No-Poo Update: Week 1

[Week 1 of my No Poo Challenge]

I know.. That name sounds absolutely ridiculous… bear with me…

Process: I mixed up 2 tbsp of baking soda and 2 cups of water in a plastic waterbottle, and used a quarter of that as my shampoo. Then I mixed up 2 tbsp of the apple cider vinegar with 2 cups of water, and that was my “conditioner”.

What did I think?  It just felt like water… Not sure what I was expecting. It didn’t smell like anything?.. which was good… I’m pleasantly surprised at the the lack of anything.

Result? Watery.. again. Ha! This whole experience tonight was a bit anti climatic. It didn’t lather up obviously and it wasn’t slippery. I think that I could live with this as a routine, though I’d invest in some squeezable bottles to make application easier next time.

What next? I did not brush it. I did not use any product. I didn’t blow dry or use anything on it. I want to see what the heck this is doing to my hair without the products.

How’s that going? This sucks a bit. I didn’t use any frizz cream, or smoothing oils. No mousse or split end lotion. My hair is slightly dry right now. It’s been about 3 hours ( and its not even dry, ha). My curls aren’t defined at all unless I twirl them a bit with my fingers… And there is frizz. A lot of frizz.

I’ll update once I sleep on it. Usually that helps to tame it a bit..

[Update: Sleeping on it didn't help. I definitely need some sort of taming product right now...]

Oh! And there is no after-smell. Ian took a big ol’ whiff, like a super close, nostril filling sniff as only a husband would do. He claims no smell.  :)

THE {BREAKDOWN} so far:

Day #1: Hair felt pretty good actually. Weird to wash with “water”. Let air dry, no products!

Day #2:  Didn’t wash. Hair felt light, but SO frizzy. No products cannot happen with this hair.

Day #3: Washed again even though it wasn’t oily. It was certainly dry, which was my problem. I used WAY too many products because i had to walk in a fashion show. Let it air dry, then braided and added mousse, and gel, and LOTS of hairspray.

Day #4: Washed out ALL the products, and hair felt surprisingly light. I tried to Blow Dry. Big mistake. Holy rats nest, even with mousse. I’ll stick to air drying.

Day #5: [today]  Hair is still dry.. Better than Oily i guess… Maybe i should up the cider vinegar? NO dandruff or dry scalp. That is amazing since my scalp is always dry!  :) This might be worth keeping up… Hair feels clean, not oily, but dry. No need to wash the hair today. Been reapplying mousse since the blow drier really F-ed it up!

Photography: Outdoor Adventures

Last weekend was GORGEOUS outside.. so i decided to grab my camera, a lens and I went for a nice little walk.

Well… Practically 5 miles later I’m trudging through the front door, out of breath, camera dangling precariously from my neck, shoes filled with gravel. I was done with walks, and “nice” days! ha! Just kidding of course. Please sun, come back and stick around longer this time? Oil costs too much and I just want my house warm!

Anyway.. here are some of my shots from the walk:

Upper Greenwood Lake

Our First little crocus popping its head up for the Spring season!

 

 

A whole bunch of crocuses down the road .. growing in GRAVEL. What gives? Whats wrong with our nice soil!

All Natural Haircare: No- Poo/ Sham-free Challenge?

Hiya people of the internet. I have NO idea what I was searching for an hour ago, but I ended up web surfing through Hair blog after Hair blog…  eventually ending up at  Simple Mom. I was absolutely intrigued about her post on How to Clean your Hair without Shampoo.

2 years ago, she did a 30 Day challenge, and after this update , it’s pretty clear that she loved it and never went back!

I’ve heard this method called “No-Poo”, and also “Sham-free”/”Shamphree”… No poo makes me giggle, so I’ll stick with that. This almost sounds crazy enough to work!  Shampoo strips your hair of natural oils, this is something I knew.. and I used conditioner to combat that. Well, what did people do before shampoo and conditioner? Heck, I’m sure there was no such thing as Matrix or Redken in the 1920s and they styled their hair more hardcore then I’ve ever seen (compared to the 1800s).

Has anyone tried this..? I think I might do it. I hear the “transition period” is tough. 2 weeks is about when people quit. My hair has never cooperated. Some days its a ball of frizz, other days its full of oil, and hair product. I usually wash my hair every other day.  I have a dry scalp, usually resulting in flakes, so I use a dandruff shampoo (heck, why not?). Then i follow up with a cheap conditioner. Then i have biosilk oil therapy for frizz, Aussie split-end protector, biosilk hair gel, and Aussie Scrunch mousse. I use ALL of them. AT THE SAME TIME. For different parts of my hair. It’s crazy right? Well, NO MORE!

Well, I’m going to try for No More. We’ll see. We’re heading to the grocery store tomorrow because someone *cough* my stupid self *cough* forgot the shopping list on the counter, so I guess Wednesday night is going to be my first No-poo experience (if I remember to buy the ingredients…heh).

The No-Poo starter recipe is :

• 1 tbsp Baking soda + 1 Cup water : Add to hair, massage into scalp, rinse. (Baking Soda helps with Oil. More Oily Hair needs more Baking Soda)
  
• Follow up with 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar (or Lemon juice) + 1 cup water: Massage into ends of hair. (Vinegar/ Lemon Juice helps with dryness. The drier the hair, the more Vinegar, but it also makes it more oily). Most people seem to use only 1/4 tbsp of vinegar.. but we’ll see. my hair is pretty darn dry….)

Anyone else want to try this with me? Maybe it’ll be my “April No-Poo Challenge”!  :)

This is what I’m starting with… frizz, natural curls and thickness and dryness and some oil. This photo was taken this past weekend… so it’s a true “Before” shot!

Photography: Easter Chicks + Dirt Pie

This year for Easter, I had to pleasure of going to Ian’s Uncle’s farm. They even arranged an egg hunt for the little ones. He has raises horses, and they also have chickens and guinea hens on the farm!

Here are some of my shots for the day!

 

 

I made this chocolate cream dirt pie to bring. It’s a pre-made chocolate graham cracker crust filled with two boxes of chocolate pudding, and also some chocolate chip “rocks”. Then we topped it with crushed oreos. There were supposed to be gummy worms inside, but we forgot them! I piped some green grass icing, and some pink and purple flowers, then plopped on an Easter bunny for good measure.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter!

I have some nature photography shots to share with you next time! This blog is taking a turn down the Photography road. It’s something I’ve always been interested in, and I’m very happy to share these with you.  All photos © Dara Hopkins 2013.  :)

Photography: Around The House

Wallpaper details…  Most photos of that coming soon.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Husband, working on his N Scale Trains

Photos I’ve Been Meaning to Share

Clever Name right?

These are photos that have sitting on my camera that I’ve been meaning to post either to Flickr or to this blog for various reasons. Well, now I’m posting them all at once. They range from August 2012 – March 2013. I hope to share more of my Photography up here as well.

I attempted to take a photo of myself during a make-up trial. This was too “Princess” but something about this photo kept me from deleting it.

Eagerly awaiting the RSVPs for our wedding…. This was the first batch to arrive!  Can you believe I’ve been married for 4 months?

Christmas 2013

My mother made Ian and my sister’s Fiance stockings  :)

His name is Spot. He lives in the crack in our basement floor. No joke. He’s our “pet”  :)

My lovely husband posing for his portrait.

All Photos on this blog belong to Dara Hopkins © 2009-2013 -Please do not steal, or use without permission.  :)

Another Week, Another Option? + Allergist Update

So as you may recall, I started an unofficial Acidophilus week here at this ever changing blog of mine. Well, It hasn’t exactly given me the results I wanted. It felt like it was working for the first two or three days, but now 5 days later, I’m hesitant about even taking the Pearls anymore. I have about 20 left from my 30 pack.

I had made an appointment with a local Allergist Doctor, that finally took place last night. After a very thorough discussion of my eating habits, and my history she performed a “Scratch Test”. Ya see, I thought scratch test involved some form of scratching, when in actuality, there was much more poking.  It’s hard to explain hat it looked like. 6 plastic prongs, dipped into a diluted water and “substance” solution, then pressed firmly into my arm.

(Source)

And these are my awesome arms.

Don’t be jealous of my watery dots that could become HORRIBLY itchy at any moment.

Surprisingly only 1 dot became itchy and that was the control dot. the one that is SUPPOSED to be itchy, so that she can test my reactions to the other dots. I did get some action on dots, but it was nothing to write home about. A little dog, a little cat, some beans (lima & kidney),  corn, cantaloupe/melon, pineapple and WHEAT.  Wheat? Yes wheat.  She said, “yes wheat, like white bread, pasta and all that.”  Is it possible that I AM gluten intolerant? or is it that my intestines don’t like SOME wheat products. She said that this is a basic list of foods, and only I can figure out which kinds of wheat products I can eat and other that might cause a reaction.  My reaction to Wheat was the largest one and it was still super small, so I’m not worried, though i did give Ian a heart attack when i told him I had a reaction to Wheat. Poor guy.

We also got to talking about my old IBS diagnosis from over 10 years ago. The doctor and most websites say “there is no cure for IBS, the only treatment is to not eat the trigger foods.”  which makes a ton of sense. I decided that I loved the trigger foods too much, and here is where I am. Painful stomach upsets after almost every meal because EVERY MEAL HAS A TRIGGER FOOD. Seriously. she asked me to list the things I know for a fact that I can eat, and I could only think of almond milk, and saltines. Honestly, how pathetic is that? She disappeared from the room to do a bit of research for me.

Enter Linzess. What is Linzess you might ask? Linzess is now a prescription drug, in capsule form that is used to TREAT IBS sufferers. (and some IBS sufferers that have an added bonus symptom.)

(LINZESS™ (linaclotide) is a prescription medication used in adults to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) and chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC). “Idiopathic” means the cause of the constipation is unknown.)

She wrote me a prescription, and I’m getting it filled tonight. Will it work? Could this be my answer? She said its “new” but also said its not too new. It’s been out for long enough that its seen some positive results. Not safe for children under 18. That worries me. She said the only side effect so far seems to be the stomach issues getting worse, and at that point I’d realize it and just be able to stop taking it. She said to stop taking any and all other stomach supplements as well as foods that I know for a fact trigger my symptoms. This going to be hard, but it’s worth a shot.

So onward to Linzess week! 

ps- i tried filling the prescription and the pharmacy had never heard of Linzess. They had to special order it. I wonder what kind of debt I’m getting myself into. I didn’t ask the price…