No soap for you!

Oy.  How to say this without sounding like a grossbutt.  Is that possible?

Well first, Happy No Shave November!  I just found out that apparently No Shave November is intended for male use only, for awareness of ball cancer or something.  Whatevs.  I can be aware of ball cancer the same as any man.  PLUS, I'm married, so really every month is No Shave November right?  Sorry Joe.

Anyway, more about me being gross.  There's really no way to ease into this subject, so I'll stop beating around the bush (heh heh).

I don't use soap.

Joe's been calling me a hippie non-stop for the past 3 weeks since he found out.  I am also into giving birth naturally, electric lawnmowers and pulling empty bottles out of the trash to put them into the recycling bin.  I've also only used shampoo a handful of times in the past 2 years.  Yeah, maybe I am a tad hippy dippy.

It all started when Joe stuck a baby in me.  I was already the type to suffer through aches and pains because "who knows what Advil really does to you and it doesn't work anyway", but suddenly I had a tiny person inside me and was aware of everything I was putting into myself and of all the crazy shit that was in the outside world that would be housing my tiny person in a few months.  I didn't want anything I put on her or in her or near her to affect the rest of her life negatively.  I didn't want her to end up a fatty like me so I was crazy about food for a while.  I didn't want her hormones messed with so we did all organic meat and milk for a while.  I didn't want her to end up allergic or sensitive to certain materials or chemicals so everything touching her was cotton and fragrance free and blahblah.  I didn't want her to have skin like mine (dry and acne-prone) so we didn't overdo it on the baths and used just a small amount of product.  And so on.

Eventually I got over it and got lazy again, on most things.  Now I'm crunchy only when it doesn't require extra effort or money, or if it only requires a tiny bit of extra effort but saves me a ton of money.  And such is the case with no pooing.  I read about no pooing right around the time all my pregnancy mane was falling out after Violet, and so my hair went from thick and shiny to this weird thick-ish-maybe, dull frizzy rat's nest-ness, and I figured there was no way my hair could be worse.  So I picked up a 10 pound bag of baking soda at Costco (it is SO HUGE [that's what she said]) and went two months without shampooing my hair... took a regular shampoo hiatus, then a few months later I whipped my baking soda bag back out and the rest is history.  I now have only used shampoo in my hair every once in a while (like maybe monthly, if that) when I run out of baking soda in the shower and am enjoying the warm water too much to get out and refill my cup.  I don't know if it's because I have that I-don't-give-a-fuck type of hair or what, but as far as I'm concerned you can't tell a damn difference, except my hair doesn't look plastered down to my scalp with oil the next morning.

So I noticed my hair had become less greasy from the lack of shampoo chemicals and crap, and it got me wondering about how my skin might react to less chemicals.  Normally I have awful awful dry skin with excema patches everywhere and open, bleeding cracks.  I'm extremely sensitive to scented things, and even just water would cause my skin to get tight and then feel rough a few minutes later.  One day (while I was still pregnant with Leela) I ran out of body wash, so I was just like "screw it" and didn't bother buying anymore.  I gave my body an extra scrub with water at shower time and went on with my day.  I didn't feel any cleaner or dirtier after my showers so I figured I'd just keep going with it until I was at the store the next time and could pick up a bottle of something. 

I'm happy to report that 10 months later I have yet to pick up that bottle!  My skin is dry-patch-free and is never tight feeling or itchy like it used to be.  And I'm sure I've saved tons in body wash.  On days I get extra schweddy or dirty in some way, I mix up another cup of baking soda water and rinse with that.

So.  There's my dirty secret.  Go ahead and call me a hippie if you must, but I'm immune to it after the bashing I've received from Joe over the last weeks!  But I will raise this point in favor of No Soaping - it took me telling Joe after 10 months of not using any for him to realize I don't use soap.  And he, on occasion, goes near my should-be-stinky parts, so he would be the one to know know if I'm unhygienic, right?  Right.  +1 for water bathing!