Okay, I realize that all this may be boring and it is more for my documentation anyway. So I have decided to try out the nifty lj-cut tag.

Hair Experiment #3: Beer and Jojoba oil

Everywhere I read said that beer gives the hair more body. I found a recipe that combined beer and jojoba oil. Now, the recipe called for 1 tsp of jojoba oil and I knew that was too much, and jojoba oil is expensive to boot. It was a crap recipe… crap crap crap. Don’t use it. But here it is, so you know what I did:

1 cup warm beer
1 tsp jojoba oil

Once again, crap recipe. It took three washings before my hair wasn’t oily. I don’t like washing my hair that much in one day, so it wasn’t until three days later that my hair started being non-oily. And I wasted a teaspoon of expensive oil.

Hair Experiment #4: Conditioner-only washing

While surfing for hair recipes and hair care information, I ran across this very interesting site: The Long Hair Community. I read the boards for quite awhile. About half the people who post to this forum use only conditioner to wash their hair — they don’t use shampoo. It seemed to work really well for a little over half the folks. A little less than half complained of two things when they tried this scheme: 1) itchy scalp, and 2) limp, oily hair. One of the threads concluded that the two major reasons why this plan doesn’t work for some people are: 1) people don’t leave the conditioner on long enough to work, and 2) they don’t rinse all the conditioner out. They also recommended an apple cider vinegar wash once a week to remove build-up from the conditioner.

Well, I’m intrigued.

I tried it for the first time yesterday. And my hair was clean, though a bit flat. Of course, that could be the remaining bucket-load of jojoba oil. It’s weird that a 97 cent conditioner (ie. very cheap, but it was the one most recommended for this procedure) would be able to clean my hair. I shall continue with conditioner-only washing and see what happens.

Results from previous Hair Experiments

Like I mentioned before, I am a redhead. But as I have become older, my hair has become a dull red-brown instead of the shiny copper red it was in my youth. Well, after the beet/carrot juice was applied, my hair has shown some very pretty and shiny red highlights. I think I shall continue with the beet/carrot juice and see what happens.

Mayonnaise and beer stink. I don’t care how beneficial they are, I am not putting mayonnaise and beer in my hair again.

Facial Skin Experiment #1

HUGE success! HUGE! I had NO idea that I would be able to clean my face with things like oatmeal, honey, and cream, and my skin would come out looking so clean and fresh and soft.

I’ve never bothered with facial care before, so I didn’t even know what to do. The first thing I had to ask the Oracle was how to take care of facial skin. Apparently, it is a three-step process with an additional step thrown in twice a week: 1) wash, 2) tone, 3) moisturize. Twice a week (for oily skin, less often for dry skin), you add “exfoliate” between wash and tone.

Okay, I know what to do now. Then I read about homemade recipes and what the ingredients do to your skin. I choose a regiment for oily skin, as that is my skin type. I don’t feel like writing down the recipes, but should anyone read this and want the recipes, they can email me.

For a wash, I used oats, honey, cream, and lavender essential oil. This is good for all skin types and is only as good as long as the cream is good. You look for the “sell by” date on the cream and that is when your concoction expires.

For an exfoliant, I went with honey, almonds, and yogurt. There was a similar recipe that called for honey, almonds, and lemon that is good for oily skin, but yogurt seemed like it would be much softer on the face. Both yogurt and lemon contain alpha-hydroxy acids which are good as a chemical exfoliants. The ground almonds add a scrubbing exfoliant as well. And the honey is an excellent hydrator.

I have ended up using two toners. Toner #1 is really only good for oily skin. Dry skinned folks shouldn’t use it. It is definitely the harshest product in the bunch. It contains green tea, rosemary, witch hazel, lavender essential oil, and lemon.

I follow up with toner #2 which restores the Ph balance to your skin: apple cider vinegar and distilled water.

Finally, for moisturizer, I very lightly use jojoba oil. Jojoba oil isn’t really an oil — it’s a wax that is liquid at room temperature. It closely resembles the skin’s own sebum, so the skin just soaks it up and it doesn’t clog the pores — something that is very important to someone with oily skin and large pores. The face is supposed to still be damp when you add the moisturizer because the moisturizer seals the water in, hydrating the skin.

Like I said, huge success! And fun as well. And everything smelled divine except for the vinegar.

Oh, one more quick thing: I read that since there are no preservatives in any of the homemade recipes that you are not supposed to use your fingers to scoop up the product. This may introduce bacteria into your concoctions. Use a spatula or something. And everything has a short shelf life.

Misc

I’m reading about homemade face, body, and room spritzers, perfumes, body soap, and lip glosses now. I just love that none of this stuff contains chemicals. That rocks! I hate chemicals. I think then I may venture into homemade cleaning products. I don’t hold out much hope for those though because the harsh chemicals make it easier to clean things like the soapscum off the bathtub. But we’ll see.

I also read about the toxins that paraffin candles (which are made from petroleum waste) release into the air. So now I have to use beeswax candles which burn clean but are more expensive.

It isn’t easy being a modern hippy chick. We read Lucky magazine by a lamp that is powered by wind and water energy, or mow our perfectly kept St Augustine suburbia lawn with an electric mower. I can’t be the only one. There must be a ton of modern hippy chicks out there. I’m not using cloth diapers though or breastfeeding a toddler. I’m only about 80% hippy.