Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How to be a Clean Hippie
12:26 AM
Sometimes my husband affectionately refers to me as a "dirty hippie" (which is fine, since he's a dirty redneck), and I suppose that in comparison to the general population of our small town, I am indeed a bit crunchy. Stick me next to a real "hippie" though, and they'll probably implode from the pain of seeing my giant suburban, Wal Mart clothes, and brightly dyed hair. But hey, if I'm a "hippie" by some people's standards, I'll take it! I suppose most of my cruchtasticness tends to be more about mothering than about my life in general, but I have gone more natural in personal and home care lately too. I'm still learning, but I thought I'd throw out some of the ideas I've been using. I should also add that I am a *poor* hippie, so these are all pretty cheap things to use, BONUS! I hope that those of you who are more experienced will chime in with your suggestions too, and forgive me while I continue to cling tightly to my deodorant, dye, and make up :-P
Going "Poo-free":
I never thought I'd be able to ditch shampoo and conditioner, but then I came across info to the contrary online. Meh, why not try it, right? If it sucked, I'd go back to my nasty poo-ish ways, no biggie. First, I was a wimp and started with using a herbal shampoo bar and a vinegar rinse. That was pretty great, but when it ran out, I went hardcore and started using just baking soda to wash and continued with the vinegar rinse. My hair looks pretty dang fabulous if I do say so myself! And no more of the nasty build-up that was one of the reasons for my desire to switch in the first place! Google "going poo free" for info. It's easy and CHEAP.
Natural and Inexpensive Laundry:
You can make your own laundry soap for super duper cheap as well. This site includes the recipe,and even breaks down the price difference between their method and store-bought Tide. In addition, I put white vinegar in a Downy ball (can be found in the laundry aisle, also very cheap), so it releases during the rinse cycle. This has eliminated our use of fabric softeners and dryer sheets. White vinegar quite frankly ROCKS for a lot of things! Check out the uses for it in laundry here. You can also use diluted essential oil in a spray bottle, and spritz over your laundry when you're putting it into the dryer, or just put a bit on a cloth or your wool dryer balls and toss it in.
Simple and Natural Cleaning:
Cleaning has become so easy now! For a while, I just used diluted white vinegar in a spray bottle on everything. It definitely works well (and is cheap! Can you tell I love things that are?), but now I used diluted lavender essential oil instead. Works like a charm, smells lovely, and I don't worry about using chemicals around my kids now! Essential oils are also great for when you need to disinfect. Lemon, baking soda, and other essential oils can be used for cleaning too.
Cleaning with white vinegar
Cleaning with baking soda
Cleaning with essential oils
Cleaning with lemons
There are a lot more resources if you google around :-)
Natural Skin Care:
I recently got myself some virgin coconut oil, and omg... LOVE! It is wonderful as a skin, scalp, and hair moisturizer. It is solid in a jar, but I just fill my sink up with warm water and let it sit in there while I shower so it liquefies. Then when I get out, I slather some on. Extra awesome because I love the smell of coconut! Do a bit of reading on it, and you'll find that it is really great for you. I have even used it on my face despite my problem skin, and have actually seen improvement despite the usual thought that oily things are to be avoided on the face. When I feel like exfoliating my face or body, just a bit of sugar and honey does the trick. Instead of body wash, I now use all natural hand made soaps that I find on Etsy. I'm currently experimenting with lavender essential oil on my occasional acne. I've read some good testimonials about it. It should also be noted that other essential oils can NOT be used undiluted on the skin, but lavender can.
What do YOU do to be a clean hippie?
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18 comments:
Awesome suggestions! Thanks! I've been no 'pooing for a few months now and my hair has never been more manageable. I love love love it! I use vinegar on everything, too, but I'm going to break out my lavender eo now that you've mentioned it.
For soap/body wash, I'm a Dr. Bronner's girl. I put half that and half water in a bottle with a pump and it lasts forever.
Have you tried a mix of tea tree oil and jojoba oil on you break outs? It clears my skin up over night without any drying.
Just a warning: be careful using lavender & tea tree essential oils around kids as they mimic estrogens. A bit won't usually hurt but just an important note. Excessive use has caused breast development in pre-pubscent(sp?) boys.
Well, I gave up the deodorant a while back and have been pretty happy with it. What state do you live in? I'm in Texas and it's been brutally hot! I've noticed that without deodorant I do not have any sweat stains (apparently, they are just chemical stains) on my shirts. I do go sleeveless more so the sweat doesn't show as badly and have noticed that the B.O. can be covered up with, what else?, essential oil. If I'm going "out" I will put a drop or two of an essential oil (loving the orange and lemon for summer) on my chest.
Thanks for the poo-free posting. Going to look into that. It coincides with Dr. Mercola's posting about what is really in shampoo, even the organic ones.
Just out of curiosity; have you calculated your monthly savings? 'Cuz ya know, I'm cheap like that. ;)
PS No poo was going ok but now my hair is even worse than before and the scalp build up is back *sigh*
You're washing machine doesn't have a fabric softener dispenser? Weirdo ;-P Maybe its time to get a more efficient/newer machine =)) With all your spare cash of course.
PS I prefer salt for exfoliating because it doesn't feed the bacteria/yeasties and of course if you can get real unrefined salt its normally got minerals, etc. I would imagine honey doesn't feed yeasties, I know its antibacterial.
I use aloe vera gel (homemade) & a pinch of baking soda instead of deordorant. I've had no issue with smell unlike when I used commerical products.
I tried no poo but it wasnt working out for me and my hard water. :(
On the other hand, I have had great luck with my homemade deodorant. ; Try it: http://hippie-hugger.blogspot.com/2010/05/diy-deoderant.html
I love this post! I'm a "clean hippie" too. My sister nicknamed me Mother Nature b/c my crunchiness tends towards my mothering techniques as well. My husband is also a dirty redneck truck driver.
I have spent the last year working on becoming more natural. I make my own soap (including shampoo soap), deodorant, and home cleaning products. I use essential oils for many things from helping with cold symptoms to healing itchy bug bites. When I need a facial, I use the oil cleansing method (OCM). You should google OCM. I bet you would like it.
I stopped using deodorant when I fell pregnant with my first..I use a chrystal deo which works perfectly, doesn't block my pores or leak extremely harmfull chemicals into my body...some days I forget to put it on and have a slight odor, but its nothing compared to what I used to smell like if I forgot my spray-on.
I just think the more natural you go, the better u and the environment will feel :)
We did the same thing back in April, It's a pretty long story (http://oursentiments.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/when-you-open-this-it-will-go-crunch/), but it started out with a rash and snowballed from there. Of course there are a few changes since then, but I have not gone back to our older products.
I have found a herbal Shampoo (Hugo Naturals) I have been using for a few weeks, only because I really miss the scents that I used to have. I love this product line actually.
I also love Coconut Oil! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Coconut Oil. I get breast thrush almost monthly and it's the only thing that will take it away in a day or two. Diaper rashes are also quickly ended with a few sprays at change time.
I have also been using Castor Oil on my acne parts and eyelashes (to grow them).
This was a good post. Mainly because of the first few lines. My husband and I say the SAME things to each other! I am the dirty hippy he is the dirty redneck! ahahah just cracked me up.
I do all the same things you do, and I am a clean hippy through and through.
For those with hard water/no-pooing issues, if you add salt to your baking soda, it's all better! I was having issues at first with just baking soda, but now I dilute a tbsp. baking soda and a tsp. salt in a cup of water and it works perfectly, despite our crazy hard water!
Egg yolk applied to a clean face and left to dry is a great mask for acne. Obviously wash off when you're done. Pure tea tree oil is also a great spot treatment for blemishes.
Olive oil and brown sugar make an excellent scrub that both exfoliates and moisturizes. I've used it both on face and body and love the results.
Lemons and kosher salt will clean just about anything around your home. Our white kitchen sink was hopelessly stained, and I didn't want to use bleach. We sprinkled some kosher salt in the sink and then scrubbed it in using lemons cut in half. It was sparkling white again in no time.
The baking soda didnt work for me either. I went for months with greasy looking hair! Have you ever looked at cosmeticsdatabase.com? it has alot of useful info about what you put on your body.
I just have to put in a good word here for soap nuts! I, too, did the homemade detergent for about a year. Then during my last pregnancy, I used more borax than I normally do in the batch...and I suffered bigtime b/c of it! Massive, itchy rash all over where my undergarments were. I did some reading up on borax and learned that it wasn't as "natural" as I had thought.
I used the more expensive, organic free-clear detergent for a while, then decided to investigate soap nuts. They are AWESOME!! It's like magic--you just soften a little bag of nuts, throw 'em in the wash, and my clothes come out clean. There's no sudsing...nadda. Love, love, love em. AND they are cheap, too.
I have naturally oily hair...but bleached it a while back...so that part is crazy dry, but the scalp area (the part growing out) stays kind of oily...Would I need to lose the bleached section before the no-poo would work for me? I've been so tempted to go without it after reading some poo free pages...but I also have psoriasis, so I tend to get a little bit of scalp buildup (like dandruff, but a little painful) and it doesn't seem to go away unless I use a good dandruff shampoo once in a whil
I ALWAYS have the big gallon jugs of vinegar at my house. For EVERYTHING. Most recently, I poured some into the washing machine b/c of some icky wet clothes that were left a little long on the bathroom floor. Before that...I was cleaning vomit out of a carseat, lol. ;) Also use it with salt on my copper bottom pans. :)
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