I
first discovered something other than the conventional approach to
beauty a few years back during my pregnancy. Sounds shallow that it
took me some 15 years to realize it when the alternative
natural lifestyle has been around a lot longer. I guess I just dismissed that
lifestyle as silly and a bit dramatic - ignorant I know, but
sometimes or maybe all of the time, you just have to get there on your own
and figure it out for yourself; no matter how many times good willed
people try to convince you. Which is why I won't rant on the benefits or
try to convince anyone.
So what could be wrong with using
commercialized drugstore beauty buys and or eating non-organic? I've been
doing it all these years and I turned out fine. Fast forward to the
present and boy do I hate that line and logic. The "I was spanked and I
turned out fine" or the I grew up eating Doritos and Dunkaroos and
drinking liters of Pepsi and look at me, I'm fine. Yeah well people,
fine is not good enough for this lady over here! I'm no better than
anyone else but I know better and it is my goal to do myself and my
family a favor in giving the best and doing my best for them. No one can
deny that logic.
Back to the topic at hand, so there I was Fall of 2012
in my first trimester spending countless hours surfing the web coming
across way more info than necessary when it comes to what some may or may
not consider safe for mommy and zygote. Smoking, drinking .. obvious I
knew those, cold cuts & soft cheeses, yeah I guess I can't deny that
one, but froyo? who knew. Well froyo aside it awoke me
from my dream err denial that even some things in moderation are still
not good. Just cause it's a small dose doesn't make it okay. Small dose
or not, count up all the days/years/reapply's, where does that get you
to? What doesn't kill you in this case might not make you stronger. The
bright side I discovered is that luckily there is a more natural alternative
i.e #wholefoods. So it may not be the most cost effective but there are
definitely diy options. And so my journey started and it began with what seemed to have the most outwardly benefit. I'll admit
in the beginning my desires were more about vanity than helping myself
or the environments but it's a start at least I thought, I was doing
something good.
My first approach was going no poo. That is tossing all
traditional shampoos and conditioners to the side and going more au
naturale with a baking soda wash and an apple cider vinegar conditioner -
real sexy stuff people. But it made sense to
me. There is science behind it, ph levels and what not and how
traditional shampoos rid your scalp of all natural oils and basically
tell your scalp to go into overproduction, hence causing oily hair.
Luckily I have naturally curly and dry hair (not that I embrace or love
it but that's an entry for another day) so I don't get the oilies
as quickly as someone with slick straight hair and can typically go (alert! alert! TMI
warning) 4-5 days between washings ... I know... don't judge. Truth is,
it's better for your hair and like anything over time your hair will
adjust to whatever new process you expose it to. But I will admit it is a
very diy approach, and I don't just mean physically speaking. It really
helps to be intuitive and be able to trust the process a little. I'm
naturally awful at intuition when it comes to anything beauty/body/hair
related. But I'm learning to trust myself and my body in letting it
do it's thing.
So what started as just my hair, has
expanded to skincare, body products, and even makeup. But I'm easing
myself into it. I can't justify or bring myself to just dump all of
my toxic laced existing products in the trash. Going forward, my
compromise is to buy the alternative more natural version when I do run
out of an item. So far it has worked well although it does take some
trial and error and research. Luckily there are many organic and natural
beauty companies out there that offer the toxic-free formula. It's also helpful that there are
websites that rate products on a good to bad spectrum and breakdown
ingredients with their respective harmful detriments. I am by no means
an expert and I fall short all the time. I know it will be especially hard
for me to let go of my trusty under eye concealer when the last
drop has been squeezed .... but I refuse to turn back now on the truth, myself and my family.
No comments:
Post a Comment