One of the first things I started doing when I began using natural beauty products was washing my face with honey. I started using honey and baking soda because the baking soda works a perfect scrub. Now I only add the baking soda once a week. I’ve found it best to apply the honey to a dry face, massage honey onto face with fingertips, let sit for a few minutes then rinse away.
I only use the honey once a day, usually at night or whenever I take my shower. In the morning I just rinse my face with water.
To moisturize, I use extra virgin olive oil. I have mainly been applying this to dry spots and scarring from acne (supposed to help reduce scar appearence).
So far, my face has really evened out. Not too dry or too oily. And it feels softer than ever. Even when I just wash my face off with water in the morning it feels clean and fresh all day.
After about a week of doing the baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair - everything going nicely and dandruff and itch free. Then I went away from home for the day/night. I didn’t want to gross the people out that I was staying with by using my ACV and stinking up the bathroom so I opted to use the shampoo/conditioner provided by the hotel. The list of ingredients on the back was short so I figured it wouldn’t hurt…
Boy was I wrong. (Probably didn’t help that I followed up with hairspray, I haven’t been using many styling products either.) The whole next day my head itched something fierce. I tried my best not to touch my head because I was determined not to let that dandruff back into my life. As soon as I got home I mixed up my batches of BS & ACV, hopped in the shower and sprayed away all over my hair. Still my head was itchy in the shower but spraying the ACV seemed to bring a little relief.
Today my head isn’t itching as much but I think I have learned to stick to the BS & ACV from now on. When I go away someplace I might just try to substitute the ACV for lemons. I read that would work as conditioner as well.
Ok, so this blog was once about me trying to minimize things in my life. And I guess it still is in a way. But I deleted all the old posts to start fresh.
I will tell you how this all started:
Dandruff. I was getting extremely bad dandruff. I used to use Head and Shoulders in the winter because I would get dandruff, but once this winter ended I decided that I am sure whatever chemical they were putting in the shampoo wasn’t good for me that I wouldn’t use it again. But then about a week ago I was getting horrible dandruff and I needed to find a way to get rid of it.
This led to the night I washed my hair with a lemon. Just squeezing a fresh lemon throughout my hair. But while researching the dandruff problem I came across going “poo-less”, which is to no longer use shampoo. After an amount of time our hair will naturally take care of itself and look even better than when using shampoo.
In the end I came up with a new routine I would try to follow. In place of shampoo, I mix 1 cup of warm water with 1 Tablespoon of baking soda. Put that into a spray bottle. Spray throughout hair and work through with my fingers. Rinse. In place of conditioner, I mix 1 cup of warm water with 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Same process as before.
I have been doing this for a week. I have also used lemon in the dandruff spots first, but I will probably stop that soon. The dandruff has almost gone away completely. And my hair has been almost as close to it was when using regular shampoo and conditioner in the way of texture. I have not experienced extremely greasy hair.
The apple cider vinegar might scare you off at first. And it does smell while using it and while your hair is drying. But once hair is dry, smell goes away. I might try experimenting with adding essential oils to it to make it smell nicer, but it hasn’t really bothered me so far.
I am researching and thinking about how simple, healthy, and cost-effective it is to get rid of products I use on my body and in my home and replace them with natural ingredients. There are so many things I want to change. I am going to try and do them one at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed. I hope I can stick with it and stick with keeping this updated!
