So... In honor of my just past birthday (and the fact that our shampoo and soap bottles were about to start farting...) I got a bunch of new bath stuff off of Etsy! And this has been something that has taken up quite a bit of my time lately, switching entirely (not for the first time, but hopefully the last time) to natural (aka not synthetic) body care products. This is part of the same process that has been going on for at least 8 years, such as stopping shaving, learning how to use herbs instead of OTC or prescriptions, etc (better for me and better for the environment, win/win)...
And I plan to chronicle my thoughts about these in pursuit of having a good idea of how I like these! And I share them here because I think perhaps maybe this will be useful or it will create a discussion with others for whom this is a shared interest.
So, anyway I wrote what follows when I got the first packages... One is from a seller who does botanical salves and stuff for lots of different medicinal needs, and the other from a lady who does soaps, perfumes and shampoo bars, etc. She also does a "for everything" herbal salve (burns, scrapes, cuts, stings, rashes, etc.) and I had to get rid of the other one I had because the oils in the one I had went rancid, so I'm trying hers instead! Atm I have it on the remnants of a burn I got splashing boiling water/oil onto my stomach! (don't ask)
Anyway, ok, so I just took a shower and tried one of the shampoo bars I got from her, the beer and egg bar. It's, a little weird! Rinsing my hair out, I felt like there was a lot of STUFF left behind. Like, have you ever used straight up shea butter? You know that coating it leaves on your hands while it soaks in? Like that, it felt exactly like that. Which, she has shea butter in the bar (I think) so you know that might make sense (double checked, no, no shea in this bar, but there is cocoa and mango butters so that's probably it). But still, it was a little weird and will take getting used to. Thankfully she did warn that it would be different from using other shampoos so I wasn't freaking out.
Among other things she also advises using a vinegar rinse every 3 or 4 times you shampoo (I'm guessing these have more buildup than other shampoos?) to keep your hair healthy. She gave instructions on how that works too but I did a bit of Googling for myself and ended up with an apple cider vinegar rinse with warm water and two drops of rosemary essential oil and one of patchouli essential oil. Rosemary is apparently good for dark hair and patchouli is good for dandruff and dry scalp (also they both smell good). Read the link if you want to know why vinegar is good for your hair, but apparently it really is and I should have been doing this already!
I also tried one of her body soaps and one of her face soaps (samples she gave me) the face soap I really like, it was a white clay soap (but I didn't FEEL any clay bits) and my face feels really soft now. The body soap was ok, I wasn't super crazy about the smell and it did that thing so many bar soaps do where it left my skin "squeaky" which I find weird. However, the lather did feel really creamy and my skin didn't feel dry when I got out of the shower so that's good.
We'll see what I think of this shampoo when my hair dries (oh and you will notice no conditioner needed, apparently this is also a benefit of a vinegar rinse and this kind of shampoo; interesting).
In other news, I bought an herb plant at Trader Joe's! It was a little pot with oregano, sage and spearmint in it, which our neighbor helped me transfer into a bigger pot, which the plants all seemed like quite a bit. And I've had them about two weeks and they're not dead yet! It's like magic!
*LATER THAT DAY*
When my hair came out of the towel, still damp as it always is cuz I have a ton of it, it was easy to comb through and easily put up or, as I decided to go with it, in two braids. It does feel soft and it does look shiny, let's see if this keeps up!
Oh also my hair smells faintly of rosemary (and fainter still of patchouli) and at no time smelled like vinegar, so, that's a win.
