Musings from the Junque Pile - The Great "No-'Poo" Experiment-Part 2

In my last blog post, I named the players in the great No-Poo experiment. In this one, we are gonna tell you how week one went.  Jay Bee started a little later in the week than Vino and I did, but it's all still good. 

I should also let you know that Jay Bee is chronicaling her results at her own blog, so if you want more details go to ThaGeekyMomma and enjoy. it's fabulous.

But first a quickie description of what we are using and the amounts:

To wash your hair and scalp: Rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon of Baking Soda (BS) mixed with one cup of warm water. Wet hair, apply and massage into scalp. Let sit a couple of minutes, and rinse well.

To condition your hair: 1 tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) with one cup of warm water. If you have dandruff, don't massage into scalp, concentrate on the length of your hair. Let sit a minute or two and rinse.

That's it. Easy, huh? 
 
Here's a look at how it went:

Jay Bee

Day 1 ‘poo-free

In order to keep this blog from being super uber long I’m just going to link you to my hair stats on my blog (http://thageekymomma.blogspot.com/2012/03/before.html)

Prep

It took 20 minutes from start to finish getting everything together. That’s including taking time out to take pictures (that never loaded on to my pc) every step of the way.

I decided to reuse my shampoo and conditioner bottles since I had conveniently run-out just was we were deciding to give this whole no-poo thing a try. I do have to say that the time it took for me to rinse them out had me thinking that considering the length of my hair there was no way I took this long under water when I rinsed out my hair. And then I got a little grossed out at the idea. 

I mixed

No-Poo: 2 cups of spring water to 2 tablespoons of baking soda

“Conditioning” rinse: 3 cups of spring water to 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

Dandruff rinse: 1:1 cup ratio of spring water & white vinegar

Steps:

1        Brush out Hair: I need a bristle brush. The plastic bristle brush is not going to cut it for distributing the natural oils to the tips of my hair.

2        Dandruff rinse: Since dandruff is a concern of mine I did a bit of research and found the most recommended rinse. It is to sit for at least 1-2 minutes.  Don’t forget to Open. A. Window!!! Tilt head back when applying and do NOT allow your hair to frame your face while doing this. You will get dizzy if you do not head my warnings.

3        No-poo: I need to get used to not having it suds up. I kept adding rinse to my scalp because it didn’t feel like I was “washing” my hair. It did feel nice on my scalp & face. Use Room Temperature Water. That cold water on the scalp first thing is… yeah it’s a doozy. The ends didn’t feel too dry or tangled at the end. I wasn’t desperate to add conditioner like I usually am.

4        Conditioning Rinse: Use Room Temperature Water. It bares repeating. Cold water. Not fun. There is a light smell, but not unpleasant. Didn’t feel as soft right off like conditioner does. Couldn’t detangle my hair in the shower like I usually do.

5        After Towel Drying: My hair didn’t feel as different as when regularly washed. I was able to braid my hair after detangling it again. I did have to comb it out once again. My hair does seem to require more time and attention after washing, but that could be attributed to my OCD when it comes to my hair or the adjustment to something different.

I was keeping this experiment from The Hubs because he’s always so skeptical about thing and I wanted to at least get t done before he knew about it. When I told him about it the first thing he said (more like whined) was, “Are you going to start smelling like vinegar now?!?”

I picked up my hair. “Smell”

He carefully sniffed. “Ok.”

I had to laugh, but it’s true so far no vinegary smell.

At this point I’m still winging to continue with it. After doing the math I spend about $50-$75 a month on hair care products. If this works out I would be paying $5 for at least 2-3 months of hair care –that’s including the dandruff rinse.

My wallet really wants this to work out. 

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Vino: I had waited 3 days since the last actual shampooing to start this.    Rinsed very well with warm water, used a very wide toothed comb to smooth out.    I think I squirted about a cup of the BS solution slowly into my scalp, massaging every few squirts, concentrating on my front hairline and natural part.   Rinsed well, using the comb again. I then used about 1/2 a cup of the ACV rinse, aiming for mid-shaft and the ends.   Remember, I added the essential orange oil to offset the pickle smell.   I let it sit as I cleaned my body, then did a cool water rinse of my hair.   Towel dried, air dried.     Added NO OTHER product. 

Ended up with clean, soft, EXTREMELY FRIZZY hairz.

 

Day 2.   Skipped the BS, got hairz wet, sprayed ACV on, decided not to rinse out.    Towel and air dried, and used a touch of sulfite free leave in conditioner.    Slightly better frizz control.

Day 3.   Same as above, but worked some olive oil into my hairz.

Day 4.   Another cup of BS wash, similar to day 1 episode.  I'm now leaving the ACV in without rinsing.  Noticeably softer hair, but still frizzy.  Could be the weather contributing....(rainy and humid)

Day 5.   Water rinse, ACV rinse.... now trying Coconut Oil sparingly as a leave in conditioner.   My hair is very fluffy! I need to tame the volume and steer away from Big Texas hair!!

Today is Day 6.   It will be a no BS day.   I'm going with every 3 days there.  I don't have oily scalp or dandruff issues.   I may try some big rollers to tame the frizz.   

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Me (your lovable blog host): I too didn't wash my hair for a couple of days. I could do that because it was the weekend, and I wouldn't gross out my co-workers.  I did my first wash late afternoon on a Sunday, hoping that the oil monster wouldn't attack my hair overnight, so that Monday morning wouldn't see me scrambling to wash it again.

Day 1: Mixed the stuff and used it  much like Vino described.Because there’s no sudsing action, it didn’t feel like I was really getting anything clean, but after I was done, and the hair was dried, it looked and felt pretty darn clean. I noticed that as it dried, it was extremely soft, and way more curlier than normal. I might like this!

Day 2: I wet my head down well, but didn't wash it. The grease monster seems to be at bay for the moment. No itchiness with the scalp, for which I am ever grateful.

Day 3: I was late getting ready for work, but attempted to do the BS and water and rinse under the faucet bathroom sink. I highly recommend that you do NOT do this. Unless you have a very small cranium, which I do not. It was just impossible for me to rinse all the BS out of my scalp, and that led to very itchy issues during the day.

Day 4: Wet head again, and spritzed on some ACV and water. Good to go. I am  noticing the texture of my hair is changing. Not oily per se, but it's like the strands are kind of banding together. It doesn't look or feel bad, just different from what I'm used to.

Day 5: I'm used to washing my hair every day, sometimes every other day. I'm kind of hoping I might be able to go 2-3 days without washing it, because let's face it, it takes a little more time to mix up the BS and water before showering each day. We found an empty squeeze bottle to mix it in, and I'm hoping to maybe get 2-3 uses out of  batch.

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Bonus addition of the not-so-very-talkative Hubster:

He likes it.  A lot.

Ok, so that's a wrap up our initial first week of trying the No-Poo method.  Next week, we'll update how it's going for us all!

From Jay's Blog http:thageekymomma.blogspot.com

Musings from the Junque Pile - The Great "No-'Poo" Experiment

Wikipedia says: No poo (no shampoo) is a collective term for methods of washing hair with no commercial shampoo.^[1][2]
The notion of non-shampooed hair being unhealthy is reinforced by the greasy feeling of the scalp after a day or two of not shampooing. However, using shampoo every day removes sebum, the oil produced by the scalp. This causes the sebaceous glands to produce oil at a higher rate to compensate for what is lost during shampooing. According to some dermatologists, a gradual reduction in shampoo use will cause the sebaceous glands to produce at a slower rate, resulting in less oil on the scalp.^[3]

Shampoo typically contains chemical additives such as sulfates such as sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. There are health concerns about these chemicals, which can irritate the skin of sensitive persons (or of anyone if not promptly rinsed).^[4][5] They are also believed by some to dry out the hair. Some shampoos also include silicone derivatives (such as dimethicone), which coats the hair. While silicone derivatives protect the hair and make it more manageable (dimethicone is a common ingredient in smoothing serums and detangling conditioners), the film that coats the hair also prevent moisture from entering the hair, eventually drying it out.

Meet the participants:

Vino: The instigator. Vino's wish to use only natural products in her home and on her body comes after a successful treatment for early stage breast cancer. Her vigorous online research into the chemicals in cleaning and beauty products, and their possible cancer causing factors lead her to want to try this. She shared a couple of websites with her friends on Face Book, and me and another person decided to try it with her and chronicle our journey.  Vino is in her early 50's, has very thick, curly, and soft hair that is to her shoulders.

Jay Bee:  New Mom. As such, she has a need to tighten her budget. She has long, thick straight hair that she loves to pamper.  She wants to try No Poo as a way to cut out the expensive hair care products, and she also hopes that by going natural, her semi-oily scalp and dandruff will even out and go away. She is also detailing her journey through No-poo at her own blog The Geeky Momma. She is in her late 20's (I think). (editing to change to early 30's)

Me (Mrs. Junque, Thewildbunny, Pipercatt - whatever). I also have an ongoing need to tighten my budget, and am always willing to try a natural way of doing something over buying processed, commercial items.  I  have a very oily scalp with a little bit of dandruff. Mostly the oil on my scalp makes me itchy, and I HATE being itchy. I'm in my 40's with mid length, over processed, fine yet wavy hair.

And as bonus, my man, DaHubster, is taking this journey with me.  He's in his 40's too, has short, thick hair, no problem with oils, but he complains of dandruff occasionally. He's also a mechanic, who gets VERRRRA dirty every day.

Ok, this is a long a**ed post, so I'm going to close it out with the original blog, read by Vino and shared with us, from SimpleMom.net .

In the next post, we all share details about the first week of going No-poo

Musings from the Junque Pile - current project

This is a wooden 3-tiered rack that I found at the Salvation Army Store for $2.99.

Stay tuned for how I make it pretty and functional...

(How's that for a tease??)

You put that Junque on your Face?

I have the worst winter skin – alligator skin – crepe skin – whatever you want to call it, I have it.  It feels thin and dry and OH MY GOD itchy.  It has been suggested that I don’t scrub enough in the shower. The problem is that the more I scrub, the more my skin hurts and feels tender.  Most lotions make my skin feel heavy and suffocated, so moisturizing is a pain. And I’ve spent waaaaay too many $$$ trying out lotions and face scrubs and not liking anything.

So after a long time of trial and error, I’ve come up with a system that works for me. And the best part is, it’s cheap. My first love is Grandma’s Lye Soap. I find it at my local hardware store sells it, but I see it can be bought online (link to Amazon thru site.  Despite what you might think about lye, this soap doesn’t burn my skin. The only ingredients are: Lye, lard, water, and very little else.  My husband likes it because it doesn’t smell like anything, especially anything girly.  I like it because it doesn’t make my skin feel tight or like there’s any residue on it.

Step two in my attempt to ease the Winter Skin Blues, is my favorite product of all time: Baking soda. Is there anything this stuff cannot do??? (You might think me silly and immature to use multiple question marks, but when it comes to this miracle product, it’s totally relevant, and despite that I am sticking my tongue out at you right now).  Now, my first few forays into attempting to use baking soda resulted in skin that was scrubbed too raw, so I caution you to use in a gently swirling motion. And rinse twice. Anyone who has used baking soda to clean their tub knows that when it’s dry you always find a line or two of dusty leftovers. Don’t do that to your skin. And another note of caution: I really only use baking soda a couple of times a week, not every day.

And lastly is step three in my brand new winter regime - Glycerin. You can find it in at the drug store. I think this sized bottle cost me less than $2.00, and that was about 3 years ago.  I got it because I had heard that it was great for getting oil based stains out of clothing. Yeah, tell that to my favorite mock turtleneck that had a run-in with a dish of linguine and clam sauce. The turtleneck lost. However, I love it for my feet and face.  I slather in on my feet right out of the shower, and put on socks. I slather it on my face, let it sit there for a minute. It’s very thick and viscous, and it doesn’t really sink in. Then I rinse it off with cool water, and pat my face dry.  My face feels great all day.

As with everything, your mileage may vary.  I found that pricy products hurt my skin as well as my wallet.  Of these three things, Grandma’s Lye Soap is the most expensive at around $6.00 a bar. but I found it at Amazon for a little over $3.00 a bar...I'm buying it there from now on!

Junque Food: Cooking Hash Browns in your Waffle Iron

Cooking Hash Browns in your Waffle Iron

I love hash browns, but I prefer them crispy. If I’m honest, I prefer them crunchy. Heck, burn them if you have to. OK, maybe not totally burned.  But I’ve never been able to make them crunchy without burning them at home. One day, while surfing Pinterest, I came across a pin for making hash browns in a waffle iron to make them crispy. EUREKA! A light bulb literally popped on above my head.  I went on my merry way, and totally did NOT pin that hashbrown recipe to my food board on Pinterest. Because I’m special that way. *nods*

Cut to last Sunday, I was looking for something to different to make for breakfast, and the light bulb popped on again. I ran to my computer, looked at my foodie pin board, and was devastated to find that I hadn’t saved that link. Oh well, off to Google I go!

  

I found this recipe:  Food Daddy's Loaded Hash Brown Waffles

Loaded? I am totally in!

So, me being me, I had to modify this guy’s recipe to get it to work for me. First, I didn’t have meat (he calls for diced ham, but bacon would be wonderful – neither of which I had on-hand, so we went meatless). His recipe appears to be for one waffle, I was cooking for 3 people, so measurements went out the window.  What I made was so yummy and filling, it was a meal unto itself. Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients

• 4-5 potatoes grated, rinsed and drained
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 minced onion
• 1 minced bell pepper, any color you like
• 3-4 eggs beaten (depends on the amount of potatoes, you want them well coated)
• ½ to ¾ cups flour
• Garlic powder
• Parsley flakes
• Optional: diced ham, bacon, or sausage would all be heavenly in this

Mix all ingredients well. Heat waffle iron on high to as hot as it’s going to get.

Spray waffle iron with non-stick spray. Spray it again. And then do it a third time (I’m serious about this).

Spoon mixture onto waffle iron starting in the middle and smoothing outwards towards the edges. Don’t go exactly to the edge, so you leave a little for overflow. Close lid.

Now, leave it alone! Do not touch it for at least 7 minutes, unless it smells like it’s burning. Then, you know, do what you gotta do.

I checked mine after 8 minutes, most cooked for 10-12 minutes. Like Food Daddy suggested, I left the lid up for a minute, then gently lifted the crunch hash brown goodness out and onto a plate.  My mother and husband were practically beating me about the head and ears to get their mitts on breakfast. Or Brunch. Or whatever you want to call it when we finally ate.  The house smelled FABULOUS.

I ate mine with ketchup and hot sauce. My mom put butter on hers. Hubby ate his plain. A friend said she’d have slathered it with salsa, if she’d been invited (LOL).

Regardless, it was soooo NOMmy. Definitely a keeper.  I hope you like it.

Junque Food: V-day present to DaMan - Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

 I first tried this recipe last year or the year before. It was a rousing success. I mean how can you go wrong with Brownies, cheesecake, and raspberries?

I haven’t made them awhile, so I thought I’d whip up a batch for my husband for Valentine’s Day. He’s such a great guy, he’ll let me have a piece. He’d better anyway…if he knows what's good for him...

I originally got this recipe from: http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/raspberry-cheesecake-brownies/

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2-oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

 8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup raspberry preserves/jam

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisking steadily, pour chocolate mixture into sugar mixture. Stir until smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and prepare cheesecake mixture.

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Drop dollops of raspberry preserves into the cheesecake batter. Gently swirl batters with a butter knife, giving the brownies a swirly look.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled.

Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.

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Now, when I've made this in the past, I've used a good quality raspberry jam. However, I don't have any. I do have some home made jam from a relative, but it's over-jelled, and takes a chisel and a hammer to get it out of the jar. It was a minor dilemma, but I could always go to the store and purchase some jam, right?  Then I remembered....

EUREKA! I have a large baggie in my freezer of raspberries picked from our own bushes last summer. A moment was taken to Google, "Quick raspberry jam recipes," and I found this recipe which I tried, despite my trepidation of making jam in a microwave (it worked guys!) and ended up with almost 2 pint of jam. Score!

I will have to do this again with some blueberries I also have in the freezer, and do it as a blog post...it was simple, and waaaaay less messy than when canning jars and jars.

I should say, this was quick jam. it's not canned, and needs to be refrigerated or frozen. I'm letting the jars come to room temp, then putting in the fridge. I doubt they will last long enough for me to freeze.


Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Musings from the Junque Pile - new beginnings?

Happy New Year! - ???  *chuckle*

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted.  Winter is a time of slowing down here at the micro-mini ranch. While we haven't gotten bunches of snow, it's been cold, and I've been creaking and groaning more than normal.

<insert witty comment about getting old>

Nope. Don't have one.

I woke up early this morning, something I haven't done in quite a while now. Last year, during warmer weather, I got into the happy habit of getting up before the rest of the house, taking my laptop outside, and composing blog posts with a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise. It was peaceful, and productive, and set the tone of the day - in a happy and productive way.

The good news is that it's just a wee bit more than a month until the first day of spring. Does my heart, and arthritic hands good to realize that. *nods*

Yesterday, I pulled together all my seeds and took stock of what I have. This the the first step in figuring what I want to plant, followed by where I'm gonna put it. LOL. Space is always at a premium. But it's just another sign of spring coming.

So, even though I haven't been writing in my blog, I have been thinking and planning about what I want to write this year.  There will be plenty of gardening and growing posts, but I also wanted to step up my Junque policy of re-using instead of just recycling.

I'm working on beautifying tin cans for  organization on my craft table.
I've been bargain hunting for racks and shelving units
I've also been taking apart old jewelry in hopes of making edgier, more striking pieces

And we've got food! I've been hoarding recipes on Pinterest to try and share with y'all in the future. Oh yes, I do!  But look for a recipe that will be presented to DaMan for Valnetine's day this week...

Finally, I've got more home made Beauty tips that I've been experimenting on. I'll have a a itchy dry skin treatment coming up really soon, because I've got the Winter Itches bad this year  *scritch-scritch*

So, please don't think I've forgotten you. I'm here, just moving slowly.  But my mind is still going, even if the rest of me is frozen. Spring thaw is coming soon!  :)