Homemade Hygiene. Oh, yeah.

Well, I've crossed another invisible line, but I think that our relationship can handle it.

Herb garden.  Food, medicine, and cleaning?

Since you haven't written me off with the urban livestock, I feel safe venturing into another new realm:  I'm tired of buying "natural" cleaning products, shampoos, conditioners, and laundry detergents.  I'm tired of all of the label-reading and expense.  I would love to make use of my home's gray water--but I don't quite know that I trust even my green stuff, poured over my plants, to prove healthy for them and the soil.  So, I've listened to my favorite enviro advice column and decided to make these products for myself.

I'm taking all of this one step at a time, using up the remaining commercial products we have and starting herbal concoctions going that take a few weeks to brew.  For now, I have switched to making my own shampoo, conditioner, dish soap, and kitchen floor cleaner.  Whew.

OK.  I would guess that anyone still reading this is with me here, but I should still mention that--ahem-- I do not live in fear of germs and dirt.  There are bad germs, absolutely; I like a clean house & self as well as anyone.  I am a big fan of washing hands.  What I find laughable is this pervasive idea that we are going to nuke any potential germs (The Bad Guys), and this will magically grant us health and safety--as though the larger world and the microscopic one can be adequately assessed by an "us-versus-them" scenario.

Anyway, I can rant about systems thinking and out-dated patriarchal competition-and-fear-based social paradigms another time.  (!)  For now, let's talk about castile soap, baking soda, white vinegar, lemon juice, herbs and essential oils--and pursue a less heroic path towards cleanliness.

Step aside, Suave...

Wanna try this yourself?  These recipes are heavily inspired by The Naturally Clean Home and my latest favorite herbal book Wild & Weedy Apothecary, both of which contain all sorts of goodness.  I get impatient about measuring things closely, so I used the recipes as guidelines most of the time.  Here are the successes (at least so far, so good):


Simple Shampoo
1 T. baking soda dissolved in
1 c. warm water

Pour into an old shampoo bottle, close, and shake.  Apply generously to wet hair & scalp, scrubbing scalp with fingertips and making sure to thoroughly saturate your hair.  Leave on for a few minutes if you like and then rinse.

Variations:

   -Use a cup of herbal tea or an herbal infusion* in place of the water.  Good herbs to use include rosemary, sage, horsetail, nettles, and yarrow flowers.  I find this recipe lasts me through several showers--if you use tea, it might be best to refrigerate after a few days.

   -You may substitute 1 oz of castile soap for the baking soda. I've been happy with the baking soda so far...and afraid the castile soap might be too drying.

*An herbal infusion is a tea made with more plant material, brewed for a much longer time.  A very general recipe might be one ounce of dried herb (root or leaf) in one pint of boiling water, covered and steeped for eight hours or overnight.  Flowers and seeds are more delicate and require shorter steeping time.  Any herbal by Susun Weed is great for more detail.  

Conditioning Rinse
1 T. apple cider vinegar (preferably the good organic stuff) added to
1 c. warm water.

Pour into an old conditioner bottle, shake, and work your concoction through your scalp and hair, letting it soak in for a bit--I rinse it at the end of my shower. 

Variations:

   -If you would like, you can steep beneficial herbs in the vinegar for a month, shaking daily and storing in a sunny window.  I have some brewing; in the meantime, I added 4-5 drops of bergamot essential oil to my current mix--the earthy orange blends blissfully with the cider vinegar.

   -For help with dandruff and to encourage general scalp health, make an herbal vinegar out of nettle, violet leaf, red clover and peppermint, according to The Wild and Weedy Apothecary.  Or (no joke) parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.  Love it.

Love-in-a-Tangle and herbal vinegar

As strange as it seems to not be lathering a sudsy shampoo into my hair, it is actually working well--not too oily, not too frizzy or dry--I'm digging this, to be honest.  I am still using a tiny dab of leave-in conditioner and a larger dab of gel...although while researching recipes, I came across this website which has a ton of info on making the baking soda/vinegar potions, why they are effective, and recipes for homemade gel, mousse, and hairspray.  Hmmm.  I sense homemade gel in my future.

Another super homemade cleaner is the citrus-mint kitchen/bathroom floor cleaner that I used to mop my kitchen linoleum a few days ago.  Using essential oils has been reminding me how effective aromatherapy is--who knew I could enjoy mopping anything??  And, yet, the smell was blissful.

Citrus-Mint Floor Cleaner
Fill a bucket with very hot water
Add:  a few squirts (tablespoons?) of Dr Bronner's peppermint castile soap
15 drops sweet orange essential oil
8 drops lemon essential or 1/4 c. lemon juice (or both)

If you have unscented castile soap, that is how I originally found this recipe, and I am sure it would be great--however, I just used what I had--which was the minty stuff, and it smelled fantastic with the orange & lemon.

My big failure so far has been liquid dish soap.  Boo.  Unfortunately we do not have a dishwasher, and so I need something that will really hold up to loads of dishes.  In the middle of this, I've also been experimenting with creating herbal salves and lip balms--which means a lot of olive oil, shea butter and melted beeswax all over my kitchen.  This is not a great time for lackluster dish soap.  I'm about to cave and spend some more time on R & D...with a bottle of Mrs. Meyers or Seventh Generation handy.

First, I tried several tablespoons of castile soap to a sinkful of hot water, adding 4-5 drops of lemon essential oil as well.  This seemed to clean adequately but left a hazy film on everything, particularly glassware.  I tried collecting rinse water in the other side of my sink and adding several tablespoons of vinegar to get rid of the film, but that didn't seem to help.  Of course, I was also washing olive oil salve off of some of this stuff--I'm not sure anything can handle that the first time through.

Grated soap:  now available in a bottle-shaped bar!

So, I tried another recipe.  I grated a bar of Dr Bronner's unscented castile into hot water, stirred it until the soap was dissolved, and let it cool for five minutes.  Then I added lemon juice, some essential oils, and several tablespoons of vegetable glycerin.  When I deemed it cool, I stirred it to break up any areas that might have solidified, and then I used a funnel to pour it into an empty dish soap squeeze bottle.  Unfortunately, I discovered that it wasn't cool enough and now I have a squeeze bottle-shaped hunk of hard-ish soap and a little filmy, bubbly water surrounding it.

I think that to truly make a good dish soap, I may have to venture into actual soap-making.  I would love to try at some point, but not right now; I'm not entirely excited about working with lye anyway.  So, in the interim, I am resigned to buy it ready-made.

There you have it.  Homemade Hygiene, Part One.  When I run out of laundry detergent, window spray, and the various bathroom cleansers I will be back with more recipes!