More on Shampoo Bars

Since there was such a big response to our post about using organic shampoo bars to replace normal shampoo, I thought I would post a few videos below that I found helpful when I was trying to find more information on organic shampoo. Both videos were made by "venusinfurs", and the first video discusses her overall experience with organic shampoo bars. In the second video, she compiles a very helpful collection of reviews on various shampoo bars from Chagrin Valley. As she states in her video, just because she might have used a bar that does not work for her, it does not mean that it won't work for you, so keep an open mind whilst watching. My personal favorite bar is the Auburn Henna. I really love the smell, and it adds a lot of shine to my hair, as well as volume. It is specifically designed for people with red hair, however, so it may not be the best for those of you with different hair colors. Also, she says in the first video that she only brushes her hair once a week, and I don't do that. I still brush my hair once a day, but as she says, there is a significant decrease in the amount of time that you have to spend brushing it to keep tangles out. Beneath the videos, I've posted the link for Chagrin Valley, so you can peruse their website at your leisure. I hope this is helpful for all of the people who expressed an interest in these products.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/

D IS FOR DEMON AND FOR DERMATOLOG​IST

Today I thought I’d give you all some very handy information.
This information is in regards to the exact identity of the Devil.
So, yeah, pretty important.
The Devil. He is your dermatologist. Not someone else’s. Yours.
Let me clarify. I HAVE ACNE. I HAVE IT ON MY FACE. We’ll stick with that information for now, that feels like enough. I’ve had acne for years now, and there’s no end in sight. So my parents, being the merciful and visually gifted people that they are, saw my plight and started looking into finding a dermatologist for me. Because my face looked like Pompeii on a daily basis, I was more than okay with that.
So this first dermatologist put me on antibiotics and this facial cleanser that smelled and looked like rotten eggs.
Absolutely nothing changed.
We lost hope for a while, I figured out how to use makeup, it was fine.
Then it started getting worse, so my mom sent me to a different doctor, one who very professionally took down my symptoms and plugged them into WebMD to get my exact diagnosis. Not really. Maybe. Took about that long and cost infinitely more. She prescribed antibiotics, cleaner, gel, lotion, and a medicated moisturizer. I put all this crap on my face in the morning, washed it off at night, put more on, washed it off in the morning, put more on, etc. This crap cost an amount of money I was afraid to look at when my mom came back from the drugstore with the receipt.
A few months later, after using these prescriptions religiously and getting absolutely zero results, I went to a music camp for a week and forgot my medicine at home. So I spent a week washing my face zero times a day. At the end of the week, I had next to no acne on my face. At all. This was probably due to my drinking about 10 gallons of water every day as well as not torturing my skin with the medication.
So I stopped using this stuff.
My skin continued to be fine, not particularly good at times, but never really bad. Then I had another appointment a little while ago, after my skin had been AWESOME for like 2 weeks. The dermatologist looked at my skin, said “oh, I can see you’re really starting to have bad breakouts right now” and prescribed about 50 more things for me to apply to my face.
Immediately after starting this new medication, my skin got HORRIFICALLY bad. The cleanser she gave me was chafing my skin and irritating what was already an issue, and the moisturizer (which is about 50% WATER in the first place) did NOTHING.
So I just quit. I got my mom to buy me some coconut oil, because the internet said so. I continued using the cleaner in addition to the oil, and nothing really improved, just stabilized. Then I dropped the dermatologist’s regime entirely, used Burt’s Bees cleaners and the oil, and in about 2 days my skin was back to normal.
I mean, use your common sense, obviously. If the prescription meds work for you, glory hallelujah, you found a dermatologist who has had the demon exorcised from their mortal soul. But most of the time, the deal with skin cleansers is the same as the deal with shampoo. They give you a cleanser that will strip your skin of every bad and every good thing, forcing you to spend more money on an unnecessary moisturizer (any artificial moisturizer will contain water, I guarantee you that, meaning that it WILL do you more harm than good) to repair some, but not all, of the damage. It’s a vicious cycle. If you feel the need to exfoliate, cinnamon is like a miracle, and baking soda will also do the trick. And it’s cheap. This is a win-win situation here.
Instead of giving grotesque before and after photos, I’m just going to show you the beginnings of a Totoro poster I’m making for my baby brother. It’s adorable. Unlike my skin.