May 22, 2009

hair & skin

Still so far, so good. You get great shine with the bicarb/ACV method so my serums sit lonely and neglected in the bathroom cupboard. Ditto for the bodifying products and irritating attempts to put body into the roots such as the old 'comb-teasing'.

A few weeks back I even did a coffee rinse for my brown hair. Brendan saw me, and said I should still be back living in my ramshackle cottage in the country. I was raking out used coffee grinds from our machine for this. I won't do it again though as it didn't leave it in as good a condition. I have yet to do a beer rinse in place of the ACV but will report if and when I do this.

I'm also using my own facial cleanser now, this formula made from glycerine, rosehip oil and tea tree oil (a great antifungal/antibacterial). I can't recall if I added anything else, so will have to start again when I make the next batch. I basically looked at the ingredients in my last cleaner (Trilogy) and read a bit and came up with this. And it actually seems to make my skin look better than before.

But my daily drink of HACV in water could be doing that too (1T:1C). I highly recommend this and used to do it all the time when I was younger (along with taking brewers yeast and lecithin and countless other potions and tablets) but forgot until a friend started doing it. It really does seem to purify and clear my skin.

I have also yet to do any natural hair masks, but am keen to try banana and also avocado. And perhaps a hot oil treatment.

May 6, 2009

one month progress update

One month into the bicarb experiment, wowee. All is still going well (i.e. no going back), though the challenge the past week or two has been working out a suitable formula from this point on, i.e. one that washes my hair but doesn't dry out my ends. I went with the paste method this morning so I could just concentrate washing the target areas (crown, temples, nape) without exposing the ends to a wash that wasn't necessary. Then I finished with a more concentrated HACV rinse. I still don't know if this is the perfect formula for me, but will just play around with the quantities each wash until I find one most suitable.

Lucy also had her second bicarb wash, and it's silky and thick and stays cleaner for much longer. That has to be a great thing, as Lucy doesn't really care for her hair being washed. I mean, the water being dumped on her head, the random eye-stinging from roving suds; enough to make any toddler run for Dirty-Hair Hill. The bicarb method is quick to do, and as it doesn't lather I think it's a bit kinder on the eyes.

One gripe I do have, and I don't know if it's common or not (do you?) is after the HAVC rinse, my shoulders (where the rinse has run on to) itch like mad and I come out in tiny bumps. This subsides pretty quickly, but I don't know if I'm having a common or allergic reaction, or maybe the pH of the HACV is different to my skin. Or maybe the my formula is too strong in general.

I might actually try a beer rinse next wash. When Brendan heard this I got the feeling from the look in is eyes that I wouldn't be touching his beer. 'Go buy some cheap beer...' I heard him mutter.

My hair prior to my bedtime brush (and prior to a wash)

Hair post brush



I read you are supposed to brush your hair morning and night to help distribute the natural oils down the hair shaft. I have been wanting to buy a Mason Pearson brush for as long as I can remember. Maybe now is the time.