On Personal Hygine
By Karina | August 27, 2007
Last week I read an article about a woman in the UK who, for 40 days and 40 nights, stopped using all cleansing products. She didn’t shower, wash her hair, brush her teeth, or use deodorant. That is not a tiny choice! This is a MAJOR choice. She says:
“… one evening earlier this year, I sat down and read the labels of everything I used and worked out I was applying more than 200 different chemicals to my body each day. These are said to be safe, but what is not known is the effect that the ‘cocktail’ of chemicals is having on our bodies.”
Wow! That’s a lot of chemicals! I hesitate to add up the number I apply to my own!
At the end of the experiment, she says her skin was brighter and healthier, her IBS was gone, and so was a nasty persistent cyst she had on her eye. Of course, she had to also put up with her kids not snuggling with her and the thinly veiled disgust of her fellow adults once they found out. The documentary she made from her experiment (“How Dirty Can I Get?”) will be aired on BBC3 on September 5 at 9pm. You know, for those of us (and by us I mean YOU) who have access to BBC3.
Because we’ve had an interesting discussion here at Tiny Choices about different types of deodorant that we all use, I thought y’all would like to hear about a couple of different cleansing methods I’ve experimented with in the past.
Hair:
Last summer I quit using shampoo and conditioner and used the baking soda/apple cider vinegar method. It worked rather well. I didn’t think there was a huge “adjustment period” after I stopped using conventional shampoo and conditioner, but then, I wash my hair at most every-other-day anyway. I didn’t notice much of a change to my hair either - it was just as easy to control (i.e., not super easy: I’m known for having hair that has a mind of its own), didn’t smell, and wasn’t greasy. It did seem a little thicker than it had before, maybe, with a little more fullness and body. I took the baking soda and vinegar with me to the beach for a week and didn’t have any problems washing the surf out of my hair. The only reason why I stopped was because the method took probably about twice as long as using conventional shampoo and conditioner, and I am, generally, just barely late to work in the morning and therefore in a hurry to get out of the shower.
Currently I use shampoo bars from Lush (less packaging and they last for quite a while) and conventional “natural” conditioner.
More information on non-shampoo based hair cleansing methods:
- Blog from thrifty NZ farmers with personal review
- Another blog with testimonials
- Or, if you’ve got curly hair try the “no poo” method!
Face:
I took a break last year from conventional facial washes (more specifically, the Dr. Bronner’s soap I’d been using) and tried the oil cleansing method to wash my face. The premise of the method is horrifying to many people: you wash your face with a mixture of olive and castor oils. No soap at all. I thought it was very effective, and my skin didn’t get any worse than it was before. I don’t think I have awfully sensitive skin, however, though it has a tendency to dryness. Depending on how dry your skin is, you adjust the proportion of the oil mixture - castor oil is the cleansing ingredient of the mixture and is said to cut through regular oils, and olive oil (or another carrier oil such as jojoba) is the moisturizing component.
While I was using the oil cleansing method to wash my face I discovered two very important tips that people may not be aware of: the first is that olive oil does a bang up job of removing eye make-up. The second is that when people say they can’t put oil on their face, they probably mean MINERAL OIL. And who can blame them - it’s a byproduct of the petroleum distillation process, and as such, is probably something you may not want to use too much of. Mineral oil is a component in many cosmetics, however, and I’ve observed that when something says it’s “oil-free” it means that there isn’t any MINERAL OIL in it. My face can’t handle the mineral oil either, it makes me break out. Any other oils - olive, almond, jojoba, or nut butters like shea, now, my face loves that stuff!
Right now I’m using up some commercial (“oil-free”) facial wash that I’ve got. I like it just fine, but my skin is a little drier than I’d like. I plan to return to the oil cleansing method (and my shea-butter-only moisturizer) as soon as I use up what I’ve got, or the seasons start to change, which ever comes first.
More information on the oil cleansing method:
- An article on the oil cleansing method
- And another article.
I should mention also that my friend Peggy doesn’t use any soap to wash their faces at all, and my friend Aurora only uses soap - and whatever is in the shower, at that, and only in the morning. And I will say that these two women have the most beautiful skin I’ve ever seen, too. I’m too scaredypants to make the commitment to water-only facial washing, plus, I try to use a sunblock every day and feel like I just HAVE to wash it off at night. But from my experiments with no soap, I bet my skin would be just as happy with water, once I could overcome the mental blocks in my way.
What about you? How do you wash your hair or your face?
image courtesy Kate Tomlinson via creative commons.
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Ahhh… girly talk….
I do the no-poo thing with my hair and use some sort of natural (whatever that means), vegan, hempbased hair conditioner. From time to time I use a little bit of liquid soap (bronners or my shower gel) on my scalp. I really really like JR Liggett’s shampoo bars and have one waiting for me in my medicine cabinet.
My face is washed with a commercial, natural (whatever that means), vegan, touchy feely cleanser. I’m currently switching between two products - one bar and one from a tube. I’d be willing to try the oil method. I have a cookbook of natural beauty products and would love to experiment (but, maybe, not alone…)
dudes have to wash their faces and hair too! hopefully this isn’t a strictly girly topic.
maybe we can do a wash-along to experiment with the natural beauty products in your cookbook?
sorry, i meant girly as in cute and not weighty like toxic water bottles and not gross like worms ;)
i would love to do a wash along if people want to come over here to make products! We can combine it with a Betty Crocker Recipe Card Veganized Potluck!!
I use Lush shampoo bars, for the same reasons as Karina, with an organic conditioner, Nature’s Gate. I’ve switched to every-other-day hairwashing. For face, I use another Lush product (Fresh Farmacy) for my oily skin 2x a day. I’m working on my dissertation this summer, so I don’t go out a lot (no time, no money), and I’ve stopped wearing makeup and using the hair product I use when I’m out in the world teaching. There are two results, which may be interrelated: 1) my skin looks better (it’s never been great, thanks, heritage!), and when I have gone out for social things, I’ve cut back the cosmetics to under-eye concealer, a little powder, and mascara, and 2) I’m less critical of how I look sans makeup-that’s my real face, and its (almost) good enough without a lot of stuff on it.
that’s great that you’ve reached a less critical place - sure, there are a couple of things that I feel pretty naked without, but it’s so lovely to be able to look in the mirror first thing and feel that you look just fine as is!
I am fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants with any washing rituals (although I don’t wear pants when I shower). However to add to this discussion…as per Kari’s insight quite a bit ago, I use aloe vera gel (without alcohol in it) as my hair product. (If I were super-fresh I could use it from a plant.) I have curly and willful hair and feel I need a little something to help it along, but I fear that conventional stuff will/has made me break out near my hairline and ear area, plus adds all sorts of gunk that I don’t need in my hair. It took me awhile to get to the happy place I am. For quite some time I think I was putting it in when my hair was too wet with mediocre results. Now I leave the towel on my head for a bit while I get dressed. I take the towel off and let it air dry for a few minutes and then put a glob in and presto-magico, luscious curls. If I were to use conventional hair styling products I’d likely wash my hair everyday (similar to Kari’s sunblock issue), but the aloe allowd me more freedom in this regard.
[...] On Personal Hygine [...]
You know, I used to always use deodorant because that’s what everyone did and then one day I just stopped and haven’t looked back. Now, I do have less natural BO than most people, but cutting out deodorant and antiperspirant actually helped reduce not the amount of sweat I produce, but the amount of smell associated with that sweat. On necessary occasions, I’ll will still use the deodorant stick that has been in my medicine cabinet for years (and I would certainly suffocate if my husband did not use antiperspirant after a sweaty day in the kitchen), but have found that unless I’m working out and not showering afterwards, deodorant has certainly become an unnecessary personal care product.
I always used to use antiperspirant for the same reasons. I found that I would sweat a lot more WITH the anti than without! I, however, am not as delicate and naturally rose-smelling as you, so I do stick with natural deodorant.
I’ve used the Lush “Angels on Bare Skin” facial cleanser for 10+ years (discovered them on my junior term in England!) and I’ll tell you, I love love love it. Also, I love love love Lush:
“…we are renewing our commitment to eliminating unnecessary and environmentally unfriendly packaging wherever possible…over 58% of our products are sold unpackaged…over our 13-year history, LUSH has invented (and patented) several all-new product lines, just so we can reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills! We also encourage our customers to bring their own re-useable containers for things like body butters, solid cleansers, shower jellies and massage bars and of course to bring their own shopping bags too.”
I use baking soda as a facial scrub, and my face is a little less oily, and way smoother!
I noticed that my natural body smell is a little more pleasant, ever since I stopped eating red meat. Something about the toxins..
I have to admit, I haven’t been eating much red meat myself and I haven’t noticed ANY change in my stink level. if only it was that easy for me!
[...] talked about personal hygiene choices before. And specifically, we’ve had a great discussion about the different types of deodorant [...]
[...] If you aren’t a spacey-shower-taker and feel that you’re very purposed and regimented in the bath, you may want to start washing your hair every other day, or maybe reduce the amount of soaping up you’re doing. Because after all, what better time than the holidays, with the random days off and the quality family time overload, to experiment with your personal hygiene? [...]
while Lush shampoos and soap have less packaging then others, they are hardly natural. lush shampoo bars
contain the chemical SLS.
how green is that?!
true soaps do not contain this ingredient.
who cares if you use organic conditioner along with your lush shampoo if it’s still going to contain synthetic ingredients.
GET REAL!
tiny choices, “anon!”
You make a good point, anon. Thanks so much for your input.
[...] am pretty adventurous with my hair. It’s just hair, after all! I did write about my baking soda/vinegar hair care regime here, and how even though it worked really well I quit because it just took too darn long. I think I [...]
i had always used antipersperant until started reading labels, then tried all sorts of “natural” deodorants, none of which worked. I finally changed my diet and, wallah, no more BO. I cut out dairy, meat, white sugar and white flour almost completely. this may seem like a huge change, but really, replacing them with whole grains, veggies and fruits was the only way to get more of those good foods in my diet anyway. a girl can only eat so much. i smelled immediate results, within a few days of cutting those foods out, so you could just try one or two weeks of it and see how it works. i feel better, too.
[...] the oil cleansing method to clean my face for several years - I mentioned it in a tell-all post on personal hygene. The way you use the oil cleansing method is you rub your face all over with a mixture of oils, [...]
[...] on the fence about. I went into my make-up selling days as a proud and happy user of the one-step oil cleansing method. My new director was shocked that I used olive oil to remove my eye makeup. The signature four-step [...]
[...] On Personal Hygine | Tiny Choices - Last week I read an article about a woman in the UK who, for 40 days and 40 nights, stopped using all cleansing products. She didn’t shower, wash her hair, addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fhomemade-shampoo.com%2Fhomemade-shampoo%2Fcould-you-survive-without-shampoo’; addthis_title = ‘Could+you+survive+without+shampoo%3F+%7C+Homemade+Shampoo+Blog’; addthis_pub = ”; [...]
I have so many allergies that wearing any type of fragrance or deodorant can be dreadful. As we all know deodorant is super important and for years I searched for a natural deodorant and was unsuccessful. My friend told me about Lavanila products and how they are made with natural ingredients. They were designed by http://www.lavanila.com for people like me with super sensitive allergies. I use their products with success and recommend them to anyone with severe allergies like myself!