Homemade Toothpaste or I Don’t Think We’re Crazy

Mark and I have continued to try homemade cleaning and hygiene products over the last five months.

We tried to make our own dish detergent, which was a disaster. Mark handled the greasy discolored ring that detergent left around the sink every time we did dishes a lot better than I did, but in the end, even he didn’t put up much of a fuss when I sent him on an emergency errand one evening to pick up dish soap.

Then we tried a recipe that Mark’s cousin had put on her blog for a homemade nontoxic drain cleaner. Our bathtub drain perpetually clogged to the point that we were sloshing in water 30 seconds into our showers (embarrassing, I know). Mark followed the soda-and-vinegar recipe dutifully, but it just didn’t do the trick. Still sloshing in our showers.

All that time spent down by the bathtub drain siphoning baking soda down the hole did get Mark to wondering, though, whether the drain itself had a problem. He took the drain apart and found that it did have a problem (technical enough that I won’t try to describe it here). Now the drain works fine, and I guess we have the homemade drain cleaner to thank.

I had had a homemade toothpaste recipe sitting in my binder for a while that I wanted to try. It looked incredibly easy, cheap, and free of all the strange additives found in commercial toothpaste.

We finally got around to making it two or three weeks ago (you can find the recipe in Tsh Oxenreider's book Organized Simplicity).

Sweet minty freshness it was not. I didn’t have peppermint oil on hand, so my first batch just included the coconut oil, baking soda, and stevia powder. The sweet stevia didn’t begin to mask the saltiness of the baking soda.

But when Mark said he didn’t mind it all that much, we continued to use it. When we finished our first tiny batch, we made more, but this time made sure to have peppermint oil on hand. The peppermint flavor definitely helps, but I still maneuver my toothbrush to keep the stuff away from my tongue, and I still shudder as I spit. Ick.

I don’t think we’re crazy, but we’re going to keep using our homemade nasty-tasting toothpaste. As Mark bravely said the first time we made it, it’s really not all that bad, and it’s really only an unwelcome guest in my mouth for about two minutes a day.

A Busy Sunday: Some Natural Cleaning and Beauty Products

The fit of energy I experienced Sunday afternoon may have come from speed-reading through The Hunger Games between Friday and Sunday in preparation for going to see the movie this coming weekend with some friends. (May the odds be ever in your favor!) Whatever the cause, the effect was interesting.

Let me back up. We let ourselves run out of commercial dish soap earlier this week, in preparation for trying to make our own. I did make my own. I may not have done it right. I’m not sure. Either way, the resulting dish soap is weak and leaves a thick greasy smear around the bowl of the sink after I drain the water. I find myself wanting a commercial dish soap just to clean off the grease ring.

So, I finished The Hunger Games yesterday afternoon. My thought process after putting the book down was as follows:

Hmm. Husband has been picking up our empty hand soap dispenser periodically this week and wiggling it, while looking at me expectantly. I guess it’s time to try that new hand soap recipe I found online.  Oh, yeah, I wanted to try to make hair gel again, since it still bugs me that I couldn’t get that recipe to work the last two times. Ah! Here’s the shea butter my lovely sister-in-law brought me last weekend! I’m going to make lotion. If I don’t do it today, it probably won’t happen until next weekend. That reminds me: my hair is dry, and sometime I want to try a hot oil treatment on my hair. Oh, look! I happen to have a recipe on my computer for a hot oil treatment for hair! I’ll do that today too!

I proceeded to make all of those products mentioned above. And then I gave my hair a hot oil treatment, humming ‘Go, Grease Lightning’ all the while. This frenzied activity resulted in a veritable mountain of greasy dishes by the sink (and soft, shiny hair).

I looked at the mountain of dishes. And then I whipped my head to the left to stare at the bottle of weak watery homemade dish soap.

I called Husband. And asked him to pick up a bottle of real dish soap on his way home from work.

Recipes Used

If you’re at all curious to check out any of the recipes I used yesterday, here is a list of them, complete with their status in my home right now and link to where I found them:

Homemade Dish Soap

Check it out here.

Weak. Very weak. But the blogger who posted the recipe sings its praises so much I think I’ve just got to try it again. I want it to work.

Homemade Hand Soap

You can find it here.

So far this is still sitting on my stove. The first recipe I tried said to use 4 oz. of grated soap to four cups of water. Basically that made a gel like overcooked tapioca pudding. I’ve reheated it and added water, oh, three or four times. Now the soap is diluted with almost a gallon of water, which makes my concoction about the same as this recipe.

Homemade Hair Gel

I’ve seen it enough places that I’m not sure who to cite for it. I added ½ t. of plain gelatin to one cup of boiling water. Then I let it sit overnight. I forgot about it this morning, but I’ll try it tomorrow to see if it worked. (Just as an aside, I’ve read that you do have to keep this hair gel refrigerated.)

Homemade Lotion

I’m not sure where Sister-in-law got this recipe from. This is exactly what she sent me:

"The lotion is 1 1/2 c. pure shea butter, 1/2c. coconut oil and 1-2 oz. jojoba oil. Melt shea butter over stove on low, once melted add other two (coconut oil will be a solid but will melt very quickly). take off heat and start whipping with a mixer. Mix for a few minutes then put in freezer for a few minutes, keep repeating until you want to quit and buy lotion instead! Eventually (usually 20-30 minutes later) the liquid will almost instantly turn into a nice whipped butter texture. Once it feels like a whipped body butter it is done."

 The lotion is whipped and creamy, and I love the feel of it! I added essential sweet orange oil to mine, and next time I will add more. The lotion still smells kind of like shea butter, which isn’t my favorite smell. If you make this yourself, don’t expect it to act exactly like store-bought lotion. It leaves your skin looking kind of greasy at first, but it will absorb in.

Homemade Hot Oil Treatment

Basically just ½ c. of olive oil heated up on the stove until warm, then applied to hair. I’ve read that you can also add ½ c. rosemary leaves to the oil and then strain them out before applying to hair. I don’t really want to spend that much money on my hair.

Right now my hair is about an inch above my shoulders and it’s naturally pretty thick. The half cup of oil was a little more than I needed. Next time I will probably just heat up a third of a cup of oil.

Project Updates

Natural Hair Care Update

As many of you know, I haven’t been using shampoo or conditioner on my hair for the last two months. You can read about my plan here.

I feel it necessary to offer a quick update of my hair care because some things have changed:

1) I have gone back to the apple cider vinegar hair clarifier. The honey didn’t seem to make much of a difference on my hair, and honey is more expensive. Plus, for a reason that I still have not figured out, my bottle of honey conditioner began to smell absolutely terrible after about two weeks of sitting in the shower. Honey doesn’t go bad in my cupboard; so why in my shower? I still don’t know. But in any case, that was enough. I’m using vinegar again.

2) I have started conditioning with coconut oil occasionally. My hair continued to be pretty frizzy most days, to the point where I was almost ready to give up on the whole business and go back to traditional conditioners. However, I’m glad that I did give coconut oil a try because it has worked wonderfully. A very little bit goes a very long way, which leads me to believe the large jar I bought is going to last me probably for the rest of my life. I had been using coconut oil after every wash (so, every four days), but now I’m using it every other wash or every three washes, depending on how my hair is feeling.

Facial Cleaning Method Update

As you may know, I don’t use a traditional face wash. I clean my face with oil.

In general, I’m not sure anymore what I think of this method of washing my face. I love how I only have to wash my face once a day with this method. And in general, my face is much less oily than it was with traditional face washes. And I still love that this is better for my body and better for the environment. Those are the trump cards. I do, however, have a few concerns and/or complaints:

1) Some nasty breakouts in the last month, more so than I’ve seen since junior high. Face-wash-induced? Hormone-induced? Hard to say. I’m going to give it another month and see what happens. I have read that adding essential tea tree oil can be helpful for acne-prone skin. However, I haven’t wanted to spend the money on that yet. Adding tea tree oil might push this face wash method out of the realm of economical.

2) I have to wash more washcloths now because I didn’t use to use washcloths to wash my face.

3) This method is more time consuming than a traditional face wash, so when I’m especially tired or in a hurry, I get a little impatient with the time this takes.

Book-Reading Challenge Update

Two months ago, I decided that I wanted to read through all of the books on our bookshelves. We have a lot of books and, embarrassingly, I haven’t read nearly all of them. I decided that it was high time I remedied that.

I challenged myself to read all of those books, and to refresh your memories and mine, these are the guidelines I’m following:

1) I may not check out any library books or read any library books while completing the challenge.*

2) I will update with my progress every two months.

3) I may, however,  read book our book club selected each month.

*Exceptions will be made if a friend or family members wishes to loan me a book. I may, in that situation, except the book and read it.

My progress has been so dismal over the last two months that I didn’t even want to report. And I certainly felt no need to update the pictures of my bookcases.

This is my progress. Besides one book club book, I have read two books. Two. That’s it. I normally consider myself an avid reader (and I’m a librarian, for crying out loud), but this just goes to show how incredibly busy the last two months have been for Husband and me.

From my bookshelves, I have read:

Closing the Achievement Gap: How to Reach Limited Formal-Schooling and Long-Term English Learners, by Yvonne Freeman and David E. Freeman

I bought this book a while back because of the adult ESL class Husband and I teach. Although this was an interesting read, it was actually geared toward teachers who teach school-age English Language Learners.

This Present Darkness, by Frank Peretti

This really was an excellent read. I didn’t think it was necessarily well-written, but the subject matter was just what I needed (more on that another time, perhaps). In the U.S. we’re pretty quick to shrug off the possibility of spiritual warfare in our lives. After all, there has to be some natural and logical reason for everything, right? Although Peretti’s story is fictionalized and imaginative, the theme rings true: there is spiritual warfare, and prayer does make a difference.

I am also in the middle of two other books: One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp and Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. Both of these are very, very good books, but I’ll withhold any reviews or opinions until I’ve finished them.

Natural Hair Care Update

Natural Hair Care

About one month ago, I wrote about how my husband and I were going to start a shampoo-free hair care regimen. (See our plan for natural hair cleanser here.) We have not used any shampoo or conditioner for a month, and I can safely say that we’re overall pleased with the results.

I currently wash my scalp all over (I can’t really say I ‘wash my hair,’ because the scalp is what needs to be washed, not the hair) every four days. I do, however, was the hair right around my face and down the center part on the top of my head every other day. The oilier complexion of my face makes this necessary, especially for my bangs, which rest against my forehead.

This is what my hair looks like on day four (I’ll be washing tomorrow):

For the first three weeks, I was using an apple cider vinegar hair clarifier (a conditioner and detangler) after the ‘big wash,’ once every four days. My hair began to look pretty frizzy after a while, which could have been the result of a couple of different factors:

1) Too much baking soda in the hair washing stage

2) Not enough moisture being put into my hair via the apple cider vinegar clarifier

3) A dry, dry, dry September (as in, the air was so dry and dusty between no rain and farmers harvesting that a ban was eventually put on farmers being in the fields because the heat from their machinery kept catching crops on fire. This resulted in several fire emergencies a day for a while.)

I did not handle this dilemma like a good scientist and switch one variable at once. Instead I switched all three:

1) I started using less of the baking soda wash (going by a ‘less is more’ motto)

2) I just recently switched to using a honey and water hair clarifier, which is supposed to be more moisturizing than apple cider vinegar.

3) The humidity has gone up with the blessing of some rain, and the dust has gone down.

My hair looks less frizzy now. I may go back to the apple cider vinegar hair clarifier soon and see how that affects my hair. I would really like to be able to use the apple cider vinegar instead of honey because honey is much more expensive.

Oil Face Cleaning Method

On another personal hygiene note, I also decided to try the oil face cleaning method that Tsh Oxenreider posted on here. I was really skeptical, because my face is naturally oily and pretty acne-prone.

After doing a little bit of research on this facial cleaning method, this is the procedure I decided on:

Face-Cleaning Oil

75% castor oil (a drying oil)

25% extra virgin olive oil (a moisturizing oil)

I store this in a jelly jar in our medicine cabinet.

To wash my face, I put about a quarter size dribble into my hand and massage all over my dry face. I do not wet my face at all or clean off make-up before I start. The castor oil will clean my face well enough. I do not scrub; I just massage.

Then, I take a washcloth and soak it with hot water. I lay this on my face until it cools to room temperature (I think this takes about two minutes, but I don’t really count because this is so relaxing.) Then I massage my face again a little.

I rinse out the washcloth with hot water and use the washcloth to wipe all extra oil off of my face. I rinse out the washcloth again, and I’m done.

I love this. I didn’t think I would, but I do. Using this method, I only need to wash my face once a day. Previously, when I was using a synthetic store-bought face wash, I would wash my face twice a day. I don’t find that my face needs that anymore. And I seem to be dealing with a little less acne, although it will take a couple months for me to be able to really tell if there’s a difference.

Overall, I feel pretty good about both my hair and my face. We’re using natural non-toxic ingredients, and it’s all pretty cheap. Even the face wash, though an investment initially, seems to be cheaper overall because I use the oil so slowly.

I do wonder, though, how realistic this kind of hair care and facial care would be for someone with kids. What mom has time to lay a hot washcloth over her face for two minutes with children running around?

Any thoughts?

A Few New Projects

A few days ago I looked down at my hands and said, “How did that happen? When am I going to have time to cut my fingernails?!”

That about summed up how busy I have been for the last three weeks. As most of you reading this know, I work part-time as a children’s librarian and part-time as a children’s program director at a church. Sunday school started today.

On Friday my husband and I were driving up to the Twin Cities for a friend’s wedding. I was calling everyone I could think of in our church congregation, stopping about every three phone calls to cry with frustration over all the “No thank you. Teaching Sunday school is not my gift” answers I was receiving.

Recruiting Sunday school teachers is a whole other blog, though.

Now I am savoring some free time on Sunday afternoon and because my personality is beginning come down from ‘frenzied’ to ‘normal,’ I can share some projects with you all that I anticipate starting soon.

First, my husband and I have begun this morning to use a more natural form of hair care: baking soda and apple cider vinegar. I got the idea from Tsh Oxenreider, and her blog on this same form of hair care can be found here.

Because Tsh goes into such detail on her hair cleansing method and makes it so clear and understandable, I won’t repeat everything she has to say. If you want to try it at home, check out her site.

Here’s the scoop on the baking soda and apple cider vinegar hair cleansing method that we’re starting out with:

Baking Soda Hair Cleanser

1 c. water

1 T. baking soda

Mix the ingredients together in a water bottle. We are using the kind of bottle with a squirt top (like the top on a bottle of dish soap). About three times a week, squirt this mixture all over your scalp and rub gently to lather. You only need to rub this mixture around on your scalp, not on the rest of your hair. Rinse hair. Follow with hair clarifier.

Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Clarifier

1 c. water

1 T. apple cider vinegar

Mix the ingredients together in another squirt-top water bottle. After washing your hair with the baking soda mixture, squirt apple cider vinegar mixture onto hair length (this time not onto your scalp). Let the mixture sit in your hair for a few seconds and then rinse. Your hair will not smell like vinegar when it dries.

My husband and I are not perfect, and we do not claim that this form of hair care is the only way to be friendly to your body and friendly to the environment, but we do believe that these are some good reasons for trying this. Here are our reasons broken down:

1) This form of hair care is more cost effective than purchasing bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Most of what you put in your hair this way is water.

2) Using this form of hair care we will be putting fewer strange chemicals on our skin and into the environment via the water system.

3) This form of hair care is not harsh on a person’s hair like the strong detergents in most shampoos.

4) We will not be using as many bottles. Even though in most places plastic bottles are recyclable, energy is still required to process an old bottle at a recycling facility. This form of hair care does not require that energy usage.

So, we started this regimen this morning, and I’ll update you in a few weeks to let you know how our hair is fairing under this treatment.

Another project that I’m undertaking currently involves my books.

I love books, and my husband and I own quite a few. A book is one of the best gifts a person could give me, and yet I struggle to read the books that people actually do give me.

The reason, you may ask?

I am a compulsive library patron.

I am almost never without library books in the house.

When I work at the circulation desk, I don’t generally intend to check books out; it happens almost outside of my control, I’m sure of it.

There I am, busily helping library patrons behind the desk. In a moment of quiet between helping patrons, I lean over the drop box, scoop up an armful of books, and begin checking them in.

Suddenly, my hand stops. I’m staring at the title of the book in my hand. I quickly flip the book over, check the back, read the inside flap.

All thoughts of, “You have enough to read at home. You’ve already got eight library books checked out, and you haven’t even touched the book mom and dad gave you for Christmas last year,” weaken and die, only to be replaced with thoughts of, “I could read the books I own anytime.”

Before I even realize what’s happening, my hands have moved of their own accord to pull my name up on the computer, scan the barcode on the book, and press the “Check out” button.

It’s really amazing how I end up with library books at home.

In January I decided that I was being ridiculous and as a New Year’s resolution, I would catch up on the books I own and read them. All of them. I returned all of my library books to their true home and settled down to read my own books.

Three days later I had one library book out.

A week later I had eight.

Now, 9 months later I’m ready to tackle the project again, hoping that the accountability of telling you all about my project will encourage me to stick to it.

I have provided below pictures of the bookshelves with all of the books my husband and I own. All of the books I have already read have been blacked out. The books you can see are the books I still need to read.

This is the fiction bookshelf. I’m doing pretty good here.

These two are the science, sociology, marriage, and general reference shelves. (The bookcase is at the foot of our bed, so I couldn’t get it all in one picture.) These don’t look too bad.

This is our Christian and spiritual living bookcase. I have a lot of work to do here. Because even though my walk with Christ is incredibly important to me, I just do not read these books as quickly. And I do not discipline myself to read these thought-provoking books like I think I should.

This is the stack I borrowed from my dad. I should really read these and return them.

These are books I got when the church library weeded through its collection, as well as a few books my brother loaned me.

These are the new books I got from Borders in it’s second-to-last day of operation. This was the most fun book shopping experience I have had in a looooong time. All-around ninety percent off is always acceptable in my book.

So, the rules of my book-reading challenge for myself are simple:

1) I may not check out any library books or read any library books while completing this challenge. *

2) I will update this blog with my progress every two months.

*Exceptions will be made if a friend or family member wishes to loan me a book. I may accept the book and read it.

That’s really it. I don’t want to make it complicated. I just want to read the books that I own.