Withdrawl – from plastic and chemical dependency

In my ongoing effort to end my plastic and chemical dependency, I’m trying to stop buying plastic containers and chemical products. I decided to first try an alternative shampoo and went searching on the web for solid bar types.

Green shampoo

On Grist I found a column about less toxic shampoos but they all came in plastic. But in the comments on that article I found several suggestions.

1 Bar shampoo called JR Ligget.
2 Goats milk soap
3 A brew of Dr Bronner’s (purchased in gallons) green or herbal tea and lavender oil, mixed in an old shampoo bottle.

Because I had a small bottle of Dr Bronner’s with a bit left in the bottom lurking under my bathroom sink I decided to go with that first. As directed, I mixed about 15% DB with 50 drops lavender oil and filled the rest of the bottle with green tea. I let the tea come to room temp first so as not to undo all my anti-chemical righteousness by leaching PCBs, or DDT, or Dioxin or whatever out of the plastic. (Joking. Actually it’s PBA.)

Disclosure – I’m biased against DB’s. I’ve tried to love it as so many seem to. I’ve tried it full strength, I’ve tried it diluted, now I’ve tried it really diluted with green tea and lavender oil. Every time, I’ve found it to leave my hair feeling greasy when wet, stiff and coated when dry. Normally my hair is straight, rather fine and very slippery, hair ties slide out of it unless cranked really tight. But with DB’s it becomes tangly, stuck together and dull. Hair ties cling to it like Velcro. I’ll keep using this concoction for a couple of weeks and see if there’s some adjustment period – hair chemical withdrawl.

There’s another question in this though. My whole reason for writing this blog is to work out the kinks between good living and taking care of the marine environment. We can’t keep doing things the same way and expect a different result. That’s the insanity that’s created so many of our problems. If I want to reduce my reliance on chemicals and plastic, I’m going to have to make some adjustments. Maybe shiny hair is just an unreasonable expectation foisted on me by the marketing wizards at Proctor and Gamble. Maybe human hair isn’t meant to be shiny and tangle free, maybe dredlocks are where it’s at.

I’m not likely to adopt that look without being forced by peak oil, entire collapse of the transport system or a return to a hunter gatherer society. It’s great on kids and guys with buzz cuts, but it’s just not for me. I fool with my hair too much, it’s a nervous twitch, I’d probably break a finger trying to run my hands through my hair. So after my Dr. Bronner’s experiment is over I’ll move to goat milk soap from a local maker and then Dr. Liggets. Those both have the added benefit of being easier to carry on planes.