How to lighten Blackheads??

I stumbled upon this spa treatment on Pinterest last week and pinned it until I had the time to give this a try.  I'll be honest, I a skeptic.  Could it really be this easy?  If it is, then why isn't everyone doing it?

 I have tried, as have many of you I'm sure, a ton of facial cleaners, pore reducers, blackhead minimizers and the like that are on the market these days.  Most dry out my skin and help little with reducing my pores or blackheads.  I don't have many of them on my face but they are there and when I see them on my face its like a flashing red light with bright yellow arrows pointing to my problem

areas.   

As I am getting older, I find myself turning to natural and/or homemade remedies rather than store bought.   Maybe I've been watching one too many Netflix documentaries on our environment, chemicals they put in our food or feed to our animals.  Now a days I prefer to know what exactly what is going into my body.  Is it good for me?  Do I know what it is?  How is it farmed? Made? 

So this recipe fit me to a T.  It's cheap, natural, I know what the ingredients are and even better yet, I have them already in my pantry. Yeah for me!

So before hopping in the shower I gave this a whirl.  

You will need:

1.  1/2 of a lemon

2.  4 drops of organic honey

Here are the steps:

Put honey on lemon and rub it where you have blackheads.  Wait. 5 minutes and then rinse off with cool water.  Yes, it's really that easy and guess what??  It worked!!  

Of course, I stood and stared in the mirror at them the whole time saying "nope, it's not working another wives tale."  It was only after I rinsed my face that. Noticed they were lighter.  Needless to say ill be doing this a few times a week to see if I can get those buggers gone for good!

Plopping - What is it?

I just discovered this technique the other day while researching No-Poo and I can't believe I have never heard of plopping before.

What is plopping??

     It's a technique used to dry your curly locks the natural way.  It cuts down on the frizz and enhances you natural curls.

  As you know, I have thick curly hair and curly headed people know that our hair is dry and frizzy.  We try to tame it using all kinds of products that claim to tame the frizz...  Yes, some help but none fall into the crunchy way of living.  All contain ingredients which are not natural and aren't doing our bodies any good either.

I gave it a try and I was Ah-Mazed!!   How come no one told me about this before?  Shouldn't there be some manual for curly haired people?  I think so!

Here is what I did.

Basically, I squeezed as much water out of my hair as I could in the shower, then scrunch it with you hands to start the curly madness.  I found a long sleeved t-shirt laid it out on my bed with the sleeves closest to me and plopped my hair in the middle of this shirt. Folded the bottom of the shirt over the back of my head, gathered the sides and rolled them up.  Next cross the sleeves over the back of you head, like you are tying you shoes, bring it around to the front and tie a knot on you forehead.   Ta-da!!!

You plopped!  In the end, it looks like a turbin and my husband had a good laugh!

Here is a short video that will show you how to plop your hair.

Taken from Curls & Blossoms Blog

No-Poo Experiment....

No Poo - making the choice to no longer use commercial shampoo and conditioner.  Instead swapping baking soda and water for shampoo and apple cider vinegar and water for conditioner.

This week I discovered no poo while browsing Pinterest.  At first, I was really skeptical and

a bit grossed out. Honestly how can baking soda, water and vinegar really get your hair clean?? But I was intrigued so I kept reading hopping from blog to blog.    However, as I read each blog post in order to learn more about it, it made perfect sense.

I had already switched to natural homemade household cleaners (more on this here) and was AMAZED  on how well they worked.  So, why can't they work on my hair?

I have thick curly hair which is always dry no matter what I do to it and my scalp is always itchy.  SO annoying!!  I've tried everything on the market with some temporary relief but no cure.  Grrrr.  I have nothing to loose so I'm diving in head first.  If it doesn't work, I can always go back..

They say that the first few or so weeks are the worst as your scalp reverts back to its natural state.  It's greasy due to the excess oils it's used to producing from all the commercial garbage we use to "clean" it, condition it and style it.   Really ready to toss these to the curb...

I will also be logging my no poo journey for all to see.

Here is what I will be trying tomorrow:

1. First washing my head with Dr Bronners Liquid Castile Soap to cleanse and strip my hair of all the chemicals.
2. I'll be washing with 1Tbs of baking soda dissolved in 1c of very hot, if not boiling, distilled water. Waiting for it to be cooled before use. (I also have hard water and I read that using distilled water might shorten the greasy stage).    
3. Using this on my scalp only and massaging it in very well using a circular motion.  I should be looking for a slippery feeling on my scalp apparently this slippery feeling is key.
4. Leaving it on my head while I wash the rest of me. 
5. Rinse it out thoroughly and then rinse some more.
6. Spray bottom of hair with the ACV/Water mix.  Let sit for a minute and rinse.

Okay, so until tomorrow...

Day 1:

Through the magic of the Internet it's now tomorrow.  :)

This is my hair on day 1.  I had it in a pony tail. Hence waves not curls.

First off, the Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap wash was interesting.   I could feel my hair being striped of everything & it felt weird, really weird, verging on bizarro.  The feeling was like running your finger down a really clean window that sound it makes.  Well that was it.  So, no doubt about doing this step correctly and I did it twice just to be sure.  Also, noticed that this is the point that my hair felt like one huge knot....great (sarcastically, of course!)

Next was the baking soda (BS) wash.  I mixed up the solution earlier in the day so it was ready and I did the same thing to the apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse.  I put the BS wash in a squirt bottle and started to pour this stuff on my head working it into my scalp.  I never got that slippery feeling I was looking for so I decided to try the paste method.  Yeah, still no slippery feeling but I continued anyway.  Then I started to rinse.  Oh CRAP!  I was supposed to let this sit.  So I did it all again...

It sat on my head for about 5-10 minutes.  I didn't feel any tingling, it just felt normal.  

Onto the ACV rinse.  Sprayed this solution from the middle of my hair down to the bottom.  I made sure that it was sufficiently covered and let that sit for 2 minutes.   Rinsed that off too it with cool water!  I also brushed my hair using a wide tooth comb as suggested by others.  It worked all the knots out thank goodness.

And lost A LOT of hair.  Double the normal amount.  I am sure this is due to me scrubbing the crap out of my scalp during the wash cycle.

I chose to dry my hair using a cotton t-shirt, also a suggestion by other pooers,  wrapped it in a bun and I'm done.   I am going to wait to see how it feels tomorrow when it's dry if it needs some cocnut oil on the ends.

Day 2:

Hair felt really dry and the curls were all over the place.  Grrrrr..  It think I used waaay too much baking soda trying to get that slippery feeling during the wash.   So, I let me hair be this day and did some more research.

Day:3:

Okay, so I did some more research last night as the what went wrong.  I am sure I used too much baking soda and they were right a little goes a long way.  So, instead of waiting another day to wash, I washed today to see if I was right about the baking soda.

I did another mix of BS and distiller water (1c Water, 1Tbs BS)

I also really upped the vinegar in my rinse to about 1c water, 1/4c ACV because my hair as so dry. My other option was to do a treatment with some sort of oil to rehydrate which I wanted to avoid.  BS does not wash oil out of your hair so I would need to use Dr Bronners again which I wanted to avoid.

Before I hopped into the shower I brushed my hair for about 5 or so minutes so distribute the oils from the top of my head to the bottom and used some organic coconut oil just on the ends.

Wash felt normal.  No slippery feeling.  This time instead of spraying on the ACV rinse I poured it on my hair from the ears down.  Also rinsed in cold water while brushing my hair using my large tooth comb.  I could feel the difference right away in the shower.  Knots out, lost LESS then half the normal amount of hair and it feels soooooo soft!  Hooray!

Plopped hair again and it looks and feels much better.

Hair is shinier, still soft, curls a bit more defined..  

Day 4:

Let my hair be today.  It's still frizzy but less frizzy. I also started to notice  a little more oil at my roots, not terrible by any means, But this makes me think that I am doing something right.  Definitely believe I am going to need some gel to hold this curl. I need to do some research on flax seed gel that I read somewhere.  

Going to attempt to add a few curls with my flat iron today.  I have to go out to run errands and well my hair looks a bit crazy after a night sleep on it.

Day 5:

I was going to leave it be today but I ended up working in the yard so, ya know, had to wash.  I noticed this morning the oil is starting to kick in.  I can't see it but I can feel it.  I hope this doesn't last too long! Ugh... So brushed my hair for at least 5 minutes before I hopped in the shower.

My hair is now plopped on my head and hubby gets a kick every time he sees me with my "turban" on. I'm going to have hubby take a picture later..

Crunchy...

Adjective. Used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc. 

Also used to describe establishments where alternative foods and products are sold, i.e. natural food stores.