Fess up time…….
I totally agree that using all natural products and organic living is a fantastic way to life your life. Especially, if you have a million bucks, you live on a farm, or you're willing to be a guinea pig on your own natural inventions. Sometimes though, I become overwhelmed with my efforts to try to be
“al la natural”……
* Not just MAKE all your own food, you better grow your own food too.
* Not just buy Toms of Maine toothpaste, but make your own out of coconut oil and baking soda (folks, that was SO nasty!)
* Not just feel proud that you canned your own food but worry that the lids you just used have BPA plastic on them and have ruined the batch!
OK back to my Fess Up,
Here is the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
First attempt:
Going shampoo less and washing my hair out of a mixture of baking soda and water and conditioning it with a water and apple cider vinegar wash.
I lasted one week because honest to God my hair looked like this:
I know, I know, I was supposed to do that for a month but there is NO way to go looking like the above picture for even 3 weeks and hoping by week 4 things turned around. I guess I am just too vain.
They had promised my hair would look like this –HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.
The directions said to do that special natural wash every three days (no washings in between.)
You would think it would have been so greasy but it really wasn’t. What it WAS, was indescribable.
It was like Gumpy, you could pull it out and it would just stay bent in that position.
I kid you not!
Second attempt:
Natural Washing Detergent:
I was going to do a fun post for you guys on this one, but I wanted to wait to make sure it worked and was good before I posted it. I suppose I can’t post it anymore because I caught my husband re-washing all his whites (after I JUST washed them) I asked him what was the problem? He told me that for the last month his clothes didn't seem to be getting clean and his whites were now gray. (and then he asked me, after seeing my homemade stuff, what in the world was I using for detergent – AHHH!)
I can’t believe he caught me on this one……he doesn’t like ANY of my natural adventures. He is the guy that when I tried to put a different ketchup in his Heinz ketchup bottle, told me to throw away the ketchup because something was wrong with it. Oh and believe me he knows when it is Western Family cheese on his sandwich instead of Tillamook. I can’t get away with ANYTHING with him!
My next adventure is washing my face using the OIL CLEANING METHOD. You use natural oils to clean your face (you did know that oil disintegrates oil, right….OK I didn’t) So far the results have been amazing! I can hardly believe it. My adult acne hasn't acted up once since I have been doing it. Sometimes I rub RAW HONEY (very anti-bacterial) on my face after the oil and it has really helped my skin look great!
UPDATE: I have been cleaning my face with the oil cleaning method for over a year now. I use a solution of half castor oil and half jojoba oil. Rub all around in circles, rinse with warm water and wipe off! I would never use anything else - it's been my miracle product :-) Thank you blogs :-)
UPDATE: I have been cleaning my face with the oil cleaning method for over a year now. I use a solution of half castor oil and half jojoba oil. Rub all around in circles, rinse with warm water and wipe off! I would never use anything else - it's been my miracle product :-) Thank you blogs :-)
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| This is when I was doing my soda/vinegar washings. I could eat a sandwich or make a salad while bathing with all my natural products! I still have the honey there and love it! Oh, and I can't forget to mention that essential oils are great sprinkled in a bath! |
I guess I’ll just keep trying to keep up with the Jones' (or the Crunchy Betty Blogs) and continue on my quest of finding great natural alternatives. (BTW, her blog IS inspiring)
Has any one else had any bad or good luck with natural alternatives? What is your favorite natural remedy? (or least favorite for that matter!)
If you want to read any more of my fess ups - just enter Fess Up in search bar to the right. ~ Selina
Oh man, those hair pictures were so perfect. I know exactly what you mean because that is exactly what my hair did too. No 'poo is not for me! I put eggs in my hair last night to try to make it shiny. Not the best natural beauty trick I've tried.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you~ we need to find a happy medium and give ourselves a break. It isn't all or nothing, it's "this is better than nothing" I had to give up on making bread. I just don't have time and my family doesn't really like it anyways. Maybe someday, but for now.... the kind without HFCS will have to be good enough. Sorry if I freaked you out about the canning lids :P
Loved this post, you crack me up.
I stopped using shampoo about a year ago. I am so glad I did it. Yes, my hair went weird for a few weeks. (I was told it would, too... It was called "your hair will stand up and shout 'WTF are you doing?' because it's so used to being treated badly that it doesn't understand what's going on")
ReplyDeleteIt's the sulfates in shampoo that do it. If you want to be convinced, hold your favorite shampoo bottle next to your dish soap. Now revel in the fact that all these years, you've been paying $10 for "clinically tested" shampoo when you could have been paying $2 to wash it with Dawn.
You need conditioner to add a "sealing coat" to your hair shaft because the sulfates have stripped it from absolutely everything that would make it soft, shiny and manageable, as well as protect it from damage. Conditioner puts a coat of silicone over your hair. Guess what's the only thing that will take the silicone off (otherwise you get buildup, buildup = greasy hair)? yep, sulfates. So it's a vicious cycle of stripping the hair to unprotected damage and band-aiding it with chemicals that coat it and pretend to be natural oils.
If you can't stand not washing your hair, then get a conditioner that has no silicones in it. (and no, they don't just end in "-cone", other silicates end in "-xone" and other odd terms so they are hard to find) the best one I use is Suave Naturals. You can wash your hair in conditioner alone. It'll still freak out, but not as bad. Then you can continue to wash with conditioner only,or then progress to your natural stuff.
Trust me, you WILL NOT regret it. I still have hairdressers amazed at the health of my hair for as long as it is. No split ends, no damage, no breakage, and it curls magnificently (I have naturally curly hair, and that's how I heard of this. I was tired of looking like I had a 'fro at all times). My daughter's hair is naturally straight, and hers has absolutely no damage at all because I do it to her. (I've also noticed that her eczema is better, no more run off of that nasty shampoo drying out her skin!)
You are funny! At least I laughed at you. Maybe I wasn't supposed to.
ReplyDeleteAnd Shelly's comment was like a blog post itself! You should copy and paste it!
Ha!! I love it! Your totally cracking me up and SO right on with the "not good enough" natural stuff going around. I agree 100%!
ReplyDeleteI found you through Kissing the Joy.
I am so glad I am not the only in this boat. I want to do the natural thing but it is soooo overwhelming!
ReplyDeleteI went no poo for about 6 weeks, just used baking soda and water to cleanse and ACV to rinse and condition. It was AWEFUL!! My hair was so nasty, greasy, and huge flakes of skin flaking off...so gross. I really tried!
I do use homemade laundry soap but found the liquid/gel works so much better than the powdered.
Love your blog!
Yeah... been there! I loved the oil cleansing tip though! I was on the natural wagon for awhile and would love to hop back on it again but it HAS to be budget friendly! And washing my face with oil that I already have fits the bill!
ReplyDeleteHa! I found that link the clearly explains what's going on (the one that caused me to go "no shampoo"). I think it helps to understand what's happening. Anyway, this article gives TONS of great information. Hope it helps :)
ReplyDeletehttp://dormroomcurly.blogspot.com/2008/12/style-definitions-table.html
Thanks everyone for ALL your comments (really, I LOVE reading them.....the FOR shampoo and the AGAINST - wink wink) I learn every time I read people's fun natural adventures. :-)
ReplyDelete