It's So Fluffy I'm Gonna Die!

Okay, not really, but here I am a week after my last 'poo and my hair is so dry! Yeah, my roots are oily, but not as bad as I was expecting. I haven't been washing it every day, either, trying to speed up the transitional phase.

Geesh! I'm going to have to find something to condition my hair with, because the ACV doesn't do anything. Jessica recommended Coconut Oil, so I'm going to try that first. I'll keep ya posted...

Day 3 of No 'Poo

So I have washed my hair with my baking soda and vinegar solutions twice now. So far my hair isn't too oily, but this might be because I put a little too much organic soap in to offset the essential oil. I am going to split the remaining liquid into two bottles today and add more baking soda and water. I am also thinking about not washing it for a day and seeing what happens.

And here is my hair... it is feeling a little dry at the ends right now, at least to me - other opinions differ, but it is definitely floofier than normal.

Thinking Outside the Bottle

I've decided to get myself back on a path toward living a greener life.  For starters, I'm transitioning back to natural cleaners, and away from the commercial convenience of chemicals.  Oooh.  Alliteration!  But my biggest change is coming in the way of 'poo.  That's shampoo.  I'm using baking soda and water to wash my hair, and vinegar to condition it.  I first heard of this method from a girl I met in an Archaeological Field Methods class at UNF.  She has lovely hair, so of course I was curious. She directed me to this website and I found another good one here.  This is really the most outside of the box I've ever been and I'm excited to see how this turns out!

Here is my hair brushed and air-dried after my last 'poo before the experiment:

And here is my baking soda solution (on the left) and apple cider vinegar solution (on the right).  The baking soda also has one and a half droppers full of a willow bark essential oil called Goddess Diana that I bought from Earth Gifts and a sliver of a naturally made soap I bought from the Jacksonville Farmer's Market today.

So, this is it! I've told my friends to bear with me during the "transition" phase of my hair when it's supposed to get super oily before my scalp's oil production finds its new normal. Updates to come as the experiment progresses.

My Thoughts About Love

     If more adults could realize that they don't NEED love, or another PERSON to make their lives complete, can you imagine all of the HEALTHY relationships we could have in the world? This is what I've been trying to get across to people. By feeling like you desperately need to be in a relationship, you are changing or ignoring parts of yourself to try and keep that relationship, and focusing all of your energy on trying to get acceptance and being so preoccupied with everyone else's opinion of you so that you can be what you think you have to be to find love. What you end up with is a relationship built on lies, and when the layers get peeled back on your facade, and the other person realizes who you really are, the whole thing comes crashing down. 
     On top of that, you spend so much time ignoring your own feelings and opinions on things for the benefit of the relationship itself, that you get angry and resentful at the other person, when you can hardly blame them for not knowing that something is wrong when you continuously make them think that nothing is. If we could all spend our time learning who we are as individuals and learning how to survive as individuals, when we do find relationships they would be healthy ones with people who know us as we truly are.

Lately I've been having some "deep" thoughts, and I've decided I need to start writing them down and posting them on my long-neglected blog.  I keep saying I'm going to start blogging more regularly, but I never do.  So... let's see what happens, shall we?

It's not just me...

Doesn't it suck that the people closest to you have no real idea who you are? In my case it's mostly my family, but it can be true with long-term friends too.

It's not their fault, really... not entirely anyway. As we get older and our opinions and lifestyle change, we hide things from the people we think won't approve. It would be nice if the people who "love" us would make us feel comfortable enough to share everything with them, but let's be honest... we are all judgemental and close-minded to something, even the best of us.

And then, of course, we all have those people in our lives that just don't listen. You try to share parts of yourself with them and they either don't stop talking about themselves long enough to absorb it, or they are the type of person who has already formed their opinion of you and nothing you say will change it. I have had both of those types in my "inner circle" and I had to finally walk away to save my sanity.

When you break it down, it's all about self-preservation. I get the psychology of it, it makes sense to me, but sometimes it just feels lonely. We just want people to like us, which is why we essentially lie about who we really are, but what we truly want is for people to like us for who we are.

It's much easier with new people in your life. You can tell them things about yourself and they can accept them or not and you're not too emotionally invested when you or they have to walk away. But with family and close friends there is too much at stake - too many years of history to risk. In most cases it's just not worth the argument, especially with family because you have the rest of your lives to be around them or you can cut them out completely, which is sometimes more painful than helpful.

It really is a balancing act, constantly having to remember who in your life knows what about you and who in your life you can tell certain things to. Imagine what we could accomplish as individuals if we freed up that portion of our brain for better purposes. It would probably just give us more room for song lyrics and quotes from our favorite movies, but it would be nice to have the option.

In the end, interpersonal relationships are just complicated and stressful. I'm not sure there is any way to get around it shy of living alone, having your groceries shipped in and ordering your underwear online.

People are Strange

My beliefs are so strange they even confuse me sometimes.

I don't really believe in anything supernatural, but I still do Tarot and light candles and smudge Sage. I wear a Pentacle ring every day and charge my jewelry on the Full Moon. I long to have my house full of incense and crystals and stones. I would love to get the point where I practice specific rituals on a daily basis.

I call myself an Atheist with Pagan Tendencies. I say that I believe in the "Power of the Earth"... whatever that means! In reality, I can't really explain what I believe, I just do what feels right. I don't feel like I need to know everything in life (or after-life). There are things that we will never know the answers to and maybe we shouldn't.

All we can do is sort out the best way to keep ourselves sane and if that falls into a specific belief or religion, or a dozen, who is to say that we're doing it wrong?