arguchik | Experimentation 101

So I'm trying an experiment on the surface of my own body. I'm actually doing 2 experiments, one with my facial skin and one with my hair. In both cases, I'm going "off grid" and using simple, natural substances for cleansing instead of commercial soaps, lotions, and shampoo/conditioner. For my face this entails using the "oil cleansing method" (OCM). (Google it if you're curious about the specifics. Edited to add link: Oil Cleansing Method.) Instead of washing my face with cleanser and then applying moisturizer, I slather it with a mixture of castor oil and grapeseed oil (30%-70% respectively, though different people use different blends--the castor oil is the deep cleansing oil, and the grapeseed oil is there as a light moisturizer), massage the oil in for 3-5 minutes focusing on places where I tend to get blackheads, then steam my face several times with a cloth soaked in hot tap water. After each steaming, I wipe my face with the cloth, then rinse it in more hot tap water until it's hot again, then steam, wipe, repeat until I feel like I have gotten enough of the oil off. I've been doing this off and on for the last week or so, with mostly good results. It works best if I use a clean cloth every night. Oh, and you only use the OCM at night. In the morning, theoretically, you should be able to just rinse your skin and go. At first I didn't quite trust this method, and got a container of Cetaphil to use in the mornings, but that has been making my skin seem dull and unhappy. So, from today forward I'm going to try just using the OCM at night, and rinsing my skin thoroughly in the morning.

For my hair, I am trying to wean myself off shampoo. I've been using expensive, salon-marketed hair products for almost all of my life. My mom used to buy Redken products when I was a kid, then Paul Mitchell. As an adult, I have used Rusk, Aveda, and Bumble and Bumble products with relatively good results, though I have never been able to follow the recommendation to not shampoo every day. So anyway, I read about this thing you can do to wean yourself off shampoo. You just stop using it, instead just rinsing your hair thoroughly in the shower every morning. If your hair feels greasy or dirty, you can make up a solution of 1 tablespoon of baking soda to 1 cup of water--just put the baking soda into a cup before you get in the shower, then wet your hair, fill the cup with water, stir it up with your fingers, and pour it over your hair. Massage it into your scalp--be CAREFUL not to get it into your eyes, because it stings! Leave it on there for a couple of minutes and then rinse it out. If your hair feels like it still needs a conditioner, make a solution of 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and water, and pour that over your hair after rinsing out the baking soda. Work it through and leave it in for a minute or two, then rinse. I'm going to try doing this every other day or so, but I'll decide every morning whether or not my hair needs it basied on how greasy it feels. Supposedly the first couple of weeks can be rough to get through, because it takes a little while for your hair to "turn off" its oil production, but people who have "survived" that period and kept up with the no-shampoo regimen report hair that is bouncy, shiny, healthy, and soft. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You have bigger balls than I do. I'll be excited to see how this turns out for you. I started washing my face with a soap-free combination of white clay, calamine and seaweed, and my skin looked terrific, but I stopped because I could only get this at LUSH and it was too expensive. is the oil supposed to break down blackheads? I have more blackheads than... never mind.

Yes, the idea is that the castor oil will "draw" the yucky stuff out of your pores. It's based on the "like dissolves like" principle. At the same time...dermatologists always say that using harsh products on your skin can lead to a vicious cycle in which the products over-dry the skin, the skin responds by increasing oil production, thereby actually overproducing oil and making your skin oilier, thus you respond by using more harsh products, etc. etc. etc. So, with the OCM, because you're not using harsh soaps or detergents, you're not over-drying your skin, so that over time your skin's own production of natural oils (sebum) can normalize. We'll see how it works... Prior to this, I was using Dermalogica cleanser and moisturizer, which is also too fucking expensive, and only available at certain hair salons and spas. So if the OCM ends up sucking for me, I will be back on the search for something else that's effective but cheaper and easier to buy than Dermalogica.

I've heard of the OCM, but I've honestly been a little afraid to try it. I use natural stuff for my face - the Vickery and Clarke brand is good, it's got soapwort and castor oil and some other stuff in it. Only 94% natural, but it doesn't have a lot of weird icky stuff in it.

My mom used to give my hair a "vinegar rinse" when I was a kid. It really did make my hair soft, shiny, and pretty - but I smelled like cider vinegar until I washed my hair again.

Good luck, and let us know how it works!

Interesting. Did your mom rinse the vinegar out of your hair? This morning I used white vinegar rather than cider vinegar, because that's what I have at home. It seems to have worked really well. After putting the vinegar solution in my hair (1 tablespoon in a cup of water), I worked it through and let it sit for a minute, then rinsed my hair thoroughly. It smelled vinegar-y while it was still wet/damp, but now that it's dry I can't smell vinegar at all anymore.

I was really nervous about trying the OCM on my face, too. I have battled various forms of acne ever since I was a teenager (I'm 41 now), so the thought of putting OIL on my skin seemed CRAZY! The concept made sense to me, though, once I read about it, and I have to say that it really does seem to work pretty well for my skin. So far. I know it takes at least a week, and often up to a month or two, for skin to really "tell" you how well a product or regimen is working, so I'm just going to keep trying and see what happens. If it goes awry, I'll just go back to using the stuff I was using before.

She did, but she didn't dilute the vinegar before she put it on my hair. It was just a cup of straight cider vinegar, and while she did rinse it after she probably didn't rinse it as thoroughly as I would have.

You know, I never washed my hair daily, except as a tean when I was running track. I found that my hair "gets used" to how often I shampoo. So if I shampoo daily, it feels/looks like I need to every day. But now it's more like once a week or so. Maybe less, I just shampoo when I look in the mirror some mornings and figure it is time.

I do use head & shoulder though. Make me think of zombie jokes while in the shower.

The apple cider vinegar helps with dandruff as well. I've been drinking the stuff -- 3 teaspoons every morning in a cup of warm water...also coconut oil -- 3 teaspoons on oatmeal in the morning. These two things (and lots of swimming this summer) helped me take off about 20 pounds and I've keep them off since June.

Good luck with your experiments!

I've never had dandruff, so I won't notice a difference in that regard, but so far I've been using the baking soda wash & vinegar rinse for a couple of days now, and I can't even believe how much nicer my hair feels. I'm not teaching today, so I'm going to go without doing anything to it just to see what condition it's in at the end of the day. Based on how my hair looks and feels this morning, I think I can do the baking soda & vinegar thing every other day, and probably less often eventually, as my hair gets used to not being shampooed. I never realized how much shampoo strips your hair of natural oils.

Does the coconut oil have much of a flavor? If so, I'll bet that's delicious in oatmeal. (I take fish oil capsules every day.)

it does. it's kinda hard to describe- does taste coconutty- I think it is yummy. it is suppose to be some kinda miracle oil- why Polynesian people are so healthy. and it is cheaper than health insurance!

I hope my hair gets to the stage of only needing to be washed once a week--maybe. I am growing it out at the moment, so hopefully making this switch will also keep it healthier.

LOL--zombies in the shower.

Experimentation 101

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