My Review of "Womanthology: Heroic"

Womanthology: Heroic by Bonnie Burton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I want to be really clear, besides just putting stars on it, what I think about this book. I think it's important to acknowledge that on the one hand it's really groundbreaking and beautiful: when have we ever seen woman comic writers gathered together in this way? When have we seen all the advice from professionals breaking down how to do myriad things so that you can make your own? And most of the stories, in my opinion, are also just PLAIN GOOD. I tore through this 300 page treasure trove in a day.  This is the five stars.

BUT, even as all these things are really great, the diversity in the contributors/representations just isn't there on a number of measures. There are really only a handful of contributors of color, and a few more representations of women of color in the stories themselves.  There are no queer relationships at evidence in the stories.  There is only ONE representation of a woman with disabilities. It is BEAUTIFUL and one of my favorite solo pieces, but... there's only one. And it's on the last page of the last section in the five main sections. Ouch. And while there are various gender presentations (ranging across normative femininity to agender, androgynous, femme and butch) in both contributors and represented characters, I saw no evidence of trans women in either contributor (which obviously might not be apparent) or, more importantly, in story subject.

I'm sure the usual reasons will be used to explain this: only so many people got in touch! And I'm sure that's TRUE. But here's the thing... This book got launched through Twitter. So what that means is that the call for submissions was dispersed from person to person. And if this is the demographics that came out, it means this is representative of the circles those passing the tweets on are a part of. I think it would have behooved the editors to do some (more?) outreach beyond their usual circles. OR at the very least, the people who build on this project MUST MUST MUST do that.  We've got to stop making excuses and find a way to change this problem that just keeps coming up and keeps coming up. And that's why I write this. Not to shit on this project, I really loved this book, but to really encourage people to look at it's strengths and it's weaknesses and to address the latter.

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Important Shit I Have Been Reading: Some Reflections on Creating Fragrance-Free Space

Also file under: "stuff I haven't talked about that much but should."

Read it all, the author talks about not just the challenges of this issue of accessibility and large gatherings (excerpted here) but also methods of implementation and the point of the whole thing.  If you don't know much about fragrance accessibility, this is a great post for learning a whole lot in a short amount of time.  It's something I've been working on for the past few years, negotiating and figuring out what things are most important to get fragrance free, and where/when fragrance can still be in my life.  It's a process, and it takes time, but I do think it's pretty important.

via Tape Flags and First Thoughts

The first challenge is that many people don't know that they are making a choice about fragrance. It is so ubiquitous in the products we use that it comes to seem a natural part of our environment; the proverbial water the fish are swimming in. Why would people who don't have sensitivities think about this on their own? You'd be astonished if they did. So it's necessary to, first, let people know that there's a problem.

This leads directly to the second challenge: a lot of people--perhaps most people hearing about this for the first time, if my experience is any indication--don't believe there's a problem even once they're told about it. I don't, in general, blame people for this. If they've never known anyone who was affected, they probably have no idea how bad it can be. I have sometimes been tempted to tap someone on the shoulder and say, "Excuse me, I need to leave now, but I wanted to let you know before I go that your decision to wear perfume to this event not only excludes me from it but means that I will probably be sick until next Thursday." But hardly anyone has ever received that shoulder tap, from me or anyone else. So they've never enountered a sufferer in the wild.

Even if they believe there's a problem, and that for some people it can be quite bad, they're inclined to assume that these folks are very rare. The first time I brought up the issue of fragrance at the summer gathering, many years ago, the person I spoke to assumed that I was the only one affected, and that the problem of one person was not sufficient to merit asking 1500 people to change their behavior. In other words, the problem might be real, but it's the job of the sufferers to manage it.

One friend told me that she met a woman at the gathering two years ago who was ranting about the FF policy. She thought it was just another pointless PC thing. My friend told her about me, about how hard gatherings had always been for me, and how much my experience had improved since the FF policy had started to get some traction. The woman was surprised and moved. She'd had no idea this actually mattered to anybody.

I also suspect that many of us progressive types suffer from issue fatigue. We've gotten on board with "Column A: The Essential Social Issues." However imperfectly, we've embraced racial justice; gender equality; the gay and lesbian rights movement; physical accessibility for people who use wheelchairs, scooters, canes, and walkers. In addition, each of us has probably also chosen to prioritize some or all of the "optional" social issues in Column B as well: factory farming, a struggling educational system, the dismantling of voter rights, conditions for workers in overseas factories, animal rights, over-reliance on petroleum fuels, global warming, the environment, the existence of bisexuals, the bottled water industry, invasive species, and whatever else I can't think of off the top of my head.

It can be very frustrating when you try to introduce the fragrance issue to the very people you think will be most open to it, and instead they resist. But I do think that resistance often comes from folks feeling like they have enough on their plate and they don't have the energy to take on one more thing.

I also wonder if some of the resistance might come from a desire not to seem even more like whacked-out troublemakers than we already do. I can imagine--and this is entirely my imagination, not anything I have any knowledge of--but I can imagine the person whose job it is to talk to universities or retreat centers about our needs ranting, "I already have to tell their cafeteria staff that they have to learn to cook vegan food, turn off the ice cream machines at Wednesday's lunch, and get us re-usable cups instead of the paper ones they usually have at the beverage station. And I need to tell the facilities people that we need some of the bathrooms re-designated from Male and Female to Gender-Neutral. Now I'm supposed to tell them, what? That we want them to switch out all the bathroom soap for fragrance-free, and that they can't use their usual cleaning products in the bedrooms? Well, I sure look forward to that conversation!"

Even once people decide they'd like to make some personal changes to help with this problem, there are challenges. They might not know where to find FF products for instance--though this has gotten much easier in recent years. I used to be able to use only Clinique makeup, for instance--$15 for a lipstick!--but a few years ago, when I needed to buy makeup for the first time in years for a choir concert, I was able to get cheap FF lipstick, blush, foundation, eyeshadow, and mascara at my corner Rite Aid.

But people who haven't looked before may not know that somewhere in that wall of shaving cream is one brand whose "extra sensitive" product is fragrance-free, or that Common Brand Of Lotion makes a FF moisturizer you just have to read the fine print to find. It can be disorienting and overwhelming.

People might also be concerned that FF products won't work as well as what they're used to. And that might indeed happen. Sometimes that's a trade-off people should just resign themselves to making (are your perfect hair and blinding-white gym socks really that important?), and sometimes it's a trade-off they can't make. I had some things to say about this previously in a post called The Hierarchy of Harm.

DIY: Treating Eczema Without a Doctor

As my husband and I are in the boat of: just barely paying our bills and still eating, and cannot afford health insurance, I have had to get creative over the years in treating health concerns that have come up.  I have become pretty excellent at internet research, keeping up a stock of herbal treatments, etc.  Sometimes, it was all for naught and we had to dig into our savings (when we had them), dig into our available credit lines, or borrow money from family to go to a doctor (or dentist) and get the treatment we needed.  We are both fortunate that such occurrences are rare as we are generally in good health and able-bodied.  That said, there have been a couple things that have really challenged me: UTIs and eczema.  In the case of UTIs I have more often than not treated them successfully at home and when that proved impossible their treatment is covered as "reproductive care" for people assigned female at birth under California's Family PACT and so I have been able to go to the doctor and get medication (I'm not talking about that here because it is a riskier thing to treat at home and my results have been spottier).

This latest bout of eczema, however, is not covered under such care, last I checked we made too much for Medi-Cal, and as it occurred around my eyes, specialist treatment was indicated.  Even accessing local resources such as UCB or UCSF would have taken a chunk of money we simply don't have.

Fortunately I was able to treat it at home by combining just about every frequent piece of treating at-home advice I found online.  Given how fucking awful eczema is, I thought I might share what finally worked for me here in the hopes that others might be able to treat theirs more quickly and with less hassle.  That said, I AM NOT A DOCTOR.  Your biochemistry might react differently to this regimen and you should always be tuned into just how severe your outbreak is and what you need to do for your own health and sanity.  It should also be noted that I had to treat this flare for about a month, with two periods of rapid improvement and a whole lot of stagnation in between them.  Caring for things like this at home is not necessarily easier, or better for you, it just is what it is and sometimes it's all we have.

OK, so here's what finally did it:

coconut oil (I used organic, virgin, unrefined coconut oil) (used liberally)
an herbal salve specially made for eczema and other similar skin conditions (used liberally)
another herbal salve, kind of used as an "all purpose" ointment in my house (used liberally)
hydrocortisone 1% (used 1x a day, sparingly) (steroids aren't great for long term use in general, and I would say you should ONLY use it when you're dealing with a temporary flare and not a chronic issue, you also have to be extremely careful with it around your eyes as steroids can cause major damage to your eye)
anti-histamine medication (taken as directed, I just got a generic type from Costco)
pro-biotics (taken as directed, I opted for dissolving wafers)
evening primrose oil (capsules) (taken as directed, you can find these wherever they sell nutritional/herbal supplements)

Rinsing the effected area with cool water and then applying the salves helped immensely, usually did this several times a day.  Cool compresses were a lifesaver when the outbreak started, I was about to rip my eyeballs out of their sockets until I started doing this; it was EXTREMELY effective in relieving the itching.  Unfortunately as soon as I took the compress off the itching was back, so I spent two days with a cool compress over my eyes (applying the salves several times a day as well).    After this rabid itching died down there was less of an itching but a major desire to scratch or rub the area anyway (and if you've ever had the kind I do, it feels so good and rewarding to scratch that you want to do it very, very badly), raised and thickened skin accompanied by very noticeable redness and swelling of the surrounding skin tissue.  It was in this state that I spent most of my time the past month.

Frustrated by this plateau in recovery, and a subsequent flare in itching and the spreading of the thickened/raised skin to my cheeks, I did more online research and this is when I added the evening primrose oil and coconut oil to the regimen - improvement from there was so marked that I have to recommend these two components very highly.  It could have been a coincidence, but I doubt it, adding them was a last-ditch effort to throw everything at the problem before a doctor.  It also might be one or the other of these, and I would say if you already have coconut oil in the house, try that before going out and purchasing evening primrose (or vice versa).  But after two days my skin is looking virtually normal again (though I can still feel the thick bumpiness, which is receding more slowly, and occasional itching) and I can tell that I'm on the way to long term recovery.

Until this major flare I was able to keep minor occurrences under control just with the two salves (particularly the one specifically for eczema) applied a couple times a day.  I will now be adding coconut oil to the combination.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful for someone else, this shit is AWFUL to deal with and finding a combination that works sure felt like a life-saver to me.  Prevention is of course good too, keeping your skin moisturized (moisturizing asap after washing skin is best), not taking boiling hot showers, and not scratching your skin excessively are all things to keep in mind.  In my experience scratching skin is the worst thing you can do; not the odd scratch here and there, but repeated scratching almost always produces a mini (or in this case major) flare for me.  I know too that there have been good results with oatmeal baths once a week if your eczema is the chronic and not flaring type.

Wishing you all the best of luck...

Update: A couple weeks later and everything is under control again.  I ran out of evening primrose oil capsules a few days ago and decided to see whether they were worth investing in again... OH YES.  My symptoms started coming back within a day, mildly, but there.  Bought some and started taking them, next day the symptoms were almost gone again.  You never know how herbal medicines will effect your body, but for me apparently, this is a HUGE help; so I would definitely recommend trying it.

Further update: A month from the original post and things continue to be basically under control, with minor flare ups dealt with easily and effectively with topical treatments and continued evening primrose oil use.  I discontinued using antihistamines about a week ago because after prolonged use they were making me really, really drowsy, all the time.  One further thing I have learned about using evening primrose oil is that it's been pretty important to take the pills regularly, 1000mg, three times a day.  When I have taken it sporadically I have gotten flare ups, but when I take it regularly, so that there is some in my system all day long (trying to space dosages fairly evenly, kinda like a birth control pill but more daily doses), I stay flare-free.

Further update: 6 weeks from the original post and my skin is back to normal.  I'm still taking evening primrose oil twice a day and applying the eczema salve on my eyelids at bed time, but that's it!  I did have a possibly related ailment pop up at the corners of my mouth - little cuts, mostly on one side, accompanied at first by skin irritation around them.  This was INCREDIBLY annoying, made it difficult to talk or eat as opening my mouth was painful (I had something similar happen at the corners of my eyes when my eczema outbreak was at it's worst) but I solved this with lots of my most basic lip balm constantly, my goes-on-everything salve and Neosporin twice a day.  I tried a few other things, but they didn't help much.  A couple days of this regime and the little cuts cleared up and haven't come back.

Further update: Four months later and I had another attack.  After discussing with the hubs we wondered if it might not be a mild pet allergy that has developed over the years or is being aggravated by something else, since it seemed to reoccur after our boycat had been laying against my face post-cat-bath.  On this suspicion I went out and got a small box of Claritin, since that is what an old roommate used to take effectively for her pet allergies.  I saw an immediate positive result, by the end of the day the itching had reduced significantly.  After four days the itching and redness and swelling of skin were all gone.  After two days NOT taking it, they came back.  And now that I've been on it again for two days, it's almost gone again.  I think we may have a winner!  And yes, on return I got generic and it's working fine.

More updating:  Three weeks into this treatment, it's confirmed, this type of antihistamine definitely works.  It works best in conjunction with Evening Primrose Oil.  Any time I stop taking either one for any length of time the symptoms start coming back.  I'm going to keep trying to stop taking the OTC antihistamine though, and only take it when I see symptoms start, as I don't want to be taking it just all the time, preferably.  But thank GOODNESS I finally figured this shit out and have a working attack plan!

Yet another update: almost a year later now and the main thing I have found is that these flares seem to be most related to suppressed stress.  The more I work on that, the fewer and milder they are.  So take note y'all.  If you are ignoring things that are stressing you out, you might want to look to that before anything else.

(I'm the one that's) Cool

If you haven't seen the new music video from the cast of The Guild and writers Jed Whedon/Felicia Day and you too are a nerd/geek then you MUST see it:

Now I LOVED "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" but this video is fucking amazing.  I could be wrong too but I swear it looks like Sandeep's got real drumming chops.  Nice.

So take a moment for something fun today and watch this.

Detailed Schedule for #OccupyOakland Events This Weekend

Occupy Oakland Weekend of Action Detailed Schedule


Redistributed with permission, please forward an post widely.

Oakland Rise Up Festival!


Occupy Oakland will be holding a weekend long festival starting this Saturday, January 28 with the takeover of an empty building where it will host workshops, panels, a film festival, live music, assemblies and more. The Oakland Rise Up Festival runs through Sunday night and features over 50 speakers and performers including former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown, anarchist anthropologist and member of Occupy Wall Street David Graeber, feminist, revolutionary & historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and many more. Saturday has been designated the Move-In day and activities will focus around settling into the building and celebrating Occupy Oakland. Sunday is organized as the Conference Day and a wide range of panels, presentations and workshops are scheduled. Music and cultural events in the occupied building are planned throughout the weekend. Below is a detailed schedule of the Festival's planned events. The Festival also encourages self-organized discussions, workshops and events and will help to publicize additions to this schedule to the best of our abilities. 

Look for the festival table during the weekend & occupyoaklandmoveinday.org for the latest updates!

"Letter to the Mayor, Oakland Police Department and City Council on Occupy Oakland's Move-in Day - Jan 28!"

Released recently at Occupy Oakland Move-In Day:

Dear Mayor Jean Quan, Oakland Police Department, and Oakland City Council,

As you probably know, Occupy Oakland is planning the occupation of a building on January 28th that will serve as a social center, convergence center, headquarters, free kitchen, and place of housing for Occupy Oakland. Like so many other people, Occupy Oakland is homeless while buildings remain vacant and unused. For Occupy this is in large part because of yourselves, having evicted us twice from public space that was rightfully ours. For others it is because of the housing bubble, predatory lending, the perpetual crises of capitalism, and far reaching histories of imperialism and systemic violence.

Our families, friends, and communities built the buildings that sit empty in post-industrial Oakland. Now these buildings outnumber the homeless and represent the theft of our collective labor as the class of the unpropertied and dispossessed. Allowing this building to remain vacant while so many are in need is injurious theft, injustice; its extralegal occupancy is not.

When Occupy Oakland was first evicted on October 25, we organized a General Strike on November 2nd with only a week to plan. November 2nd proved our strength and relevancy. Conservative estimates said twenty thousand took the streets, but for those of us who marched on the ports it could have been a hundred thousand. November 2nd was an inspiration for the Occupy Movement and public condemnation of your violent repression.

Eventually we reoccupied Oscar Grant Plaza only to suffer a second violent eviction on November 14th. At this time there was a national crackdown on the Occupy movement as evictions were happening in Boston, New York City, Atlanta, Portland OR and elsewhere. It was revealed that you, Jean Quan, had been coordinating with federal agents how to best repress dissent. In response Occupy Oakland was the impetus for a West Coast Port Shut Down, in solidarity with Longview ILWU workers whose union is under attack by EGT. The action escalated to a national and then international action as more occupations signed on. In Oakland alone the shutdown cost some $8.7 million dollars in lost revenue and proved that when civic and economic institutions do not serve us, we can shut them down.

Since the beginning of the Occupy Movement when you have exacted violent repression on us we have proven that we are more powerful and diffuse than you. If you try to evict us again we will make your lives more miserable than you make ours.

This may be in one or more of the following forms:

-Blockading the airport indefinitely

-Occupying City Hall indefinitely

-Shutting down the Oakland ports

-Calling on anonymous for solidarity

It will be in our mutual interest if you respect our occupation by recognizing our residency and imminent domain. We are sure that we all look forward to the needs of Oakland’s people finally being met.

Don’t fuck with the Oakland Commune.

Signed,


Occupy Oakland Move-In Assembly

While I personally wouldn't have gone with the "Don't fuck with the Oakland Commune" line (despite the fact that it made me smile) because I think it undermines the professional tone of the rest of the letter (and this seems like a good moment/medium to speak the language of professionalism to me) I am in agreement both with the content and sentiment of this letter and the upcoming action, so, here it is re-posted in my space!

The move-in begins Jan 28. Rally at noon in Oscar Grant Plaza (otherwise known as Frank Ogawa Plaza), march to the as-of-now undisclosed building at 1pm. Join us if you can!

Beautiful Poster for General Strike in Oakland

Via DignidadRebelde:

To learn more about the Oakland General Strike please click here!

Review: Cometbus #54 - In China With Green Day

In China With Green Day by Aaron Cometbus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unlike anything about Green Day I can remember reading before.

Though there were times where I wanted to tell the author "wait, go back, I want to hear about that other thing!" he also managed to really take me with him on a sometimes nostalgic, sometimes frustrated, emotional journey.

Without getting into too much of spoiler territory I will just say that by chapter 20 I had a lump in my throat.

"Seeing them up close made me forget the cultural behemoth that they had become. Seeing them from afar made it easy to forget that they were human too." This, I think, is a quote that will stand out for me as I think about this zine later - and one which gives you a hint of what sort of story Aaron Cometbus ends up telling in its pages.

If you love Green Day... Not if you thinks they are ok, but if you really love them. And especially if you have been through a lot with them as a fan, I could not more highly recommend this to you. I am so happy to have read it.

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Wizard Rock: "Renting" a Room In J. K. Rowling's Hogwarts

This semester I wrote three big research papers.  This is one of them.  You got a bit of a preview last month but here is the final product.  It's a large post so I am putting in a cut!

Wizard Rock (or “wrock”) is a largely unknown genre dedicated to the creation of music based upon J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series.  In this essay I argue that wrock is a unique metaculture which operates as a form of “participatory/productive consumption” (Oakes).  However, while Harry Potter has been of great interest for some years now, very little has been written about Wizard Rock in popular culture, and nothing in the academic realm.  Thus, I am faced with the reality that my readers will most likely have no previous knowledge of my topic, making discussion difficult without some little amount of background and elucidation of form and content.  In addition, as noted by Rebekah Farrugia, there is a troubling pattern in music cultures of overlooking the active participation of women, which repeats itself within wrock (336).  I wish to intervene in that process here.  It is for these reasons that I will begin this essay with a brief definition of wrock and history of the formation of the Wizard Rock community.

In general, a wrock song will be written about events or characters from the Harry Potter universe, most often from the perspective of a character the book-reading audience is already familiar with.  It is the nature of the content that defines a song as Wizard Rock, rather than a specific “sound” to the music in question.  This construction of the genre is what leads me to name this a form of “productive/participatory consumption,” a term originally coined by Jason Oakes to describe tribute events.  Also called “participatory literacy” by Ernie Bond and Nancy Michelson in reference to fan fiction (119), the essence of these concepts is the idea that “consumers” of culture also sometimes carve out their own spaces within it, or “co-author” it.  This process will be illustrated more fully later in this essay. This organization of the genre means one can find any “sound” in wrock; from pop, trance and “wreggae,” to folk, metal and hip hop.

Tracing the history of wrock chronologically[1] the genre was born with “Ode to Harry” by the Switchblade Kittens (Drama) which was released in 2000.  Switchblade Kittens would perform this song in an alternate onstage wrock incarnation called “The Weird Sisters.”  They made this and other early forays into what would become Wizard Rock available to their diehard fans through the internet (Drama).[2]  Unfortunately, Switchblade Kittens were never able to release an album of their wrock songs because the major record label which housed them could not be convinced of its market potential and they were unable contractually to release anything independently (Drama). 

Two years after the release of “Ode to Harry,” in 2002, Harry and the Potters began to tour with a self-titled, independently produced debut album; and we officially have our first wrock band.  Other newly emerging wrock bands were predominantly friends of the members of Harry and the Potters,[3] but a general snowball effect quickly emerged (Wizrocklopedia).  In all “over 20 [bands] were created before the end of the year” (Wizrocklopedia), mostly in a similar “indie” or “garage” rock style (in contrast with the “L.A. pop sensibility” of the Switchblade Kittens (Drama)).  Currently, there are over five hundred Wizard rock bands, representing almost every mainstream genre “sound,” and large annual Wizard Rock themed events such as “Wrockstock.”[4]

Chronicles of New Bath Stuff Part 2

So since last updated I have received everything I ordered!  Still on it's way is something I WON off of Facebook, no joke (I saw a friend sign up for this giveaway so I decided to as well and won, how rare! it's for rather expensive facial serum and eye cream which I added a body butter to).

Everything has been going just fine with the exception of today when I woke up I had some flakiness along the front of my hair.  This is where 1) that white clay soap met my hair line a bit and 2) where I directly poured the vinegar rinse last time.  I think one or both of these is to blame, but looking up the info about vinegar rinse, it's supposed to HELP flakiness, though it's possible I'm over using it?  I think more likely is the white clay soap, because my forehead seemed really dry too.  Along my cheeks and throat the soap seems great but I think my forehead gets more dry than anything else so I should keep it away from there.

Anyway, in an effort to see if I can get rid of the flakes I washed my hair again today and then will leave it alone for three days I think.  Today I didn't use any of my bars or shampoos either, but opted for something I discovered in my research: baking soda as shampoo.  I made a paste of it and worked it into my hair, giving myself a good scalp massage.  (If the flakes are from the buildup of the Pantene I used to use coming up or something, this should help a lot.)  Then I rinsed thoroughly and put in my good hair mask which I got while still working at BBW (Bath and Body Works) and use every once in a while, rinsed thoroughly again and put in the vinegar rinse (this time with rosemary and thyme essential oil and I didn't put it on slowly but poured the whole thing in my hair in one go and on a different spot than before, further back on my head).  Hair's still quite damp now but on first glance it looks pretty good, with still a tiny bit of irritation at the front-most part of my hair line but seemingly less than before.

In other news, the husband really loves his shampoo bar, which he thinks has been helping HIS flaky scalp, which is much worse than mine.  And I'm undecided on the liquid shampoo and conditioner we got but the body wash is -wonderful-.  It makes me wonder if I should use his shampoo bar instead, but I don't think that's what's causing the flakes...  More time is necessary to decide.

On the body front this lotion bar I got is magic.  I have super dry skin that's hard to make smooth (always lots of little bumps), especially my arms, but this stuff does it and it's way less greasy than say, the 100% shea butter I used to sometimes use.  Also all the soaps I got I more or less really like (skin's favorite is this one), they all smell really nice and don't dry out my skin much.  The husband really likes them too, especially the orange/cinnamon/clove one (the third one we got is this one which is maybe a little better than the orange/clove one in how much my skin likes it, and smells great so all well worth using).  He has also tried to steal the new lip balm more than once, which I can understand cuz it's really good.

The herbal salve I got (see last post) is officially amazing.  I'm using it on the blister my three mile walk last week gave me, as well as on I guess what are two corns that were on one of my big toes and it's helping both a LOT.  Been using the eczema salve on a rough patch of skin by one of my ankles; ALSO helpful.  So, just overall I've been pretty impressed with everything we got.  So if anyone stays over, you have good stuff to try in our shower, lol!

Part 3 will be able the face stuff and whipped body butter that hasn't come yet as well as a hair update.

Chronicles of New Bath Stuff Part 1

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.