Say Oui Oui to No 'Poo-Part I: The Why

^See what I did there? Like my elementary school level sense of humor? See because oui oui is yes yes in French but it's pronounced wee wee like urine and poo is like excrement and...anyway. For those of you who don't know, when I say "no 'poo" I am not referring to an absence of bowel movements but rather a method of hair care that banishes the use of all traditional or commercial shampoo products in favor of a more organic approach. How this is done may vary, there are a number of popular techniques (which I will get into later).
 
Many of you probably cringe at the thought of going even a day, let alone the rest of your life without using shampoo. Consider first that the use of shampoo, especially on such a frequent basis,  is a relatively new thing. Commercial shampoo didn't hit the scene until 1914 with a product called Canthrox and didn't become all that popular until sometime in the 1920's. Shampoos as we know them today (featuring artificial surfactants) were introduced in 1930 (beginning with Drene) and their use wasn't prevalent until the 1970's following an add campaign featuring stars Farrah Faucet and Christie Brinkley contending that it was in fact necessarily to shampoo your hair multiple times a week in order to be healthy.


Since then it has become increasingly apparent that shampoos do not improve one's health but may in fact be very harmful. Just one of the popular ingredients found in most shampoo products, methylisothiazoline (MIT) can cause great neurological damage with repeated use, as well as cancer and liver disorders according to research done by the National Institutes of Health ¹ . The biocide MIT and closely related analog, chloromethylisothiazolinone or (CMIT) have long been known to damage nerves and disrupt the ability of young or developing neurons to grow processes (axons and dendrites) in tissue cultures, but the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CFTA) and the European Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-Food Products Intended for Consumers (SCCNFP) maintain that methylisothiazolinone poses no health risks to humans at the low concentrations used in cosmetic products, despite widespread research suggesting otherwise. And I'm only scratching the surface. Another typical component, diethanolamine (DEA) is a suspected carcinogen shown to cause birth defects such as limited brain function in mice². Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) are detergents and surfactants that may pose serious health threats. They are used in car washes, garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers — and in over 90% of personal care products that lather or foam. Animals exposed to SLS experienced eye damage, depression, labored breathing, diarrhea, severe skin irritation and even death. Propylene glycol (PG) and butylene glycol are petroleum plastics which act as surfactants (wetting agents and solvents). They easily penetrate the skin and can weaken protein and cellular structure.Your skin is the largest organ on your body. Whatever gets put on it's surface may enter, via trans dermal absorption, your body, bloodstream and organs. Even if this weren't the case, you would be surprised how much shampoo is  ingested orally by accident (especially by children).

Many of us have been tricked into thinking that great healthy hair comes from intense professional attention and investment in high end product, but in addition to all the potentially health hazardous chemicals, even expensive shampoos rob your hair of it's natural oils, striping away the acid mantel. It can leave your hair damaged and porous and your scalp irritated and over producing oils (when you strip away all of your natural oils your body tries to compensate by upping production, eventually making it necessary for many to scrub their hair as often as every day just to feel clean). For most of us, our shampooed hair would be entirely unmanageable if it were not followed by the use of another chemically laden sister product known as conditioner, which attempts to mask the damage and replace some of the luster loss that resulted from shampooing. Meanwhile all those non water soluble silicones (Dimethicone, Cetearyl methicone, Cetyl dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane,  Dimethiconol, Stearyl dimethicone, Trimethylsilylamodimethicone and cyclomethicone) that are helping your hair fake healthy by allowing it to feel soft and look shiny while coating your scalp and hair follicles with build up that is further encouraging oil production and weakening the hair shaft, increasing damage and the occurrence of split ends.

Without even mentioning any of the environmental effects these products have, do you really need any more reason to explore alternatives? By now you may be thinking, "Yikes! I'm buying all natural and organic shampoos from now on!" Unfortunately, organic certification is not as strict as you may think. Sure, in order for a product to be labeled organic it has to contain 95% organic ingredients but the other 5% can be (and often is) just about anything. And if a product is has only 70% organic ingredients it can still bare the USDA seal and say things like "Made With Organic Ingredients". If a product is to be labeled as merely all natural, the stipulations are nearly laughable. Far too many "organic" products have most of the same hazardous ingredients but can call themselves organic because the rest of the ingredients are botanical oils. Even some of the products from respected companies like Lush Cosmetics; who many praise for their handmade products, natural ingredients, green practices and enviro-friendly minimalist packaging; contain SLS, toxic colorants and parabens (an ingredient that's become increasingly controversial since it has been found in low concentrations in breast cancer tumors and displays an ability to mimic estrogen). If I told you a prepared you a smoothie that was 98% superfoods and 2% arsenic would you drink it? Of course not.




¹ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16547166, ² University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2006, August 3). Study Shows Ingredient Commonly Found In Shampoos May Inhibit Brain Development. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 20, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2006/08/060803182218.htm

It isn’t easy eating green…

Eating right has always been a struggle for me. I was not well acclimated to vegetables as a small child, as my mother didn't care for them either. My father insisted we have a vegetable with every meal as I got older, but it almost always came in the form of either canned corn or green beans. I've gone most of my life avoiding the stuff, simply because I never liked the way it tasted. I don’t care if something is chock-full of vitamin A, C and calcium, I don’t care if it makes you live longer or feel stronger or fixes the budget deficit, I’ve got this hang-up wherein I won’t eat food if it doesn’t taste good to me.

In my defense, research shows humans are biologically hardwired to crave high-caloric foods. In prehistoric times, this drive wasn't such a bad thing. Calories, which were essential for survival, were hard to come by. They were in intermittent supply and we needed to be willing to work hard for them. This is why our senses go crazy in the presence of anything sweet, fatty, or salty. Conversely, a bitter flavor is often an indicator that a substance is poisonous or inedible. So how do I go about retraining my taste buds as an adult? Is it hopeless?

My plan is simple, I'm going introduce more vegetables into my diet slowly. I'm going to explore a wide variety of edible plant matter and toy with varies methods of preparation (I know and can eat just about anything if smothered in enough garlic) and I'll stick it in smoothies masked with fruit. If this all goes well, I'll try munching on some raw vegetables every so often and decrease the sugar load in my morning smoothies and pray somehow I will acquire a taste for these foods and be forever cured of my veggie phobia.

Vivant en abondance

 This is blog about my journey to health; physically, mentally and emotionally. It's something we all have to strive for, nobody is just born with an inherent health and fitness compass facing north. It may come more easily to some than others, but on some level it's something we all struggle with. A conscience effort must be made to maintain a healthy, active, and fulfilling life. To vivant en abondance. My plan is to work towards this goal, documenting my progress along the way. I will record my goals, my approaches, successes and failures, information I gather and recipes I use. I've yet to decide whether or not I'll "go public" with my blog, sharing it with friends and family or if it will serve more as a journal for myself. Either way, I hope it will be a learning experience.