Consider ~ Unconditioning

I don't know about you, but I've been conditioned by society to buy products that I now believe might be making me sick. I'm so conditioned that I recently spent about $50 on 'health care and beauty' products that just don't work.

When I got my hair cut last month I bought the shampoo they used. I'm not exactly sure why I bought it, other than I thought it smelled good. But what I found was that after two weeks of using it my hair felt like it was coated with wax. I stopped using it and went back to my cheap shampoo, but even it couldn't get that waxy residue out of my hair.

A few days after I bought the shampoo I, ashamedly, was watching some daytime show where they said that Oil of Olay Regenerous was the best thing they had ever used. I tried it, and for a couple of days it really did work, at least I thought. There were two problems with it, though. The first is that if I missed a day my wrinkles returned. The second was that it turned my face bright red.

Since then I've tried a couple of new things. I decided since washing my hair wasn't making it clean, I was going to stop washing it. You heard me right! I stopped washing my hair.

Instead I now do the following, referred to as No-poo in this article.

• I get into the shower and get my hair soaked, dripping wet.
• I take about 1-2 Tbs. of baking soda and dissolve it into 1-2 cups of warm water.
• I then lean over upside down and pour half of the solution into the underside of my hair, and work it in really good, then stand up and pour the rest on my scalp.
• I work this solution into my hair very, very good, then lightly rinse it with warm water.
• Then I take about 1/2 c of APPLE CIDER (very important) vingar and add it to 1 cup of warm water.
• I pour the vinegar water on my hair and let it set for a few, using my fingers to work through it very well. If it doesn't get all the way to the underside of my hair, I mix up another cup and bend over and rinse it from the back of my neck to my scalp.
• Finally I rinse first with a bit of warm (never hot) water, and finish it with cold rinse.

This has made my hair so healthy I can't even tell you how much it has helped my attitude, and my hair dries quickly without drying out and my flat iron has gotten cleaner rather than coated with oils.  

If I want to add fragrance, I can use one drop of essential oil, rubbed between my palms and then use my hands to finger comb my dry hair.  It smells GOOD!

I've gone back to using baking soda to washing my face with baking soda and occasionally adding either grapefruit seed extract or a citrus essential oil to help deep clean.  I'm going to try using coconut oil as a moisturizer.  I'll let you know how that goes.

It's funny, the more little changes I make the less I feel conformed to the patterns of this earth.  I feel free!  

I will continue my unconditioning.  I want to start making my own laundry detergent, try cleaning with my essential oils and just see how fresh my house can be!  I also want to move more and more away from watching TV, especially the daytime talk shows that are quickly turning into infomercials.   

The Bible says we can't serve to masters.  This means we can't try to live like the world and still be the full person God created us to be.  The less time I spend "in the world" and the more time I spend "in the Word" the easier I find change to be.