Natural Homemade Shampoo and Conditioner

I'm trying to get more intentional about sharing the recipes I've found/invented for natural health care and household products.  In this post, I'll share the recipes I use for homemade shampoo and conditioner.

Before I started covering my hair full time, other women were constantly asking me how I got my hair to be so soft.  I always want to laugh when people ask me that, because I know that my answer will horrify them:  I don't wash my hair every day, and when I do, I don't use commercial shampoo.  In the summer I wash my hair about every 2-3 days.  In the winter, I wash it about every 3-4 days.  (My hair is extremely dry, so I can get away with washing it a little less often than a person with oily hair.)  I don't use styling products.  I don't use a blow-dryer; I just let my hair dry naturally.  If I happen to take a shower at night, I just braid my hair and leave it braided until it dries.  

Here are my recipes for shampoo and conditioner.  They work best if you use spray bottles.  These recipes can easily be doubled or tripled to fit larger spray bottles.

Shampoo:
-3/4 cup almond or coconut milk
-1/2 cup natural baby shampoo (I use Burt's Bees, but you can use any brand you want.  Just don't use straight-up castile soap if you live in a city with hard water.  The minerals in the water will react with the soap and make your hair all gunky and gross.  Learned that one the hard way.)

Pour milk and baby shampoo into a spray bottle and shake well.  I have always stored my shampoo right in the shower and I've never had any problems with mold developing.  If your bottle develops mold, throw the shampoo out, start over, and keep it in the fridge.  But it should hold up just fine.

Conditioner:
 -1 cup water
-1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Shake well.  Spritz all over your hair in the shower and comb with a wide-tooth comb.  Rinse thoroughly.

For a deep conditioner, I use coconut oil.  I use it instead of body lotion.  After I've put it on, while my hands still have some oil on them, I run my fingers through my hair, and that's plenty.  With coconut oil, less is more.  It can easily get to be too much and too greasy if you try to add more. 

A reader pointed out that I'd forgotten to include where to buy the ingredients.  Thanks, E!  All of them can be purchased online.  Coconut oil is available at whole food stores.  I think some Trader Joe's locations carry it.  Burts Bees baby shampoo and (pasteurized) apple cider vinegar are both available at most grocery stores.  I haven't used raw ACV before, but I think you can find it online or at whole food stores.  Coconut and almond milk are both available at most grocery stores, but almond milk is usually easier to find.

Gardening 101

I’m at the point where I’m sort of settling into a rhythm with gardening and homesteading.  I’m at the point where people are starting to ask me questions and I feel confident about answering them, at least some of the time. 

One of the questions I’ve been getting asked a lot is, “Can I grow stuff even if I don’t have a lot of time?”  The answer to that is YES!  I don’t have a lot of time either, to be honest.  Most of my time is taken up with housework, my Etsy shop, writing, and canning. And here’s the thing about gardening: Getting it all set up is the time-consuming part.  The ongoing watering and maintenance is pretty simple.

I don’t want to give the impression that I have it all figured out, but at this point, I do feel experienced enough to give a bit of practical advice to people who are interested in learning more about gardening.  So here are a few simple tips to help you get started:

1.)    Just start!  I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that they would love to do all the gardening and homestead-y things that I do, but they can’t because of XYZ.  I’m not saying there won’t be logistical challenges, or that there is only one way to live self-sufficiently.  But most of the excuses that people give are not valid.  Just start.  Start small with just one pot of your favorite herb.  But start!

2.)    Consider the space and lighting.  When a seed packet says the plant needs full sun, it means FULL SUN.  Don’t even try to mess with this or your plants won’t grow properly.  I’ve learned that the hard way.  If your growing space doesn’t get a lot of sun, growing plants like tomatoes and chamomile simply isn’t going to work for you. 

3.)    Be realistic about what quantities you will actually use.  For people who have more space to work with, it can be tempting to grow a ton of your favorite herb or vegetable.  But you can easily end up with more than you know what to do with.  If you have a large family, that might not be as much of a problem.  But right now, it’s just me and my husband.  Our storage space is pretty limited, so I have to be mindful of how I use it. 

4.)    Don’t worry!  If things don’t go well the first time around, don’t worry about it!  I can’t tell you how many basil plant casualties ensued while I was trying to get this gardening thing figured out.  Learn from your mistakes and get back in the saddle.  You’ll be so glad you did!

If you have any questions about any of this, or about specific plants, please leave a comment!  If I don't know the answer, I will do my best to find it for you! :)

Ask Kati: DIY Tichels?

Q: Have you ever tried making your own tichels?  Got any advice for people who want to try making their own?

A:  I have yet to make my own tichels, mostly because it's cheaper to buy them and I'm on a tight-ish budget right now.  I'm also afraid that I wouldn't be able to sew on fabric that thin without snagging it.  The fabric is the main thing to consider if you want to make your own tichels.  You'll want a very thin fabric, something like organdy or a silk blend.   If anyone out there decides to make their own, please let me know how it goes and if you have any more tips! :)

A Return to Modesty, Part 2: Lies the World Tells About Modesty

 In Part 1, I talked about the two big lies the church tells about modesty.  In this post, I’ll be dissecting the two big lies the world tells about modesty.  Needless to say, there are tons of lies about modesty out there, but most of them fall under the umbrella of the two lies I’m going to talk about in this post.

Lie #1: Dressing modestly is always a sign that a person is ashamed of their body and/or sexuality.

There is so much I could say about this.  I will probably have to turn it into another post at some point.  I’m not going to deny that some people have negative emotions toward their bodies or sexuality because of past trauma or psychological wounds they received growing up.  That’s an unfortunately common scenario, and it can certainly lead to covering up more of the body.  But this is not the case for every single person who chooses to dress modestly.  For me, it’s quite the opposite.  Covering my head and dressing modestly is an outward expression of the fact that I am completely happy with my body and my sexuality.  In the Judeo-Christian tradition, sexual intimacy is kept within the context of marriage, not because it’s a shameful thing, but because it’s a sacred thing.  Now, I’ll readily admit that the church has fallen pretty short in this regard, and there is a lot of shame associated with sexuality even in the church.  But that is not how it was supposed to be.  Sex is supposed to stay within the context of marriage because that is the context in which it was designed to be the most beautiful, sacred, and yes, even pleasurable. 

Lie #2:  Headcoverings and modest dress should be avoided, because they’ve been used to oppress women.

That statement is true, to a degree.  Headcoverings and modest clothing have been used in female oppression in various parts of the world.  But they are simply objects.  Objects are amoral; they have no moral value.  Objects become moral or immoral when humans give them moral or immoral value judgments.  It would be ridiculous to say no one should ever build with bricks because brick was used in the construction of Auschwitz.  The brick was not to blame; it was the way it was used that was wrong and immoral.  There are also countless ways in which brick is used positively, such as in the construction of schools and hospitals.  Clothes and headcoverings are just cloth.  Yes, they have been used to oppress.  But they can also be used as positive external expressions of inward beliefs.

A Return to Modesty, Part 1: Lies the Church Tells About Modesty

I’ve been wanting to write about the issue of modesty for a long time.  Having done a lot of extensive soul-searching in this area, I have a lot to say about it.  I put off writing about it for awhile because I was having a difficult time putting words together.  Now that I’ve got my thoughts in order, I plan on writing quite a bit about the concept of modesty over the course of several blog entries to make it a bit easier to digest.

My views on modesty are very similar to those expressed in Wendy Shalit’s “A Return to Modesty”.  Although Wendy Shalit is writing for the secular world, there is a lot of biblically sound truth to this book.  I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the subject of modesty, regardless of their religious affiliation.

One question I get asked a lot is how feminism comes into play in my view of modesty.  I go into a little more detail on this in my blog entry entitled headcovering and feminism.

Alright, moving on to the main event here.  I know I’m opening a can of worms with this, but I have say it because it’s been bugging me for ages:  I firmly believe that most of the Christian viewpoints on modesty today couldn’t be any further from the truth.  It’s my belief that the church has accepted two huge lies, two false opposite extremes, on the subject of modesty.  Here they are:

Lie #1:  Modesty is all about covering up and avoiding sin and temptation.

Lie #2:  Modest dress and conduct is out-of-date and unnecessary in the church and the world today.

The idea that modesty is all about clothing is extremely dangerous on so many levels.  It can lead to the belief that our bodies and our sexuality should be sources of shame.  It boils the concept of modesty down to an overly simplistic, and I dare say legalistic list of do’s and don’ts.  I’ve read several stories written by girls and women who grew up in ultra-fundamentalist homes and grew to hate their bodies because their parents were such control freaks about what they wore.  That’s exactly what modesty is NOT about.  I'll be writing more about this in future posts.

Equally disturbing is the lie that modesty should be disregarded.  I know this is probably going to ruffle some feathers, but it really bothers me when I see Christian women wearing tight pants and low-cut shirts, especially in church.  A few sincere believers have told me they don’t believe it’s necessary for a woman to be intentional about covering her body.  Based on my interpretation of scripture and my view on female discrimination in general, I have to disagree.  When a woman dresses that way, she is disrespecting herself and her fellow women.  When practiced rightly, modesty sends the message, “I value my own dignity and womanhood.”

That wraps up Part 1.  Part 2 delves into the lies the secular world tells about modesty.  I will get it written and posted ASAP, but I've got a lot on my plate right now, so please bear with me :).