Unconventional Hygiene

I can't use underarm deoderant except for arm and hammer. All others I've tried cause me to breakout in itchy underarm hives.

I get hives and blisters from commercial deodorant. Baking soda cannot come into contact with most of my skin as it burns me.

Greetings all,
This coming from a long hiatus tells me that all these hygiene concerns have in some way never looked at the actual CAUSE of why we "stink". It can be limited pretty much to one concept, food and the spices we use to flavor it.
When I was in Vietnam (a few years ago now) the enemy could always tell where we were because they could "smell us." We ate red meat (when we could get it) and the things that we ate caused body odor as an attempt by the body to eliminate those substances.

One day, many years later when I was a medical student, one of the interns on the IM service with me was on call and spent most of the night up. When I arrived at the hospital, I had to report to him for the "change of the guard" and he had such horrendous body odor that my eyes burned, LITERALLY. He quickly noticed that my eyes were tearing and said, "I'll go take a shower and we can talk later." He was a guy who loved the traditional foods of his homeland and the spices contained therein were some of the most wonderful to eat, but certainly not the most wonderful to experience in someone after they had been eaten.

My point is that most of your "body odor" is caused by your food intake. It's well known that certain green vegetables "neutralize" body odor; alfalfa sprouts being one of the most notable.

So, the situation as I see it is this. If you consider what you eat and what you use to "flavor" it, you may be able to explain much of your UNPLEASANT body odor and if you change what you eat/spices that you use, it may become obvious that you will begin to notice a distinct change in how you "smell." AND so will your "partner" IYKWIM.

Red meat is pretty much at the top of the "stink" list when it comes to body odor. Now admittedly, you do need about 4 oz. of red meat/week to remain healthy (iron, etc) but when you sit down to a two pound steak after a "quarter pounder" for lunch, you are going to find that the "stink titer" will be noticeably greater. On the other hand, eating mostly vegetables, and lots of greens will eliminate much of that problem.

As for clean hair, that is also a function of what you eat. Try using Johnson's Baby Shampoo no more than 1-2 times a week and then make up your own mind.

We all have some specific odors that are natural and if you don't know that, ask your dog! He'll let you know that he can identify you in the dead dark by your odor. This is also true for other dogs who will smell YOUR dog and then not be as aggressive toward you because you are a dog PERSON. They really do KNOW!!!

You really don't need all those chemicals listed in the posts above to be clean. Throw a lot of that away and just use plain old Ivory soap (unscented). As I said, try just Johnson's Baby shampoo fewer times a week and then re-evaluate. You may be surprised.

Of course, I am NOT recommending that you eliminate tooth paste but Baking soda and salt was used for many years before manufacturers added mint flavoring to it and sold it to everyone.

A lot of "marketing and packaging" is involved here and it is BIG BUSINESS in this nation (and much of the world.).

Read the labels of everything you use and then consider whether or not you want to let your skin absorb all those chemicals. Of course, many of the chemicals named are naturally occurring substances that are listed as chemicals so you won't know what they really are...and will continue to buy them at outrageous prices. Again, more marketing.

Try what I've said for about two weeks. Then, one night just before a "really good time" ask your "partner" what they think? If they are not noticing anything offensive (to their interpretation of what is considered offensive) then you will have found that you have "hit the mark" and really don't need 99% of the stuff they have conditioned you to buy. The substances your body makes which are designed to "attract your "partner"" are called pheromones and they actually DO work. However, if you destroy them with all those chemicals, no one will ever know that they were there in the first place. Frankly, they are there to help you "attract a mate." Don't destroy them with all those chemicals.

Now, I am NOT suggesting that you fail to wash in a few "critical areas". One of the women I know explained what her MOTHER taught her called a PTA wash. (If you know what three items are included in PTA, I would add a second P (pits). I'm certain you can figure it out from there. For the guys, A little Ivory soap will keep that "jock itch" at bay and make sure there are no "dingleberries" left hanging around either.

Hope you find this helpful and useful.

cheers to all,
Trim sends

Beekissed said:

I am noticing more frizz now that I'm not using the silicones, sulfates and parabens, but I'm currently experimenting around with a few all natural products to see if I can control that.

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I switched to Curly Girl Method too! My frizz issue was a common one - glycerin! There are a couple other bad humectants too, but glycerin is the most common and I know my hair frizzed like the dickens with glycerin on it. I switched to glycerin-free CG approved products and no more frizz.

I had a hard time finding CG products without glycerin. I'm using these. Shea Moisture has a reputation for being heavy, but it's okay for me.


Here's the list of good and bad humectants for frizz.

While reading about oils and learning about CG, I learned about jojoba oil for skin. It's not actually an oil - it's a wax ester. I love it. Makes my face feel and look so nice! And if you wear makeup, it is a perfect primer to keep makeup from settling into fine lines.

That's so good to know! I'll look at these Maui products and see if they contain glycerin...could be the problem, as Aliza is experiencing the same amount of frizz she had on the sulfates and silicone products also.

Yep...went and looked. The Maui products have glycerin in them. Walmart and even Dollar General sell the Shea moisture line and it looks like I'll be switching. It's a shame...I love the way the Maui feels and smells. Could be I could use their shampoo and then finish with the Shea moisture conditioner to get the frizz to be gone...I'll have to experiment.

So cool you are doing Curly Girl too! You know what I'm finding disconcerting? Most of the people on YT doing this are all young or, if they are older, they are black and so I can't really relate to the amount of curls they are conditioning. I have a wave/curl, at best, that I'm trying to restore to curls. There was a time I could wash and go, with curls aplenty, but haven't had that since the 90s.

I also couldn't find any kids on there with Aliza's type hair, so couldn't really use their routines for her either...all the little girls had really fine, baby curls kind of hair and not very long. Aliza has woman hair, to her waist now, thick and luxurious but with a tendency to have dry ends and frizz around her face. The closest I could find to her hair type was India Batson, so I've been following her routines and tips, hoping to find something that suits Aliza.

Here's a few pics of Aliza's hair I've taken over her 4 yrs...unfortunately, she was in the pool so much this summer that her hair was severely fried from the chlorine and sun, which is what started me on this hair journey in the first place...I'm trying to restore her hair to the health, shine and softness she had in the beginning.











And this pic shows how fried and dried her hair is, with the true curls pretty much gone, after this summer's pool events...just wavy and frizzy nowadays. It's been getting better since I relayed my CG advice along to her mama, but we still aren't back to all those golden curls yet. May have to do a layered cut to get them back.



Right now we are hydrating, hydrating and hydrating. Have switched her to a satin pillow case, took her off the silicones and sulfates, the detanglers, etc. and switched her over to scrunchies for hair things. A long way to go but the frizz could be better controlled if her mom would stop trying to brush her hair when it's dry...old habits die hard, ya know.

Most of the Shea Moisture products contain glycerin. The one I pictured is the only one I've found that doesn't.

She has beautiful hair! My non-expert gut instinct is she needs protein. I haven't found any products for protein that are glycerin free. I used gelatin (like for cooking). It's a larger protein, so isn't as readily taken up by hair as hydrolized proteins. I also used hot oil treatments - I mixed up sesame, avocado, canola.... and something else. I just looked up the cooking oils that I already had to see which would be best.

My son is wavy. I had to take his hair brush away! Twice! Because he went to grandma's house without a hair brush and grandma bought him one. She's curly! She should know better!!!

So, she'll likely be living with some frizzies anyway, huh? Have you tried aloe gel for frizz? We got some but I haven't tried it on me yet and I doubt her Mom is trying on her. Her mom has dead straight, thick hair, so can't seem to grasp the care routines of curly hair....can't stop brushing it. Won't put it up at night, won't stop trying to fasten it back into tight braids to reduce frizz around the face. All of that has produced more frizz, which she attributes to the all natural products being used.

I've shown her several times but she can't grasp why a person can't brush those flyaways back into the mass without them popping right on out again. It's a long, slow learning curve, but I'm going to keep trying. If they want her to have long hair, they really need to learn how to maintain it for her until she can do it for herself.

This summer I'm going to oil that hair down like a greased pig before I let her in the pool! I'm also going to try and convince her dad she needs a few layers in her ever growing hair if she's not going to have her curls pulled out by the weight of having all one length.

Tell mom that the difference between curls and frizz is that curls is when the hair clumps together and frizz is the strands all separated. Whatever would make her hair greasy and nasty clumped together will make her daughters hair into divine curls.

My SIL has thick straight hair and youngest niece has curls. SIL doesn't really get it either. :shrug

tortoise said:

Tell mom that the difference between curls and frizz is that curls is when the hair clumps together and frizz is the strands all separated. Whatever would make her hair greasy and nasty clumped together will make her daughters hair into divine curls.

My SIL has thick straight hair and youngest niece has curls. SIL doesn't really get it either. :shrug

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That's what I've been telling her and I've been sending her the Curly Girl vids and tips but she says she never has time to watch them...which is sort of code for "I don't care, I'm doing it my way, even if it's not working". I'm hoping she'll come around...right now she's got a new baby to cope with, so not much into hair issues.

I've had curly hair all my life and am just getting the 411 myself...we always just had frizzy, curly hair and figured that was life. Now I'm on a whole new education on curls I never thought to have. It's interesting. Don't know why it's even caught my interest to this degree but it's sort of fun to see if I can help Aliza's hair get back to maximum health and beauty. She's got extraordinary hair and I'd like to be able to keep it that way if I can.

That's why God made Grandma's.....to take up the slack when Moms can't handle EVERYTHING. Aliza is a beautiful girl.