Going no poo

I have been conducting an experiment the past week about goind "no poo", or using no shampoo. I MUST wash my hair every night if I intend to be presentable the next day. I might can limp through if I put cornstarch on my hairbrush, but really I need to wash my hair.

However, it is firmly winter and my hair was exceedingly dry at the ends to where I was getting split ends. That almost never happens to me, so I knew the weather was taking its toll.

There was a bit of a spiritual quandry at this realization as I had just been blessed with a check from my mother. I WANTED to spend it on hair cuts and perms with Precious, but, long story short, I realized that it was better if I did not spend it on that. Instead I put it to meat to be used for the family.

However, that still left me with raggedy hair. So I had my 12 yr old cut it. Yep. I had Precious cut my hair. It was only the second time (iirc) in my adult life that my hair was cut at home. It was the first time she had EVER cut hair. BUT it is only hair, right? So I let her go to it.

With careful coaching (which is kind of hilarious since I had no idea what I was doing either), I talked Prec. through the hair cut. She did a phenomenal job! She has a very good eye, and there was very little difference or bad angles from one side to the other. I had her just under cut it, then cut the other layers longer, but the cut was blunt. The next morning I decided i wanted a bit of an angle, so I cut the angle myself (should have let her do it though!).

Now, I thought that going to get perms together would be an excellent fun thing. But I honestly think she got so much out of being able to actually cut my hair. I showed I trusted her, she got a VERY important job, and she got a feeling of satisfaction.

Anyway, since my hair was so raggedly before she cut it (and because I was talking to SHAW about what to do about HER hair), I started researching how people go "no poo". After much reading I found that, as many things on the internet, there is a lot of enthusiasm for a process that is only marginally successful. I read enough to know that washing with baking soda was going to be very irritating to my scalp, and washing with apple cider vinegar was not going to "cut it". There was so much disappointment and confusion, that it almost seemed like only a few people hit the exact right combination (after weeks "detox" where their scalp produces so much oil that they could not really go out). I heard enough references to "barbie hair" that I knew that was not for me.

Now, I have a dear friend who washes her daughter's hair with conditioner ONLY. Her daughters have mixed heritage, and the ringlets on her youngest are softer than silk with just using conditioner.

So I decided to try conditioner only on a week that I did not need to go out too much. I figured I would try it, day by day, and just stop if it does not work. I also wanted to try out what I had heard. Some people are so excited about a new thing, that they post "I have been going 'no poo' for a day and I love it!". I wanted to post this as a document of my trial of no poo--for good or ill.

I must say I am incredibly, and pleasantly, surprised with the results SO FAR. I use mane and tail conditioner. I have been doing this for several days, not quite a week. So this is not a definitive conclusion. But just to keep you abreast....

The downsides of conditioner only are three:

A) It seems to use a lot of conditioner because there are no bubbles. I think the action of scrubbing your head is the main source of cleaning. At first I found myself using twice as much conditioner as normal to "wash" my scalp. I am learning, however, that if I wash my hair with the conditioner while under the water, I feel that the conditioner is doing a better job at cleaning.

B) As alluded to above, it takes some scrubbing. With shampoo, there are so many cleaners that they seem to act like "scrubbing bubbles" to clean your scalp without much effort. I FEEL that I need to scrub harder.

c) There is not the feeling I am used to after my hair is dried after the washing. (however, read below where I talk about when I washed my hair with shampoo to see the difference).

The upsides of CO (conditioner only) are these
a) Less drying chemicals. Conditioner is supposed to add moisture and coating. Shampoo is supposed to strip things away. Stripping away means that your hair is unprotected.

b) My hair SEEMS to hold a curl better and for longer. I want to experiment with this further however, so do not think of this as a definite statement.

c) My hair STYLES better. This is for absolute certainty.


After many days with CO, I tried shampoo. I wanted to see if there is a difference in how my hair behaves, but to be honest, I also felt that I wanted my hair to FEEL more clean.
For many days wiht the CO, my hair had looked very shiny, healthy, bouncy and CLEAN. It looked clean, but it felt different. So two days ago I tried only shampoo. I looked at it as a scientific experiment: I wanted to see what my hair would do. My scalp did feel much "cleaner" BUT it did not look any better at all, in fact, my hair seemed to be greasier later in the day than with CO (this also needs to be repeated to make sure it is actually because of the shampoo, and not because of hormones, etc).

Also, my hair was an absolute NIGHTMARE to brush and style the next day. I have started brushing my hair 100 times in the morning--50 times upside down and 50 times right side up. When using CO, my hair might be slightly unruly for about the first 25 brushes, but after that, my hair suddenly calmed down, accepted the brushing without problem, and my hair looked shiny and healthy. When I brushed my hair after shampoo, I kid you not that the static made some of my hair stand out almost 90 degrees from my head. It was one mass of static and unprotected hair. It was a pain in the patootie to bush and style.

I decided that the feeling I got from shampoo is from being used to the feeling of my hair and scalp being stripped of oil. It feels lighter (cleaner) but it did not LOOK any cleaner and it was a pain to brush.

I washed my hair the following night with CO and the next morning, my brushing was not full of static. It looked clean, though it did not feel as light, and behaved well.

So far, I am going to keep going with the CO method. I am also going to try a shampoo every once in a while just to see what happens. If after a considerable length of time (say 3-4 weeks) of daily or near daily CO with the rare shampoo, my hair still looks good, then I will consider this the best for my hair. If not, I will simply go back to shampoo--I am not opposed to shampoo, just wanting to find out what is best for my hair and scalp. It appeals to me to not be battling my own oil production, but rather to achieve balance so that my follicles are not under duress. I am not going to keep this up if my hair looks oily or dirty :-).

I will keep you posted!

(FWIW--my hair is straight as a board, baby fine, but I have a TON of it. I use a boar bristle brush. I have an antler comb and a plastic comb, though I usually use the plastic comb because it is usually right there in my reach. I started rolling my hair in hot rollers. I use whatever shampoo I have, and mane and tail conditioner. I use a generous squirt of paul Mitchell hair sculpting lotion and 2-3 pumps of paul mitchell smoothing "super skinny serum", which is excellent for adding shine to hair. I take this handful of "stuff" and run it through my hair, then brush, then roll. I also use a decent amount of hairspray to hold the curl (my hair HATES to keep a curl). I will hopefully post pics soon).

What You Can Do In a Dress

I went dresses only several years ago. I cannot say how much I love it! I changed for Biblical reasons, but to be honest, it was not that hard--I think dresses are beautiful and uniquely feminine. While there are discussions on the whys and wherefores of "dresses only" regarding the Bible, here I just want to address the practicality of dresses only.

There used to be a wonderful feature on Ladies Against Feminism (one of my favorite sites) called "Through the week in feminine dress". It showed women going about their duties in dresses. I do not think it has been updated recently, so I thought I would share a few pictures of myself in dress showing how you can do pretty much anything in them.

BTW, people think that you have to wear pantyhose and pumps if you put on a dress--nothing could be further from the truth. You can think of a cotton skirt like a pair of capris or jeans, and wear whatever you might wear with those. I wear socks and boots, sandals, wellies, tennis shoes, whatever. I almost NEVER wear hose, though I do often wear long johns or bloomers if I think I might be doing something energetic.


You can.....

Work at the archery shop (the kids got to come with me!!)....


mush dogs....

teach archery lessons...

go fishing....

do yard work.....

go boating.....

ride horses.

I have put up fence at night at 30 below, carry wood, worked sled dog races, lounged on the beach in Florida in summer, hiked, painted the fence, everything. Anything that one could do in jeans, one can do in a skirt, the only consideration is getting the right length and width of skirt (riding horses requires more material than, say, mopping the floor).

Are skirts and dresses comfortable? I will be honest, I find them MUCH more comfortable than jeans, and I am not just saying that. I do not like feeling "bound" in the legs, the seat, or the belly. Skirts allow a greater freedom of movement. Also, skirts are warmer in the winter (because they keep the air that is warmed from your body trapped around your legs in the same manner that a blanket keeps the air warmed by your body trapped around you when you wrap up in one). I wear my skirts at minus 50 degrees F with nothing more than heavy duty silk long johns (from cabelas).

Skirts are also MUCH cooler in the summer than jeans, or even shorts! Your legs stay "in the shade" with a skirt on, as opposed to having the suns rays hit your legs. Plus, because summer skirts tend to be more light and airy, there is more airflow that can pass through and around your legs, so you stay MUCH cooler.

(I must say I have also been so thankful for full skirts when out watching, say, a soccer game, and was able to wrap my young children in the skirt to keep them warm as they sat at my feet!)

So, for practical reasons, there are few, if any, things that you cannot do safely in a skirt. They are just a blessing all over!

Victorian Tea

Hello everyone!

What a blessed day this turned out to be! Precious and I went to a Victorian Tea in the botanical gardens here. It was a blessing from the Lord. It showed me how He really works everything out, how He puts things in our path, and how He helps us.

Let me begin at the beginning...
Last week the Wonder Sweetie needed some things from town. After shopping we quickly pulled into the local nursery for some fertilizer for our tomatoes. I stayed in the car, deep in thought and struggle with the Lord about something I cannot remember now (funny how that happens!). WS came out with an advertisement for this tea--he thought I might be interested.

To be honest, I was but I thought it would be too expensive for tickets for me and Precious and for the costumes (which were not necessary but encouraged). Wonder Sweetie insisted, so I bought the tickets and spent the past week scrambling for supplies for our costumes. Thank the Lord I had most of a Victorian outfit for myself, but Precious did not have anything. I looked for a pattern and found none, so it was pretty much whatever I could manage. The fact that there was no pattern was a blessing--the dress turned out so much better than it would have with a pattern (the Lord just let everything work perfectly!)! I spent most of the week sewing and decorating hats--I love that the Victorian era is very fond of "stuff on things", like birds on a hat or ribbons on a skirt, etc.

Parenthetically, I also spent an inordinate amount of time chasing off the cat who figured that there is also no place in the house so comfy as the skirt on the floor that I am on my hands and knees trying to carefully pin. Oh and I discovered he stole a satin rose for my costume, which I had to hunt down. Our best moment, though, was when he thought that under Precious's skirt (while she was wearing it) was the PERFECT place to hide and conduct surprise kitty attacks on me. I finally had to get the squirt gun. Precious did not even complain when I lifted the hem of her skirt to fire salvo after salvo of water at the cat who rolling in the tulle around her ankles!

The show itself was superb. Everyone was so very nice! There were many people in costume. They had tents set up around the gardens where you could find something to eat, tea to drink, crafts to do, or craftsmen to talk to. They had a quintet in the upper part of the garden and a dulcimer player in the lower part. Yesterday Precious and I watched Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice just to get in the mood, and the tea today was very much like the scene of the picnic at the Bingley's.

I wish I could set up a place where people could just come, talk quietly, homeschool in the shade, putter in the flowers, have spontaneous instrument playing, bring their art supplies and paint the Lord's bounty, gather together to do some charity work....all in the fresh air and pretty surroundings (Victorian Dress optional!).

I cannot count how many people asked if they could take a picture of Precious and me, though my favorite request came at the end of the tea. I was taking down the number in my Treo of a fellow who is part of a dance group, and a teenager came up chuckling and said "Can I take a picture of you in your Victorian dress, typing on your Blackberry?". I loved the irony in that picture!

The day was wonderful for Precious. She has been having some struggles lately, and it was a wonderful chance to get out, be pretty and delicate, feel the sun and the breeze, take pictures, and be surrounded by beauty and grace in everyone and everything around her. She is usually pretty reserved (her best compliment is usually a mildly surprised "That's not bad"), but has thanked us profusely for the experience. I direct the thanks and praise to God who arranged an incidental, spur of the moment, "let me just run in and grab something" stop at a store into one of the best days we have had in a long, long while. I realize more and more that He WILL arrange things, will put things in our path. Also, though His chastisement is painful at times, His bounty for each of us individually is overwhelming. He has specific bounty for each of us, specific kindnesses that come at just the right time. He is altogether wonderful.