Face Your Fears

You all know the saying/advice to face your fears. I've always believed it to be fairly true. Recently, however, I experienced it in a new way.

Early in the growing season this year I was attempting to tackle the grasses and weeds that had taken over our garden beds. It was bad.

If you look hard enough, you can see our tiny squash plants attempting to overcome the mess.

This day was also the day that I learned that you can get a "grass cut." Similar to a paper cut, but from pulling out grass. But, that was the lesser trauma of the day.

I was attempting to at least free the area right around the roots/stems of our plants from the grasses. One particular handful of grass pulled out a clump of soil with it. I shook off some of the dirt and threw the grass aside. Thats when I noticed what I had uncovered. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of teeny tiny spiders frantically crawling around. First reaction: EEK! Followed rather quickly by fascination. They were crawling all over the egg sack. They were so tiny that they must have hatched recently. The scientist in me couldn't help but think it was pretty darn cool that I accidentally unearthed them right after they hatched. I cautiously, and from a fairly safe distance, leaned over to get a better look. And thats when it happened.

The entire mass of egg sack and baby spiders literally got up and walked away. Turns out the egg sack was attached to the back of a GIGANTIC momma wolf spider. I hadn't noticed her at all as she blended in with the soil so well. She didn't move very far, but she was fast. And did I mention that she was HUGE. Holy freaking crap. 

The picture is poor quality and really doesn't show the scale of the monstrosity, but here it is anyway.

I dare you to click on it!

OK, so why am I telling this story? First of all, it's a good story. But the main reason I'm sharing is what has happened over weeks since then: 

- I have encountered numerous smallish spiders in my gardens. Lots of them. Various types.

- While staying in dorm-like accommodations, I entered my room, turned on the light, and caught a rather large centipede running away. It went under the bed. 

- In the same dorm-like accommodations, I encountered a really large centipede in the kitchen sink.

- There have been a couple medium sized spiders and even one really large maybe-spider. It might have been a cricket, but I'm pretty sure it was a spider.

Any of those encounters would have previously freaked me out pretty badly. I'm not the sort to jump up on a chair and squeal or anything, but I would have backed away and struggled to finish my weeding. I certainly would have been pretty concerned about getting into a bed that a largish centipede may or may not be hiding under. 

But, I didn't freak out. In all these cases I had some initial shock and dismay, followed by calm. In most cases I actually said aloud something like "oh, hi Spidey." Sure, I probably jumped a bit and backed away. But, then once Spidey moved away I went back to what I was doing. I calmly got into bed, not at all freaked about a centipede attacking me in my sleep. And every time this has happened, I thought back to that moment when giant momma wolf spider first moved. I survived that moment, and this one is nothing in comparison.

I've come to the conclusion that confronting your fears is definitely a good way to overcome them. However, it may be that having your fears confront you, especially unexpectedly, might work even better. 

The TDE's Shampoo-Free Month

Hello Dear Readers,

Today I summarize my shampoo-free month! Here we go!

Day 0, I was planning shampoo and soap free, but found myself covered in sunscreen and remembering yesterday's conditioner that was still on my hair. I decided this would be my last day of "normal"showering and worked up the suds.

The sunscreen issue got me thinking. How do I go soap-free when there are waterproof things on my skin that I want to get off of me? Then another big concern occurred to me. I want to keep shaving my legs. How do I do that without product? So, I made the call that I would stop ALL hair products and stop using my face soap. I decided that I would continue to use my regular body bar soap until I was able to do additional research and go shopping for a replacement.

HAIR:
Day 1, no hair products. My hair was DRY. It felt like straw. It also dried really really quickly after my shower.

Day 2 and 3 were pretty similar to Day 1.

By Day 4, the grease started. This is significantly longer than I expected before feeling greasy and my explanation to myself is that I wasn't using conditioner and perhaps conditioner makes my hair get greasier faster. (I had previously noticed that, when using conditioner every day, I'd be greasy by day 2.)

At 1 week, things were pretty rough. I was self-conscious that my hair was oily and stinky, but I powered through. My plan was to go a month if possible and an absolute minimum of 2 weeks, which I had read was a typical "transition period." I started brushing a couple of times a day to "distribute" the grease better. At this point, my scalp was oily but my ends still felt like straw.

Days 10 and 11 were the worst. My "Cow-Lick" would not calm down and my hair just looked yucky. The positive was that my straw-hair was gone even at the ends. I really REALLY wanted to put just a tiny bit of shampoo on only my scalp, but I told myself I had to make it to 2 weeks so I didn't give in.

Day 12 was the turn around and by 2 weeks in, my hair just figured it out. No more massive oil. It looks like it did before I started all this. It's kinda unbelievable, but it's true.

Day 17: I'm feeling great and thinking that I'm never going back to shampoo.

Week 3 was generally good. Grease started to build up a little bit, but I'm still amazed at how well this is working.

Week 4: Now I'm less sure about this whole shampoo-free forever thing. I'm still generally fine with the results and I don't feel dirty. However the oil in my hair is making it kinda stiff and unmanageable. It feels and acts as if I had some hair spray in it. I can't run my fingers through it. When I take down a pony tail it doesn't fall down completely. The "cow lick" is also acting up again.

1 Month: Suddenly, I notice some odor. I wonder if it has to do with my hormonal cycle. I see no other explanation for why I made it through 31 days without noticing odor and on Day 32 my hair suddenly smells dirty.

I finally fessed up to the ITH on day 32. He took it in stride but didn't know that I'd been doing it. He did make this encouraging comment:

ITH: I noticed the other day when I kissed your head.....
TDE: Do I smell bad?
ITH: No, I just noticed that I didn't smell anything (meaning I don't smell like my normal hair products.)
TDE: But I don't smell bad?
ITH: No.

Success!

But then, that very same day (Day 32) is the day I first noticed myself smelling (which is why I assumed he was going to say that I smelled bad.) I showered right before bed that night and went to bed with wet hair. When the ITH came to bed after I'd been struggling to get into a deep sleep I snuggled up to him and finally fell asleep. The next morning:

TDE: Last night when you came to bed I snuggled up to you and finally fell asleep. It was good.
ITH: Yeah, but your hair was wet and on me and smelled bad.

Sooooo, did I really suddenly smell bad to him too, or was it just that he now had the knowledge that I had not shampooed in a month? I suppose we can never know for sure, but based on my own olfactory judgement, I think my hair really did suddenly start smelling dirty. Strange.

Summary:
I made it through a whole month and then decided that my hair needed to be washed. However, I didn't use traditional shampoo. I went to the internet for alternatives, but that's what I'll discuss next week.

Overall, I also noticed that I can easily shower ever other day. I did that on both vacations with no ill effects. I didn't feel dirty. I didn't smell bad. Also, traveling just got easier, I've freed up a few bucks in the budget, and my showers are a bit faster. So far so good.

PS: I am now about 2 weeks into my totally soap-free shower experiment. It seems to be working. I just packed for a trip (a week of tap dancing all day every day) and brought bar soap just in case as it is definitely going to be a sweaty week. I didn't pack shampoo though. :)

Why I Ditched Face Wash

A quick side tangent this week and then we'll get into the results of my shampoo-free month next week.

As I mentioned last week, this article inspired me to ditch many of my hygiene products, including my face soap. I was planning to go cold turkey on everything, but for reasons discussed last week, kept my bar soap as my one and only shower product for a whole month. On "Day 0" of the adventure I also happened to see someone post something about the plastic microbeads in face wash contaminating our water and affecting aquatic wildlife. I wasn't sure if my face wash had plastic microbeads or something more natural, but I was already planning to ditch soap entirely anyway so it was an easy decision to at least eliminate my face wash along with my shampoo and conditioner, keeping only the bar soap.

Other reasons I decided to without face wash:

The Practical:
1) Why use something if I don't need it?

2) That New York Times article linked above states that the author's acne IMPROVED when she ditched all her products. Improved acne by getting rid of a product sounds pretty good to me.

3) The possibility of saving money by no longer buying face wash.

4) We did lots of traveling last month. Fewer hygiene items to pack!

The Environmental:
I read the ingredient list on my face wash. Yikes! I'm a chemistry nerd so I understand that all those scary-sounding chemical names are not as scary as they sound. However, do I really need all that crap in my face wash? No.

All those chemicals also get washed down the drain and sent into our water systems (along with those plastic microbeads.) I don't KNOW that the chemicals cause problems, but I prefer to contribute as little as possible to this sort of thing.

Side note: This is also where I learned the face wash I was using DOES contain plastic microbeads. Want to know if yours does too? Check this list.

The Scientific:
SCIENCE! Experimentation! Gaining knowledge first hand rather than just believing what I read. I'm a scientist and I'm prepared to have my face break out in the worst acne of my adult life just to know for SURE if I need to use face wash or special face soap or not.

The results:
What I decided to do was to use body soap on my face in the shower and to use just warm water and a washcloth any other time I needed to wash my face. I usually wash my face first thing in the morning and right before bed, meaning I'd now wash once in the shower with body bar soap and once with just water and washcloth. And, I actually ended up washing with soap less frequently than planned as I didn't take a shower every day.

So what happened? Not much. The first day felt extra oily and I washed my face (with just water) a few extra times. I didn't break out. Almost no change at all.

Really. Try it.

Next steps, soap free. I'm currently about 5 days into a totally soap-free experiment. Results summary coming soon.

Humans survived for a long time we created specialized face wash and fancy shampoos. I now walk down the personal care product aisles with a new perspective. Here are many many things that you can buy that you don't need. We've just been convinced that we need them. I could go all conspiracy theory on you and say that the companies make products that are too harsh on purpose so that you have to keep using them to battle ever-increasing oil production of your skin which is only trying to combat the harshness of the products you use. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me too much to learn that there's some truth there, but instead I'll just give you this more reasonable perspective on the whole thing.

I'm not saying everyone should stop showering or stop using all their products. But, it's definitely worth taking some time to question your daily routine and experiment to see what you can eliminate or reduce. Save money, improve your skin, and keep plastic microbeads out of the waterways.

Shampoo Experiment - Extension

I washed my hair last night. It was the first time I put anything on my hair in a month.

Yes, for a whole month, the only thing I put on my hair was water. Really.

This is going to be a series of posts because I want to document not only my procedure and results, but also my thought process.

Today: How this all started (Background)

Technically, this all started YEARS ago when a hairstylist told me that I shouldn't shampoo every day. She recommended once a week. I tried skipping days and found that shampooing every other day worked for me. Sometimes I would skip another day, but I'd usually have greasy hair if I did. This same hairstylist explained how sulfates are really bad for your hair. You'll now see lots of shampoo bottles that say "sulfate free." My favorite are the ones that say "no sodium lauryl sulfate" which is true, but they contain various other sulfates or even just some other lauryl sulfate instead. Nice try, but I understand chemistry!

I started using sulfate-free shampoo. It was hard to find and expensive back then. The breakthrough was when I found this. Apparently someone is making a killing re-selling that stuff. I was just at a Trader Joe's last week, and it's only $3 a bottle in the store. Win! Somewhere along the way, having cheap sulfate-free shampoo lead to shampooing every day again. I'm not entirely sure why. The best reason I can come up with is that it meant that I didn't have to remember if I shampooed the previous day or not. The daily shower is something you shouldn't really have to think about after all.

Then, fast forward a few years to the shampoo experiment. This did 2 things. First, it reminded me that I don't need to shampoo every day. Every other day works just fine for me. Second, it introduced me to the concept of "no-poo" and that there are lots of people out there who shun shampoo to various degrees. Many people are in the "once a week" crowd but some don't shampoo at all... ever... So, after the shampoo experiment, I was back to every other day and sometimes every third day. But again, skipping 2 full days between shampoo days definitely lead to greasy hair. Therefore, I was generally on an every other day schedule. Yet somewhere in the back of my head was this thought that maybe I don't need shampoo at ALL. It sounds crazy but lots of people do it. Just Google it.

Then, this New York Times article came out. I was intrigued. It makes some sense. And while the author's experience wasn't entirely positive, it still seemed oddly appealing to me. It at least got me researching the concept more. What did I find? I found people who hadn't used shampoo OR soap for YEARS. Like this guy. There are a few others, but almost everything I found was men. I knew there were plenty of ladies out there that were at least shampoo-free though. The more I learned the more I thought that I just had to at least try it out (save money, easier travel, better for me and my hair? sold!) And, one of the reasons I'm documenting this whole thing is to add another female voice to this story.

I was planning to ditch soap and all my hair products and go cold turkey on everything, but on what was going to be "Day 1" of this adventure I found myself covered in sunscreen (how do I get that off without soap?) and then realized that the previous day's conditioner that was still on my hair. I wanted to go completely product-free and therefore needed to wash off the conditioner with shampoo. Next, I had the realization that I would need to use something in addition to water to shave my legs and that I definitely wanted to keep doing that. So, I decided that it would be my last day of shampoo, becoming "Day 0" and that I'd keep using my bar soap until I had done more research and figured out an alternative.

I told myself I would to go a whole month without ANY hair product. No shampoo, no conditioner, no leave-in conditioner, no sprays, nothing but water. I also told myself that I absolutely HAD to make it past the 2 week mark which I read is generally the "transition period." I also decided to go cold turkey on my face soap along with shampoo. There are a lot of reasons for this decision and I'll discuss them next week.

So for a whole month I used my bar soap and no other body hygiene products.* I still use toothpaste. I also still wash my hands (with soap) after using the bathroom and before preparing food. Oh, and while I did wash my hair last night, I didn't use traditional shampoo or conditioner (more on that later.)

*Note 1: The TDE has been deodorant-free for a couple of years now. That stuff is bad for you and you don't need it. OK, technically it's the antiperspirant that is really bad for you. Deodorant (without antiperspirant) is OK, but you don't need it. Again, there's a "transition period" but I promise your body will adjust. I mean, I tap dance a LOT and I don't need it. In fact, not long ago I put some on for just one day as I was expecting a long and sweaty day, and then cursed myself for three or four days afterwards as my body over-produced sweat in a sort of "rebound" reaction. I must thank the ITH for initially converting me to the no-deodorant club with his simple statement of "I don't use it. Do I smell bad?" 

I didn't tell anyone I was ditching shampoo, not even the ITH. I wanted to see if anyone would say something about my hair looking dirty or smelling bad or anything. I went on vacation with my the ITH's family (who probably wouldn't have said anything if they did notice) and then with my family (who definitely would have said something if it was really bad AND experienced week 4 of this experiment.) And yes, the ITH tells me when I smell bad.

What was it like to ditch most of my hygiene products for a whole month? Did anyone comment on my hair during the process? You'll just have to come back later to find out!

The TDE's Frozen Rant

I have a problem with Elsa.

Actually, Elsa herself isn't too bad. I have a problem with how young girls currently idolize Elsa.

In the grand scheme of things, we are making progress. Elsa is leaps and bounds better than Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. Again, my problem isn't really Elsa herself. My problem is that we presented young girls with 2 female characters and they all latched on to the wrong one. How did this happen?

A few weeks ago I finally saw Frozen. I had heard some of the hype and I knew that young girls were coveting Elsa costumes while the Anna costumes sat on the store racks. So, while I did enjoy the movie overall, I couldn't shake the feeling that we failed our girls somehow. The movie ended and I actually said to the ITH "I'm confused. Elsa isn't even the main character." And, as if to prove me right, the credits rolled and the first voice actor credit was for ANNA, not Elsa. I think Elsa was third or fourth. So, the people that made the movie agree that Anna is the main character, NOT Elsa.

Lets think about the two characters. Elsa has magic powers that make snow and ice. That is the one thing she has that might make her "better" then Anna. To protect Anna, they lock Elsa away and try to teach her to stop her powers. She is unable to stop her power so she stays locked away. In a way, this is admirable. She keeps herself locked up to protect her little sister. This is what a loving big sister would do. The problem is that both girls are actually miserable due to the separation. Anna is the one who tries and tries and tries to re-connect with her sister. Elsa just gives up.

Then, of course, their parents die. It IS a Disney movie after all. The girls grow into young women and the whole time Elsa keeps herself locked away, and the whole time Anna never gives up on her sister. Then, for whatever reason, there is this special day where they have to open up the palace and meet their people. Apparently it's time for Elsa to take over as Queen. Who knows who was ruling the people in the years while the girls were growing up. We just time lapsed over that part, so no worries.

When Elsa still can't control her powers and everyone finds out, she runs away and builds herself an ice castle. While the message behind "Let it Go" in the movie is a decent one (stop hiding who you really are) they contradict their own message by having Elsa literally hide herself from the world while singing the song. She is still being the protective older sister, keeping her dangerous powers from hurting anyone. Yet at the same time she's being weak and short sited and self-deprecating. We never see her push back against her exile even though she's miserable and knows that her sister is also miserable. No one, including Elsa, ever considers "hey, she can't stop this, so lets figure out how she can use her power responsibly." Elsa just sees herself as broken and unfixable.

Anna, on the other hand, learns of her sister's powers and immediately decides that they can find a way to live with it. She chases after her sister. She fights back. She risks her life. She saves her sister. Yes, she does some dumb things like agreeing to marry a guy she just met. However, that is behavior you might expect from someone who was locked in a palace her whole life, lost her parents at a young age, and was not even allowed to interact with her the one other child and family member in the building. Additionally, Anna's character grows and learns throughout the film. Elsa just miserably accepts her fate until Anna forces her to see things differently.

So, Disney presented two female characters and both are far better than many previous options we've presented to our girls. The movie actually passes the Bechdel Test. I'll even ignore the annoying fact that we still feel the need to make both girls princesses.... apparently we think young girls won't to relate to female college students so instead we present them with idols from a social culture that is at least 100 years out of date. However, the way I see it, comparatively we have a the weak sister and the strong sister. Thankfully our main character is the strong sister. Good job Disney. Yet somehow, all the little girls want to be Elsa and not Anna. I'm not even sure who or what to blame, but we are still failing our girls. We have a long way to go.

The TDE's Guide to Bees and Wasps

Sorry for the 2 week hiatus. As I previously mentioned, we're out of town a bunch this month. Internet was not always available and well... I'm on vacation so I decided that I didn't HAVE to do anything, including the blog. But, we're home now so it's back to the routine, including the blog.

It's also summer now and summer means all sorts of critters and bugs are around. We noticed some bees and wasps scoping out our balcony and I began to wonder what I could do to discourage them from building their home too close to our home. Off to the internet I went to see what I could find!

Criteria for my Bee/Wasp repellant research:
1) I was looking for something that would repel, not kill. I'll admit that I'm kinda a wuss about bees/wasps and other stingy things, but I also like having food to eat. So, I would like to keep the bees alive, just away from me.
2) As non-toxic as possible. Even if it is just repelling (and not killing) the bees I don't want to spray toxic fumes on my balcony.
3) The cheaper and easier the better.
4) Confirmed by more than one source online. While this still doesn't mean it actually works, it's a little bit better than accepting everything I read anywhere online as fact.

What I found:

To keep the buggers from moving in, this apparently works. They won't build a nest/hive if there is another colony nearby, so if you hang up some brown paper bags stuffed with newspapers they think it's someone else's nest and should move on and find somewhere else to build their home.

To keep them away from you or your gathering, the obvious:
1) Don't wear perfume, cologne, etc. especially floral scents.
2) Cover food or just don't leave it outside at all. This is especially true for sugary things.
3) Avoid brightly colored clothing*

*NOTE: Some discrepancy here. One site said avoid yellow and white and that wasps can't see red so red is a good color to wear. Another site said specifically to wear white. Multiple sites simply explain that wasps ARE visual so if you look like a flower they may be attracted to you. That logic makes sense. Lots of flowers are red or pink so I would think that wasps would be able to see red.  I didn't research further.

Additional Suggestions, new things to try:
1) They don't like mint/peppermint. I saw this on multiple sites.
2) Cucumber slices/peels. Really. Cut them up and lay them around. Bees and wasps apparently don't like the smell of cucumber and they stay away. I saw this on multiple sites and am definitely going to try it out.
3) Tea Tree oil + Benzaldehyde. I'm adding this to the list simply because it came up so often. It was always these two things together, never one or the other or one mixed with something else. It seems odd to me because, as far as I know, I can't run out to the store and get a bottle of Benzaldehyde. Maybe I can? I'm also not sure how safe Benzaldehyde is. Besides, I'm much more curious about the cucumbers anyway.
4) Other scents that may repel them: cinnamon, garlic, other strong smelling herbs, wormwood, and human breath. Multiple sites said that if you stay calm and blow gently on the wasp they will fly away, possibly because they don't like how our breath smells. Though this could backfire if you just ate something really sugary I suppose.

In Summary, here is what the TDE recommends:
1) Don't look or smell like a flower
2) Keep food, especially sugary food, covered or indoors
3) Hang up paper bags stuffed with newspapers
4) Cucumbers and mint.

I'm not sure how to set up a truly controlled experiment, but I'll definitely report back any findings I collect this summer on how well the cucumbers work.

Most useful sources:
(I scanned many additional sites, but these three support the bulk of my content.)
WikiHow
DIY.com
StepIn2
Garden Guides
Daily Mail

Gardening with the TDE

Hello blogland,

First, a few quick updates:

1) Schedule Updates from the TDE.
This week is the last week of school in my area. That means substitute teaching is over for the summer and I *should* be able to get posts up on Wednesdays. However, we're also going to be gone for much of June and internet availability is unknown for some of it. So, June could still be a bit hit or miss.

2) The dishwasher experiment is not going well. I haven't done any more trials. Its hard enough just keeping on top of the dishes in general with a teeny tiny dishwasher. I'm not giving up quite yet though.

OK, moving on:

It's spring and springtime means gardening. In the past we've done well with container gardening on our balcony. We built some "Earthtainers" a couple years ago and they work really well. They're awesome. Unfortunately, this year they shall sit unused on our north-facing balcony that gets about 30 mins of sun just before dusk. :(

However, you just can't keep the TDE and the ITH from digging in the dirt. We joined forces with some other folks and have planted a 10'x40' plot in the local community garden. It's a quick (5 min) walk from home and has been great so far. Here's a picture of our plot from yesterday.

We've got lots of things growing: corn, cukes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, broccoli, potatoes, onions, carrots, leafy greens, peas, and herbs. 

We're also growing a lot of tiny little weedy things. Most of our seeds have sprouted now and are large and recognizable enough that I did LOTS of weeding today. Lots and lots and LOTS of weeding. 

I've never really had a problem with weeding. Of course, I've never had to do a whole lot of it. I used to help my parents in their garden and flower beds when I was a kid, but it was never forced upon me. Today I learned that I actually find weeding almost (not quite, but *almost*) enjoyable. It's definitely oddly satisfying to me to yank out the weeds, especially when the whole root comes out.  It's also really satisfying to see how much better things look when I'm done. Overall, it has a lot of positives. I'm outside in the sunshine, I have a task to complete, it's brainless and oddly calming, and I can see immediate positive results of my efforts. The only really bad part is that you have to be all hunched up and bent over for a long time and if you aren't careful you might step on a couple of bean plants. oops!

NOTE: The TDE is now internally brainstorming ideas for some sort of hanging apparatus that allows for weeding while laying on a lounge chair like device. No hunching or stepping on your plants!

Weeding does, however, make me wonder if I have some mild aspects of OCD. I suppose many people do, but we can control it which is the difference between those of us that do and do not suffer from the disorder. But still, I found myself struggling to stop. Oh, gotta get that one.... and that one... and there's one... and one more... wait, one more.... and oh as I'm walking past this part I already "finished" an hour ago I see at least 3 more that need to go. I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, being a mildly compulsive weeder isn't really so bad though. 

Anyway, I'll post some updates throughout the summer so you can see our garden grow. There will definitely be some harvest pictures for you to enjoy too. But, pictures of MY harvest will be only mildly interesting to you. You should go plant your own garden so you can experience the pride and joy of having your own harvest. 

So, it's time for everyone to get out there and garden! Growing your own food is super rewarding and I swear it tastes better when you grow it yourself. No excuses, wherever you may live, you can find a way to plant a few things. We had no access to any land, but we managed to grow a lot of veggies in our Earthtainers on our balcony. Now we have no land and no sun, so we found the community garden. Gardening also means spending time out in the sunshine with helps your body produce vitamin D and generally makes you feel better (especially if you have SAD.) Plus, there might be bacteria in the dirt that will make you happier. I know I feel a whole lot better today than I did two days ago. Sunshine + digging in the dirt makes the TDE happy. :) 

Finally, one more garden-related thing I learned this week. I can hoe with both hands, with almost equal skill. Yep, the TDE is an ambidextrous hoer.