A Lifestyle Change

So this isn't my usual thing to talk about, but a new project of mine is trying to clear my cleaning supplies and everyday items of chemicals.

 About two years ago I went to the dermatologist because my scalp was consistently bleeding. Not anything huge but I would scratch a spot and find a small spot of blood. I was told that I have a chronic scalp condition that isn't a health issue or anything but I would never be able to get rid of it and that I can 'help' it by using certain shampoos and medicine. I used the medicine oil the doctor gave me for a while but it didn't seem to do much and neither did the shampoos. What concerned me was I was using, amongst other shampoos, a tar shampoo. This blog, said it recommended regular cancer screenings if you frequently use tar shampoo. 

I couldn't take that the answer to this was to use these unhelpful tar shampoos and medicines the rest of my life. So for a long time I just went back to whatever shampoo was on hand and every so often using one of the special shampoos. Recently I watched this documentary on Netflix called Chemerical, and it's about all the different chemicals that show up in a typical household because of cleaning products etc, and what you can do to replace those. In a round about way it inspired me to try a shampoo that had less 'things' in it. I knew my hair was so used to typical shampoo it would be hard to adjust so the shampoo couldn't be too drastic. I ended up with the Whole Foods brand Lavender shampoo (The picture says body lotion because their website doesn't show the shampoo) and the conditioner with no scent. 

I've been using more of it so that I can be sure to cover all areas of my hair but this particular brand really isn't that expensive and I think after my hair adjusts I'll be able to use less. It's not perfect but it does seem to be a lot more organic than shampoos I've been using before and more importantly it has seemed to be helping my scalp!

Inspired by this I cleaned my entire room with a homemade cleaning spray and made an all natural air freshener for my room and for the first time my extremely bad allergies seem to be going away.  

I've been making my own laundry detergent for a while now since it's so much cheaper and lasts forever (which is perfect for a college student...) so I'd really like to try to replace anything I can with more natural substitutes. It can't hurt, and the alternative is also usually cheaper anyways. 

Reading up on things like the different chemicals in your shampoos, actually kind of scares me that we don't know what we are putting on our bodies. More importantly I don't want to be putting chemicals on my kids someday. I know it's not realistic to get rid of every chemical in my life but I think I can certainly help it with little things like making a natural air freshener instead of just picking up a spray can freshener.