Fresh as a Daisy - Part Three

CLEAN LAUNDRY WITHOUT POISONING OUR WATERWAYS!

WASHING-UP, HAIR CARE, TOOTH CARE

No-one would deny that, when it comes to washing dishes, detergents make the job both easier & quicker. However, cutting out the use of soapless detergents is absolutely necessary if we are serious about cleaning up our polluted planet.

We need to start right at the beginning. Grease is the biggest problem when washing dishes. If you reduce the amount of fat in your diet, you will improve your health well as making dishwashing pleasanter. Cut down, too, on the number of cooking utensils & serving dishes you use. One-pot meals, with a side salad & fresh fruit for dessert, are not only a tasty & healthy way of eating, but save time & fuel.
After the meal, mop up your plate with bread & eat that too.
Or use stale bread to wipe the plates clean before stacking them. Or keep a bag or large receptacle of bran handy. Plunge each article into the bran, using handsful to thoroughly clean it before stacking. (It's a good idea to have some paper underneath to catch any mess.) Keep the bran in a refrigerator & change it before it becomes unpleasant. The bread or bran can be composted or used as animal food.

Believe it or not, you can wash up very satisfactorily with no soap, in cold rainwater! If the plates are properly wiped and therefore not greasy, cold water and a clean dishcloth or scourer works fine. Bacteria don't easily breed in cold water - it's warm water you need to beware of! So if you need hot water, make sure it's really hot.
This is the one advantage of a dishwasher, which if you have a large family or community may be more hygenic than careless hand dishwashing. But why not try using it without any detergent?
For a more conventional wash up, pour boiling water over soap scraps & leave to dissolve. Use 2 bowls of HOT water, adding sufficient soap to one to make the water feel slippery, & 3/4 cup of vinegar or strained lemon juice to the rinsing water. If you want a perfect shine (previously achieved by having a microscopic film of detergent on all your dishes!) polish with a clean tea-towel.
Make it a family affair - or a meditation!

HAIR CARE
Shampoos, conditioners, mousses, setting lotions, & chemical colours are totally unnecessary & their constant use over-stimulates the oil glands, attracting dirt.
Choose a simple, easy-to-manage cut. Long hair is often easier to manage & allows more flexibility in styling, than short cuts. Brush your hair 100 strokes night & morning, leaning forward for 50 strokes to bring the blood to the scalp. When your hair reaches the 'sticky' stage, DON’T wash it - keep right on brushing, 3 or 4 times a day if you can. In a few days the greasiness should have disappeared. Brush your hair well whenever it has been exposed to dirt, dust, & smells. If you have been sweating badly, rinse the hair & scalp with warm rainwater. Allow to dry naturally. You may never need to wash your hair again!

I've gone as long as a year without washing my waistlength hair, but found it best in the end to wash it 3 or 4 times a year, mainly because I have very fine light-coloured hair.
If after a period of experimenting you do need to wash yours, use plain soap, or a very little simple shampoo, & add lemon juice or vinegar to the final rinse instead of using conditioner. Or, for dry hair, use a beaten egg instead of soap, using warm, not hot water for rinsing.(You don’t want to end up with scrambled hair!)
For really out-of-condition hair, hot oil treatments can be helpful. Natural colourless henna is another excellent conditioning treatment, as is traditional mayonnaise made with eggs, oil & lemon juice. For any of these three, you will need to apply the substance thickly enough to cover all your unwashed hair, then wrap the head in hot towels & leave for 30 minutes to an hour. You can cover the towels in plastic sheeting to keep in the heat & moisture, or change the outer one when it cools. Finish with a good rinse in warm water, & a light shampoo if necessary.
For colouring, use chamomile, calendula petals, strong tea, or henna.

TOOTH CARE:
Brushing with salt water will keep your teeth clean & your mouth fresh. It will also make your toothbrush last longer. Try a little bicarb soda on stains. Salt water is the best possible mouthwash.
The dried flower stalks of fennel or dill make excellent between-tooth cleaners. Unlike wooden toothpicks, they never splinter, yet they are as flexible as floss, & taste pleasant. Chewing a few fennel, dill, or cumin seeds, or some parsley, will freshen the breath.
More healthy alternatives for tooth and mouth care

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Note:In researching & answering questions about earthwise living, Margaret offers information, opinion, & personal experience, but no quick fixes! Readers should evaluate these offerings in the context of their own situations; they are suggestions, *not* recommendations. Any responsibility for their implementation rests *solely* with the reader.

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