Natural house, natural body

I've added photos to April 2007 & March 2007. There is link at the bottom of the page - "Feed", for an RSS feed to notify you of updates.I'm still testing that and am not sure how well it works.

In addition to moving to safer cleaning products, I have been moving to safer body products. The first part - soap. This was the easy one, making soap and all, so we've been body wash free since December. I was reading a friend's blog where she talked about "no poo" (no shampoo). She's been washing her hair with baking soda & water and rinsing w/ apple cider vinegar for the past 9+ months and it's working well.

It really makes sense when you look into it. Shampoo & conditioner have tons of icky chemicals which are absorbed into our bodies via the skin. Most of the stuff in common products is not good for us. Great link I've posted before, Environmental Working Group - Product Database. Our hair and skin produce an amount of oil which is good and beneficial. Shampoos tend to strip the hair of these oils, kicking the oil production into over-drive. The same can be said for other products (body/face wash), and I'm beginning to believe even my homemade soap is a bit much for everyday use. So, the most important part of cleaning, is the physical action, and this does take longer than when using common shampoos (essentially detergent).

So basics:
1. Brush hair well to loosen dirt, etc.
2. Apply baking soda/water solution. Some people recommend 1 tbsp. baking soda per 8 oz. water, some recommend enough water & baking soda to make a paste. I started out doubling up the 1 tbsp. BS/8oz. H2O and I'm happy with the results. If you have a lot of hair you can part it with a comb to get the solution to the scalp. Scrub, scrub, scrub that scalp. As others have said, it is like a good scalp massage. Work some into the rest of the hair. Let it sit a bit (minute or two), and rinse well.
3. Rinse with apple cider vinegar/water solution. Amounts vary, I'm having good results with approx. 1/4 C. vinegar to 16 oz. H2O. Rinse well.

You can find many sites and opinions about no-pooing by simply searching no poo shampoo. There are many variations, and some people find their hair goes through a brief oily period before it normalizes. I didn't have this issue. It's been at least a month now, and my hair feels healthier. It is seems to be growing faster with all this scalp massage too.

The other great idea I discovered was using honey for washing my face. Feels great, no chemicals.