Experiment time

[stellar_muddle]

What am I currently doing?

Hair
Daily: Unplait, run fingers through til the tangles come out. Replait or restrain in some manner. Easiest to sleep in plaited.
Weekly: Washed weekly - Initially lots of conditioner* on tail and up to neck, bit of shampoo on scalp. Rinse. Drown in apple cider vinegar (ACV) mix - ~1/2 c ACV, spoonful of honey in 500ml bottle which is filled with hot water in the shower and poured over. Slather in conditioner and leave for a while, and get on with washing rest of body. Run fingers through to detangle. Flinch slightly at size of hairballs. Rinse in cold water. Allow hair to dry naturally over next few hours - hair dryer produces PUFFBALL!!!.
Every couple of months: Henna. See LJ tags for details. Occasional self trim of ends when splits get annoying or ends get too dry. Occasional application of aloe vera to ends, but tend to forget.
Experiments:
Coconut oil on ends? Olive oil? Probably not crude...

Skin
Daily: Shower**. Currently washing with sorbelene soap-like stuff. Skin doesn't like this - ITCHY!!! No rash or anything, just ITCHY. Previous body wash (Purple stuff - ran out about Easter) didn't make itchy but isn't available any more. Current bodywash - itchy. Soap Z uses (basic stuff from Soap Shop in Belconnon Markets - smells nice and I like the oatmeal stuff :() - itches. Common ingredient in all but the purple stuff (of the ones which I have ingredient lists) is Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS - stuff what acts as a surfactant and produces suds in a bunch of things from soaps to toothpaste and dishwashing liquid) which apparently can be a skin irritant in some people - mind you, just about anything can be a skin irritant for someone, especially if your google search leads you to the kookier "chemical free" sites***. This leads to...
Experiment:
Ditch SLS. Two ways to do that - find an SLS free soap or ditch the soap and just rinse with water. I am a cheap arse lazy bastard, so have just started on the second option. I already have enough fun and expense with getting aluminium free deodorants, and have enough fun going over the conditioner ingredients. Why not cut the fuss? So, if I get really grubby or icky, go with whatever soap is around (fingers crossed far less frequent use will calm things down) or keep an eye out for the SLS free stuff for occasional use only, otherwise, rinse with water and use flannel etc to scrub down.

Lets see how this goes. Suggestions from those who tend water only (at least wrt hair)?

NB This doesn't giving up on soap for basic hand washing. They don't get itchy and not spreading bugs in food prep etc is a good idea.

(But, cause I am occasionally evil and everyone likes footnotes :)
* Conditioner - avoiding silicon, -cones and other varnishes used to glue spit ends down. Luckily this can generally be done by giving up on the expensive conditioners and going for the cheaparse budget stuff. I'll take $1-2 per L if I am going to be slathering it on.
** Some people use caffiene to wake up in the mornings, I use a shower... and occasional Milo.
*** My rant on chemical free was a couple months ago. Suffice to say, if you wish to be chemical free, I will happily put a sticker on your back saying "Vacuum head" and kick you out the airlock to join the rest... Edit: Though as such, I probably shouldn't snap "No it isn't, it has substance" at the shop assistant going through their soap ingredients and insisting they are chemical free. After their sign for "chemical free" henna, they are 2 down on the three strikes and I am not buying there again after telling them so stakes. Nice smelling soaps though. Will save their SLS free olive oil soap for emergency grubbiness.

Comments

[alpha-angel.livejournal.com]

Oh, you mean me?

Shampoos & conditioners with SLS (or equivalents) = itchy and pimply scalp which shortly equates to bloody and scabby - ew.
Body wash with SLS = itchy and pimply, just fracking horrible really. My legs can handle it fine, so I use it to shave my legs.

Soap - I buy mine at Common Sense Organics - they cost more but they smell nice and don't have SLS.

Vinegar rinses - Your skin is pretty good at looking after itself - it produces this nice layer of acidic oil to protect it from bacterial invasion, but then we decide that we're grubby and wash it off with mostly alkaline soap and detergents. So your skin, especially your scalp, freaks out and tries to compensate for having its protection stripped away by producing more, and pretty soon you're feeling like you have to wash your hair every day otherwise you look like a greaseball. Sooo... using a vinegar rinse after using soap helps maintain your acid mantle so you get less overproduction, and less bacterial infection (pimples). I often use a vinegar rinse instead of soap, especially on my face. The acid cuts grease pretty well on its own, and it makes my skin really soft.

I haven't used shampoo and conditioner on my hair in over a year, and have just been using water-only for 11 months?

Coconut oil rocks. Craig's been using mine more than I have, his hair just sucks it up. I added some cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg and cloves to mine, just for the smell.

Still need to cut down on the detergents in the laundry. I've been breaking out again, now that I'm back at the gym, and I think the sweat is giving me more contact with leftover detergent in my clothes