Clean it up!

We've been on a pretty serious mission here, doing all we can to reduce the number of chemicals we slather ourselves with on a daily basis. I've given up scented lotions and, to be honest, I don't really miss them at all. It was nice to smell like a flower, but an educated look at the list of ingredients left me feeling less like a delicate bloom and more like a rotten bouquet.

Meet our new shampoo:

I was a bit leery. In the trial and error process of finding a new shampoo, my curly locks have been punished while I try to save the world (and myself). I had reached the point of actually considering just letting it go and dealing with the dreadlocks that would inevitably (and very quickly) follow. Just then, Mr. Mallard stumbled upon the greatness that is J.R. Liggett. The bar he chose has a total of seven (seven!) ingredients, all of which I can pronounce and none of which are sodium lauryl sulfate or formaldehyde. It took a little while to get used to the shampoo bar, but I'm sold. My scalp doesn't itch, my hair looks great, and the little bar is lasting a lot longer than a bottle of shampoo ever did.

A few tips...

1. Make sure your hair is soaked.

2. After you roll the bar around in your hands a couple times, rub your hands together to get them lathery before you pounce on your hair.

3. Focus on the roots and your scalp--the rest of your hair will get clean as you rinse.

4. There will be no bubbles. This might bum you out at first, but you'll get used to it and start to love it.

5. Give your hair a couple weeks to adjust. After over-cleaning it for so long, the natural oils on your noggin are going to freak out a bit when they become more free range. Give them their space and balance will come. The texture of your hair is going to change and it will probably get thicker (darn!) and easier to control (seriously).

Oh, and tea tree oil is a great defense against lice, so you should probably tackle any children (your own, of course) that go to schools and day care and give them a leg up on the grody little buggers.