Tips and Recipes

Check out this blog and website!
I'm changing our family's habits one at a time to a healthier lifestyle.


Shampoo
Dissolve about 1 tablespoon of baking soda in just enough water to make a paste. Apply this to your roots only; work it in and let it sit for a minute. In order to stimulate blood flow, clean your pores and get off built up grime, use your finger tips to scrub your scalp. Start by making a circle on the top of your head in the area you’d wear a crown. Focus on the back of this circle to begin with. Next, fill in the circle. This is where your part will be; grease here affects the way your hair looks. Trace while still scrubbing with your fingertips around the bottom edge of the circle. Keep making scrubbing circles underneath each one, drawing lines in circles around your head.
Lastly, scrub the back of your skull and your temples/sideburns. This will result in less grease and more growth. After doing this, your scalp will feel alive. Many women swear their hair grows faster after a visit to the salon — it does, and this massage method is why. When scrubbing, you’re actually rubbing your fingers back and forth in short movements. Be gentle; you don’t want to break your hair. Next, pour about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into a cup and add water. (I keep two plastic 12-ounce cups in my shower and just mix when I get in.) After you rinse the baking soda out, pour the apple cider vinegar over the ends of your hair, let it sit for a minute and then rinse it out. That’s all there is to it!
Remember, there is a transition period from two weeks to two months depending on the person. Here are a few tips:
• If your hair becomes frizzy, try using less baking soda or leaving it on for a shorter period of time. Adding honey may also help.
• If your hair becomes greasy, try using less apple cider vinegar, switching to lemon or lime juice, leaving out the honey, and/or using a comb instead of a brush. Also, make sure you’re applying the apple cider vinegar just to the ends of your hair.
• If your hair becomes dry, try a tiny bit of oil (any oil, I use olive) smoothed on bottom of hair.


I'm using the soda and vinegar now and love the "no scent" smell. Shampoo, hand soap, laundry soap, shaving gel, etc. all have different scents. The older I get the more sensitive I am to these "smells." Nausea and migraines are not welcomed personally and can be eliminated by making my own cleaning products. Yes, the cider vinegar has a unique odor, but it rinses out. I also found that the vinegar removes the tangles for me...I didn't want to give up conditioner, but needed to give this a fair workout. So for pennies my hair is shiny, tangle free and not "smelly!" I'm still in the two week transition period and have found that I need to wash my hair every day to keep it from being greasier than I would like (probably not noticed, more felt on my part.) Also I have noticed that the hotter the water I use to wash my hair, the quicker it becomes greasy the next day.