TMI

Ok, gonna talk about the things/products i've chosen to use as "safe" body care products, & for some this may be too much info, so you can skip this.

I read not too long ago at "Keeper of the Home" blog (check my profile for those i follow) that she stopped using " 'poo" - shampoo that is. She was using baking soda & sometimes following that with an apple cider rinse.

To be honest, i didn't pay a lot of attention at the time because that is not a direction i intended to go. I made the switch to "organic" shampoos with no SLS or parabens & minimal chemicals some time ago. I have mentioned this before, but when i used to use typical, commercial product with these chemicals i became allergic to them very quickly. The only way to avoid this was to rotate the shampoos frequently (like, every third day). Since making the switch to product without all the chemicals i'd not had the allergy problem. Until very recently.

I admitted that in May & June & even part of July i let my diet deteriorate. I was eating bad stuff & i paid a price for it. I developed rashes that i am still fighting. But i also, during that time, developed allergies to the GOOD shampoos i use. My head hasn't itched like that since i used to use the SLS/paraben-filled stuff. Evidently the toxins from the "food" i was eating was being eliminated with my sweat & it combined with the shampoos to create problems.

Anyway, i remembered the post about not using shampoo & decided to give it a try. What i decided to use to make the paste is (approximately): 1/4 C baking soda; 2 tsp soap nuts liquid, & 2 TB aloe vera juice. The first time around i wasn't all that pleased. But it did seem to soothe my scalp. The second time around seemed to be great, but i've not had such good luck with just the paste again. Since then i've added a couple of other things. By itself, i can't seem to get the baking soda washed out all that well & my hair feels heavy & kind of gritty. So i added about 1/4 C apple cider vinegar as a rinse & that seems to do the trick. I also add a tiny amount of shampoo, but nothing as much as i normally use, to give me some lather. I'm quite pleased with the result. The lady at Keeper of the Home said that using vinegar regularly makes her hair oily, but so far i've found it an intrinsic part of making this work for me.

Of course, heading back to a healthy diet is paramount. Without that nothing else seems to matter too much.

We were invited to dinner with some dear friends a couple of weeks ago. They made a lovely dinner & we enjoyed their company very much. But the husband, "C," made a comment during dinner about the price that was on one of the dressings. He said it must have been a gift & that they would NEVER pay that amount for dressing.

I've known C for many, many years & he prides himself on being frugal & thrifty in the extreme. But i've also seen it backfire on him. For instance, many years ago he bought a second-hand car because it was cheap & it was "cheap" for the life of the car, meaning that he ended up putting a lot of money into fixing the things that shouldn't have gone wrong.

My point is that on some things you should not strive to be "cheap" or frugal or thrifty. Such as cheap dressing made with High Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG, & other chemicals. On those items it is better to buy something more expensive & have a product with less chemicals. Or, my favorite is to not use a dressing at all. For me, if a salad has avocado, kidney & or garbanzo beans, & cheese it has enough flavor to not require a dressing.

But more than that, my belief is that you pay for things one way or another. If you choose to purchase the cheap foods that are chemically filled you will end up paying sooner or later with poor health or other issues. I believe that is much of the problem behind our current state of poor health in this country. Without a doubt i have found it to be so in my life. Obviously, it takes a long time for this to catch up to some people. My friend C may never have a problem, or not until he is an old man & won't associate it with the foods that he ate. My husband Duane is of robust constitution & may never see problems. On the other hand several friends of mine, as well as myself, have underlying issues that make the food problem more apparent much more quickly.

Another, personal thing to share if you are interested: i stopped using deodorant/anti-perspirant over 2 years ago. That sounds gross, i know. At first i was trying "alternative" things from the health food store. But i had an allergic reaction to the mineral rock & it was a long time before i stopped itching. I tried everything under the sun, it seems, to "fix it" for me. I reacted to lavender oil & a lot of other things as well. Finally, in desperation i landed on an organic diaper cream that is zinc based.

Most commercially made anti-perspirant sticks are made of an aluminum base. The problem is that our bodies do not NEED aluminum. Folks with Alzheimer's disease have an overload of aluminum in their brains. Scientists do not know why this is, but it seems to me that it is wise to avoid aluminum where you can. Zinc, on the other hand is a mineral that our bodies do need & many people are deficient. So, an organic zinc cream is not going to do harm.

Someone asked me well does it work? (She cited how awful body odor must have been a century ago when folks used nothing at all.) Well, this is my third summer using it. I sometimes use a tea tree oil with it as well. But, one day i tried tea tree on its own (a day i was at home, not working) & at the end of that day i could smell that i was stinky. I have asked 2 friends who would be honest with me (it is very important in my work not to have a body-odor issue) & they have told me they never find me stinky. I didn't think i was, but sometimes we don't catch the problem on ourselves. The ultimate test was when we were on our trip. I wasn't sure how well this would work for me in the humidity back East, but i had no problem with it. But i will say, as well, that since i've cleaned my life of chemicals body odor is less a problem than it used to be.

There are some drawbacks, of course. This has a white film that can stain clothes, so i have to be careful how i pull the clothes on. But over all it is very worth it to me to reduce the number of chemicals i use in my life.

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