Day 3: Going cleanser-free | Discovering no-poo!

It has been 3 days since I went cleanser-free, and here is an interim report.

Skin:

Absolutely no issues whatsoever. Use of brush while showering ensures I feel fresh and clean afterwards. There is no body odor at all, despite bouts of profuse sweating during the day. Credit goes to alum for that.

The big change is that the dryness is all gone. Skin on my legs tends to look dry and scaly like snake-skin, and that is completely gone. Likewise, my feet look well moisturized, though I've used no product.

Facial skin appears a shade darker, but that is probably just the absence of that ashen whiteness that soaps/ face washes leave behind. No break outs or rashes. Skin looks moisturized and even toned.

Hair:

This is a toughie. Hair tends to be such a dust magnet. Especially un-shampooed hair has residual sebum that traps dust, forming a slick, icky layer that one has not learned to tolerate.

Texture-wise, my daily wash leaves behind soft, tangle free hair, but the thought of dust-oil gunk in my hair was getting to me. So I caved in and decided to use help. Still, I am determined to leave my sebum levels undisturbed, so I found a simple washing aid, hilariously named no-poo by the good folk of the interwebs.

Here is how it works. You need a cup of water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda dissolved in it. You need another cup of water with 2 spoons of vinegar.

Rinse hair, and massage the scalp and hair thoroughly using the baking soda solution, taking just a couple of spoons at a time. Rinse thoroughly. Hair will feel tangled. Pour in the vinegar solution slowly, spread all over hair while untangling gently. This untangles and conditions hair incredibly well. Rinse thoroughly.

Result - hair feels clean to the roots, tangle free, soft and manageable. Importantly, no dryness of scalp or flaking. And no, hair does not smell of vinegar if you rinse well.

This feels perfect! I shall continue to wash hair daily with just water, and use the above method for times when the hair feels dirty, but no more often than once a week.

Come back for more updates.

Going cleanser-free

It has been some time since I tried a dubious personal experiment, and I am getting cranky and restless. So here's the latest.

While discussing the ill-effect of shampoos, someone online made the excellent point this morning, that you never see a bald homeless guy.

My idea for an experiment is born. Starting from today, I go cleansing-agent free. Now, you've probably read about my going soap-free. I switch between home-made scrubs and carbolic soap, and for my hair, I've used home-improved shampoos and herbal cleansers.

Now I am talking about going completely cleanser-free. Before you decide to delete my name from your acquaintance list and clear out of the neighborhood, pay attention to the fact that I didn't say wash-free. I said cleanser-free. That means no soap, "bathing bar" (scam), body wash gel (SLES), soap-free face wash, homemade bio-degradable scrub, shampoo, herbal hair wash powder/ paste, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Henceforth, until I decide to end the experiment, washing shall merely involve showering twice a day, with tap water and a good brush.
 
Also, seek temporary comfort from the fact that this is not (yet) a lifestyle decision, it is just an experiment based on some interesting reading I've been doing.

Furthermore, rejoice in the fact that I am not eschewing toothpaste, and shall continue to use soap / sanitizers thoroughly and regularly for my hands, at all the standard intervals that polite society requires; after the loo, before handling food, and so on. Hand sanitizing is my gift to you, gentle world.

First, let us start with arguments AGAINST going cleanser-free.

1. Soaps are decent people. They do clean you out sufficiently well. Much of modern health / infection-free wellness and perhaps even longevity comes from the salutary effects of soap use. Do not demonize the soap.

2. "Our ancestors didn't use soap" is a lame argument in my view. Our paleo ancestors also died at the ripe old age of thirty.

3. Culture requires it. People seek solace and comfort in the fact that your person, whilst circulating amidst them, is not a smelly germ bag (at least not obviously so, and not from the outside).

Now for arguments in favor of the CF lifestyle (cleanser-free, not child-free, which is a whole other bag of goodies):

1. How much cleaning do you need? If you have a regular old white collar job, you spend little time in situations where you get truly dirty. Most of us don't get grease, grit, grime or nasty bugs on to ourselves as part of our work life. The usual doses of sweat and dust, water will wash off, with a loofah to help along.

2. If you have dry / flaky / irritated / splotchy skin, your product probably has something to do with it. The skin is a self-cleaning organ and secretes oils that do the required maintenance. Do help with water and a rub down, but products that strip your skin of oils are likely hurting, not helping.

3. Use a cleanser, and you will likely need its friends - moisturizers. Shampoo, and you will likely need conditioners. You are going to have to replace the oils that your soap just stripped, and you are doing it with parabens and propelyne glycol. Hmm.

4. Soap clearly does not deodorize. Ergo the existence of the deo.

Why I decided to try it:

Let me clear my name by saying it is NOT because of admiration for the paleo lifestyle, of which I have precious little. I am grateful for modern science and what it has done for the daily health and wellness that most of us take for granted.

However, I have had hyper-sensitive skin all my life. On the average day, I have an oily forehead prone to pimples, dry cheeks and yawning pores, rough elbows and chapped knees, ashen legs and leathery feet. My skin breaks out in itchy rashes. My scalp erupts with little provocation, and gets flaky and irritable if it quarrels with my shampoo. If you have read my previous posts, I've switched to home-made herbal scrubs. They are bio-degradable, work reasonably well, though are messy and a bit tedious to prepare and use.

The minimalist in me is now questioning the need any of this at all. My lifestyle exposes me to very little dirt. Chennai is dusty, and god knows we all sweat profusely here. But apart from that, there tends to be no true grease or grime on me that just water wont take care of. Moreover, my shopping bags are lighter and my wallet heavier because there is less snake oil to buy. Travel is a breeze, and best of all, I dream of a stark bathroom - a rainshower and a block of alum. That is it. Just picture that. No mess of bottles crowding the counter. Just a serene, functional little space. Isn't it beautiful?
 
Today is day 1, and this is the plan. I shower twice a day in just water. I scrub thoroughly with a natural fibre loofah (Rs. 20 in any chennai provision shop, Rs. 100 for the flattened, tailored version from Health & Glow).  Post showering, I use alum as usual, for deodorizing.

As for hair washing, I thoroughly wet hair and scalp, rub with finger tips, use a wide toothed comb on the scalp. It feels like a massage. Caveat: some people complain that this causes hair fall - I have straight tangle-free hair so this works for me. Use the comb gently, untangle hair with fingers first. You could alternatively try massaging your scalp with a round brush with short fat stubs, like the one below.

Maybe once a fortnight (or a week, it depends on how the scalp holds up), I will add lemon / beer to the hair wash ritual. We shall see.

I am quite confident that I will have no trouble with the skin, but I expect the hair to be a bother for the next couple of weeks, while the oil and PH levels recover. I plan to wash my scalp out once every day, but it is going to take me some time to adjust to the oils that my scalp will now start secreting. My hair will feel different from what I am used to.

I will post updates here.

Full disclosure: I will continue to use a mix of aloe vera gelly and propolis cream for my facial skin. It is helping with some pigmentation issues that I am having. it is probably mostly snake oil too, but I am liking it for the moment.

I've gone soap free

While Carbolic is still my favorite soap to use, I've gone soap free for the past 3 weeks, and am loving it. I use a home mad bath scrub, and it is working wonderfully well for me.

Here is why this scrub is a sensible, minimalist solution:

1.       No chenimcal load - it is skin-friendly and non-toxic

2.       It is cheap

3.       It is soil-friendly

The thing is extremely simple to make. You will need

1.       Dried green peas (Rs. 44 per kilo)

2.       Raw rice (Optional – and the cheapest you can find)

I like to use just peas, but rice adds it a coarser texture that you might like. Dry grind peas and rice separately, mix together. If you want it finer, grind further, or sieve. A kilo of mix should last you a couple of months.

Refrigirate the powder to preserve it - remember, no chemical preservatives = risk of worms. You can also add a tablespoon of salt to the mix - this will keep worms away, and will add a safe anti-microbial kick to your scrub.

Fish out a couple of spoonsful before every bath.

While this mix is absolutely complete for you bathing needs, you can, if you wish, add a bit of powdered wild turmeric (curcuma aromatica) for anti-microbial action - about a table spoon for a kilo of ground mix. Wild turmeric doesn't stain clothes the way cooking turmeric does.

Add whatever other herbs you think will boost your scrub with fragrance or healing properties. Frankly, the basic scrub is what will get you clean.

That's it. I follow my usual coconut oil moisturizing routine at the end of my bath, and deodorize with alum. 

Ye olde vanishing cream

Since it will do no good to dwell on the shame and remorse of neglecting my blog for so long, the old spilt milk and what not, I shall dive headlong into a review.

We come back to to good old Vicco.

I am familiar, and very happy, with 3 products from the Vicco stables: Vicco tooth paste which is excellent in dental maintenance but a little expensive (I use Dabur Red), Vicco tooth powder that my MIL swears by, and is considered wholly responsible for the intact set of gleaming teeth that my grandfather was the proud owner of till he died at 80, and the mysteriously labelled Vicco turmeric cream with foam base - an excellent face wash, read my review here.

For the past week, I have been using Vicco turmeric cream, and I cannot figure out what took me so long to try out this old familiar on the store shelves.

There are two variants of this cream: Vicco turmeric cream, and Vicco turmeric WSO cream. On a whim I picked up the latter, although I had no idea what WSO meant. I found out later on the interwebz that WSo simply means "without sandal oil". Huh? (Dear Vicco. What's with unexplained acronyms on your product label? Are you trying NOT to sell your product? On that note, please remove the scary man picture from your foam base product. And tell us on the box what that product is for.)

Vicco face cream is an old fashioned "vanishing cream" - opaque with a pearly sheen, disappearing into the skin quickly, leaving behind a smooth, light weight, non-greasy feel. The cream claims therapeutic value, and i am inclined to believe this because in the past week, my complexion is starting to even out, and small spots and discolourations are fading away.

Vicco turmeric cream may be "nahi cosmetic", but the product does have cosmetic value. Being non-greasy and light weight, you could very well wear it by itself before stepping out. The cream instantly brightens appearance, and being opaque, it should have some sun protection ability though it doesn't say so on the box.

As a bonus, the smooth matte finish this leaves behind means that you could very well use it as a primer over which to build layers of make-up, if you were so inclined. For the uninitiated, primers are creams designed to leave a smooth surface on the skin, over which other make-up stuff like foundation spreads and sits better. Vicco makes a great primer at less than 15% of the cost (L'oreal Base Magique primer = Rs 800+, a tube of Vicco = Rs.50), and a fraction, if at all, of the chemical load. (Disclaimer: primers are usually made of silicone which is supposed to be inert on the skin, but whatever).

For instance, for a no make-up look, moisturize, apply vicco (WSO if you are like me), dust some pressed powder on the oily zones and step out. For a dewy finish / warm lights and photo op, throw on a highlighter. Or a blush and a highlighter. or go all the way with concealer/foundation and the works.

Full disclosure: I have oily / combination skin that usually doesn't need heavy moisturizing, but if you have dry skin, you may need to moisturize before you use this product. Vicco isn't drying, but as a non-greasy cream, I wouldn't expect it to do much for dryness.

I am now also testing the original "with sandal oil" version (what would the acronym for that be, geniuses at Vicco?), and although this cream clearly has an oil base, it vanishes into the skin too, leaving no grease behind. I am impressed. Will know soon if it breaks me out.

All in all, this is a great product that offers great value. Low priced, time-tested, seemingly therapeutic, and a great skin-friendly cosmetic that works as a primer and ought to work as a light-to-moderate sun block.

Improving shampoo even more

Read my earlier post here and here.

For absolutely the ultimate conditioning effect, use castor oil with Halo shampoo (or any basic low-cost shampoo from a known manufacturer).

I am not going to lie to you - the mix smells a bit like castor oil. Well, castor oil and shampoo fragrances. But it is not bad - it is the kind of natural, earthy fragrance that would smell expensive if sniffed from a small vial in a tiny air-conditioned organic products store à la Auro-boutique.

The important thing is, this mix provides the finest conditioning I've ever experienced (and that includes outrageously priced stylist recommended Schwarzkopf products and similar). The hair feels heavy, lustrous and absolutely silky, while the scalp feel is very comfortable (I have very dry scalp that is prone to flaking especially when I use conditioners).

Especially for daily washing of unoiled hair, this mixture is perfect. If you do not pre-oil your hair, be brave and use 1:1 oil and shampoo, dilute with water as required. (I do not dilute, I enjoy the thick, creamy consistency of the mix.

For pre-oiled hair, try 1 oil : 2 shampoo.

Crystal deodorant

Here’s a cheap, safe(r?) alternative to commercially available deodorants- Potash Alum (potassium double sulfate of aluminium), known in tamil as Padigaram.

Body odor is caused by bacteria growing in the humid folds of skin like the under arms. Commercially available deodorants invariably are scented coktails of questionable chemicals that typically act to block off pores in the area, suppressing sweating and consequently, odor.

I don’t care for the idea of pores being blocked, and prefer to shower regularly and go au naturel when possible. However, most of us, myself included, cannot do entirely without a deodorant either – especially those of us who live in humid climates and need to spend several hours outdoors, inflicting our vile vapours upon the innocent public.

Then, while pottering around in a raw food website (more about that in another post), I found that “crystal deodorants” were touted as safe alternatives to regular deodorants. Some research and roping in CK’s chemistry expertise tells me that these crystals are essentially Alum – ammonium alum in this product's case, but perfectly replaceable with the more commonly available (in India) potash alum.

Older men will remember this as the barber's stone, and gentlemen patrons received a post-shave face swabbing with it in the good old days.

Alum works as a bactericide, and has been used as a deodorant for over 1000 years now. After showering, rubbing alum to the moist underarm region drops the PH value of the skin in that area, rendering it acidic and inhospitable for bacterial growth.

The theory sounded fine, so I am trial running it, this is day 2. So far, I am bloody impressed. Last morning, I used it after shower, headed out and spent the day being my sweaty Sunday self. After about 6 – 8 hours of oily sweat and grime, no discernible odor! Today was also a long, sweaty day out, and Alum held up wonderfully.

My friend is trying it out on her feet that sweat inside shoes and consequently get smelly, and she tells me that she has had a very successful day 1.

Fragrances are important to me, though I hate literally every scented deodorant I’ve tried. Alum doesn’t have any smell of its own, so you can use your favorite fragrance along with it if you wish. Now that I use alum, I've been able to break out my stash of itr (attars). I’m wearing Khus right now, and I smell summer wherever I go.

Despite some half-hearted nay-saying that I saw on the internet about the safety of alum, my logic is simply that alum has been used in our wells to purify/clarify water for ages now, and potash alum is also a common ingredient in certain kinds of pickles.

Sure, over-application on the skin could create enough acid to give you a rash, but used normally, I am convinced you will find this an all-round winner.

You will find alum in old-style herb stores priced at roughly Rs. 20 – Rs.30 for a half kilo of large crystals. Remember that the skin has to be moist, or you must moisten the crystal with a drop of water before use. Don't wet it completely, store dry. No re-application necessary - each application lasts for 10 - 12 hours at least.

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NOTE: People with severe & chronic body odor (persistent despite good hygiene) should try cleaning out their intestines. A thorough 3-day cleanse cures even the worst body odors - tested with positive results by at least two people I know, whose twice a day shower routine wasn't helping with their odor problems.

See a doctor (ayurvedic/siddha) about taking a purgative, ask your mother how to take castor oil, or do a salt water flush for three days, eating only simple, raw vegetarian food on these days. The odor will go away. Caveat: I'm not a doc.

Value buy: Vicco foam base cream

This is a lovely, lovely product. The only soap I use is Carbolic, but on a long day out, Chennai's humidity makes a portable, non-messy face wash tube indispensable. In the past I've used Himalaya neem, pears etc, but then I found this gem and I love it.

This blue tube says "Vicco turmeric with foam  base", and isn't immediately recognizable as a face wash - you will likely find it in the cosmetic aisle on the face cream shelf. (Way to kill a good product with bad labeling, Vicco!)

The contents are an unappetizing brown (and a bit runny, so don't squeeze too hard). You need only a tiny bit for a routine wash. The stuff lathers very well, smells wonderfully pleasant, and does a great job of clearing away oil and grime from the face. I find that it takes care of heat rashes too (the prickly variety).

At Rs. 30 for a 30 g tube, this stuff is brilliant, and lasts quite long.

Look for the blue Vicco tube with the grinning dude (why?) on the cover.

Making herbal hair oil

For a few years now, I have taken to oiling my hair regularly before showering - a ritual that I used to detest as a child, but that I quite enjoy these days.

I have no western medical explanation for this, but oiling the scalp regularly is considered "cooling" for the body. I do find that regular oil baths calm the nerves, prevent headaches and in general help me handle the heat much better.

Given my frequent use, I've found it advantageous (and fun) to make my own herbal hair oil.

Ingredients:

Oil (sesame / coconut)
Karisilankanni leaves (Bhringaraja, Eclipta alba / Eclipta prostata, False daisy)
1 clean old cotton towel (the thin "thorthu" ones, or an old square of Veshti)
water
a wok (kadai)
stove

Total time: 60 - 90 minutes

Eclipta Alba:

Bhringaraj or karisilankanni in Tamil is a robust ornamental shrub that is also known as false daisy. While two unrelated species of herbs are both known as Karisilankanni, the Manjal Karisilankanni (Wedelia chinensis / Wedelia calendulacea, yellow flowers) is unrelated to Eclipta, which has smaller but similar leaves and small white flowers.


Eclipta is commonly found in south India, and you should be able to get it fresh in a good produce market. We get it in Madras at the Koyambedu market, in the greens section. A fairly thick bunch retails for Rs. 10.

Oil:

My preference is for sesame (gingelly/til) oil. If you retain the practice of setting your hair with oil, you ought to go with the milder scented and less greasy coconut oil

Like most people, my oil-set hair days are behind me. Since I only use the stuff for soaking before a wash, I prefer the better recommended sesame oil that I find fragrant and calming. Also, sesame oil has a higher smoke point and will not burn easily, and it has a very long shelf life. Coconut oil on the other hand will turn rancid soon if you boil it, so make smaller batches if you choose this oil.

Whatever the oil, try to get fresh-pressed stuff from an oil merchant, and not the expensive, double-refined nonsense that sells in supermarkets.

So, here's the recipe.

Wash the Eclipta leaves for residual soil, and separate the leaves and the green stems from the thicker, darker stalk leading to the root. Place the leaves and stems with just enough water in a processor to grind into a thick batter. Notice that the batter is bluish black.

Place the batter in the towel / cloth square, and wring out all the juice. measure the juice into the wok, and add equal quantity of oil.

Place the wok on the stove, let simmer while stirring occasionally. The water will loudly splutter and eventually boil away completely. You will know this when there mixture quietens down, there is no more water vapour emerging from the wok, and the oil boils up in fine, transparent, foamy bubbles. After this point, don't let the oil boil for any longer, or the sediments will char.

The oil should be a lovely blackish green. Remove from fire and allow to cool, and then store in a glass jar. You don't have to filter out the fine, powdery sediment, it has a nice scrubbing effect on the scalp.

Use liberally on scalp and hair, soak for at least 30 minutes, and wash away with sheekha or shampoo.

I've been using this for over a month, and my hair fall has stopped almost completely. I also don't have flaking and other dry scalp issues, and I notice that my hair is growing faster.

You can use the same technique to prepare Henna (Marudhani, Lawsonia Inermis) oil too. The oil comes out a beautiful saffron orange, and is nice for henna dyed hair.

Note: if you strongly prefer coconut oil, you can try an alternative method. Grind the leaves into a thicker paste with very little water and pat into small flat cakes, leave in the sun till dry and hard. Then, drop the cakes into a glass jar filled with coconut oil, close and leave in the sun for a couple of weeks, several hours each day. The oil will change colour and extract the effective ingredients from the cakes, but wont turn rancid as quickly as when boiled.

These oils are fun to make, extremely good value for money, and are nice way to incorporate natural products into your body maintenance regimen.

Update on Improving shampoo

This is a follow-up to the post Improving shampoo.

I finally got around to testing CK's suggestion about using rice bran oil in place of coconut oil. Also, Instead of the 2 shampoo: 1 oil ratio I had suggested in my original post, I went 1:1 this time and to up the ante, pre-oiled my hair too. Results are terrific! At 2 : 1, you are still using too much shampoo, it turns out you can go with much more oil than you think. And remember, I went 1:1 with rice bran oil, which is a much heavier oil than coconut oil. (Halo shampoo, no water used). The conditioning effect with rice bran is markedly superior when compared to coconut oil.

I shook the mix up to form a mango milkshake-y emulsion. There is no oil smell - unlike with coconut oil which smells, well, coconutty, which I kind of liked, but no oil smell is a good thing for work days.

I had pre-oiled my hair rather heavily, so we are talking about a lot of grease here. I had to use the mix twice - first wash, rinse, then wash again. Not much lather the first time, but small, fine lather the second time around. After the final rinse, hair felt slick but not greasy, like after a conditioner.

Hair is dry now, and feels lovely. No grease, but dark, glossy, well-set look, which is what a really good conditioner will do to straight hair. Remember that this was on pre-oiled hair! I think that if you use the mix without oiling your hair first, you'll still get a gentle wash, leading to hair that looks moisturized, but also has bounce and body. It is also possible that to was unoiled hair, you could go with even more oil in the mix. I'll try it out.

But remember, these are proportions for Halo shampoo, which is a regular surfactant based shampoo that I find quite drying on its own (same as sunsilk, pantene and even biotique in my experience). If you are trying this with some other brand of shampoo+conditioner or a very gentle cleanser, you could try and go with lesser oil.

To summarize the differences between using rice bran oil and coconut oil in the mix - with rice bran oil, there is slightly lesser lather. No smell other than the shampoo fragrance. gentler cleaning, softer, silkier hair post-wash.

Where costs are concerned, rice bran oil is probably one of the cheapest vegetable oils out there, retailing at Rs. 70 - 90 per liter.

Rice bran oil is available at all supermarkets, just like sunflower oil, etc.

If you want to try this with other oils, knock yourself out! But comeback and tell us what happened. I'll live up to my promise and try the mix with castor oil, just for kicks :-D

PS: here is another suggestion, also from CK - for itchy scalp, infections or dandruff, add a couple of drops of dettol. Hm! Will certainly try this.

Improving shampoo

Last week while traveling I found a neat way to improve shampoo, and make it last longer.

But first – my favorite and preferred hair wash solution is a mix of powdered shikha (Acacia concinna) and "arapu/chigare” (Scientific name?. Safe, extremely inexpensive, and completely biodegradable.  I mix a table spoon of both these powders with warm water to batter consistency to wash oiled hair. Admittedly, this is not for busy workdays.

Shampoos are convenient, but more expensive than traditional cleansers, non-biodegradable and bad for soil health, and their safety level for human use is dubious at best.

That said, chances are it is going to take a lot of lifestyle change before you give up shampoo altogether, so here are ways to lessen the evil.

I find shampoo use complicated because I find that it dries out my scalp and hair, which means I’ve to either oil my hair heavily, or use a conditioner. Most likely the latter, because even if I oil my hair, shampoo ends up stripping the oil off completely.

Moreover, shampoo is unnecessarily thick. You can dilute it considerably, even though the bottle says not to.

To combat the drying factor, dilute shampoo with part oil and part water. The oil softens the shampoo considerably, and has a superb conditioning effect on hair.

Take about  20 ml of shampoo in an empty bottle, and add 10 ml of oil, and 10 ml of water. Shake well. Upon shaking the contents form a  milky emulsion. Contents will settle, you’ll need to shake the bottle every time before use.  I don’t know yet if the oil will turn rancid, so make small batches just enough for a week.

The effect of adding oil directly to shampoo is very pronounced. You don't have to pre-oil - hair turns out perfectly conditioned and set. The lather is rich and fine, and when you rinse off, don't get nervous about the slightly slick texture - this is similar to the slickness that conditioners leave behind, and will disappear when dry. I am now trying to find the threshold at which oil becomes too much in the shampoo, so I can stay just south of that mark. The water is for dilution only – maybe I can do away with that entirely, I don’t know yet.

Which shampoo?

This should work with any shampoo – use your favorite. I tried it first with an almost empty bottle of Biotique soy protein shampoo. Nice, I loved the smell, but pricey.

I am really not convinced about the value you are getting with expensive shampoos over inexpensive ones. If you are going for a laureth sulfate -free shampoo, you are on to something good, but most of the branded shampoos in the market have the same poisons, so why pay more?

From a value perspective, the cheapest shampoo on the market (from a reputed manufacturer) turns out to be good old Halo (M/f Colgate-Palmolive) from my childhood. There is only the yellow “egg protein” variant available, and only in 1 liter bottles. The price is Rs. 235 for the litre. In Chennai there is a Rs.30 off too, so I got it for Rs. 205. A casual price check on the supermarket shelves tells me that the rest retail at Rs. 150 - 200 and above for a 400 ml bottle.

Which oil?

Coconut is fine. Light, mild scented. I am not sure how other vegetable oils will hold up – for one, the smell should be too intense. I am very tempted to try castor oil though, will let you know what happens.

Coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per litre bought loose at the old fashioned oil merchant’s. Bottled varieties like meera etc cost around Rs. 200, and I find they give you pointless enhancements. (Advansed?? Yeah well,  I am not spending nearly Rs. 300/L for poor spelling, Parachute).

At 2:1 ratio, Halo+coconut oil works out to Rs. 180 per litre, which is substantially cheaper (on the average around 70%) than even the mid-range varieties like Sunsilk, and you don’t have to buy a conditioner, which makes it even better value.

I’ve just washed my hair with this mix, and  while I do (ahem!) have naturally soft and silky hair, my hair feels even more fabulous than usual (:-D). Those of you with dry, frizzy conditioner-dependant hair, please try this out and let me know.

Like I said, go with more oil than what I have suggested, or try out various proportions till you find one that works for you.

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U P D A T E  !!!
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CK has as usual beaten me in the value-for-money race. He sees my coconut oil, and raises me rice bran oil.

Like coconut oil, rice bran oil has no strong scent or colour. However, it is slightly more greasy without being too viscous, which ought to make the conditioning effect better than the thinner, lighter coconut oil. And here's what'll interest the hardcore value hunter: coconut oil costs Rs. 140 per liter, while RB oil costs roughly half as much at Rs. 70!! That means a 2:1 halo to RB oil mix totals to Rs. 160 per liter!!

I'll try it out myself to test the feel, and post here.

Value : Carbolic soap

Remember the red Lifebuoy brick from childhood?

In a world of gooey last-a-week cream soaps and "bathing bars", few people know of or remember carbolic soaps.

Through the last century or so, carbolic soaps are credited with saving more lives from succumbing to infection than are drugs. Even now, this cheap and trusty old soap is a sanitation staple in health centers serving the poor in countries the world over.

{In the strictest sense, using a "bath powder" (grain or pulse meal mixed with herbs - cheap, healthy and biodegradable) is the finest bathing solution I've experienced, but more about this in another post.}

When it comes to soaps, I personally believe that there is no such thing as a beauty soap. The only thing a good soap can and ought to do is clean and disinfect without being harsh on your skin, or leaving semi-tested chemicals behind. As for slimy shower gels that are a pain to rinse off, I have nothing but contempt for them.

A carbolic soap meets all my bathing requirements. The soap has been around for a long time, each bar lasts a long while, it thoroughly cleans, disinfects and deodorizes, and doesn't leave my skin dried out either (but I moisturize in winters). It blasts through rashes (I have sensitive skin) and is supposedly very effective on acne. The smell is strong and aseptic, which is perfect because I want to smell clean, not like jasmine or seaweed or a tropical fruit.

There are a few other uses for the soap too. For minor scrapes and cuts, washing the spot with water and leaving on a film of carbolic soap for a while protects against infection. My grandmother used to do this for our little scrapes, and my dad tells me he used to do the same when he was a kid.

Carbolic soaps have been popular bug repellants for a while now, and in my personal experience, this is perfectly true. Commercial mosquito repellents can cause severe allergic reactions and/or respiratory problems, as they have for my mother, while a simple shower can give you a lot of relief from bugs. Apart from showering with the soap, I discovered a way to add a bug repellent booster dose. In Madras the mosquito menace is acutest in the evenings, and yesterday I had showered in the morning with carbolic but wasn't sure if the smell still lingered. So I took a dry bar of the soap and rubbed it all over exposed parts - arms, legs and feet. Yes, mosquitoes do steer clear of you!

There must be small manufacturers of the soap in various parts of the country, and among known brands, Nirma has a carbolic soap though it doesn't seem to be available in the south. I personally use "Carbolic" by Karnataka soaps & detergents. When I'm not using an herbal bath powder (and that is most of the previous year), this is the only soap I've used for almost a year now, and I simply love it.

The soap retails at 14 bucks for 150 gms and lasts a really long time. Sadly, this soap is not freely available everywhere (a situation that I find is increasingly the norm with many good, honest products), but I have often seen them in Big Bazaar.

If you live in Karnataka, you can pick the soap up in bulk at a KS&D factory outlet, and you'll get it for a couple of bucks cheaper.  (While you are at KS&D, don't miss another wonderful product - Mysore detergent bar, a yellow laundry soap that is inexpensive and skin-friendly - dermatologist Dr. Thambaiah of Madras recommended yellow detergent cakes. But I just checked their site, and I don't see it listed. Another lovely product dead??)

Apart from personal use, given how these have been preferred by doctors in primary care centers around the world, a box of carbolic soaps  can be a novel and very useful goodwill gift if you are looking to help a health facility that serves the poor, or a welfare-based school, or a home for children or the aged.  

The carbolic soap is a wonderful product, and it would be a shame to see it die because of lack of demand.

More on the topic of toilette:

My bathing routine simply involves Carbolic soap and a scrubbing brush. For brushes, go for fibre loofahs like this one. In Tamil Nadu, you'll find these in small grocery outlets or herbal medicine stores selling at 5-10 bucks bucks a piece. Or you can go to a health & glow type outlet and throw away 50 - 100 bucks for the same stuff.

Khadi gramodyog has round idli-like loofahs for 10 bucks each, made of fragrant vetiver! But remember to soak any natural fibre brush in water for a couple of days to soften it up. It can be quite rough on the skin when new.

If you have no choice but to go plastic,  these damn things make pretty bubbles, but are bloody useless as scrubbers. You are better off with these - very very cheap, no-nonsense and effective. Just be nice and try to make one last for a long long long time, so that you reduce plastic waste. Once it is shredded from use, it can still scrub tiles or your bike or car.

That's it for this post. Bye!

Skincare: Make your own moisturizer

I know of no woman that is so butch as to not keep a stash of skin care products. Even “low maintenance” women end up with a lot of cosmetic stuff that they pick up, often more out of impulse than of any real need. I challenge any woman to walk around a bath & bodyworks kind of store and not squirm and salivate.

Over time though, one realizes that most “skincare” products are actually nonsense. Most of what you really need, you can make at home.

Let us start with moisturizing:

Note:  There are several elaborate recipes even for homemade products, some of which are possibly valid cures for special skin conditions. However, since this blog is about simplicity and minimalism, We'll look at the simplest solution possible.

Dry skin can be itchy and annoying. Moisturizing is essentially creating a film of barrier on the skin to lock moisture in. The best moisturizer in my entire experience is a light oil rub down, right after shower. Just before you towel off, shake a couple of drops of oil (coconut) on to your wet palm, rub vigorously till the water in your palm and the oil forms a milky emulsion. Spread all over, rub in well. Leave for a  couple of minutes and do a very quick rinse (no soap this time). Pat dry, and you are done.

After several expensive bottles of fancy moisturizers, I found that this simple solution is what works best even in Canadian winter, when your skin turns to parchment and the best of moisturizers turn out to be chemical cocktails (Propylene glycol? Parabens? Acrylamide? No thank you) that don’t work, and very likely are slow-poisoning you.

You can use lighter mineral oils or baby oil if you like, but you are just flushing your money down the loo. That, and I wouldn't trust mineral oils all that much either.


For especially dry skin or patches like knees and elbows, wet the area thoroughly, and rub in lots of warm oil. soak for a few minutes and rinse off. Once every while, a warm castor oil soak is great for even the driest skin. Coconut oil will still work, but the thick, viscous castor oil is an elixir for dry, flaky skin. Remember that oil itself will not moisturize - moisture is essentially water. So wet the area well first. 

From the money angle, a 200 ml coconut oil bottle (Parachute and similar) costs roughly Rs. 30. A 200 ml bottle of moisturizer costs anywhere from 3 to 10 times as much, depending upon the brand.


So give the intense therapy silky pearl body milk cocoon BS a rest, and grab a bottle of trusty old CO at the grocer's.