How do we No 'Poo?

Since the No 'Poo/'Poo-Free Method is working so well for the Husbeast and I, I thought it was time for a much more detailed post about how we do it.

We went cold turkey into the No 'Poo Method.... we didn't do anything like go a week without washing our hair, or go a week using nothing but conditioner on our hair. We just started using baking soda and apple cider vinegar and didn't look back.

My usual mix is 1/4 cup of baking soda per 1 cup of water. The container we put our mix into holds about 2 cup, so we put in roughly 1/2 cup of baking soda, then add water. This usually lasts for two washes for each of us (so, four hair washes per mix) before we have to refill it. I've more-or-less stopped measuring now, and just refill it in the shower by shaking what looks like the right amount of baking soda into the container and adding water straight from the shower head.

The apple cider vinegar mix is approximately 1 Tbsp ACV to 1 cup of water. Once again, the container we use holds 2 cup of water so I do approx 2 Tbsp of ACV. Since I'm not a big fan of the smell of ACV, I also add 2-3 sticks of cinnamon and a little vanilla extract. After soaking for a day or so, the mix smells more like cinnamon and vanilla than ACV.


A good look at the cinnamon sticks in the mix

The smell of vinegar SHOULD wash away when you rinse your hair... if it doesn't, you might be using a little too much ACV in your mix.

So here's the usual wash cycle: get hair wet in regular shower temperature water. Shake up the bottle of baking soda and water, and apply to your hair (I use one hand to pour and the other hand to scrub my scalp to insure the mix is getting over my entire scalp). Massage mixture into your scalp well, and allow to sit for a few minutes (I take this time to soap up and wash my body with my new addiction, LuSa Organics soap). Rinse well with warm to warm-hot water, massaging your scalp under running water to rinse all the baking soda out.


This is the patchouli, orange, and lavender blend and it's fantastic!

Apply the ACV mixture to your scalp. I usually find this part shockingly cold, after being under the warm water, but after the initial pouring, I adjust. Allow this to sit another three or so minutes (i wash my face and just enjoy the warm water). Finish by rinsing with lukewarm to cool water (this closes the hair shaft, and should be the last step in ANY shower, no matter what products you use to clean your hair). Rinse well to insure you are getting the ACV out of your hair (otherwise you will smell it any time you sweat, she says with the bitter voice of experience).



That's all there is to it! Yes, you do much more scalp massage using baking soda and ACV than you do with commercial cleansers, but here's the scary thing: most commercial shampoos and conditioners contain carcinogens. Yes, cancer-causing chemicals. And your skin - including your scalp - is the largest organ in or on your body, so why would you want to rub carcinogens all over yourself?

For more information on the toxins in beauty and personal care products, I will turn the mic over to EcoMall.

I can definitely attest to how successful this 'Poo-Free experiment is... my hair looks fantastic.

Naturally stink-free

This isn't so much about natural parenting as it is about natural living.

Deodorant. It's something most people use, and most people buy from a store somewhere. Whether you opt for the well-known brands like Degree or Dove or Mitchum, or choose something less toxic like a crystal deodorant stone or one of the only-carried-in-health-stores brands, you probably go out at least once every couple of months and purchase a stick or a tube of some kind of odor-and-sweat-reducing product.

As a nursing mother, I've been more and more aware of the fact that whatever I'm putting on my body, I'm also exposing my baby to. Studies have found more pollutants and toxic chemicals in breast milk than were ever present before, and while I can't avoid every chemical out there (short of giving up eating, drinking water, and breathing), I can limit my exposure to known toxins. This, combined with recently seeing The Story of Stuff, pushed me toward ditching store-bought deodorant and trying something else.

I've had a hate-hate relationship with store-bought deodorants for years. You see, they don't WORK on me. Oh, sure, for a couple weeks, maybe a month... but eventually, I notice that when I put my regular deodorant/antiperspirant on, it just wouldn't last. Before the end of the day, the sneaky reek of b.o. would be creeping through. And trust me, I scrub in the shower. I've been accused of being borderline OCD about washing (i do three scrub-and-rinses with water and soap, and then use a puff with soap to scrub under my arms to make sure i'm really getting everything off; unnecessary? probably. but this post isn't about my hyper-active cleaning habits, so let's move on).

I've spent years with half-used tubes of deodorants in my medicine cabinet, because halfway through I'd find they just weren't working, and have to switch to another brand.

And I tried to crystal deodorants. What a laugh! Those things didn't even keep me smelling tolerable for an hour, let alone a day!

I also went through a wide variety of natural deodorants bought at the local health store (i have fond memories of fifth graders asking me why i smelled like 'pepper.' it was true - one of the deodorants essential oil blend started smelling like black pepper after being on me for a few hours). But nothing has ever satisfied me, or worked well enough (or long enough) to truly make me comfortable being out in public.

Recently, a post by LuSa Organics (you MUST try their soap and lip balm! trust me!) on Facebook mentioned homemade deodorant. First, I laughed - yeah, sure, homemade deodorant that works as well as the store bought stuff! Then, I realized that the store-bought stuff had been a huge disappointment my entire life, so why not give it a try?

A little bit of Googling later, and I had a rough recipe for making my own deodorant: baking soda, corn starch, and coconut oil.

I mixed them up a couple days ago, putting half into an empty deodorant canister (after dumping out the half-bar of stuff that worked for about six hours before i started smelling a little off-putting) and spooned my mixture in. A bit goopy, but I had hope. I applied some under my arms (and under my breasts; you try being a DD in a humid oklahoma summer without putting SOMETHING under your breasts!) and went to bed.

It has been three days, and amazingly enough, the goopy concoction has been WORKING (and, by the way, the goopiness of it hardened and solidified into a fairly respectable looking "bar" of deodorant in the cool bathroom). In fact, yesterday I showered around 2pm, went to work (in a hot PetSmart, standing in front of groups of people and dogs and crawling around on the floor with dogs), came home and went to bed, and didn't shower again until around 11:30am, and there was NO STINK. NONE. NONE. Let me make sure you're seeing this: BAKING SODA, CORN STARCH, AND COCONUT OIL KEPT ME SMELLING BETTER FOR LONGER THAN STORE-BOUGHT DEODORANT.

I will update in a month, but for right now, I'm pretty pleased. And knowing that I'm not contributing empty plastic containers of half-used deodorant to the growing piles of trash out there makes me feel pretty good, too.