Day 9

So, new plan. Baking soda and ACV most days, when it gets really greasy (every 3-4 days) add a teensy squirt of Dr Bronner's liquid soap in with the baking soda. Cuts the layers of grease, but still leaves a nice layer of oil. Also, I noticed my hand soap had SLS in it too. Eep! I replaced it with Dr Bronner's too.

Things are going well. My decolotage and back are really clearing up, and my scalp has no zits at all for the first time I can remember! My face is a little tricky tho, the greasy parts are going well and clearing up, but my cheeks are really dry and getting angry. I had been using jojoba oil as my moisturizer, but it's tricky. It's really just runny thin oil, and it's hard to just measure out a teensy bit for my face. I switched to coconut oil (nice and solid at room temp, but liquid at skin temp), but now my dry parts are too dry. Tonight I melted 2 part coconut oil with one part jojoba in a little glass mug. Then I put the bug in an ice bath and hit it with the milk froather until it solided up like merangue. It's just right, fluffy but solid enough to dose properly, and nice and liquid on the skin! I'll use it tomorrow for the moisturizer and report how it works!

Day 5

Hair is looking ok this morning. End of the day yesterday it was slick to my scalp, so I boars bristle brushed it into submission. That way, it was at least oily all the way to the tips. This morning, I didn't rinse the baking soda, I just tossed the vinegar on top! It felt great! I got a handy little squirty bottle from the beauty supply store, and it's really nice to get the stuff right to my roots.

After blow dry this morning hair looks bouncy and nice, but I'm sure by the end of the day it will be slick again. I'm going out of town to see friends tonight, so I'll prolly wash it with a little shampoo this evening.

I'm shocked at how nice my decollatage is looking! I had breakouts on my chest and back, but all of a sudden they've dried up! If this keep up, I'll call it a success for SLS free!

Day 4

Still a little greasy, but I got my hands on a much better boar's hair brush, so that's nice. I was feeling pretty good about life until my boss tells us we are going to be on the news today! What?!?! They are doing something on small businesses in the area...damn. I really do not want my hair on the news today. Wish me luck.

Day 3!

I totally screwed up my hair today. Last night I put just the tiniest bit of coconut oil on my hair, and then again this morning after my shower, but before my blow dry. It ended up a little greasier than I would have liked, but not too bad.

The real problem was at lunch. I decided to swing by the beauty supply store and get me a boar's hair brush. Then I decided to try it out. Huge mistake, my hair was both plastered to my head with static, and also sticking straight out. I fixed it the best I could before getting back to the office, but as soon as I got home I showered that shit down. It's much better now.

Day 2

This morning my hair looked just like it did any other morning, not any more or less greasy. That's a plus! Last night I just kept wanting to jump back in the shower, but looking at my hair reminded me it's not that bad. Doubled the concentrations in my bottles and mixed with shower water on the fly. Much less cold that way, I think I'll keep it up.

Did honey and aspirin mask on greasy parts of face. When I rinsed that off I used the glycerin soap on my eye makeup, but then my whole face felt kind of oily, so I used it all over. When smoothing on the jojoba oil it struck me that I won't be able to to my "tinted moisturizer" trick anymore if I don't use moisturizer. Then I remembered that if this treatment works, I won't have all those nasty zits to cover up and I won't need to do the "tinted moisturizer" trick.

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Evening now. My hair looked completely normal after I blow dried this morning. Fluffy and shiny. I had lunch with my mom and she was shocked I'd been 2 days without a shampoo. Face feels nice, not too oily and not too dry.

Hair is a little static-y. I'm gonna do some research to see what might fix that.

Day One!

I was not able to get my honey and jojoba until tonight, so I started this morning with my Hair and Deodorant treatments.

The baking soda and ACV solutions were crazy cold and I really think as soon as I use up 4:1 the mixes I'll mix up new, more concentrated 2:1 solutions to mix with shower water in the morning. They will still be chilly, but not as bad...I hope.

After blow drying my hair, I was super surprised at how nice my hair looked. Normally, 24 hours after washing my hair it looks greasy and clumpy, but today it looked like I washed it normally. I brushed it out in the shower and I had no issues with tangles, frizzies, etc. Feels soft and smells nice.

Baking soda and corn starch pit dust felt really nice! Dry, smooth and cooling.

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It's the evening now, and I think things are still going well.

• Pits: Not scentless, but not stinky! There is, of course, no flowery perfume smell. But the scent that is there is faint and not offensive. I really had to get my nose in there to notice anything. I'll have to use my husband as a test-nose in the future.
• Hair: I was really worried about how my hair would look and got really self-conscious about it this afternoon. When I look in the mirror I can see that it looks fine, and when I touch it it feels fine, but I am just having a hard time getting past the mental block that I'm "dirty". Even my mouth and skin feels kind of nasty. It's completely psychosomatic, I showered and brushed my teeth just like usual this morning, but I still have a very strong feeling that I'm dirty. Weird.
• More hair: I never ever have broken hairs, but today I noticed two. I doubt this has to do with anything, since I noticed them both when I was absent-mindedly combing my fingers through my hair. I really stepped up the absent-minded finger-combing today, unconsciously checking my hair for grease, and probably breaking/pulling more hair than usual.
  

Here is a pic of me a few weeks ago, right after I got my hair streaked blue. One of the reasons I want to stop using shampoo is because those beautiful streaks washed out almost entirely in a week! I'd love to be able to keep them longer, they are still slightly visible in the right light, but it's not the same.

Here I am this evening. I am noticeably oilier than in the other pic (in which my hair had just been washed), but not significantly more oily than I usually am 12 hours after showering.

I am having a hard time getting my acne to show up on film so you will just have to take my word that I am as spotty as a 16 year old. My forehead, chinny-chin-chin, and under my jaw line under my ears are always breaking out. Gross, gross, gross.

So, to recap, after the first day I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.

What are you doing? Are you insane?

What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Am I some crunchy earth-mother angry at chemicals and corporations? No, I'm just a normal, lazy, slightly chubby, very oily 28 year old woman who found as she aged her skin has gotten more and more sensitive.

For Example:

• I can't use normal toothpaste, since I react to the SLS and get mouth ulcers.
• I can't get piercings anymore. What was once a sensitivity to cheap metal earrings has progressed to a complete inability to heal around piercings.
• I am allergic to the sun. When I go outside without covering or sunscreen I will get little hives that peel off and leave me with a little white spot in my tan. Awesome, right?
• Most deodorants/antiperspirants make my poor underarm skin break out too.
  
• Since changing from BC pills and the Nuva Ring to Mirena 3 years ago, I've broken out like a teenager. I've seen two derms and neither of them have been able to help.

I've made a few changes already:

• I've been using Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste for years, and narry an ulcer. My husband can't stand the stuff, so he uses Arm and Hammer.
  
• I've changed my makeup to entirely Mineral Makeup, except mascara and liquid liner
• I've found that the only thing that helps my acne is to use a mask of honey and ground aspirin, but it can also dry out the not-as-greasy areas of my face
• I've given up soaping up most of my skin, mostly just the sweaty/smelly parts, and my skin has gotten a lot less dry and itchy.

But I'm still an acne-ridden grease ball, so now I'm going extreme naked skin care:

• Hair care: Baking Soda wash and Apple Cider Vinegar rinse--NO SHAMPOO. I'm starting with a 1:4 ratio water to baking soda or ACV, pre-mixed in a bottle. I gotta tell you, they are a little cold to dump all over my head in the morning, so I may adjust my technique in the future.
• Skin Care: Simple unscented, no-dye glycerin soap for my eye makeup and a weak honey-aspirin mask for cleansing my face. Refined jojoba oil for moisturizer.
  
• Underarms: Cornstarch and Baking Soda in a 6:1 ratio delicately dusted.

I'm hoping that by using these techniques for my personal hygiene, I will cut down on the levels of grease my skin produces and reduce the acne. I am also hoping that the SLS in the shampoo and skin cleanser had some part in my acne and removing it will also help.

There are, of course, cautions with this extreme alternative to skin care. If the crunchy deodorant doesn't work, I'm gonna smell. The hair treatment often has a "transition" period in which I may look like a dirty, unwashed hippy. And, of course I may just break out and react even worse to these "natural" treatments than I am now.

But hell, I'm going on an adventure and taking you with me.