No More 'Poo

For 30-odd years, I have been wedded to shampoo and never thought anything different about it.  Well, actually, I do remember wondering how hippy folk with dreadlocks who said "hair cleans itself" managed, when what I saw didn't seem so "clean".  Being somewhat crunchy nowadays myself, although dreadlocks wouldn't really suit me, I am enjoying departing from the flock in so many areas of life and, dare I say it, feel like shouting about it from the rooftops! 

* * * * I've given up shampoo! * * * *

If that has the ring of someone hailing their lost vice, it is for good reason.  My hair feels great!  (Who was it that said the recently converted shout the loudest?!) 

Being rather sheepish in my ways, I am often wary of trying something new and drastic until I've seen what happens to others first.   After considering it for some time (the Contemplation stage*), I have taken a leaf or two from other no-poo-ers' experiences and finally gone ahead.


I haven't used shampoo for about a month now, hopefully long enough to make an objective assessment of the results.  But first, it may help to provide a bit of background as to the thought processes I've been through to get to this stage.

Once upon a time, I worked in a molecular laboratory, where we used SDS (or SLS: sodium lauryl sulphate), a detergent found in most shampoo, shower gels etc, in DNA extractions to lyse the cells (ie break them open!).  It is an efficient oil-stripper, and an irritant, so, not having the sort of job where I smear myself with major grease and dirt everyday, I began to ask myself why we were using this on our bodies.  After a trial and error process over some years, I had settled on using Dead Sea Spa Magik mineral shampoo as it was the only one I could use that wouldn't exacerbate the seborrhoeic dermatitis that I've been mildly bothered by for a long time.  (And it isn't made by Unilever! Yay!)  It is actually a really nice shampoo, with many agreeable ingredients, although having long hair, I had to use a tonne of it to get a full lather.  It doesn't contain SLS, but it does contain a surfactant derived from coconut, so will have some oil dispersing properties, although thankfully not akin to the likes of Fairy Liquid.  It is more expensive than ordinary shampoo.  So, on my life-simplifying and naturifying journey, it is another product I have consigned to the what-you-can-LIVE-without pile.

Reading around, the most popular natural alternative to shampoo seems to be bicarbonate of soda.  So, I bought myself a large bag (3 kg actually).  I calculated that this should last approximately 1 year, and cost less than £10.  (And, it has many other household uses......)

The Basic Method


1) Add 1 T bicarb to a squeezy bottle (an ordinary used squeezy shampoo bottle would also do, but you might have trouble getting the powder in if the hole is small) while in shower/bath (or maybe before your hands get wet)
2) Get your hair all wet
3) Add ~1 cup water to your bicarb and give it a good shake
3) Squirt all over your roots and give your scalp a good massage.
4) Rinse

I tried making it before I got into the shower one day, but by the time I came to wash my hair, the solution had cooled down - so, unless you want a sitz bath on your head, add the warm water just before using it.  Having long hair, I also found I needed to use more like 1.5 T (20-25 ml) in a bit more than 1 cup H2O, but I am still experimenting with slight alterations to concentrations and volumes. 

Initial Results

For the first week or two, my scalp went through an oil rebalancing process.  My hair felt a bit straw-like and the midlengths were sticky and felt unclean.  I began to wonder what the heck I was doing, but things soon improved and my confidence was renewed.  Then I began to use some vinegar to add condition and shine.  The recipe is basically as above, although I use slightly less than 1 T vinegar because it can lead to increased greasiness.  Many no poo-ers are using apple cider vinegar, although I am not sure what the advantages are over basic distilled malt vinegar except perhaps its naturalness.

My hair, washed about 3 days ago:

It looks and feels fine.  The next part of my hair story will be a celebration of GREY!  Or, in my case, white.  I am also giving up hair colouring because I am fed up of the maintenance now that the ageing process is well underway.  Meanwhile, if anyone knows of any good natural violet rinses to tone down yellowness in the coloured sections of my dyed white hair, please let me know.


-----------------------------

*I refer to the Transtheoretical Model of Change here because, although somewhat more benign than smoking or drinking alcohol, washing my hair is something other than conventional shampoo has been a big step for me to take.

The Thinking Chair

William has gotten off to a very good start at his new school.  I never had any doubt that he would, although I did feel some trepidation (for myself) at this new form of parting.  School has changed since I was young, evidently. So far, I am seeing positive changes.  I know he is only in Reception, but there seems to be so much more freedom for children to follow their interests as they emerge in each moment and for the teachers to facilitate that.  It is less didactic and rigid, thank goodness.  And, there are only 22 in his class.

I have conferred with the Head Teacher about the possibility of flexi-schooling, one day a week.  She is a warm, calm personality, and my brief conversations with her have contributed to my optimism about the future at the school.  She was possibly a little bit surprised by my idea though, and I sensed, very slightly disappointed, though she didn't show it.  She had come across the idea before, and agreed to look into things from her side, while I did my best to reassure her that this was not due to any doubt about him having an enriching experience at the school.  I envisage that we will do things to complement any themes they might be exploring at school.  I want to be an integral part of his learning experience, to share with him and spend that time with him while he is so young, that hopefully, when he is all grown up, we will both look back on and remember with joy.  (I always seem to be projecting myself far into the future and imagining myself looking back, but please, be assured, I do my best to live in the present!)

So, at the end of each day, we talk about how his day has gone.  The other evening, he told me about the Thinking Chair.  This got my full attention.  It is a place for children to go and sit when they have done something naughty, he said.  So they can think about what they've done.  He also said he didn't want to sit on the Thinking Chair, he wanted to be a good boy.  *gulp* *raised eyebrows*

"Do you think it is a good idea?" I said.  Evidently, he was all for it.

Then he told me about the "Star of the Day".  This is basically the opposite of the Thinking Chair.  When someone has been very "good", ie showing an act of kindness, done all the tidying up, etc, they may be nominated Star of the Day. 

We had a discussion about the merits of these behaviour modification tools, well, as much as one can have with a 4 year-old who is already a total convert, apparently.  He even asked if we could have them at home too.  I thought about this for more than a moment.  Perhaps we actually could?  But we would use them slightly differently.  Anyone at home could be Star of the Day, but it would be more like paying a complement to them, rather than it having to be earned by doing a good deed.  So, we could have a special chair, where the someone could be showered with praise and admiration by everyone else, a sort-of feel-good, ego-bolstering zone.  And, as far as the Thinking Chair is concerned, that could also be a place where one would go voluntarily after a moment of strife (including grown-ups).  So, for now, carrots are to remain in the fridge and sticks (even psychological ones) will stay in the yard.

Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle IV

PLASTIC

Recently, I have been pondering on whether it would be possible to eliminate plastic from our lives.  Alas, I have to concede that complete elimination seems impossible, so, for now, I'll settle for a full-scale reduction.  It has been a busy fortnight for me, with visitors, and William starting school, but I've found myself thinking hard about the different areas of our lives where we are consuming plastic and feel I am poised to take a plunge into a radical change, even if it is executed in a bit-by-bit manner. 

For a while, I have already been working on a couple of areas, such as toiletries and toys.  I always hated loads of plastic bottles lying around in the bathroom - ugly, ugly, ugly - in part, due to a desire for a more natural way of caring for my skin/body/hair and that of the children, and also, in part, due to a general cynicism about the way a small number of very large corporations would like us to believe we need all these things just to stay alive in the modern world.  So, paring down in that area has been relatively easy, and I'm fizzing with ideas about making our own soap, ditching shampoo for baking soda and maybe changing to henna and indigo for colouring my hair.  (More on these coming soon....) 

I've started having conversations with William about plastic toys, especially battery-operated ones.  To get him used to the idea, make it a family philosophy.  I have rarely, if ever, bought new plastic toys for him, preferring natural materials, and, for heaven's sake, normal, everyday objects that a child would find interesting.  (Do they really need toys?  An argument for another day, perhaps.)  I do buy second-hand toys, and inevitably, more of these are plastic.  I have several leftover from my own childhood, which, in a way, is a particularly nice form of recycling and I probably won't part with these in a hurry.


But, a somewhat larger challenge that we are to face is in the kitchen.  And I don't mean cling film and sandwich bags, because we hardly ever use those.  I mean this:

This is an example of how slack (aka 'convenience') things have gotten in the grocery aisle.  This particular supermarket seems to have a lot of prepackaged items, and, for the purposes of this blog, this illustration is slightly exceptional for us.  We buy loose where possible, but if we order in, there is an even larger mountain of plastic to wade through before we find the carrot at the bottom.  Cucumber doesn't need to be shrink-wrapped!  Why not use punnets made of card or other compostable material for the soft fruits?  Actually, the bag containing carrots, in this case, is compostable, but nothing else is.  And, why, oh why are so many different types of plastic used - LDPE, PET, PP, HDPE, polystyrene, and other unidentifiable materials - making recycling so difficult?  We are currently only able to put HDPE into our doorstep recycling.  My angry side wants to just take it all, after saving it up for several months of course, and dump it on the supermarket forecourt!  So, our purchasing strategies are going to take a turn for the better, more socially responsible and community-spirited as we support more local small businesses and direct ourselves into a new way of feeding ourselves.  (NB This is all while the allotment is in a more, er, quiescent phase during Aruna's first year.)

Some well-timed inspiration came recently when I came across the blog of another family who have already taken that plunge.

Ultimately, a huge amount of plastic ends up floating in the oceans' gyres as ever-shrinking particulate matter, entering the food chain at the lowest levels, and, ultimately, our own bodies, higher up.  So, what we thought we threw away....  I am of the mindset that it should be difficult, a privilege, to get extra packaging like this, but sadly, it is the opposite - unwanted, wasteful and will contribute to a global legacy that will haunt us, I'm sure, for decades to come.