No 'Poo

I recently joined several groups on Cafemom about homemaking, self sustainability, and so on.  A common thread on all of them is going no 'poo, i.e. ditching the shampoo bottle.

A few months ago, I was looking at shampoo bars as a way of cutting down on the amount of packaging coming into the house.  Well, I'm still going to be getting the bars because I have two adult males in the house, one of whom will refuse straight out and the other of whom will most likely roll his eyes and tease me about it for a few weeks.  And then give it a try himself.

I have had the worst dandruff since I was a teenager.  The sort of dandruff that does not go away no matter what I do.  And strangely enough, it's the sort of dandruff that actually seems to get worse with regular frequent washings.  In reading the afore mentioned threads, it seems that many people who think they have dandruff are having an allergic reaction to chemicals in shampoo.  The cure, of course, is to ditch the bottle (or bar, although the bars tend to have fewer harsh chemicals in them).

One of the things I learned early about curly hair is to wash it as infrequently as possible.  Apparently, this is the hardest thing for people making the switch.  Using the following formula, hair should only need to be washed about once a week.  The way shampoos are constructed, they basically train your scalp to "need" washing every day or two.  So the "detox" often makes people go mad, nearly, because hair gets greasy, seemingly faster than usual.  But after about a month, it gets so much better.

So the formula is:  1/2 T baking soda dissolved into a cup of water.  1/2 T vinegar (white or apple cider) mixed into a second cup of water.  Get your hair wet.  Pour over the baking soda solution.  Rinse.  Pour over the vinegar solution.  Rinse again.  Hair can be rinsed in clear water as often as needed in between washings.  My hair is soft, shiny, the plaques of dandruff on my scalp are already (!) gone, and I don't have any of the itching that normally accompanies washing my hair.  This only needs to be done about once a week.

Clean Green

I've pretty much stopped buying chemical based cleaners.  I'm working through the remains of what I've got on hand but that's it.  Instead, I'm mostly using baking soda, kosher salt, vinegar, and borax.

My basic cleaner is vinegar and water.  I mix it up by the quart - 4 cups of water, 1 cup of vinegar.  It cleans, well, just about everything.  I use it on glass, chrome, mirrors, counters, the stove - everything.  

To conquer soap scum, add 1/2 C kosher salt to the basic cleaner and mix to dissolve.  Or spray on straight vinegar, let sit for a few minutes, and scrub clean.  Or scrub with baking soda or kosher salt in hand, then clean with the basic cleaner.  Some people have good results putting kosher salt on a cut lemon and scrubbing.  Which works best seems to depend on how hard or soft your water is.  Some experimenting may be in order.  Keep in mind none of these will clean as quickly, with as little elbow grease as, say Scrubbing Bubbles.  But they're A LOT better for the environment.

For the floor, dishes, and in the dishwasher, I use a mixture of 1 C borax, 1 C baking soda, and 1/4 C citric acid.  Essential oils can be added for scent too but I'm not using any at the moment.  About 2 T per wash cycle.

To clean out the dishwasher, I put baking soda in the detergent cup and fill the rinse cup (where Jet Dry or something similar would normally go) with vinegar.  Heck, I use vinegar for the rinse all the time.

Oh, and non-gel toothpaste polishes silver beautifully.