Going Natural

This summer I completely simplified my morning routine, mostly with the aim of convenience and a "nobody will see me anyway" mentality. But much to my delight, I am pretty pleased with how things have worked out!

It started with my hair. I have blow-dried my hair every morning since at least high school, perhaps earlier, I don't remember. I'm not really sure why; maybe I watched my mom do it, maybe it was cold outside, maybe it was the cool thing to do. Who knows. As I got older I learned that this was really bad for my hair, but I just couldn't stop. When I don't blow dry my hair it gets wavy and poofy and also stringy. Frizzy, stringy hair is not lovely. And the waves are not nice - my hair is nearly straight in the front, except little bits at the temple that curl out, and it is super duper curly underneath in the back. When I do blow dry my hair it is straight and silky smooth. But it can also get poofy anyway if it is humid and also stringy by the end of the day as well. And it is kinda flat and limp. So I now see that it wasn't so great after all.

Well, at the start of the summer it was just so darn hot, and after a hot shower my bathroom is so humid and warm that the last thing I feel like doing is standing in there blowing hot air on myself, so I just quit doing it. Nobody was going to see me anyway, so why not? And as predicted, my hair was stringy and poofy and weridly curly and strange. But sometimes it turned out ok. I saw rays of hope, and I continued to be lazy. I went on a few trips and did not take up space in my suitcase with a hair dryer. It was nice. I did, however, start bringing a flat iron, because for special occassions it does a good job of taming crazy hair. And I noticed that for the rare two or three times that I used the flat iron my hair looked much healthier and nicer than before. Eventually my hair got used to not being super dried out and I noticed improvements!

Part of this also has to do with the hair brush that I have been using, I think. I realize that this is more information that you ever wanted to know about my hair, but hey, I've read whole blogs about the no poo thing, so I'm going with it. Back to the hairbrush. I have always used a brush with plastic bristles, something like this:

This kind of brush really makes sure that there are no tangles so my hair is nice and smooth and you can easily run your fingers through it. But I had a feeling that it might be the culprit behind the stringy phenomenon. So now I use a boar bristle brush, a la:

This brush probably does a better job of distributing my natural hair oils and making my hair shiny. But the bristles do not get through all of the hair and I never used to feel like my hair was actually detangled with a brush like this. In a way that is true - it sort of velcros the hair together so that it is more of one giant mass of hair. The bonus is that the hair has volume, the downside is that it is harder to run your fingers through. I hate not being able to run my fingers easily through my hair.

So, with my new brush and my lack of blow drying, my hair has taken on a whole new texture and look. I have gotten a few compliments on my hair, so that keeps me happy. I still feel like it is somewhat frizzy and poofy, but I have to just get used to having some volume. In reality I am probably the only person in the world who notices that it looks any different. And that is fine with me - I've shaved time and effort off of my routine and am not embarrassed to be seen in public with the results. That's a win. Also, on my trips to Colorado and the dry southwest I noticed that my hair air-dried super fast and was completely absent of any frizz - the no dryer method works perfectly. I can't wait for winter to come around for the nice hair effects!

I have yet to try the no poo route. I briefly tried it once and I have also tried sulfate-free shampoos, and in both cases it just made the texture of my hair weird. Now that I have converted to a different texture it might just work out ok. I'll have to try again so that I can really go au natural.


Next up was my face skin care routine. For most of my life I just used Dove soap to wash my face and that was it. I never had problems with acne as a kid. Actually, I probably have more acne now than when I was a teenager. Delightful. At some point in college I learned that most women use special face soap and moisturizer. And I got a facial at a spa and learned about exfoliation, which should be followed with moisturizer. So I got on the bandwagon and started the Clinique 3 step program - cleanser, toner, moisturizer. I'm not sure that it did all that much other than to get my skin used to being on that cycle. I did, after a short time, discover that toner was pointless and did nothing to minimize my pores. But I have used fancy face soap and Clinique moisturizer ever since. Well, when standing in a hot steamy bathroom makes your face slightly dewy, the last thing you want to do (in addition to blow drying your hair) is put more goo on your face, so I stopped with the moisturizer for a while as well. Then I went on some trips and liquid cleansers never come in 3 oz containers, so I just used normal soap for those days. And guess what? My skin was fine. Those products are just a crazy scam! I have gone back to the good old days of Dove soap and no moisturizer, and I am perfectly happy. After over a month I have noticed my face getting slightly dry, so I put on some night cream one night. But otherwise I'm sticking to the simple life. We will see what happens when winter comes and sucks the moisture and life out of me, but hopefully I can stick with it.

And in one last attempt to stop my product addiction, I am trying to go cold turkey on chapstick. For years I have regularly used chapstick in the morning after brushing my teeth and at night right before bed. It is so true that you get addicted to that stuff. Your lips just get used to it and stop producing moisture of their own. I tried to stop using it last winter and my lips turned bright pink and ridiculous. Now that it is summer I don't really need it, so I have been able to give it another go. For the most part it is going well, but similar to the face I do kinda feel dry every now and again. Hopefully I can last through the winter.

All of these things are basically following the mantra of encouraging my body to produce its own moisture while not applying external drying agents. Hopefully this will make my body more balanced and more natural in addition to reducing my morning primping time! Sorry if that was way too much information about my personal hygiene, but it does feel somewhat like a small revelation to me and a movement away from the high-maintenance me. But don't worry, I'm not turning into a dirty hippie or anything.