Low-waste hair care

I crossed the no return road of solid shampoo around 3 years ago and have not looked back. Although I’m undoubtedly an advocate of solid shampoo, I won’t pretend that it’s been the simplest of journeys. The waxy build up rumours around weeks 2-4 are true. And if you’re planning to use an apple cider vinegar rinse, be prepared to spend a little time figuring out the ratio thats right for your own locks. But once you come out of the other side, you’ll be left with softer hair that requires less frequent washing, and ultimately less daily reliance on plastic. Winner.

What I’m working with

My hair is long(ish), wavy and fine. Before switching I had to wash my hair everyday, and I couldn’t leave it to dry naturally without a halo of frizz. Even when using products or straightening my hair, the frizz halo was always inevitable. Although (largely due to my genes) I’ll never have the perfect glossy, tumbling locks, I can now let my hair dry naturally with a gentle wave - something I could never do before.

My weapon(s) of choice

Over the years I’ve tried many a soap bar. There are lots of ‘shampoo’ bars on the market but a normal soap bar can still do the trick if it has the right properties. I look to avoid palm oil, parabens and fragrance. As I have a skin contact allergy to the latter, many of the options on offer are not suitable for me but one shampoo bar that I’ve returned to has been by Timmys who make a lovely cold pressed shampoo bar here in the UK. Another I’ve been using for the last three months and really enjoying, is the nettle and rosemary shampoo bar from Honest Skincare, made in the UK with organic ingredients. Of all the options I have tried, these two result in the least build up.

I also have a conditioner bar but in all honesty I find this too heavy for my fine hair. Instead, every so often, I’ll follow my shampoo with an apple cider vinegar rinse as the acidity of the solution resets the balance of my hair, following the alkaline of the soap.

My routine

I now wash my hair every 2-3 days.

When it comes to application, generally I’ve found with solid shampoo that it’s good to get out of the habit of thinking that more = cleaner. With some of the bars I had to lather the bar in my hands and then add the lather to my hair. Otherwise, if I applied the bar straight to my hair it would become waxy once dry. But with Timmy's and Honest I’ve found that I can rub them straight over my hair and from there I’ll build up a lather as you usually would do. I make sure it gets a thorough rinse and that’s that.

I used to use an apple cider rinse every few days after shampooing. For whatever reason I’ve not felt it necessary to do this often with the Honest bar. If you’re in need of some conditioning, I highly recommend taking a little time to try out different ratios over a period of time. A lot of the recipes suggest 1 part vinegar to 1 part water. But I required so little vinegar comparatively - the recommended amount again left my hair waxy.

What I have found works for me is to keep a glass tumbler in the bathroom, fill it up with water from the shower, top it up with about a teaspoon of vinegar, and then pour the mixture over my hair. I let it do it’s magic for the remainder of my shower and then rinse my hair clean at the end. If my friends and family are to be believed (!) there is honestly no smell of vinegar once your barnet has dried. Rather than reaching for my hair dryer and straighteners, I now prefer to brush my hair through wet and let it dry naturally.

Over time, and only when the need for replacement arose, I’ve chosen more considered products for stying etc. Along the way I’ve picked up a few wooden brushes and a comb, I also use organic cotton & natural rubber hair ties from KOOSHOO and a linen scrunchie from Arkitaip.

I hope this was useful for anyone thinking of making the switch or still finding their way on the road to plastic free hair care.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve made the change or if you’re thinking of doing so, and let me know if you have any recommendations from your own experience.

Lauren

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Plastic Free Pearly Whites

As part of Plastic Free July, on Instagram throughout the month I’ve been sharing a few things that help to minimise my daily reliance on plastic.

When it comes to looking after the pearly whites, a bamboo toothbrush has been a solid part of my dental care routine for a good few years now. They’re so handy for me to repurpose in the workshop too.

Finding the right toothpaste fit was bit more of a journey. I really like the Georganics English Peppermint Toothpaste. In attempt to further minimise waste I did have a little a stab at making my own toothpaste. Long story short, it was not for me. I found the required amount of baking soda made it too salty and I couldn’t stick it out. This led me to have a little dabble with toothpaste tablets which I’ve been using for a fair few months now. You pop one in, give it a good chew (which took me a while to get used to), and then brush as normal as it turns to a paste. They create so little waste/mess and I love that you can buy them in bulk and keep in your own container.

I’d also been thinking about making my own mouthwash when the perfectly timed Rachel of The Foraged Life popped up in my Instagram stories with a little DIY recipe (thank you, Rachel!). It’s a really good base that I’ve tweaked just a little along the way to suit my taste etc. It’s so simple I thought I’d share with you what’s now part of my routine in case you want to give it a try. You can also find Rachel’s original recipe here (amongst lots of other helpful info for eco-friendly living).

DIY Mouthwash

Ingredients:

• peppermint essential oil - the essential oils I use for everything (including cleaning etc.) are from Sacred Soul Holistics - they are organic and the packaging is dreamy

• tea tree essential oil

• baking soda - if you don’t have a local bulk store, Zero Waste Club (UK) supply this online, plastic free

• filtered water (I don’t have a water filter so before using, I boil some water and let it cool)

• a glass bottle - my spherical bottle is from a local supplier, Wares of Knutsford

• funnel (this is optional but makes life a little easier, no need to buy one though - I made this from a piece of scrap paper and some washi tape)

Method (to make approx 400ml)

Step i)

Prep your water & pour into your glass bottle with a little room to spare

Step ii)

Add a few teaspoons of baking soda using the funnel. I have found that too much of this can make the solution taste salty so I’d suggest going slowly with this and see what works for you

Step iii)

Add peppermint oil to taste (the more the merrier for me - I add around 20-25 drops)

Step iv)

Add tea tree oil. Not a huge fan of the taste but it’s worth sneaking in for its antibacterial properties (around 10 drops)

Step v)

Shakey shakey

I hope that you have found this little post of use or at least of mild interest! I feel like I’m mostly there with my plastic free dental care routine but I’m still on the lookout for some biodegradable, vegan floss.

Let me know if you give the recipe or any of the products a go. If you have any other recommendations I’d love to hear them.

Lauren

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A Spring Clean: Natural, DIY Cleaning Recipes

As we welcome Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are a little longer and lighter and, for many, this is traditionally the time for a good Spring clean.

I had my first dabble with a DIY, low waste cleaning recipe a few years ago. I was frustrated by the abundant use of plastic bottles for consumables such as cleaning products, and had also recently learnt that I had a skin contact allergy to fragrance, which, in case you’re wondering, is seemingly in everything. Even ‘fragrance free’ products often sneak an ingredient such as ‘parfum’ in to mask an ingredient that does not smell very nice, thus making it ‘unscented’. I had given up the search for 'eco friendly' cleaning products that would not irritate my skin. After doing some research I landed on a natural, easy recipe that eliminated the need for harsh chemicals and unnecessary plastic. I found it so simple and genuinely much more preferable -and cost effective- to using standard cleaning products that I've been using it ever since. Having picked up a few variations along the way, I thought it might be helpful to pull them all together in one place, for anyone else thinking of giving this a go.

In this post, I share the little basket of tricks I use and the three DIY recipes (with varying degrees of required effort) that I switch between to clean the whole house.

In the basket

• A tin dispenser for bi-carbonate of soda (if you’re looking for plastic free bicarb try Zero Waste Club)

• Essential oils - I use Sacred Soul Holistics who produce organic essential oils (as an added bonus their packaging is beautiful)

• Castille soap - if I’m honest I use this the least and tend to reach for my vinegar based cleaners but its good to have the option in case I’m out of vinegar. Generally, this stuff has so many uses so it’s good to have knocking around and it can be bought in bulk and refill. I’ve had this bottle for such a long time - I was reluctant about buying the plastic bottle but a little goes such a long way. I use Dr Bronner as their products are organic and fair trade. This is the only company I am aware of who source palm oil responsibly. Many claim to use ‘sustainably sourced’ palm oil but with very misleading assurances. I understand that Dr Bronner work closely with small scale farmers who grow palm oil organically in Ghana, without any need for mass-deforestation

• Cleaning cloths - we have a handful of old rags for use in different areas of the house. I also recently picked up this pack of biodegradable abrasive cloths - they’re machine washable and made from natural fibres which I find preferable to using and washing micro fibre cloths usually sold for cleaning

• I have a couple of amber glass bottles with spray tops but if you’re nifty you can put an old spray lid onto the top of your white vintage bottle (that you’ll need for recipes i & ii)

Recipe i | Citrus Peel Infused Vinegar ~ a little labour intensive, requiring prep a few weeks prior to using

Multi surface cleaner, also great for glass. Not suitable for marble/granite due to the acidity of the vinegar.

This citrus peel infused vinegar cleaning solution was recommended to me during discussion around Recipe ii (when shared on Instagram a little while ago), as it does not produce the same intense vinegar scent. Upon doing a little research into this recipe, the ones I’d seen used orange or lemon peels but, with an abundance of grapefruits around the house, I thought I’d give a variation of the recipe a go. You would not believe how many grapefruits we get through - they’re one of the fruits we can easily pick up plastic free which is an added incentive but they are also a favourite around here. I love the smell - it’s such a refreshing balance of sweet and sharp.

Ingredients

• Citrus Peels - these can be peeled or chopped as long as the flesh of the fruit has been removed (it’s worth taking the time to remove the fruit otherwise the sugars can make the solution sticky)

• Distilled white vinegar (ideally organic which seems impossible to source in the UK at the moment) - you can pick this up in a glass bottle from large supermarkets (yes - it is different to white wine vinegar - I checked!)

• A wide topped jar (nothing special, just something wide enough to easily get your peels in and out of). Mine (pictured above) is from Weck

The Process

1. As you go, you can store your citrus peels in an air tight container in the fridge (no need to OD on vitamin C)

2. When you have enough peels, take your wide topped glass jar, pop in your peels, cover with vinegar and make it air tight

3. Leave it be for a few weeks, this allows time for the peels to infuse the vinegar

4. Strain out the liquid into a jug, separating it from the peels and dispense the liquid into a spray bottle. Fill it half way and then top up with H2O

5. You can add essential oil to your liking or leave it as is - I find it’s pretty sweet smelling with the grapefruit peels but there’s also no harm in adding a few drops of lavender or eucalyptus

6. Spray away! I find this is particularly good one to use in the bathroom - I give everywhere a good spray and leave it to work for a little while before a light scrub and a rinse

Recipe ii | Vinegar & Essential Oil Solution ~ little effort required

Multi surface cleaner, also great for glass. Not suitable for marble/granite due to the acidity of the vinegar.

This is the first DIY recipe I tried, it’s super simple. I’m not convinced it’s quite as powerful as the citrus peel solution but it doesn’t require the two week prep so no waiting time (or excuses!) - you can just get cleaning with this one:

• 1 part distilled organic white vinegar

• 1 part water

• A few drops of essential oil - I have recently moved to using peppermint essential oil which I find pretty much eliminates the potent vinegar scent. The mint is so fresh and makes this a really nice one to use

• For a really thorough clean, you can also sprinkle a bit of bicarb on the surface before or after spraying and leave it for a little while before giving it a scrub and a rinse

Recipe iii | Castile Soap Solution ~ effortless

Multi surface cleaner - safe to use anywhere (even on the dog, your body & your barnet)

• 1/2 table spoon of Castile soap - lavender smells AMAZING and makes this a pleasure to use

• 100ml water

• Spray!

If you give any of these a dabble or have any other recommendations, let me know.

Lauren

☾

Low Waste Washing Up

Our low waste dish washing set up

As part of Plastic Free July last year, one of the things I shared was our low waste dish washing set up and this little collection of tools that my partner and I gradually built up over the years. When taking steps to live more consciously, whilst it can be tempting to replace existing plastic items with more sustainable ones, I’m very much an advocate of first using up what we have. When the time does come to replace any items, we can be sure that we have gotten the most out of them and can feel good about our choice to replace them with something less environmentally impactful.

Whilst these tools all have their uses, the one I reach for most is the coconut scrubbing brush (top left). It’s the perfect size for cups and mugs but it makes cleaning bowls super simple too. Replacement brush heads are available for the wooden handled brush on the right so when the heads reach the end of their life they can go straight into the compost. We also have a large bottle brush that’s great for our reusable water bottles and a less than appealing, old, slightly abrasive cloth that’s useful for the surfaces etc.

One of the more recent additions to our little collection, and the biggest step away from a daily reliance on plastic, was this block of olive soap from Savon de Marseille. As I have a skin contact allergy to fragrance, before I found this, I sourced fragrance free washing up liquid in a plastic bottle. So, to find this fragrance free bar of soap suitable for washing dishes made me very happy. When I posted about this in July 2018 it was still early days but, eight months on and this block of soap has very much become part of our daily habit. Given how well it’s lasted, I expect to get at least 3 more months out of it before we’ll need to replace it. When the time comes, we’ll be looking for another block of soap - we’re definitely converted. For anyone who can’t part with liquid soap, Elsa Lindholm has written a helpful blog post about making your own plastic free dish soap.

Being a natural avoider of dish washing responsibility (!) I do find that using these tactile tools that use natural materials such as wood and coconut fibre make tasks like doing the dishes a little less painful, and a little more mindful.

A few things I’ve learnt along the way:

• to help prolong the life of wooden brushes, it’s worth taking a little time to oil them before first use, and to let them air and dry out throughly after each use - we repurposed a cracked class tumbler to keep them in by the sink but something that would allow them to drain better would be more sensible!

• if you want to give the brushes a good clean, you can do so by soaking them in a little organic white vinegar

• keep the block of soap on a soap dish - we found that it quickly stuck quite firmly to our wooden soap dish (pictured), making it more solid and preventing it from sliding around

• to use the block of soap - rub your brush on it and swish it in the water or apply straight to the dishes. Or, to get the water really soapy for a good soak, hold the block under the tap and run the water over it straight into the basin

• watch out for block soap that has been made using palm oil - there are palm oil free versions available like this one

If you have any tips or recommendations for low waste washing up I’d love to hear them.

Happy dish washing!

Lauren

  ☾