Three Months of Not Shampooing! (And I STILL have Fabulous Hair!)

I am officially in my third month of not shampooing my hair and it's still fabulous. Don't get me wrong, I still shower regularly, so please don't go {ew}. After staying up late one night and seeing the infomercial for Wen haircare, I decided to look into it further.
Here's what I discovered:
You don't need to shampoo your hair.
(feeling puzzled?)
Apparently there are still mild emollients and astringents in conditioners that clean your hair without having to shampoo it with harsh detergents and chemical strippers. I was at a point where my hair was in this terrible rut, and so was I.

I spend far too long on my hair each time I tried to do anything with it.
I shampooed it in the shower, which dried it out terribly.
Then I conditioned the sh!t out of it to try to get the dry straw feeling to go away.
After that if I wanted to style it, I had to add several different products that were sticky and gross.
Rinse and repeat.

I decided to try Wen and I have not shampooed my hair since. Since Wen is very expensive, I did some investigating and there is an almost identical product at Sally Beauty Supply for less than a third of the price, and not much more than you'd pay for good conditioner at the drug store. Ingredients are identical, works the same. Bonus factor that you don't have to pay for expensive shampoos too.

My hair is full and healthy, and I don't even need stying products anymore, just blow dry with a diffuser and my hair is *big and sexy*. It stays full all day, I can run my fingers through it, and it's clean and looks great. It has shine, it has body. I've dyed my hair for years, now my dye lasts longer since I'm not using detergents to strip it out. It doesn't get brassy, or frizzy and I can go longer between trims since my ends don't get as fried.

I am now a firm believer that shampoo is over rated. Waste of time, waste of money, and now I have one less chemical going in my septic. I understand that this might not be for everyone, especially if your hair gets really dirty, or is prone to lots of oil. Something like a low-poo alternative might be better for you than what you're using now. It has less chemical detergents and surfactants, which is not only better for you, but better for the environment as well.

I don't think I'll ever use shampoo again. Try it for a week. You might love it, you might hate it, but at least you can say you tried it! It might change your hair's life!

Fair Trade

As my evening latte is brewing and the smell of espresso fills my house, I decided that tonight's blog needs to address the importance of fair trade.
Fair trade is a global movement that aims to ensure the survival of small farms and individual businesses. By providing fair payment or trade for the goods that they supply the fair trade movement helps to ensure that the farms and the people associated with them are able to be self sustinant. At the same time, by providing fair trade for goods, we are aiding people in getting out of the poverty cycle that devastates many in less developed countries and ensuring that these people are not being taken advantage of by large corporations with buying power. I believe it's important to buy fair trade products where ever possible to further this mission in as many places as possible. If you are interested in the different aspects of fair trade and want to know more about it, please check out http://www.fairtrade.net/ for more information!

I have been known to 'sing it'

This evening's post is inspired by last night's episode of gLee...I was actually very moved by their rendition of My Chemical Romance's Sing It, since I, myself have been known to 'sing it' on more than one occasion.

I'm not the singer that you wanted,

but a dancer.

I refuse to answer,

talk about the past sir.

Wrote it for the ones that want to get away.

Keep running.

Sing it for the boys,

sing it for the girls.

Every time you lose it,

Sing it for the world.

My Exploration of Purple

My exploration of purple as emotion with motion

This is my Tribute to Leg Warmers

This is my tribute to Leg Warmers

Who ever had the genius idea to bring back leg warmers...

I owe you a debt of grattitude.

My BFF Crystal will find you, and probably stab you in the aorta.

But I am forever thankful to you.

I'm so in love with leg warmers every time I think of them, I feel the urge to 80's to Flashdance across my living room.

Baby Legs - coolest thing ever.

Second only to Cat Legs, for the true leg warmer afficianado.

Thank you for your legwarmer genius.

No go put on your own leg warmers, and some sweet 80's music and shake what you've got!

(you know you want to)

You can purchase kitty legs at Readymade.com...as if you didn't already know!

I Carry Your Heart

This is one of my favorite poems of all time ~
{please don't mind the spacing; several different sources have the spacing set up in different ways and without the actual book, I have no way of knowing what is correct for certain}

I carry your heart with me
{I carry it in my heart}
I am never without it
{Any where I go, you go, my dear,
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling}
I fear no fate
{for you are my fate, my sweet}
I want no world
{for beautiful, you are my world, my true}
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
{here is the root of the root,
and the bud of the bud,
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life
which grows higher than the soul can hope
or mind can hide}
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.
I carry your heart
{I carry it in my heart}

E.E. Cummings



Oh, and P.S.: This poem is read by Cameron Diaz in the end of one of my all time favorite movies - In Her Shoes. If you haven't seen it, you should literally go out right this second and rent it.

In the Beginning

In the begining it was just the four of us, well, at least in my beginning. Mom, Dad, my sister, and me (est. 1980)

I climbed tall trees, played with frogs, chased after snakes, and knew I wanted to be exactly like my sister when I grew up. I listened to whatever my parents let me (except them)...Sesame Street, Handel's Messiah, Holst's The Planets, and Carly Simon and Harry Chapin.

Some people don't know what it's like to grow up in a family that's filled with love. I do. I can sum up my love for my father, and his love for me in one photograph.

To some people, it's just a photo.

But to me, it's so much more.

I miss him every day...

So to celebrate my love for my childhood, I always play one great song....

Rubber Duckie, you're the one. You make my bathtime lots of fun.

Rubber Duckie I'm awfully fond of you.

Boo-doop-do-do.

Rubber Duckie, joy of joys! When I squeeze you you make noise!

Rubber Duckie you're my very best friend it's true.

Every day when I make my way to the tubbie

I find a fella who's cute and yellow and chubby!

Rub-a-dub-dubby!

(Jeff Moss, part of the song Rubber Duckie, Written for Sesame Street)