Daily Detox: Hair Care

So this isn't a terribly Lenten topic at all, but I've been meaning to write for awhile per a friend's request. I've finally [almost] completely detoxed my hair care routine, and that is tough for a curly girl! If your hair is naturally curly, or even wavy, I think you might find some useful info here.

First to detox: negativity. All you have to do is Google "curly hair unprofessional" to see the bias against curls in the world. Ridiculous, and honestly it smacks of some racism. Why fight with your hair? My personal care handbook for safety and environmental responsibility, No More Dirty Looks, was inspired by an ugly turn of events when the authors were searching for the perfect fix for their frizz. One of them has big, wild curls like I do. And when she began allowing her hair to do what God and nature intended, it was healthier, tidier, and prettier.

Now I've only attempted straightening my mane a few times, and it was really not worth it. But I've spent far too much time trying to figure out how to 'control' my unruly mane. Now that we get along, I have more time to spend on much more important things! My routine is streamlined, my products are fewer and safer, and the result is much improved (if you ask me).

I have been playing with natural haircare for about 5 years now, to varying success. No More Dirty Looks helped me find products that actually work. And after years of investigating curl care techniques, the Curly Girl method is the best I've found. I'll leave it to you to read the hows and whys. In a nutshell, conventional products are too harsh, bad for our hair, bad for our scalps and lungs, and bad for the environment. Here's what I'm doing now:

Shampoo: No more than every 3 days, barring secondhand smoke exposure (ick). When I do shampoo, I use a gentle, sulfate-free cleanser, such as Alaffia products. Some conditioners have enough surfectant to do the job, too. I focus on cleansing my scalp, using my fingertips to massage the product in a circular pattern. No lather needed! (Foam strips the hair of essential moisture, anyway.) I rinse well, focusing on the scalp, but I touch my curls as little as possible.

Conditioner: Once a week, I do a conditioning treatment. When I wash my hair, I use a deeper conditioner than normal. When I don't, I use a leave-in conditioner from Beautiful Curls. This stuff is the best I have found! I lighly coat the top of my hair, then I use my fingers and a bit more product to work through any tangles. No combs here! If I think there is a lot of product left, I might rinse lightly. I leave the product on until I get out of the shower, and I leave my curls alone.

Drying: I use a t-shirt to dry my hair right away. I lay it over my hand and scrunch my curls to get excess water out. The end!

Styling: I use an aloe-vera lotion when my hair is wet. 3 parts aloe vera gel to 1 part water, plus a few drops of lavender oil for scent. I lightly run some over the top of my hair, and then I scrunch it in to my curls. I use about 4 clips to prop my roots up (check out Curly Girl for details) and let it air dry. I sleep on my curls with no problem, but it works well in the morning if you have lots of time to air dry. In the morning, I might use an extra product (if it's raining or I have something super important at the end of my day), and I'm loving Kinky-Curly's Spiral Spritz. I use just a little plus some water to scrunch my curls up. If I have some weirdness at the scalp, I run my hands under my curls, close to my scalp, and wiggle them a bit until the curls break up. I'm finishing with a spritz of hairspray, which my favorite stylist calls a curly girl's best friend. It took a LONG time to find a natural hairspray I actually like, but the ladies at No More Dirty Looks were right on when they suggested Simply Organic.

Whew! That sounds like a lot, but I promise it's simple--especially compared with frying my hair every day with a blow dryer or flat iron. No, thanks. And my hair looks still looks fresh at the end of the day, which was not the case before.

These products cost more than drugstore brands, but about the same or less than salon brands (aside from Simply Organic--that's a splurge). They also have better quality ingredients that don't hurt our water supply in consumption or production (at least, not as much as conventional petroleum based products).

Another bonus: Alaffia and Beautiful Curls are made with fair trade shea butter that supports women's cooperatives in various parts of the world. So, in celebrating natural texture and trying to keep my body and the environment healthy, I am also supporting women around the world. Gotta love that!

So there you have it, the life and times of my newly detoxed curls. If you have curls of your own, I hope you find this helpful! If you've been hiding your curls or waves, I hope I've inspired you to give them another try. They are beautiful! Have a lovely week!

Daily Detox: Fragrance

You were going to get a post about cosmetics or personal care, but I realized that is just too BIG to be a daily detox! That is a project that takes years, as I know from experience. If you care about finding products that are safe for you and your family, enhance the lives of the people who make them, AND work, that's a serious undertaking!

photo: beautorium.com

So, I'm starting with Fragrance. You'll see it on your ingredients list as "fragrance," "perfume," or "parfum," or some other version of that. It's in perfume, of course, shampoo, lotion, lip gloss, laundry detergent, candles, air freshener, you name it. In a nutshell, it's poison.

Ok, I'm being dramatic. It's not always poison, but it often is! Because of trade secret laws, it's ridiculously difficult to find out what's really in those chemical formulas. But most of us know from experience that some fragrances cause headaches. Some cause our eyes to itch and water, our throats to close, our breath to change. Nearly everyone knows someone who is highly sensitive to added fragrance--and there are reasons for that! Those poor souls get a tough rap, but they might just be ahead of the rest of us in caring for their health.

Some fragrances contain neurotoxins. (Read: brain poison.) Some contain known allergens. Most contain materials we don't know enough about. Most contain pthalates, which mess with your hormones, can cause birth defects, or cause cancer. This stuff can also irritate the skin and make us look bad.

Of course, there are many conversations around the relatively low levels of these products in our self-care supplies. But I'm not interested in using them at all! Some of them accumulate in the body. All of them accumulate in the water supply. Think about it: millions of people using synthetically scented body wash, which goes down the drain, into the sewer system, and back into the water. And if you're thinking we can't absorb these items via skin, think again. We absorb birth control hormones, nicotine, and antibiotics transdermally. What's the difference?

So what can we do?

-Avoid the ingredients fragrance, perfume, or parfum. Be careful when you see a label that says unscented--sometimes fragrance is added to mask the scent of other ingredients. Check the label!

-If you like to use scents, try natural solutions. Use products scented with essential oils (though be careful--you may be sensistive to some of these.) Freshen your home by boiling citrus peels on the stove. Make natural febreeze-type spray out of 1:1 vodka-water mixture, plus a few drops of essential oils for fun. Be creative--you'll find tons of good stuff on the internet!

I am loving LAVANILA for fragrance and other personal care products. It's a bit of a splurge, but certainly less than your department store fragrances. They have all kinds of yummy products without all the yucky extras. Now if we can get them to clarify their sourcing, ensuring people are treated well across the supply chain, it would be just about perfect.

Aura Cacia is a good source for essential oils. They do a pretty good job with their sourcing, too.

What about you? How do you avoid pesky chemicals in fragrance?

Again, check out No More Dirty Looks for more info. Their book is my personal handbook and where I find lots of this stuff.

No More Dirty Looks

For the last 6 years or so, natural and homemade personal care products have been the norm around here. Sadly, I found myself slowly compromising my standards for the sake of quality or convenience, thinking my lungs can probably handle a little bit of polymer (read:plastic!) from my hairspray . . . things like that. It was time for a reality check. Enter Siobhan and Alexandra from No More Dirty Looks.

Loved it! The book is so informative and readable--much more so than others I've read on the topic. I'm so glad Cara sent it my way. After tearing through my library copy, I had to buy it (secondhand, of course). It works like a handbook, with lists of dangerous ingredients as well as safer products they have tried. These ladies care about looking polished and professional, but not at the sake of their personal well-being (or negative effects on factory workers and the environment). I love that Alexandra has hair just like mine--it makes the information all the more valuable!

For example, did you know you can make hair gel out of aloe and hairspray out of lemons, water, and vodka? Did you know baking soda makes a refreshing facial scrub and coconut oil a soothing body moisturiser? Did you know that you shouldn't wash your hair daily and should only use soap sparingly?

If you're interested in caring for yourself and your planet, if you're interested in avoiding cancers, endocrine disruption, respiratory issues, or other yucky ailments, if you'd like to prevent oil spills, and if you'd like to look cute while doing it, I highly recommend this book. I've just ordered my first products on their recommendation: John Masters Sunscreen and La Vanilla fragrance. I'll keep you posted!