Days 6 & 7 - Won't You Please Join Me in the Shower?

Day 6 - No Poo

OK people, I don't have all day - chop chop. Shoes off, watch your step; you with the blue hat - move a little to your left so Elaine can get in. OK! Whew, here we all are in my shower. Hmph. Awkward. Anyway, today's mission? To see how many (or how few) products one really needs in the shower. Now, I'm a lotions and potions girl. I have 10+ shower gels which I rotate according to the season, scrubs, masks, shampoo, conditioner, razor, bath poof, bath brush, and alligator. Just making sure you were paying attention.

I truly want to get as bare-bones as possible, then I can add things back in if I miss them too much. So, I decided to see what the difference is between the various soaps I use for hair, body, face, toilet, etc. Turns out? Brace yourself: SOAP IS SOAP. The stuff that cleans your hair will also work perfectly well on your body, and in your toilet! Let me explain.

The main ingredient in most cleaners, regardless of which body part they're meant to clean, is sodium lauryl sulfate (more on this in a moment). It's a pretty heavy duty cleaner that will strip dirt & oil off whatever it comes in contact with; this plus assorted alchohols, stabilizers, fragrance, and a few foofy ingredients here and there are all that's in that bottle. So theoretically, you can chuck everything but the shampoo! Yes, even for the toilet. According to FlyLady (www.flylady.net), the same soap that cleans your bod will swish the crud out of your toilet if you do a quick swipe every day.

Now, about that sodium lauryl sulfate & other things I can't pronounce. I hate to get all crunchy on you, but it seems that there are a bus load of questions regarding the safety of SLS, and we're just learning about the endocrine disrupting parabens and pthalates. And do we really NEED fluorescent green shampoo? What's a suds lovin' gal to do? Dr Bronners Liquid Castile Soap to the rescue! I had a little travel bottle that I was using for the young 'un's bath, so I gave it a try - LOVE. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that my hair could stop traffic, people. That's right, mama looks gooooooooooooood. AND it didn't strip the skin on my face or body - I almost feel like I could skip moisturizer. Plus, if you use the peppermint fragrance, I'm told you get a friendly little tingly feeling when you lather up. Bonus!

Day 7 - Face Paste

I'll keep it short & sweet since you've got stuff to do and my child is sticking a piece of toast in the VCR:

- scrubs - baking soda is the best facial scrub ever. Add to water or your cleanser & BOOM - new face.
- mix sugar or salt & any kind of oil for a body scrub, so no need to keep a tub of it mildewing in a corner
- honey makes a fantastic (and tasty!) face mask

So, in my shower now? Dr Bronners, conditioner, hair brush, razor. Done. I rock.