[SustainableTompkins] household "green" suggestions

[Margaret McCasland]

Along the same lines: spending time in Australia (where there are 
major water restrictions due to the changed climate) reminded me of 
how we did things in "the good old days:"  we washed our hair every 
Saturday night, whether it needed it or not.  But more girls and 
women had medium to long hair then.  I remember my grandmother (who 
had very long hair, put up in a grandmotherly bun) stressing that we 
needed to brush our hair 100 strokes every night to distribute the 
oils and keep our scalp healthy.

When I started having "pixie" and other very short hair cuts in the 
1960s, I found that I needed to wash my hair much more often (every 
2-3 days) or it became much too oily. But gradually "clean hair 
standards" changed, and hair wasn't considered clean unless it had 
that "squeaky clean" shine everyday--which means all the natural oils 
get stripped every day. So we are not only buying more shampoo, we 
also need to buy a variety of conditioners to replace what we have 
removed.

Now that my hair is again longer, I find I can wash it twice a week 
instead of every other day (I never did got to daily hair washing). I 
still use a "Fuller Brush" hairbrush from 50 years ago because I 
haven't found a replacement that's as good at giving my scalp a 
gentle tingle.  And I don't need to use a conditioner nearly as often 
as I did with shorter hair washed more often.

I also try to buy local shampoo so that a product that is mostly 
water isn't generating lots of green house gases during transport. 
17th c Suds refills bottles for you at their Farmers Market booth, so 
even less plastic gets produced.  And olive oil-based shampoo has 
conditioning properties (umm, maybe the oil--but really, it's soapy, 
not oily; I love it).

One final "watch how you wash your hair" caution:  many commercial 
shampoo etc bottles are made with vinyl (#3), which cannot be 
recycled easily, releases dioxin when burned, and which is often 
softened with hormone disrupters.  Look for bottles that are made of 
#2 (high density polyethylene).

Margaret




>that's what my son says!
>-marlo
>On Feb 25, 2008, at 9:50 PM, Cnielsen56 at aol.com wrote:
>
>>
>>  In England, Elizabeth I declared that she bathed once a month 
>>  "whether I
>>  need it or not."
>>
>>
>>
>>  _http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?
>>  fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=369017_
>>  (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?
>>  fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=369017)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  In a message dated 2/25/2008 9:03:08 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>>  marloco at verizon.net writes:
>>
>>  i didn't  think i had anything to add when someone asked recently what
>>  types  of things mundane things people could do to reduce consumption-
>>  i  forget how it was phrased- but thought of something really basic
>>  and  important the other day when showering.
>>
>>  one thing we all do in my house  is that we don't shower every day.
>>  some people get upset at  the thought of this, but i think that's been
>>  conditioned into us  more than it is a point of health or cleanliness
>>  or anything.   we began it for practical reasons- in the winter
>>  showering every day  causes our skin to dry out so we began showering
>>  every other  day.  not only does it help with the state of our skin
>>  (skin  creams are rarely necessary), it reduces the amount of soap and
>>  shampoo we use, the amount of water, and energy for heating water.   i
>>  really do love to shower so i reward myself by taking a  slightly
>>  longer shower on shower days, but ultimately we are using  far fewer
>>  resources than other families of smaller size.   (there are five of us
>>  in my house)
>>
>>  -marlo
>>
>>
>>  Marlo  Capoccia
>>  Garden  Gate
>  > www.gardengatedelivery.com