quest for a plastic free bathroom… shampoo and conditioner

I like framing things as quests. It makes them seem… noble (or monty-python like, less noble, but more fun). And it puts you in a long-term frame of mind. No one found the holy grail overnight.

So, my quest for a plastic-free bathroom has been progressing for the last couple of years, I think, and I am getting closer!

 When I started, I figured I had a number of areas to focus on.

The big ones so far have been - hair care, skin care, and  soap.

And the priorities were; no plastic in packaging, no petroleum ingredients in the products. 

I'm trying to write more concise posts (and do it somewhat more often), so today I'm going to talk about hair care. 

I went for alternatives to supermarket shampoo and conditioner. I wanted to stop using products that come in thousand year plastic – that thick plastic that takes a millenia to break down. Bad stuff. And to stop using products with petroleum and/or palm oil in them.   

Shampoo was pretty easy - I switched to a natural shampoo bar! mmm, beer shampoo. And with one shampoo bar I was using, there was a recommendation to switch to apple cider vinegar for conditioner. I thought this sounded weird... but after a while, gave it a try. 

And it's fantastic! I'm pretty sure my hair is softer than it ever was when I was using the old stuff. 

I just put a 50/50 vinegar water mix into a spray bottle (plastic, but not disposable!), squirt a bit on, and rub it around. With my eyes firmly shut, because (one down-side of this regime) - it does run down your face and neck, and vinegar in the eyes freaking stings. 

 

oh, and I have to remember to rinse thoroughly, as sometimes, if I'm in a rush, I can end up smelling like I've been eating chips and vinegar. 

I stayed over at a friend's house recently, and used their shampoo and conditioner - and my hair did not like it one bit. It was greasy and disgusting by the end of the day! I'm going to say (with no evidence at all), that this is because my hair is now not used to being coated with all that yuck synthetic stuff that I used to use, so can't tolerate it anymore. 

so, I have since relaxed the first rule to be – no disposable plastic in packaging, with the extra rule that if it is unavoidable (or unrealistic) to use any plastic that is disposable, it needs to be completely recycled in house.

 this is because, I could buy apple cider vinegar in a nice glass bottle - but it was 750ml, or I could buy 2L... in a plastic bottle. I think I will go back to glass, but I weakened and bought the plastic last time. I'm going to make the bottle into one of these drip irrigation bottles (though with an added netting cap, to stop the mozzies multiplying in there). 

but I'm pretty happy with this switch!