I have gone nearly two months now without taking any ibuprofen. When I get a headache, rubbing my hands in lavender and deeply inhaling takes care of it, especially sinus headaches. When my bad knee swells due to weather or a race, I massage copaiba into it. It didn’t take long before I was into Young Living’s Thieves line, buying the Thieves hand soap and dishwashing soap. I run Thieves through the diffuser daily, and thus far, none of us have gotten winter colds.

It’s been a bit of a “so holy crap, my oil-obsessed friends and yoga teachers (especially the yoga teachers) know what they’re talking about with essential oils!” epiphany over the last couple of weeks. Do I believe they’re a cure all? Absolutely not, but they do help.

So this weekend, I decided to take the oil craze one step further—I made my own shampoo, conditioner, and dishwasher detergent. If the dishwasher detergent works, then hot damn, I know how to save our family money. I’m already thinking about making my own laundry detergent. I’ve already tossed out the dryer sheets for wool balls with a few drops of Purification oil blend. There’s no static, the clothes dry faster, and they smell amazing.

As for the shampoo and conditioner, my jury is still out on that. My hair definitely has some amazing volume, but it feels, for the lack of a better word, weird. I’m not sure if it’s an adjustment on my hair’s part, or if it’s not rinsing out well. Shawn said it just feels dry, which could be why it feels weird to me. I’ve never had dry hair in my life. I’ve found another recipe for DIY shampoo that’s supposedly more moisturizing, so I’ll see if that makes a difference. I don’t want to give up just yet, because I know that without the chemicals in typical shampoo, my hair and scalp are going through a weird “culture shock.” I’m not doing the no-poo method of baking soda and vinegar (I ain’t that brave), but the castille soap base has less than half the chemicals of traditional shampoo.

So hey, I guess I’ve stepped into the realm of the damn dirty hippies. Shawn is on board so far, because he sees the cost-effectiveness of making our own detergents and using wool balls instead of dryer sheets. I doubt he’ll let me make him shampoo, though.

The post Adventures in Being a Damn Dirty Hippie – DIY Shampoo appeared first on CrunchyChocobo.