory infections. So I decided to give it a go. When oil pulling, we should try to do it everyday for a month minimum before deciding whether or not it works for us. SO here I go, on an oil-pulling month!
The oil I use is roasted sesame oil, and I put some black seeds in the bottle, because black seeds are great for teeth health (and overall health).
The next thing I added to my routine is tongue scraping. Funnily enough I bought a pack of 6 tongue scrapers off ebay months and months ago but only used one very un-frequently. Now, I read that it's a very ancient Ayurvedic practice which, like oil pulling, helps for over all internal cleansing.
So, now, thanks to all the research I've done and thanks to other awesome bloggers and youtubers out there I've managed to transform my oral hygiene routine to this:
-Oil pulling for 15 minutes
-tongue scraping
-teeth brushing (baking soda and water)
-tongue scraping again
-water mouth wash for 1 or 2 minutes
This routine is the first thing I do when I wake up. Oil pulling must be done before eating and drinking anything in the morning because it gets rid of all the bacteria build up from the night. Our mouths are full of toxins and bacteria that have come out of all our organs and tissues through out the night and risen up to our mouths to get out of our bodies, but if we drink or eat when we wake up we just take it all back into our bodies! So we must get rid of it all first and oil pulling is just great for that!
where I got a lot of info from:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NehqUEFLFc8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRXUWEDMAz4
I will be doing this daily, morning routine for at least a month and see if it helps my health.
peace out!
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
8 month update NO-POO / SHAMPHREE
Hi everyone!
8 months no shampoo ey! Awesome.
My hair is still normal, looks good and feels good. Others say my hair is thicker, healthier and slightly blonder. I guess because I see my hair everyday I can't really tell the difference and I've never really had any hair problems so there was nothing specific for me to observe. Nonetheless I'm very happy with my hair experience. I have found a routine -which is still the same since being 4 or 5 months into it- although it varies now and then when I go a few extra days without washing it or if it desperately needs a wash - like after going to the sea.
Swimming in the sea: My hair was covered all day with a bandanna style scarf which means no wind or sand got to it. But I did put my head under water so my hair was definitely in contact with natural, salty, sea water and a bit of sun (when cotton is wet, the sun gets through). I washed my hair with shikakai and water, and conditioned it with lemon-water in the evening and it was amazing. The sea water really did something lovely to it ;-) it felt so clean.
I've noticed that the shikakai and lemon routine is great but after 5 or 6 weeks it really needs a baking-soda wash, still followed by lemon-water. The shikakai is such a light cleansing that eventually I found it needs something stronger to get rid of a certain waxyness which builds up. But as I said it's only after 5 or 6 weeks. Also I often went a whole week without washing at all if it didn't look or feel like it needed it.
I do not know, at this point, if I will ever be able to go without anything at all and rely only on water but I haven't lost hope in the idea. I'm planning on cutting down on shikakai as much as possible and doing WO as much as I can without my hair looking or feeling dirty.
For now I've basically been washing only when it needs it, which can be once or twice a week.
Thanks for reading and please leave comments or questions and I will get back to you!
Hope your journey is also going well =)
Love
Joanna
PS: I've had a minor set back this week because I got head-lice from my nephew... eek... (Read my post on how to get rid of nits on a no-poo hair-diet) I applied a lot of coconut and tea tree oil on my hair and scalp to get rid of them which means that my hair was extremely oily. It worked wonders on the nits and was so beneficial for my hair, My hair was so beautiful and luscious and soft and shiny after about a week or a week and a half. After this I went just over a week doing WO twice and without using any shikakai or anything else either..
Peace
Check out my 1 YEAR UPDATE !!
8 months no shampoo ey! Awesome.
My hair is still normal, looks good and feels good. Others say my hair is thicker, healthier and slightly blonder. I guess because I see my hair everyday I can't really tell the difference and I've never really had any hair problems so there was nothing specific for me to observe. Nonetheless I'm very happy with my hair experience. I have found a routine -which is still the same since being 4 or 5 months into it- although it varies now and then when I go a few extra days without washing it or if it desperately needs a wash - like after going to the sea.
Swimming in the sea: My hair was covered all day with a bandanna style scarf which means no wind or sand got to it. But I did put my head under water so my hair was definitely in contact with natural, salty, sea water and a bit of sun (when cotton is wet, the sun gets through). I washed my hair with shikakai and water, and conditioned it with lemon-water in the evening and it was amazing. The sea water really did something lovely to it ;-) it felt so clean.
I've noticed that the shikakai and lemon routine is great but after 5 or 6 weeks it really needs a baking-soda wash, still followed by lemon-water. The shikakai is such a light cleansing that eventually I found it needs something stronger to get rid of a certain waxyness which builds up. But as I said it's only after 5 or 6 weeks. Also I often went a whole week without washing at all if it didn't look or feel like it needed it.
I do not know, at this point, if I will ever be able to go without anything at all and rely only on water but I haven't lost hope in the idea. I'm planning on cutting down on shikakai as much as possible and doing WO as much as I can without my hair looking or feeling dirty.
For now I've basically been washing only when it needs it, which can be once or twice a week.
Thanks for reading and please leave comments or questions and I will get back to you!
Hope your journey is also going well =)
Love
Joanna
PS: I've had a minor set back this week because I got head-lice from my nephew... eek... (Read my post on how to get rid of nits on a no-poo hair-diet) I applied a lot of coconut and tea tree oil on my hair and scalp to get rid of them which means that my hair was extremely oily. It worked wonders on the nits and was so beneficial for my hair, My hair was so beautiful and luscious and soft and shiny after about a week or a week and a half. After this I went just over a week doing WO twice and without using any shikakai or anything else either..
Peace
Check out my 1 YEAR UPDATE !!
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
NITS - NO POO _ getting rid of nits and lice without chemicals! (+ bonus non violent info)
Hi everyone!
I've got nits and lice!! EEuww! I spent the summer with my nephew, who caught nits and I caught them off him!
NITS PREFER 'CLEAN' HAIR THAN 'DIRTY' HAIR!! Lice can't grip onto hair that is oily.
Nits on adult heads?!
This is very rare, but it does happen; usually parents or people involved in childcare. On adults they can take up to 30 days to hatch, so you could be carrying around a bunch a eggs ready to emerge and itch your head up big time!! My head got itchier and itchier for about 2 weeks and suddenly I found a louse in my shower! This was a week and a half after I'd left my family. I emailed my mum to ask if she knew about any nits around the family and she replied that she, my sister and my nephew all had nits! So we must have all caught them of my nephew who tends to hang around his friends who are school children...
What's the next step? Do I have to use chemicals?
So I found a louse and can see some nits (eggs) in my hair! WHAT TO DO? All I can remember as a kid is that I had LOADS of nits and my mum would use a dreadful, stenchy chemical that seamed to kill everything in my hair and destroy part of head with it too! But knowing what I know now about chemicals and being no-poo for nearly 8 months I could not bare the thought of using such chemicals on my head. So I started searching for natural options and found that apparently the best way is to use Coconut Oil and Tea Tree Oil (make sure both oils are 100% natural and are the pure ingredients, you don't want to use creams or oil blends...)
Natural Recipe for Nit Remedy
Mix 3 tablespoons of pure coconut oil, and 1 teaspoon of pure tea tree oil. Rub it all over your scalp and hair, then cover it in a scarf. I also wore a hoody on top in case any would slide through the edges of my scarf... I didn't want to drop them off where ever I went!
Leave the oil-remedy and head scarf on your head over-night or at least 8 hours (some can hold their breath for up to 8 hours!). With a nit comb, comb out the dead bodies and rinse the comb well between each finding. Then when you think you're done, wash your hair, using your normal routine (add a couple drops of tea tree oil into your shampoo or washing mix). Your hair will remain oily for up to a few days but that is a good thing. It will prevent any live ones to latch onto your hair and they will die quickly. I prepared a mix in a spray bottle, to spray my hair everyday for the next week or so. It's made up of 10 drops of tea tree oil and 1 cup of water.
This worked for me, my head continued to be itchy for up to 3 or 4 days after all the lice were dead because they bite a bit and I had an allergic reaction to their saliva which is common. So don't freak out if you're their dead and don't understand why you're still scratching!
With my no-poo or shamphree hair routine, my hair stayed oily for 9 days. I washed it every 2 days with shikakai and lemon, and also baking soda and apple cider vinegar. The ACV helped to maintain my hair moist because although it was oily from the coconut oil, my hair felt a bit like hay underneath it all. I usually wash my hair once or twice a week but because of the coconut oil I needed to wash it more just to get rid of the oilyness. Now that all the oil is washed out, my hair is left so gorgeous, luscious, soft and so smooth. Great! (Y)
How to catch nits
Nits and lice do not fly or jump, you cannot catch them from a pillow and if they've been off a human head they'll die within 24 hours. The only way you catch them is if they crawl from another head onto your head so that is usually whilst hugging or carrying an infested child or being in other very close contact with an infested head.
How to get rid of nits fully / What nits hate
Wash the T-shirts, jumpers, hats and scarves you've been wearing the past couple days, as well as bedding and your coat. If your nits were on anything else, they've probably died by now and fallen off somewhere. Nits hate oily environments (so rub that oil in deep and all over!), they hate freezing environments (If your afraid your coat might be infested but it's too big for your washing machine then put it in a freezer!), they also hate heat! So if you use curling irons, flat irons or hair dryers then by all means, use them today! I don't ever use heat on my hair but I actually considered it today... I resisted though.
Prevention
Tea tree oil is also the best prevention from nits and lice because they hate it so much! If heads in your local area are infested and you want to prevent your kids from catching them then put a few drops into your normal hair-washing routine and that of your kids so that all of you are protected. Lice will not approach a head that smells of tea tree oil.
Spiritual and non-violence view of killing nits
So while I was preparing to kill all these tiny beings on my head I was getting second thoughts. Do I really need to kill them? Is there a way to get rid of nits without killing them? and blablabla... Well I thought about it longer.
1) If there was a way to remove them without killing them - they would die afterwards because they can only survive on a human head.
2) Removing them alive and placing them on someone else's head - completely adverse to non-violence because you would be putting another person through the itchy ordeal and they would most probably end up killing them anyway.
3) The only pure non-violent way to deal with nits and lice would be to keep them on your head, but living far away from other humans in order to not transfer them to anyone. And you would not be allowed to scratch your head because it would hurt them and you. So this would be a truly most difficult task and test from God!
4) So I have to kill them? Yes. But there are different ways to kill a being. You can kill out of revenge, out of anger, out of God-consciousness etc.
So I decided that there was no other alternative but to kill them. These are parasites that were created solely to live off human blood and on their heads no less! So it is part of them and it is who they are to hurt us, but it is not who we are to hurt them back! Do not kill them out of revenge for biting your scalp, and do not hurt or kill them out of spite or anger. I must remember why I am killing them, and it is only because I am too weak to carry them on me because of the pain and itchiness. So I surrender to God Almighty and I kill these tiny beings out of love for them and love for my head and love for my sanity! I pray that being killed by a God-consciousness person will free them from this pitiful existence that they are in and that they can move onto a higher form of life now. Amen!
I hope you get rid of your nits and that everything is well for you!
Lots of peace and love
I've got nits and lice!! EEuww! I spent the summer with my nephew, who caught nits and I caught them off him!
NITS PREFER 'CLEAN' HAIR THAN 'DIRTY' HAIR!! Lice can't grip onto hair that is oily.
Nits on adult heads?!
This is very rare, but it does happen; usually parents or people involved in childcare. On adults they can take up to 30 days to hatch, so you could be carrying around a bunch a eggs ready to emerge and itch your head up big time!! My head got itchier and itchier for about 2 weeks and suddenly I found a louse in my shower! This was a week and a half after I'd left my family. I emailed my mum to ask if she knew about any nits around the family and she replied that she, my sister and my nephew all had nits! So we must have all caught them of my nephew who tends to hang around his friends who are school children...
What's the next step? Do I have to use chemicals?
So I found a louse and can see some nits (eggs) in my hair! WHAT TO DO? All I can remember as a kid is that I had LOADS of nits and my mum would use a dreadful, stenchy chemical that seamed to kill everything in my hair and destroy part of head with it too! But knowing what I know now about chemicals and being no-poo for nearly 8 months I could not bare the thought of using such chemicals on my head. So I started searching for natural options and found that apparently the best way is to use Coconut Oil and Tea Tree Oil (make sure both oils are 100% natural and are the pure ingredients, you don't want to use creams or oil blends...)
Natural Recipe for Nit Remedy
Mix 3 tablespoons of pure coconut oil, and 1 teaspoon of pure tea tree oil. Rub it all over your scalp and hair, then cover it in a scarf. I also wore a hoody on top in case any would slide through the edges of my scarf... I didn't want to drop them off where ever I went!
Leave the oil-remedy and head scarf on your head over-night or at least 8 hours (some can hold their breath for up to 8 hours!). With a nit comb, comb out the dead bodies and rinse the comb well between each finding. Then when you think you're done, wash your hair, using your normal routine (add a couple drops of tea tree oil into your shampoo or washing mix). Your hair will remain oily for up to a few days but that is a good thing. It will prevent any live ones to latch onto your hair and they will die quickly. I prepared a mix in a spray bottle, to spray my hair everyday for the next week or so. It's made up of 10 drops of tea tree oil and 1 cup of water.
This worked for me, my head continued to be itchy for up to 3 or 4 days after all the lice were dead because they bite a bit and I had an allergic reaction to their saliva which is common. So don't freak out if you're their dead and don't understand why you're still scratching!
With my no-poo or shamphree hair routine, my hair stayed oily for 9 days. I washed it every 2 days with shikakai and lemon, and also baking soda and apple cider vinegar. The ACV helped to maintain my hair moist because although it was oily from the coconut oil, my hair felt a bit like hay underneath it all. I usually wash my hair once or twice a week but because of the coconut oil I needed to wash it more just to get rid of the oilyness. Now that all the oil is washed out, my hair is left so gorgeous, luscious, soft and so smooth. Great! (Y)
How to catch nits
Nits and lice do not fly or jump, you cannot catch them from a pillow and if they've been off a human head they'll die within 24 hours. The only way you catch them is if they crawl from another head onto your head so that is usually whilst hugging or carrying an infested child or being in other very close contact with an infested head.
How to get rid of nits fully / What nits hate
Wash the T-shirts, jumpers, hats and scarves you've been wearing the past couple days, as well as bedding and your coat. If your nits were on anything else, they've probably died by now and fallen off somewhere. Nits hate oily environments (so rub that oil in deep and all over!), they hate freezing environments (If your afraid your coat might be infested but it's too big for your washing machine then put it in a freezer!), they also hate heat! So if you use curling irons, flat irons or hair dryers then by all means, use them today! I don't ever use heat on my hair but I actually considered it today... I resisted though.
Prevention
Tea tree oil is also the best prevention from nits and lice because they hate it so much! If heads in your local area are infested and you want to prevent your kids from catching them then put a few drops into your normal hair-washing routine and that of your kids so that all of you are protected. Lice will not approach a head that smells of tea tree oil.
Spiritual and non-violence view of killing nits
So while I was preparing to kill all these tiny beings on my head I was getting second thoughts. Do I really need to kill them? Is there a way to get rid of nits without killing them? and blablabla... Well I thought about it longer.
1) If there was a way to remove them without killing them - they would die afterwards because they can only survive on a human head.
2) Removing them alive and placing them on someone else's head - completely adverse to non-violence because you would be putting another person through the itchy ordeal and they would most probably end up killing them anyway.
3) The only pure non-violent way to deal with nits and lice would be to keep them on your head, but living far away from other humans in order to not transfer them to anyone. And you would not be allowed to scratch your head because it would hurt them and you. So this would be a truly most difficult task and test from God!
4) So I have to kill them? Yes. But there are different ways to kill a being. You can kill out of revenge, out of anger, out of God-consciousness etc.
So I decided that there was no other alternative but to kill them. These are parasites that were created solely to live off human blood and on their heads no less! So it is part of them and it is who they are to hurt us, but it is not who we are to hurt them back! Do not kill them out of revenge for biting your scalp, and do not hurt or kill them out of spite or anger. I must remember why I am killing them, and it is only because I am too weak to carry them on me because of the pain and itchiness. So I surrender to God Almighty and I kill these tiny beings out of love for them and love for my head and love for my sanity! I pray that being killed by a God-consciousness person will free them from this pitiful existence that they are in and that they can move onto a higher form of life now. Amen!
I hope you get rid of your nits and that everything is well for you!
Lots of peace and love
Friday, 4 July 2014
5 MONTHS SHAMPHREE - NO POO
5 months and 10 days to be precise!
Hi everybody, almost a month and a half and no posts! So here's for this month's recap of my hair routine: what worked and what didn't and all the blablabla =D
So let's start back from the begining. The first week of the 5th month I carried on using the shikakai powder mix (2 heaped teaspoons in 1 cup of water, mixed in a squeezy bottle) followed by the lemon mix (juice of half a lemon in 1 cup and 1/2 of water in a spray bottle) as a conditioner.
At first I used this routine twice a week; monday morning and thursday night (about 3 and 1/2 days apart). I did this for about 2 weeks (including the first week of last month). My hair was cleaner than usual so I went on to doing only 1 shikakai-lemon wash the next week and without the WO in between either and then I neither washed nor wet my hair at all for the next 10 days. After which my hair was too oily for just the shikakai (plus I had run out). So I did a baking soda and lemon wash. My hair was splendid after that and didn't require a wash or wet for a week. By then I had also ran out of baking soda so the only hair-washing 'product' I had was a bit of clay left from my initial routine. So I used it. I did a clay wash and then I WO for the rest of the time until now.
So a clearer recap of my ideas: I am going to carry on WO until it needs a stronger wash. The Shikakai and lemon routine is wonderful; in the case that my hair needs a stronger wash than WO, I will use the shikakai powder and lemon-water mix. After a few weeks or a month, if my hair looks like it needs it then I will do a baking soda and lemon wash. Then return to WO or shikakai ect.
Well that is pretty much it for this month. I'm 3 weeks away from 6 months! woo! cool! ;P
Let me know about your journey, take care!
Peace
Check out my 8 months update!
Hi everybody, almost a month and a half and no posts! So here's for this month's recap of my hair routine: what worked and what didn't and all the blablabla =D
So let's start back from the begining. The first week of the 5th month I carried on using the shikakai powder mix (2 heaped teaspoons in 1 cup of water, mixed in a squeezy bottle) followed by the lemon mix (juice of half a lemon in 1 cup and 1/2 of water in a spray bottle) as a conditioner.
At first I used this routine twice a week; monday morning and thursday night (about 3 and 1/2 days apart). I did this for about 2 weeks (including the first week of last month). My hair was cleaner than usual so I went on to doing only 1 shikakai-lemon wash the next week and without the WO in between either and then I neither washed nor wet my hair at all for the next 10 days. After which my hair was too oily for just the shikakai (plus I had run out). So I did a baking soda and lemon wash. My hair was splendid after that and didn't require a wash or wet for a week. By then I had also ran out of baking soda so the only hair-washing 'product' I had was a bit of clay left from my initial routine. So I used it. I did a clay wash and then I WO for the rest of the time until now.
So a clearer recap of my ideas: I am going to carry on WO until it needs a stronger wash. The Shikakai and lemon routine is wonderful; in the case that my hair needs a stronger wash than WO, I will use the shikakai powder and lemon-water mix. After a few weeks or a month, if my hair looks like it needs it then I will do a baking soda and lemon wash. Then return to WO or shikakai ect.
Well that is pretty much it for this month. I'm 3 weeks away from 6 months! woo! cool! ;P
Let me know about your journey, take care!
Peace
Check out my 8 months update!
Friday, 30 May 2014
I don't use Toothpaste! Then what do I use?
Hey everybody!
Now this is quite a common theme: toothpaste. A lot of green people use alternatives to traditional toothpaste because of fluoride and other ingredients. Again in this post I'm not going to go into all the detail of why not to use toothpaste because there are so many other websites and blogs and books about that. But I'm here to let you know what I do about it and I hope I'll be able to inspire you by showing you how easy it is to let go of toothpaste once you've made the decision that it's just not for you!
Here are 5 wonderful alternatives for you to read about and experiment with!
Alternative 1: nothing! that's right, no toothpaste at all. But keep brushing! Never stop brushing - no toothpaste doesn't mean no oral cleaning routine! Use your normal tooth brush and brush your teeth several times a day, but with nothing on it, just water (morning, evening + every time you eat).
I call this Empty Brushing.
I did this for a while and still do it a lot but I've added a few steps to my routine. One reason I started doing it was because I just don't like toothpaste; it tastes too strong and is so messy! So I would sometimes go days without brushing! Until I decided I just wouldn't use toothpaste anymore, so I started brushing my teeth with just water. After a while I wondered if it was unhealthy to do this so I did some research on it. I found out that when brushing your teeth, the brushing is what's cleaning your teeth not the toothpaste! So give it a try and see what you think for yourself. Another great benefit is that because it's so quick and easy, you can just brush so many times a day and it's no hassle. You can also carry a toothbrush with you wherever you go and give your teeth a quick brush when you find a tap.
EXTRAS: 1 If you eat onions and garlic and processed food and other stinky foods then your breath will get stinky with the brushing alone technique. Baking soda is great for getting rid of smells. So if you go for the empty brushing alternative, make sure to make a baking soda mouth wash to use once a day, morning is better - kills dirt and smells accumulated during the night. Swish it around every where - spit - and rinse your mouth out with water!
2 Make a mouthwash out of 1 cup of water and 3 or 4 drops of peppermint essential oil. This peppermint mouth wash can be used once or twice a day, morning: kills dirt and smells accumulated during the night, and evening: after brushing to have a fresh minty smell before bed. Swish it around every where for 5 minutes- spit - and rinse your mouth out with water! (I use this homemade mouthwash in my routine)
Alternative 2: This time you can try combining alternative 1 with extra 1: brush your teeth with a normal toothbrush dipped in a cup of baking soda and water mix.
Alternative 3: This is what I use now; Home made toothpaste. This is so simple and effective: baking soda and coconut oil! That's it! How easy is that, ey? Use the same amount of baking soda to coconut ratio in teaspoons (ie: 4 teaspoons of baking soda and 4 teaspoons of liquid coconut oil - mix it all up in a little glass jar to keep on the bathroom shelf) then put some on your normal toothbrush and get brushing, same as you would with a store bought toothpaste.
EXTRAS: 1 Rinse your mouth out really well after with water because it does not taste nice; very salty and bitter! You can do this 2 or 3 times daily like any other toothpaste, but you could also do empty brushing after meals to keep your mouth and teeth extra clean.
2 Rinse your mouth with the peppermint mouthwash, to get a fresh minty smell. Swish around for 5 minutes, spit and rinse with water. (1 cup of water and 3 to 4 drops of essential oil.)
Alternative 4: What I like to use sometimes also is a Siwak or Miswak: It is from a root or branch, depending on what the shop is selling. It's 100% natural and cleans your mouth very well. You use it like a toothbrush but use only water with it. It doesn't make teeth white but it does get rid of smells and bacteria. I will dedicate a whole post to it. This is porbably the most natural and green alternative for brushing teeth as well as the cheapest - 1 stalk cost about 40p (british pennies)!! And last weeks to months (depending on how often you use it and how well you look after it).
EXTRAS: You could still empty brush now and then and use a homemade mouthwash (baking soda or peppermint).
Alternative 5: I have never used this technique but have heard that it works wonders and is really healthy for many, many reasons: you could do more research about it if you are interested! This is Oil Pulling. Basically you put oil in your mouth (I heard coconut is a good one for this too) and swish and swoosh for 20 minutes! Then spit out and rinse with water (make sure to spit it into the bin and not down the drain - also do NOT swallow the oil or the water rinse after it! Because it is full of bacteria.) This is a technique reserved for the people who are not lazy and who have time to do it as well as patience! Good luck. Although it is really effective according to research.
As I mentioned before, what I do is: Brush my teeth with my homemade toothpaste morning and evening followed by 5 minutes of swishing and swooshing the peppermint mouthwash. Sometimes I empty brush throughout the day. Empty brushing is great because it's so quick and easy and not messy at all.
There you have it folks! Enjoy your new oral cleansing routine and let us know what you go for. Any tips?
CHECK OUT MY UPDATE HERE where I talk about my new routine, including oil pulling and tongue scraping!
Peace out!
:-D
Now this is quite a common theme: toothpaste. A lot of green people use alternatives to traditional toothpaste because of fluoride and other ingredients. Again in this post I'm not going to go into all the detail of why not to use toothpaste because there are so many other websites and blogs and books about that. But I'm here to let you know what I do about it and I hope I'll be able to inspire you by showing you how easy it is to let go of toothpaste once you've made the decision that it's just not for you!
Here are 5 wonderful alternatives for you to read about and experiment with!
Alternative 1: nothing! that's right, no toothpaste at all. But keep brushing! Never stop brushing - no toothpaste doesn't mean no oral cleaning routine! Use your normal tooth brush and brush your teeth several times a day, but with nothing on it, just water (morning, evening + every time you eat).
I call this Empty Brushing.
I did this for a while and still do it a lot but I've added a few steps to my routine. One reason I started doing it was because I just don't like toothpaste; it tastes too strong and is so messy! So I would sometimes go days without brushing! Until I decided I just wouldn't use toothpaste anymore, so I started brushing my teeth with just water. After a while I wondered if it was unhealthy to do this so I did some research on it. I found out that when brushing your teeth, the brushing is what's cleaning your teeth not the toothpaste! So give it a try and see what you think for yourself. Another great benefit is that because it's so quick and easy, you can just brush so many times a day and it's no hassle. You can also carry a toothbrush with you wherever you go and give your teeth a quick brush when you find a tap.
EXTRAS: 1 If you eat onions and garlic and processed food and other stinky foods then your breath will get stinky with the brushing alone technique. Baking soda is great for getting rid of smells. So if you go for the empty brushing alternative, make sure to make a baking soda mouth wash to use once a day, morning is better - kills dirt and smells accumulated during the night. Swish it around every where - spit - and rinse your mouth out with water!
2 Make a mouthwash out of 1 cup of water and 3 or 4 drops of peppermint essential oil. This peppermint mouth wash can be used once or twice a day, morning: kills dirt and smells accumulated during the night, and evening: after brushing to have a fresh minty smell before bed. Swish it around every where for 5 minutes- spit - and rinse your mouth out with water! (I use this homemade mouthwash in my routine)
Alternative 2: This time you can try combining alternative 1 with extra 1: brush your teeth with a normal toothbrush dipped in a cup of baking soda and water mix.
Alternative 3: This is what I use now; Home made toothpaste. This is so simple and effective: baking soda and coconut oil! That's it! How easy is that, ey? Use the same amount of baking soda to coconut ratio in teaspoons (ie: 4 teaspoons of baking soda and 4 teaspoons of liquid coconut oil - mix it all up in a little glass jar to keep on the bathroom shelf) then put some on your normal toothbrush and get brushing, same as you would with a store bought toothpaste.
EXTRAS: 1 Rinse your mouth out really well after with water because it does not taste nice; very salty and bitter! You can do this 2 or 3 times daily like any other toothpaste, but you could also do empty brushing after meals to keep your mouth and teeth extra clean.
2 Rinse your mouth with the peppermint mouthwash, to get a fresh minty smell. Swish around for 5 minutes, spit and rinse with water. (1 cup of water and 3 to 4 drops of essential oil.)
Alternative 4: What I like to use sometimes also is a Siwak or Miswak: It is from a root or branch, depending on what the shop is selling. It's 100% natural and cleans your mouth very well. You use it like a toothbrush but use only water with it. It doesn't make teeth white but it does get rid of smells and bacteria. I will dedicate a whole post to it. This is porbably the most natural and green alternative for brushing teeth as well as the cheapest - 1 stalk cost about 40p (british pennies)!! And last weeks to months (depending on how often you use it and how well you look after it).
EXTRAS: You could still empty brush now and then and use a homemade mouthwash (baking soda or peppermint).
Alternative 5: I have never used this technique but have heard that it works wonders and is really healthy for many, many reasons: you could do more research about it if you are interested! This is Oil Pulling. Basically you put oil in your mouth (I heard coconut is a good one for this too) and swish and swoosh for 20 minutes! Then spit out and rinse with water (make sure to spit it into the bin and not down the drain - also do NOT swallow the oil or the water rinse after it! Because it is full of bacteria.) This is a technique reserved for the people who are not lazy and who have time to do it as well as patience! Good luck. Although it is really effective according to research.
As I mentioned before, what I do is: Brush my teeth with my homemade toothpaste morning and evening followed by 5 minutes of swishing and swooshing the peppermint mouthwash. Sometimes I empty brush throughout the day. Empty brushing is great because it's so quick and easy and not messy at all.
There you have it folks! Enjoy your new oral cleansing routine and let us know what you go for. Any tips?
CHECK OUT MY UPDATE HERE where I talk about my new routine, including oil pulling and tongue scraping!
Peace out!
:-D
HAIR DYING INFORMATION for No-poo / Shamphree
Hi everybody! Greetings of peace and love!
As I mentioned in my previous post (4 months shamphree update) my hair got lighter because of all the lemon juice I have been using over the course of my shamphree experimenting. The lemon serves as a conditioner to make my hair soft and smooth: easy to brush.
Before going no-poo, I used to dye my hair about once a year and the last colour I had done was red. BRIGHT RED! It was lovely, I really liked it. But after about 6 months I was really bored of it so I un-died it with a store-bought product meant for it; a dye stripper. I used it and not only did it just make my hair orange, it also made it so STINKY! After dealing with the stench (by drenching it in oil and washing out many times) I got used to the weird colour and actually started liking it. It was no longer called weird orange but light copper ;-)
Only when I went no-poo it just got lighter and lighter and became blond - but only the died part! So I had 10 to 15 cm of brown hair from the roots down and the rest of the length was blondy-ginger... I really wanted my natural colour back so I tried shikakai powder and coffee but those don't dye hair they just help to bring out natural darks. Only my natural colour was buried very deep under the blond and the dye stripper and the red, chemical dye... So! what to do...
Well I didn't want to use a chemical full product on my no-poo hair because I thought it would throw my hair off track completely as I don't want to be using chemicals on my hair anymore!
I couldn't find any useful help online as to how to dye no-poo hair. All the info I could find was how to go no-poo on already dyed hair (which FYI is exactly the same as going no-poo on natural un-dyed hair, except that the dye will get lighter with the use of either lemon or ACV)
I went to a natural whole foods shop and bought a 'natural' hair dye. Of course it's not in fact completely natural but it has no amonia, no parabens and none of the crap that I am mainly trying to keep away from (at least I hope). It's called NaturTint. Heard of it? Please let me know what you know of it if you have!!!
So I dyed it, pretty simple, it's the same as any other DIY hair dye. It cost about £10.49 but it was reduced to £7.49 that day (yepee) so it turned out to be about the same price as a usual one too. I chose the colour that was the closest to my natural colour because I only dyed the part that went blond and I did not dye my roots.
Afterwards I rinsed it out really well, until the water ran clear. I did NOT use the shampoo and care cream that came in the box - I chucked those out - Instead though I made a paste out of baking soda, lemon and shikakai powder I also added a few drops of water. So after rinsing the dye out of my hair very well, I massaged the paste into my hair and scalp and washed like you would with any shampoo but I left it in for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then I rinsed it all out and my hair was very clean but EXTREMELY DRY! So once it dried I covered the dyed part of my hair in coconut oil (avoiding my roots!) I kept the oil in my hair for about 8 hours then rinsed it out with water only. Although still very oily, I could tell that my hair was dry and brittle underneath so I smothered it in coconut oil again. I left it in for 15 hours then did a baking soda wash followed by a lemon-water conditioner and washed it all out. Then I towel dried it as much as I could and let it air dry for the rest. When it was almost fully dry I took a really little bit of coconut oil into my hands and made sure it was all liquid with the heat of my hands and then I stroked my hands through my hair. This was so that it would dry with a bit of oil on it to make it softer and shinier. Wash it through one last time, the next day but just with a lemon-water mix.
Step-by-step (this took me 4 days, so make sure you have time!)
1) Do the DIY 'natural' hair dye -as stated on the information leaflet that came with the dye you bought.
2) Rinse out thoroughly.
3) DO NOT USE THE SHAMPOO AND HAIR CARE THAT CAME WITH THE DYE
4) Make a paste out of your usual shamphree washing style (paste out of baking soda and lemon for example) and put it all over your hair - leave in for 10 to 15 minutes.
5) Rinse out the paste.
6) Towel dry or air dry as usual.
7) If your hair feels dry or brittle, cover it in coconut oil to moisturise it and leave in for 8 to 10 hours.
8) Rinse out with water only (as hot as you can take it, so the oil can drip off, then rinse with cool water to close follicles)
9) If hair is still dry and brittle, then cover in coconut oil again and leave in for 15 to 20 hours.
10) Rinse out and do a baking soda wash followed by your conditioner (ACV or lemon water)
11) Towel or air dry as usual.
If your hair still feels brittle then go to step 12 but if your hair is back to normal then you can stop right there, and you're done :-)
12) Just before fully dry, comb your hair and stroke a teeny-weeny, little bit of coconut oil through your hair length and ends - not on the roots. This is to add soft and shine.
--Because of the coconut oil, your hair might still look wet when it's dry, but it won't look oily or greasy, it'll have the sort of wet beachy look. It looks best in a high pony tail or half pony tail (or covered).
13) The next day, wash it with lemon water (juice of half a lemon and a cup of water, in a squirt bottle and squirt it all over your hair, leave in during the time of your shower (about 10 mins) and rinse out with warm water at the end) Dry as usual.
14) HOPEFULLY your hair will be just lovely!
Those long hours were either in the night or when I went to work with a head scarf, so that the oily coconut hair was not on display! ;-)
Please comment if you try this to let me know how it went for you, or if you tried a different way to successfully dye your hair. I really want to know!
So there it is, hope this helped!
Peace!
As I mentioned in my previous post (4 months shamphree update) my hair got lighter because of all the lemon juice I have been using over the course of my shamphree experimenting. The lemon serves as a conditioner to make my hair soft and smooth: easy to brush.
Before going no-poo, I used to dye my hair about once a year and the last colour I had done was red. BRIGHT RED! It was lovely, I really liked it. But after about 6 months I was really bored of it so I un-died it with a store-bought product meant for it; a dye stripper. I used it and not only did it just make my hair orange, it also made it so STINKY! After dealing with the stench (by drenching it in oil and washing out many times) I got used to the weird colour and actually started liking it. It was no longer called weird orange but light copper ;-)
Only when I went no-poo it just got lighter and lighter and became blond - but only the died part! So I had 10 to 15 cm of brown hair from the roots down and the rest of the length was blondy-ginger... I really wanted my natural colour back so I tried shikakai powder and coffee but those don't dye hair they just help to bring out natural darks. Only my natural colour was buried very deep under the blond and the dye stripper and the red, chemical dye... So! what to do...
Well I didn't want to use a chemical full product on my no-poo hair because I thought it would throw my hair off track completely as I don't want to be using chemicals on my hair anymore!
I couldn't find any useful help online as to how to dye no-poo hair. All the info I could find was how to go no-poo on already dyed hair (which FYI is exactly the same as going no-poo on natural un-dyed hair, except that the dye will get lighter with the use of either lemon or ACV)
I went to a natural whole foods shop and bought a 'natural' hair dye. Of course it's not in fact completely natural but it has no amonia, no parabens and none of the crap that I am mainly trying to keep away from (at least I hope). It's called NaturTint. Heard of it? Please let me know what you know of it if you have!!!
So I dyed it, pretty simple, it's the same as any other DIY hair dye. It cost about £10.49 but it was reduced to £7.49 that day (yepee) so it turned out to be about the same price as a usual one too. I chose the colour that was the closest to my natural colour because I only dyed the part that went blond and I did not dye my roots.
Afterwards I rinsed it out really well, until the water ran clear. I did NOT use the shampoo and care cream that came in the box - I chucked those out - Instead though I made a paste out of baking soda, lemon and shikakai powder I also added a few drops of water. So after rinsing the dye out of my hair very well, I massaged the paste into my hair and scalp and washed like you would with any shampoo but I left it in for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then I rinsed it all out and my hair was very clean but EXTREMELY DRY! So once it dried I covered the dyed part of my hair in coconut oil (avoiding my roots!) I kept the oil in my hair for about 8 hours then rinsed it out with water only. Although still very oily, I could tell that my hair was dry and brittle underneath so I smothered it in coconut oil again. I left it in for 15 hours then did a baking soda wash followed by a lemon-water conditioner and washed it all out. Then I towel dried it as much as I could and let it air dry for the rest. When it was almost fully dry I took a really little bit of coconut oil into my hands and made sure it was all liquid with the heat of my hands and then I stroked my hands through my hair. This was so that it would dry with a bit of oil on it to make it softer and shinier. Wash it through one last time, the next day but just with a lemon-water mix.
Step-by-step (this took me 4 days, so make sure you have time!)
1) Do the DIY 'natural' hair dye -as stated on the information leaflet that came with the dye you bought.
2) Rinse out thoroughly.
3) DO NOT USE THE SHAMPOO AND HAIR CARE THAT CAME WITH THE DYE
4) Make a paste out of your usual shamphree washing style (paste out of baking soda and lemon for example) and put it all over your hair - leave in for 10 to 15 minutes.
5) Rinse out the paste.
6) Towel dry or air dry as usual.
7) If your hair feels dry or brittle, cover it in coconut oil to moisturise it and leave in for 8 to 10 hours.
8) Rinse out with water only (as hot as you can take it, so the oil can drip off, then rinse with cool water to close follicles)
9) If hair is still dry and brittle, then cover in coconut oil again and leave in for 15 to 20 hours.
10) Rinse out and do a baking soda wash followed by your conditioner (ACV or lemon water)
11) Towel or air dry as usual.
If your hair still feels brittle then go to step 12 but if your hair is back to normal then you can stop right there, and you're done :-)
12) Just before fully dry, comb your hair and stroke a teeny-weeny, little bit of coconut oil through your hair length and ends - not on the roots. This is to add soft and shine.
--Because of the coconut oil, your hair might still look wet when it's dry, but it won't look oily or greasy, it'll have the sort of wet beachy look. It looks best in a high pony tail or half pony tail (or covered).
13) The next day, wash it with lemon water (juice of half a lemon and a cup of water, in a squirt bottle and squirt it all over your hair, leave in during the time of your shower (about 10 mins) and rinse out with warm water at the end) Dry as usual.
14) HOPEFULLY your hair will be just lovely!
Those long hours were either in the night or when I went to work with a head scarf, so that the oily coconut hair was not on display! ;-)
Please comment if you try this to let me know how it went for you, or if you tried a different way to successfully dye your hair. I really want to know!
So there it is, hope this helped!
Peace!
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