The Green, Green Grass of Home

We live in the suburbs, and, though I have dreams of a little urban homestead, our yard is currently used for flower beds, an herb garden, exercising our beastly puppy, and dinners on the patio.  Due to concerns for our health, the health of our highly sensitive pup, and my future plans to grow food and keep chickens and bees in our yard, it is important to me to eliminate chemicals.

Longing to Play Outside

To kill fire ants, we flood them with boiling water.  To remove poison ivy, we pull it by hand.  Fortunately, there is not much of either.  We also compost food scraps to nourish our lawn and house plants, as well as to reduce our contribution to either methane gas in the landfill or nitrogen bursts in the sewage system.

Happy Orchid

We currently maintain hot batch compost in the backyard and a worm bin in our house.

Hot Batch Compost Using Straw Instead of Leaves

Worm Bin

Last year we experienced a pretty significant drought, during which it seemed we lost much of our grass.  We do not water our lawn, but instead rely on rain for that.  We do have one large rain barrel, which in combination with a soaker hose does a nice job on the herb garden and flower beds.  However, without a pump, there is not sufficient pressure to actually water the lawn.  (We do have plans to add a pump and a few more rain barrels when we put in a large garden.)

We had been using a company called NaturaLawn of America, which claims to be The Leader in Organic-Based Lawn Care.  They did a great job with weed control in our yard.  However, we became skeptical about what ingredients were actually being used and what “organic-based” really meant.  Further, we were looking for an opportunity to cut expenses, so we cancelled that service.  I decided to battle the weeds myself instead.  How hard could it be, right?

The growing season in Charlotte began long ago.  The weather has been moderate since February, so vegetation has been in full swing here for a while.  Enter the Henbit!  I am told that bees love the stuff.  However, it is so prolific that, if I allowed it to, it would take over the yard.  My strategy was white vinegar and a pump sprayer typically used for weed control with toxic substances.

Weapons of Choice

I selected a patch clearly moving toward our yard from the neighbors' as a test area.  This patch was in the direct sun, and I sprayed liberally.  I soon realized that I would need lots and lots of vinegar!  Within one day, the weeds began to yellow.  Within one week, they appeared mostly dead.  Then a rain came and to my surprise the weeds began to rally.  That was not a part of the plan.  So I decided to pull the weeds in the test area, which easily loosened their grip on the soil.

February 6

February 8

February 20 (Notice Henbit with Purple Blossoms Flourishing in Background)

I became concerned that the quantity of vinegar would also prevent grass from growing in the test area, so I selected a second test area near the driveway for my new and improved method.  This time I would pull the weed and spray the remaining root or hole in the ground directly to insure a targeted kill.  I have used this method in several areas, and it appears to have worked well so far.  As always the weeds are much easier to pull after a heavy rain, but this method is still labor intensive.  For treating broad leafed weeds with large tap roots, of which we have relatively few, spraying copious amounts of vinegar directly on the weed has been extremely effective.  In these instances, no pulling is required.  The battle of the weeds is far from over, but I am holding my own.  I find that devoting time daily is the best way to keep the upper hand.  So much for a miracle cure...

Lastly, I must report on a disheartening development.  As I was writing this entry, I went outside to survey the treated areas.  A man, likely a relative of our neighbors, was spraying some toxic Round-Up style chemical attached to their garden hose broadly across their lawn adjacent to ours.  Our backyard is fenced, but there was a strong breeze.  Since he was spraying near our fence, which is several feet from my compost pile, and all along the property line, I was quite concerned.  The wind does not respect property boundaries.  I engaged him in conversation, and requested that he keep the spray far away from our yard.  However, he was not a native English speaker, and I am not certain he fully understood my request.  I could smell the chemicals strongly even as I walked away from the area, and I felt them in my throat and tasted them in my mouth.

If I had not gone outside when I did, I might never have realized these chemicals were being used next door.  This experience reminded me about the interconnectedness we have with our communities.  When we plant our garden next year, we could easily be eating our neighbors herbicides and pesticides if some education does not occur.  Fortunately, our neighbors are extremely nice and cooperative, so I hope that we can work together to insure a healthier environment for all - most especially their young children who play in the area now covered in spray.

Easter Egg Dyeing!

As devout Christians, Easter is the biggest holiday of the year for my extended family. Given the significance of the event, there is quite the extensive feast to accompany the celebration. My mother and her three sisters pull out all of the stops in true traditional Ukrainian style. They bring homemade bread, cheeses, and sausages (yes, homemade), ground beets and horseradish (which serves as a condiment for EVERYTHING), a wide variety of fruits, and a ridiculous number of egg dishes. Now, as an adult in the family, I am expected to participate in the preparation of the meal, and I do so quite willingly. This year, I was asked to bring homemade biscotti and raspberry pie…and to hard boil and dye three dozen Easter eggs.

OK, so aside from the animal welfare concerns I have regarding increased egg production this time of year (something I was thinking about as I read that Americans purchase nearly 1 billion eggs in the week before Easter), I had major qualms about using our family’s traditional egg dyeing methods in light of this course. I grew up using Paas and/or food coloring to dye our eggs, but I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what is in those dyes – even after some research! The dye ingredients are not listed anywhere, and if you Google “egg dye ingredients” or “egg dye safety,” there is not really a reputable source…and most websites say something along the lines of, “Oh, they’re non-toxic. Don’t worry about it!” My thoughts:

• Why are these chemicals mysterious? Why can’t I find out exactly what’s in the dyes? If they’re like food coloring (which I’m told they are), then it’s propylparaben and some kind of glycol and…mystery ingredients “approved by the FDA.” But none of that sounds like stuff I want to eat.
• Why have I never been concerned with the mysterious chemicals I’m rubbing on the outside of my food before?

I have yet to find a really good answer regarding any potential hazards for Easter egg dye, but I elected to adopt the precautionary principle and use this as an opportunity to experiment with natural egg dyes – and what fun! My roommate and I used eight different types of “dye.” Four just required us to soak the eggs in the dye overnight with a little bit of vinegar. The other four required us to boil the eggs in the dye for about 20 minutes (also with a bit of vinegar). We used this website for guidance.

Soaking dyes:

• Red Zinger tea – lavender
• Red wine – purple
• Coffee – brown
• Beet juice – pink

Boiling dyes:

• Red cabbage – blue (soaked overnight)
• Spinach – grey/green (soaked overnight)
• Green tea – golden
• Onion skins – marbled orange/brown

While chopping up and cooking the ingredients required the better part of an evening, and while a LOT of ingredients were used for relatively little yield (although who KNOWS what volume of “stuff” is used in the making of concentrated dyes…), I was very pleased with the results.

My favorites were the green tea, red cabbage, and onion skins – I will DEFINITELY do those again next year.

While I enjoyed learning about these dyeing methods, that was not really the crux of my learning experience with this particular activity. That credit must be given to the EXTENSIVE dialogue I had with my family on the subject, who were surprisingly OPPOSED to my use of the natural egg dyes. The most common conversation I had in the past week was:

“Ew! You’re soaking our eggs in coffee and red wine and tea? Aren’t the eggs going to be gross? I mean, what if the egg tastes like coffee?!”

To which I responded with (at first) dumbfounded silence, then:

“OK. So let me get this straight. You would rather that I soak your eggs in a mystery chemical we can’t identify than coffee. You acknowledge that eggshells are porous and that dye can leach through, and you would RATHER eat mystery chemical than chance a hint of a coffee flavor on your eggs?”

To which EVERYONE responded:

“Yes! They test those dyes. They’re fine.”

I don’t mean to sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist, but TALK ABOUT BLIND FAITH IN THE ESTABLISHMENT! Wow. Who’s “they”? (I know it's the FDA, but do they know that?) And what do they “test” the dyes for? (And do the results come back as 100% conclusive, or is there some doubt?) And why should we trust them? (Have "they" never messed up before?)

This experience has forced me to recognize (again) the uphill battle we face. People don’t necessarily WANT to think outside of the box, or to doubt the system, or to change the way they do things. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that these eggs were “homework,” I’m not sure my family would’ve LET me do this – and they’re generally very supportive. Sigh.

Luckily, the eggs turned out beautifully, and with no discernible flavor additions. People were impressed. This counted as a win. But, I wonder how my aunts will respond when they all get flaxseed hair gel for Christmas…

I Get High With A Little Help From My Friends

The medication we take exits our body at some point, gets processed by our waste treatment facilities and then ends up in our reservoirs or other parts of the ecosystem. Since I learned of this phenomenon I have tried to keep as medication-free as possible or find herbal alternatives which tend to be kinder.
Having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis has posed a new challenge for me in that regard.
The treatment for my diagnosis of relapse-remitting MS involves different factors depending on my situation. If I have an acute relapse where I have trouble walking or swallowing or with some other more essential function, most neurologists recommend either IV steroids or steroid pills. For the rest of the time, people diagnosed with MS are usually prescribed a drug that is taken regularly in order to stave off and reduce relapses. These drugs are often very effective and would seem to be no naturopathic medicine that can achieve the same solution.
In the hospital, I was given IV steroids as I was having trouble walking. The effects were interesting to say the least. My mind was racing for days. I was rather eager to eat at 3AM and I became tired crossing my apartment.
Since stress can be a factor in onset and presentation of symptoms ( as my wobbly leg discovered while working sound for an event starring Charlie Rose and James Franco :), I think I will try and remain as stress-free as possible rather than endure more steroids than absolutely necessary.
So, the question becomes what kind of therapies work in favor of low stress? Well, sunlight is one. In fact, the vitamin D obtained from sunlight is recommended for MS patients. As it turns out, the closer one gets to the equator, the fewer MS cases one finds.
Meditation works and is recommended by Neurologists. Since I usually chant twice a day, that is a no-brainer.
Acupuncture and massage therapy have been known to work for stress reduction and help with physical symptoms as well. On Monday I will have an appointment with Dr. Jiao, a well-known and very successful acupuncturist and herbal medicine expert.
Swimming has also been known to lower stress and is a good exercise for MS patients because we can often do it whether or not we are having symptoms and also because it keeps the body temperature from getting too hot. A high body temperature tends to have a negative effect on MS patients (I’m not sure I am ready to pass up a hot tub yet, but I will try to wrap my brain around that one).
In Rhode Island, MS patients are usually entitled to a medical marajuana card if a doctor is in favor of such, more so for pain and muscle relaxation than for stress as I understand it. There is no doubt that marajuana can be very calming. Unfortunately, because of the possibility of MS effecting cognitive function, I think I will stay away from the good stuff unless pain becomes more of a factor. I have heard that getting and maintaining a medical marajuana card in Rhode Island involves more of a hassle than obtaining the drug illegally. Since I don’t know anyone with a medical marajuana card personally, I will have to ask the MS Neurologist whom I have an appointment with on Wednesday. Another option for more natural stress relief is Kava Kava. My friend Heidi dropped off a bottle of Kava Kava concoction a couple months ago. Unfortunately, Kava Kava must travel from the western pacific to get to me, whereas marajuana is a slightly more local solution. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Another strategy besides stress relief for MS patients is to keep one’s mind active. Since cognitive function can be affected, a regular dose of crossword puzzles, sudoku, or any other type of strategy game or mind game is recommended. My favorite game is called, “Spot It”, obtained at a game store in P-Town. It consists of a bunch of discs with pictures on them. Each disc has one image on it that matches one image on all of the other discs. All players are dealt a stack of discs and one disc is placed in the center. The first player to find the matched image on her disk and say the name of the image out loud, places her/his disc on top of the other disc in the center and the game continues. The first player to get rid of all of her/his discs wins.
What a long strange trip it shall be. Of course, it has been that already, hasn't it?

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

I went to a workshop on toxins Tuesday afternoon as part of Lesley University’s Eco-Week activities. The presentation was done as part of the Boston Self Help Center. I learned how toxins found in everyday products can lead to MCS or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. This was an eye-opening presentation. I thought I knew a little about people’s chemical sensitivities, but I now realize just how naïve I was on the subject and how so many more people are probably affected by it than I was even remotely aware of.

The number of chemicals that people have been exposed to in the name of making our lives “better” is staggering. There have been over 85,000 different types of chemicals in use today and only 3,000 have been tested for their relative safety for eye and skin irritations. The situation is becoming increasingly apparent to some people, but considering the fact that Rachel Carson alerted us to the dangers of chemicals in the early 60’s, progress toward improvements have come at a snail’s pace. The fact is that there has been an increase in the amount of chemicals used in the name of making our lives easier with: a widespread use pesticides and fertilizers, brighter and more wrinkle-free clothing, and shinier, more manageable hair to name just a few.

People can be affected from either high level exposures such as drastic doses all at once from an explosion of toxins from a furnace or the World Trade Center, or it can come from low level exposures such as a constant use of toxic weed-killing chemicals on the outside of buildings or within older buildings from asbestos. The affects can be very gradual and put down to asthma or the flu. Symptoms can be nausea, extreme fatigue, rashes, mood swings, problems with concentration and short term memory, as well as seizures.

One theory about what happens in chemical sensitivity is that it happens as a result of the chemicals going in through the sinus cavity into the brain and breaking down the natural protective barriers on the way. Without the natural barriers, subsequent exposures of toxic fumes will have more immediate negative effects on certain parts of the brain.

Once someone has MCS or extreme sensitivity, even the smallest exposures can set off reactions. Margaret Ricciardelli, who gave the talk, told us how she has become a virtual recluse. She meets her friends outside and walks first when they take a walk. The smell of someone’s scented shampoo if she walks behind them can make her nauseous and dizzy, and the last time she walked into a store she nearly passed out. She has no short-term memory anymore and has to take regular medications to keep from breaking out in rashes and having half of her body go numb from something as simple as open windows.

One of the issues is the fact that many people do not like to admit the fact that they have a problem and to have people treat them as if they are handicapped. The fact is that MCS is a type of handicap. According to their website, the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation states:

Federal laws–specifically the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act–prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. HUD considers multiple chemical sensitivity to be a disability under these laws. Despite this coverage, the Department continues to receive many telephone calls and correspondences from people with multiple chemical sensitivity who report that their landlords refuse to reasonably accommodate their disability. If you, or anyone you know, believes that they have suffered housing discrimination because of their disability, please contact the HUD office nearest you. Fair Housing is not an option. It’s the law.

There is quite a bit of information on MCS available on the internet. I have just touched the surface of this growing problem. Below are just a few of the sites you can check out for further information. The first website includes a good introductory video on MCS.

http://www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/

http://sites.google.com/site/bostonselfhelpcenter/news/secondhandscentaccommodatingpeoplewithmcs
http://www.lectlaw.com/filesh/csl01.htm
http://www.multiplechemicalsensitivity.org
http://www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/bennie_howard-multiple-chemical-sensitivity.htm

As with most things there are two sides to every story. The following website disputes the validity of MCS and seems to suggest that is more of a psychosomatic illness without genuine validity. I cannot help but wonder if this reasoning is somehow backed by one of the chemical companies, or even by someone who uses some of the questionable ingredients to make products that seem to make money for some at the expense of others. Either way I am glad that I am becoming more aware of this problem that seems to effect many more people than I was formally aware of.

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mcs.html

I hate ticks

As my husband walked in the door my dog, let me repeat, MY dog ran up to him and told him he felt violated. My dog, Lou, continued to tell my husband that I had looked not only at his fur and crevices, but at his arm pits and privates. What he did not communicate was the events that led up to this earlier in the week.

On a rare beautiful day in April, in Michigan (very rare) my husband and I took our two dogs for a walk in a nature preserve. The previous week there was at least a few inches of snow in some locations. This time, not only was the snow gone, but everything seemed to be coming back to life, with a little touch of green here and there, even a frog jumping from the path back into the stream it had recently awoke in.

While there we came within a few feet of a blue herring standing in its own little pond of water, a small group of deer and many very happy birds that announced to anyone who did not already realize spring was here.

That night as I lay down I noticed my head itched, but since it had been very windy while we were on our walk, I didn’t pay much attention to it.

The following day I gathered my things to work on assignments. I had my diet coke, my computer, my blanket and some papers and books, as well as one dog on my lap and the other at my feet. My husband and son had left the house for a few hours, so I was going to get a lot accomplished, or so I thought. As I worked on my computer I itched my head again and noticed something that should not be there, a little bump. What is that I wondered as I pulled it from my head, long strands of hair making it difficult? As I looked I jumped up, reflectively throwing the tick that I had just removed from my head, as well as my dog, blanket and computer.

A TICK! And not just a tick, but a tick on my head. They are not supposed to be on me or in my house. We have lived here more than 10 years and I have never seen a tick here. Then it dawned on me. The long grass next to us as we walked on the paths at the nature preserve, where we come very close to deer and other wild animals that have ticks as well. Shoot, what about my dogs, I have not put the flea tick treatment on them yet as we still had snow last week.

Then I realized all of the chemicals that must be in flea/tick treatments. I started searching on line for alternatives to the toxic stuff I have always used. What I found was brewer’s yeast and garlic. I feed both of my dogs treats stuffed with pieces of raw garlic, checking the floor to make sure they had not spit it out afterwards.

After showering and making sure I didn’t have any more ticks on me, I vacuumed and cleaned my house for a few hours, trying to make sure the tick that I had thrown was no longer walking around my house. Then I spent hours checking my dog’s fur for ticks, with tweezers and alcohol and oil in the ready position.

Later that night my son called me into the hall. Right outside my bedroom door a tick sat on the wall. All the cleaning I had done to ensure he was not walking around my house did nothing, except clean my house. The tick was placed in a gob of greasy hair stuff and tissue, before being placed in the toilet and flushed out of my house.

Simplicity is the New Sophisticated

I spent some time reflecting on our class project to reduce the chemicals we introduce to our bodies and the environment. The main lesson I’ve learned from this experience is that of simplicity. The more I’ve simplified my purchasing habitats and ingredient list in my household products, the better I feel. I’m creating a better quality of life for myself and my family and reducing our impact on our local and global environment. Better living through chemistry no longer works in our society (if it ever did in the first place).

So what’s new this week…….
I LOVE the household cleanser I made a few weeks ago. The lemon zest has given the cleaning solution a really wonderful scent that fills the air as I clean. While I plan to use this cleanser for mostly everything, I just had to try Dr. Bonner’s solution on my kitchen floor. Yes, that’s right. I’ve never used Dr. Bonner’s inside the home, only during camping trips. GASP! I added the peppermint cleaning solution to warm water and also mixed in some baker soda for stains. My kitchen and wood floors gleamed and made the downstairs smell so good. Thanks Coleen for doing so much research on Dr. Bonner’s soaps! I felt good about the product and the mission of the company.

As Maddie would say, “Eww… stinky”
I had another “why haven’t I done this sooner” moment this week. As silly as it sounds, I was nervous to change from my Secret Powder Fresh antiperspirant to an aluminum-free deodorant. I sweat a lot, so I was a bit anxious to try a non-antiperspirant. However, I realized that I spent too many years placing my dislike for sweat at inopportune times (like work and formal occasions) over my health, and that had to stop. Aluminum, which is a main ingredient in antiperspirant, has been linked to Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. In particular, breast cancer has been diagnosed earlier in women who began underarm hygiene practices (shaving, antiperspirant) before the age of sixteen (cancer.gov). While studies conducted to find links between antiperspirant and cancer have not been overwhelmingly conclusive, why take the risk? I immediately picked up Tom’s of Maine Wild Lavender deodorant, and I love it so far. I’ve worked in the yard, ran around after Maddie, run errands, and gone of runs (wow, that’s a lot of running), and I haven’t experienced an embarrassing underarm moment. Score!

Spring is a time of re-birth… including mosquitoes and ticks
I spend a lot of time outdoors. Whether it’s in the yard, camping, hiking, or doing on-the-job field work, I spend a lot of time exposed to mosquitoes and ticks. When I was pregnant and doing these activities, I simply went without any bug spray, because I did not want any dangerous chemicals to absorb through my skin and into Maddie. Since then, I have sprayed my jeans with OFF when conducting field work or at the campsite. I use the product sparingly, but it is also important to me to prevent against infection of Lyme disease and West Nile Virus.

This past week, I set out to make my own insect/tick repellant. I had a great recipe using olive oil and essential oils, and I went to the health food store to get the oils. $14 for a small container of lavender or thyme oil! After cringing over the cost of the ingredients for a recipe I wasn’t sure was going to work, I decided to look at the natural bug repellents that the store offered. There was a wide variety of insect repellents that had similar ingredients to the ones I planned to purchase: lavender oil, thyme oil, and witch hazel. Nestled amongst the national brands such as Burt’s Bees was a small bottle of BUG OFF! made at Jenness Farm, a local farm that is known for its amazing goat milk products. http://www.jennessfarm.com/

This was perfect! It contained the ingredients I wanted, was only $3.29, and buying it supports a local business. My work scheduled for tomorrow includes collecting groundwater samples, and several of the wells are located near a wetland and are situated within tall grass. I sample at this site every six months, and EVERY time I’m there I get attacked by mosquitoes and end up crawling with ticks. I also always get poison ivy when I’m there, so I’ve stocked up on Burt’s Bees poison ivy soap. (Sounds great, right? Anyone care to join me?) I will continue this post tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to test out this natural bug spray. My field partner has agreed to wear the traditional OFF Deep Woods spray for comparison. Let the best spray win, and watch out vermin!

Putting My Best Face Forward with Clear Sinuses and a Truly Healthy Glow

Quick shampoo update to get out of the way.  I have given up on anything containing castile soap to touch my head.  My hair is way to thin to handle the harshness of the soap and to offset it with even a tinge of oil will only prelude to a greasy meltdown.  I decided to simplify instead.  I now wash my hair with a half a palm full of baking soda (I have small hands so that’s probably 3 Tbsps) and work it into a paste on my head.  If my hair feels too much like straw, I bought Dr. Bronner’s lavender conditioner to soften my hair.  Furthermore, the magical powers of cornstarch rubbed into your hair starting at the scalp works in a pinch as dry shampoo.  

I do have a confession - this past weekend I slipped up and had forgone my all natural homemade concoctions for the convenience of the toiletries in my boyfriends shower. I was wrapped into staying at boyfriends house this weekend (he lives close to Lesley’s library) without going home to get my coffee/honey face wash and Dr. Bronner's soap.  I soon found myself faced with a plethora of shampoo options in his shower (I know, I could've gone without or used cornstarch) but the temptation was too strong.  I used the chemically laden lathers on my head and reveled in their suds.  Gah!  Although, I did miss my coffee/honey face scrub - it’s amazing how quickly your face can change depending what you put on it.  I broke out on my chin, and my skin tone became uneven because of the differing dry/oily parts from whatever face wash I could find in his bathroom.  

Adopting all natural allergy abatements has given me mixed success.  I have been eating  a spoonful of local honey daily and rinsing my sinuses with a neti pot and saline nasal sprays about twice a day for the past few weeks.  This has certainly helped with  keeping my sinuses clear from the allergens, but I still get that drowsy histamine - zombie feeling from time to time. I’ll keep at this regiment, as I do believe it is helping.  One allergy related attack that has lead to drugs is when my body caves to dog or cat allergens.  I’m OK at first, but repeated exposure over a few days can have disastrous effects on my airways and causes me to breakout in hives.  I was reminded of this reaction this past weekend after rough housing with the cute pups belonging to my boyfriend’s roommates.  In an instant I wanted to scratch my way out of my skin and slept sitting up until the Benadryl kicked in.   Back to the drawing board with that one - anyone have any homeopathic remedies for animal allergens? 

The lab in my kitchen has churned out homemade face powder and bronzer.  The blogger, Crunch Betty, has some amazing recipes for all natural beauty products.  I tried her homemade bronzer and made my own face powder with just cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and a few drops of jojoba oil.  I cleaned out an old compact for my face powder and found a little plastic jar in my tupperware bin for the bronzer.  For application, I cut up the padding inserts in an old bra instead of using cotton appliques.  Results?  Meh.  The jojoba oil for the face powder really helped congeal the powders and made it easy for me to pack it into the compact.  However, upon application it feels heavy.  I got the color to match my skin tone, but it is a little grainy and weighs on my face.  The bronzer, however, is great!  I can now sport a truly healthy glow.  Here are some photos from the lab:

I have adopted Liz’s mantra for cleaning products to my cosmetics and toiletry usage.  If I wouldn’t cook and/or eat what I’m putting on my body, why should I use it?  If something is toxic to ingest, then how is applying it to my skin any different?  Your skin absorbs everything it comes in contact with, and after perusing what I used to wear in the Cosmetics Database, it is frightening how much toxins are a commonplace fixture in the beauty industry.  It is ironic how the purpose of make-up is to make someone look more attractive, and give off an image of health and of good offspring producing genes, yet those products can cause major health problems for the long term user.  

Homemade Shampoo #2

I am calling my blog #2 in honor of Melissa’s original go at making shampoo.

I thought I was being cleaver about going to a meet-up event where someone was going to show a group of us how to make natural beauty care products. I have had books and intentions on doing this very thing for a number of years. When I went back to look in one of my older books I discovered that my book was actually advising to use some questionable ingredients. When I took it to the workshop, the instructor said that yes, these products were no longer being used. I came back home and was so disgusted that I immediately got rid of the book before I was able to record the offensive ingredients – problem #1.

At the class/workshop we were shown how to make face cream, an exfoliant facial/body scrub, lip balm, and shampoo. All of the products were made using natural ingredients and recipes from Rosemary Gladstar (who I have met and interviewed for a previous class), and Dina Falconi who are both known as authorities in herbals and natural products. The most fascinating product made was the facial cream which was a somewhat complicated process of first mixing the solid and liquid oils after the solid ones were melted, then they were blended once they had reached the same temperature, and finally whipped in a food processor. I did not think to bring a camera with me but one of the other students did. I asked her to send me one of the pictures so I could use it in my blog and she said she would. After sending her two emails requesting the picture and not receiving any response in return, I do not think I will be getting a picture to add – problem #2.

The exfoliant seemed simple enough to make as long as you have a coffee grinder that you can use to grind nuts and seeds. We were given some of the lip balm and face cream to take home and try. While the mixture of scents in the face cream are not particularly to my liking, it does seem to be a good moisturizer as does the lip balm. Only one container of shampoo was made and one of the other students bought that, so I decided to make my own. I used the basic recipe that we were given along with a couple of adaptations and eyeballed the measurements. We were told that with a little oil in the mixture, you may not need to use a conditioner. With the amount of hair that I have and the fact that I always need to use a fair amount of conditioner to keep the tangles at bay, this sounded like a good idea. So I used a little extra oil in the mixture – problem #3.

I should have learned from Melissa’s experience, but no. I had been successful in the past at making an herbal rub and medicinal teas so I was a bit too cocky in my attitude toward using the recipes. The result was, as you can imagine, not good. I did not even manage to leave the shower to get a proper greasy head shot. I had brought my old shampoo in with me and had to use it after my homemade version to get the oil out and then use conditioner. The picture above is of the ingredients I used to make the shampoo as well as the finished product. I even made my own nettle infusion to get the benefits of the herb I normally drink to help me with my hormonal balance. I also added some vitamin E to help with the health of my hair. I’m sure the ingredients would have worked fine if I had used the correct proportions.

I then took Melissa’s advice from her more successful venture at shampoo making and added a little more of the Dr. Bronner’s and a little bit of vinegar. The result looks the same and while the smell is not quite as pleasant with the vinegar, I have now managed to have a shampoo that I can use. I am still not able to use it without conditioner though. It cleans but leaves my hair too tangled on its own. I will have to go back to experimenting at a later date. As far as trying to make conditioner, I went to Whole Foods and after carefully reading many labels bought a conditioner from Aubrey Organics that appears to be made from all natural biodegradable products and even is packaged in a recyclable container. I have not tried it yet, but am feeling much more confident in my purchase than I would presently be in my own endeavor.

Basic Shampoo Formula
This basic formula provides the framework upon which to devise your own customized shampoo. Note that if you would like to increase the detergent effect of a shampoo, simply add more castile soap. And keep in mind that if you do not use up a batch of shampoo within a couple of weeks, it is best to store it in the refrigerator.
6-8 oz. herbal infusion of choice (1 cup of dried herbs in 1 quart of hot water – sit for 4-8 hrs and strain liquid)
3 oz. of liquid castile soap
¼ teaspoon carrier oil of choice (virgin olive oil is heaviest, apricot oil is lighter, etc.)
up to 60-70 drops of essential oils of choice
Pour strained infusion, liquid castile soap, carrier oil and essential oils into a jar or squeeze bottle, cap and shake. It is ready for use. Always shake these shampoos before use. Makes about 9-11 oz. of shampoo.

Variations: The amount of essential oil you use will depend on which ones you choose and the effect you are trying to obtain. You can omit the carrier oil if your hair is very oily, or add more if your hair is very dry. Additional ingredients, such as aloe, tinctures, etc., may be added to this basic shampoo recipe to adapt it for various hair and scalp needs.