About My Hair

I haven’t shampooed my hair since last June.

Yup, you read that correctly. I stopped using shampoo on my hair at the beginning of the summer and my hair has never been happier. Instead I use a baking soda and water rinse followed by an apple cider vinegar and water rinse and my hair comes out looking and feeling softer and cleaner that it has since I hit puberty. Once my hair has dried, this method leaves no sent on my hair even with the vinegar. I used to have a lot of trouble styling or even brushing through my hair when it was wet- ending up ripping out a lot of hair if I didn’t do it very, very carefully. Now, the brush goes through my wet hair easily and my hair has more volume because more strands stay attached to my head instead of in my hairbrush. Even more importantly, my scalp, which used to get dry, scaly and itchy once a month, is healthier than ever, too. Last but not least, this method is super cheap- baking soda and vinegar enough for about 3 months cost about $5-7, making it as cheap or cheaper than bargain shampoos and conditioners (which I don’t even need with this method).

This way of cleaning hair is comically named the “No-Poo Method”.

As a child of the 70′s I was surprised to learn that use of shampoo more often than a couple of times a year was really a very recent invention of the soap industry- big business trying to sell more product by convincing us that we were “doing it wrong” if we didn’t do it the way big business said way the right way. (Sounds so familiar.)

The thing that lead me to No-Poo was one of the things we have been trying to do as a family for 20 years- reduce the number of chemicals we expose ourselves to on a daily basis. I began reading and hearing about health concerns linked to the chemical sodium laurel sulfate and, wondered about alternatives. We as a family began using products that were sls free a few years ago because, despite the fact that the jury is still out about how dangerous sls is, if it is at all, we felt it was better safe than sorry. But, even if sls was proved to be completely harmless tomorrow, I still wouldn’t go back to shampoo. My hair and scalp feel way too good using the No-Poo Method.

So, my point is- if you have any concerns about sodium laurel sulfate or find that shampoos dry out your hair and scalp even when you use a conditioner, consider dumping the shampoo and using this more gentle and natural way of getting your hair clean.

More info here and here.

Along the Red Fence (Jan. 4, 2011)

January 4, 2011

I wanted to draw attention to one of the things that inspired this little project:

On the right half of this section of the fence there is a set of sliver-brown marks that are all that remains of the very great deal of ivy that once had grown up and over the side of the fence from one yard into the other. It is a strangely pretty reminder of the cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth that we humans can only control a teeny amount and only for a tiny fraction of time. One day, the fence will be gone and, chances are, the ivy- some ivy, maybe a great, great granddaughter of the selfsame plant who left the patterning I so admire, will remain.

And, if you don’t believe that, just take a look at the sprig of ivy poking out from the front of the rail road ties below the fence: she’s already plotting her return.

Along the Red Fence (Jan. 3, 2011)

January 3, 2011

It was sunny today with much of the snow finally melting away. However the fence shades the ground on this side during the afternoon and the same area of earth is leeward of a bit of hill that breaks the wind, so there is still snow in today’s picture.

As you can now see, the red fence sits atop a retaining wall constructed of old railroad ties. We don’t have any evidence that they once served a different purpose in a different local, such as actually having trains run over them, but considering the house is at least 86 years old, it would be nice to find out that they did. We are pretty big fans of recycling around here.

Along the Red Fence (Jan. 2, 2011)

January 2, 2011

When I walked out this morning the snow was melting so fast that there was fog rising up from the dirty drifts that were still remaining. Despite the settings and time of day being almost the same (9:50 a.m. today), the fog was thick enough to make this shot turn out fuzzier than yesterday’s.

Look it’s science –> Also, I find it kind of interesting that you can see the line of where the horizontal boards are on the other side by where the fence is wet on this side. An illustration of the effect density has on the rate of evaporation in a real world environment.

New Photo Project: Along the Red Fence

So, I’ve been thinking for a while about doing a sort of a photo-study featuring the wilds of my front yard and the great beauty that can be found tucked into a small space suburban New Jersey. I have chosen to document the daily changes in one small stretch of the fence between our yard and our closest neighbors. I will be attempting to take a picture of the same spot at the same time each day and using the same camera and settings.

January 1, 2011

The year’s first picture shows the remnants of the day after Christmas storm we had here in ol’ N.J., and the small evergreens, along with the snow against the red of the fence, make it seem like the swiftly waning holidays might just never end. However this photograph was taken at about 9:30 a.m. and the temperature was already rising. It stayed well above freezing for the rest of the day, thereby melting the snow and putting the kybosh on the illusion that the brightest days of the winter will be staying around all that much longer.

My 2011 Anti-Resolutions

For Fiction Friday at Write Anything:

 I will not whine about how I want to go vegan only to be lured back to the slightly dimmer side of vegetarianism by the siren call of fried eggs, various cheeses, and desserts with real whipped cream on top. I will just quietly repeat to myself that being vegan is too hard until even the meat eaters start trying to reassure me that I can do it if I really try.
 I will not text random info-bites to my Dear Daughter during school hours in order to see if she remembered to turn her phone off before she went to class. I will also not try to time it for when she has her least favorite teacher in order to maximize her punishment if she has indeed made that simple mistake that I make all the time. (Do as I say…)
 I will not lecture the kids just to hear them groan about how they already know why the sky is blue, the complete unabridged history of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and how genetics works. I will also refrain from goading the Little Neighbor Girl into arguing with me about the meanings of words used in anime cartoons that she watches just so I can tell her not to shout in the car.
 I will not teach the cats to say my Dear Hubby’s name so that he feels obligated to be the one who always feeds them and changes their litter and takes them to the vet when they are all borked up and full of woe.
 I will not make broccoli just to see my Dear Son writhe on the kitchen floor in anticipatory agony when he has sweetly asked for a well deserved cookie. Later, I will not eat cookies in from of him when I have punished him for throwing a tantrum by taking away both cookies and broccoli.
 I will not I will not buy my Bug-eyed Little Boston Terrier a hat and booties to go with his jacket and sweaters. He is not so cold that he doesn’t want to retain that last shred of his dignity.
 I will not teach my kids any more demeaning terms for people who have the very unfortunate habit of eating the carcasses of dead animals is if it were something that a rational human being would do on a regular basis. They already know enough of them and it would be a waste of precious time and resources.
 I will not assume that everyone who is irresponsible either fiscally, ecologically or socially must be a Republican. Democrats make mistakes sometimes, too (like trusting Republicans).
 I will not spend any more time ranting about Billy Caxton, who is really the worst thing ever to happen to the English language and directly responsible for my atrocious spelling grades in all years of school. I will also not utter the words “Great Vowel Shift” unless absolutely necessary.
 I will not write a tenth anti-resolution. (Daggnabit! I broke this one already.)

And the Artistic Encouragment from My Parents Never Ends (that’s a good thing)

So, as I wrote a few weeks back, I’ve been lucky to have grown up in a family that strongly encourages artistic endeavors and, despite the fact that I’ve been a grown up for a couple of decades now, I’m still getting some new artsy experiences encouraged by my parents:

We went to Sunday Brunch a few days ago and my dad asked both Dear Hubby and I to help him out by letting him record us singing his newest song so he could play with the new super snazzy professional looking mic that he recently got. He was doing this 5 part harmony thing and he had already gotten one of my sisters, one of my brothers, and my sister’s husband to sing two parts each. Dear Hubby sung tenor and bass and I sung soprano and alto. It was a quick, fun new experience and I kind of hope that we get to do it again sometime soon.

On the Arts

So lately I’ve been thinking about the Arts. You know, drawing, painting, sculpting, collage, photography, dance, music, theater, film, poetry, fiction: all those creative things that we all used to do or wished we could do when we were children, but don’t always remember to pursue as we become adults with adult responsibilities and less and less time that feels like it is ours to use as we wish.

I’ve come to realize that the times in my life when I have been the most artistic are the times in my life when I have been the most happy. And, those times in my life when I have let art and creativity fall away under the pressure of adult responsibilities have been the times when my come and go depression has come and stayed a while, sometimes a long while.

Lost Arts of Common Living- What your great-grandparents knew that you don’t.

So mostly, time marching on is helpful- we learn more about how the world works and more about how we as humans work, and our lives get better. But lately, what seems like a very large amount of the advances made in science and industry have begun to have the opposite effect. Instead of learning how to do things better, we are learning how to have something else- some machine or some process- do it for us and forgetting how to do it ourselves. This lament for ways past is not a new one- every generation looks to the past as a more innocent or purer time. The good old days have been thirty to fifty years earlier for as far back as humans go, but this lament- my lament- is not so much a look at how much better the past was as a look at what we are losing. Go back two generations and nearly every grown woman knew how to cook a decent meal from scratch, go back a few more generations and that included making even those staples that we as modern consumers would never consider making ourselves like butter and bread and jams and pickles- unless we were doing it as a sort of a hobby. The same goes for skills every grown man had- how to construct and repair furniture, care for cars or horses and other essential skills.

Wine Log: Lushness

Been writing- really I have, just not stuff I’m a gonna share here- too personal/incriminating or something. Instead here, have a wine log I’ve begun: Lushness. It’s mostly for my own entertainment because I don’t know wines, but I know what I like or something along those lines. Why yes, I did have glass today, why do you ask?