Damned Sexy Hippy's Blog

This blog is primarily one piece of the larger project that is http://www.damnedsexyhippy.com, see the website if you want more information.

( I have been making and experimenting with home made beauty products for the last year and a half, and found myself wishing I had a place to track all my thoughts and the work I've done. The lessons I've learned and the information I'd gathered. That's where this website came in. )

So the no poo experiment was a pretty dismal failure. My hair was either disgustingly slimy at the roots and frizzy ends or the entire thing was like straw. It was just bad, and I could get it okay for a day or two, but I just couldn't stabilize it.

So I got a pretty intense trim to get rid of the worst of the damage (yeah it was bad) and had to use a salon brand to go back to a blank slate.

I then went back to the drawing board, the same way I did with my skin.

What I have been using for the last two months and am COMPLETELY happy with, is egg yolk, almond oil and honey. that's it (well, and a few drops of lavender oil for scent). Mix it up, apply it as I would shampoo, let it sit while I'm cleaning my body, then rinse and brush.

I am still needing to use my store bought anti-frizz just due to winter fly-aways, but... One less thing is being bought, and since we raise our own chickens and bees, two fo the three items are as local as they get - our back yard. (Well, currently we're having to buy local free-range eggs, our 17 hens laid 3 whole eggs yesterday, and that's a big improvement... They've had a rough moult this year.)

In an effort to get around the "goes bad" side effect of the pumpkin and oatmeal cleanser, my husband (who is a wise man) came up with the brilliant idea of dehydrating the pumpkin, and I have discovered that when I dehydrate the pumpkin, then grind it down (first I use our food processor, then I go after it with the grain mill), and pre-mix it with honey and almond oil. It doesn't go bad, or at least during the week and a half it takes to use a single batch (2 tbsp worth of powder and 1 ea oil and honey) and leave it on my bathroom counter.

I have definitely not been as attentive to working on this as I was intending to be this spring, but let's see if I can't update some.

Hair: I quit, and probably need a real hair cut again to take off the last 2-3 inches of my hair. Yeah, 2-3 inches. I'm not real happy with myself for pushing on so hard, I would get a good day or two and then push it on hoping for more and then my hair would wonk out again. Maybe if my hair didn't come to nearly my waist it wouldn't have been so bad to get it balanced correctly. I'm now using something from my salon, recommended by my stylist to try to recover my hair, and I'm not 100% convinced it's even 100% fixing things, definitely time for an olive oil and honey soak. I really hate having failed at this experiment, I really wanted this to work out for me, but... the whole point of the damned sexy hippy is that I *do* care about how I look, and this was just not working for me. I do intend to go back trying something natural when I've given my hair a chance to recover.

Skin: I'm curious what's going to happen this spring, with the change in seasons I'm cutting back on the amount of oil that I am including in my cleanser, and using a little less moisturizer at night. I'm thinking of grabbing a little spritzer to keep in my bag with my honey and rose water toner, which might be a nice refresher as summer wears on.

I want to do some digging on sun treatments, because you know, my to-do list for the website is already so short. :)

Okay so the no poo thing, NOT working for me.

I can either have normal roots and frizzy ends or normal ends and sticky gross roots.. This is not acceptable.

I'm going to try an egg based recipe for a bit and see how that goes..

I need to update the ingredients list and get some research on that done.. I've also found a few *old* beauty books (yeahhhh Project Gutenberg!!) and so their recipes are going to be not attached to anyone currently living...

I need to follow up with my friend to see how the recipes are working for her...

So let's see, other than one slip up when I went to the salon (I have to admit I LOVE having my hair washed at the salon, they just do an amazing job of making my scalp feel loved), I've been no poo for just over a month now... And my hair looks fantastic!! (one of these days I need to post a pic of my hair now as evidence..:))

Love it. :) I've been doing one big rag curl at night and getting some really fantastic waves in my hair that last all day... It's a good thing.

I did change the recipe a bit (and I'll be updating the recipes on the site after this).. I added 2 tbsp honey to the vinegar rinse to bring more moisture to my hair and I brought my brush into the shower to brush the vinegar rinse through my hair while it was in.

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I am waiting for an update from the friend who I gave some recommendations to, I'll be curious to see how it's going for her, hopefully I'll have something soon to say on that.

The recommendation was:
Cleanser: Yogurt Almond Cleanser (minus the ground almonds, for her I didn't want to introduce a lot of extra oil in the cleanser)
Toner: Rose water, tea tree oil & honey
Moisturizer: straight almond oil as needed, minimally
Exfoliant: corn meal & yogurt exfoliant

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I've thrown a tbsp of corn meal into my pumpkin based cleanser, I'm having my usual round of late winter skin, which translates to "it's in need of some exfoliant."

So corn meal = exfoliant for this. :)

YEAHHH!!!

A friend with oily skin is volunteering to test for me, YEAHHHHH!!!

I'll have more information later..

I realized I never came back to a few issues..

http://damnedsexyhippy.livejournal.com/1458.html - the recipe I made for my daughter, I gave it another shot with about 1/2 tbsp of almond oil - and it worked beautifully.. Sadly my girly-girl daughter was utterly grossed out by the consistency. But it left her skin lovely and soft..

*sigh* She's cute anyway. :)

http://damnedsexyhippy.livejournal.com/1042.html - the recipe I posted as a bit of a skin renewal... It left my skin softer, but didn't do much for the over all refresh I was hoping for... I'm thinking I might try the recipe again when we have cucumbers in the house next but with more cucumber, cutting back on the oatmeal some, possibly also upping the half-and-half content, or maybe adding something like lemon juice, though that much acid might be counter productive.... ?

So I had to actually use a more intense moisturizer on my ends last night, they were a bit frizzy-tastic.. My roots are actually getting less gross with time (they're still a little oilier than I like), and I am starting to get optimistic that this could actually be okay in the long run.

I realized I hadn't clarified yet what I was doing..

I am using the Baking Soda & Lavender Shampoo, with an apple cider vinegar rinse at the end of the shower.

The roots are settling out, but I'm still working to get the sebum down to the ends, so last night I actually used the Olive Oil and Honey Deep Condition just on the last few inches of my hair.

It's actually still wet from my shower last night, so I can't say how it's looking, but the olive oil and honey deep condition is amazing stuff from past experience, so I'm pretty excited to see how it looks..

okay, so the no poo experiment continues apace... I must admit that there are really moments when I think I am absolutely crazy for trying this, but... It is worth it.

I apologize to anyone who cares that things have been so delayed, there was a stretch of February when I was half dead with the flu, and am only now really starting to get all caught up... And that includes on the site.. :) You'll get sick of updates now.. :)

So I'm trying the no poo method of hair care..

This is as close to damned dirty hippy as I've ever been and I'm really not sure that I can stick with this.. I keep reading that the first week or two are rough and to give it a chance, but jesus... Rough doesn't even come close to describing it.

We'll see.

(No poo = no shampoo or conditioner.. You give your hair a solid rinse with water and vinegar and that's it)

Proponents swear that once you get past the rough stage your hair looks amzing.... I'm trying, really really trying.