"Crunchy" headlight defogging

We drive a completely paid off Mazda Protege that I bought brand in 2003.  My baby.  We have taken good care of it and it is a great car!  But... it is starting to show its age.  I have been thinking that my night vision is getting really bad because I have a hard time seeing while driving at night, but, after further consideration, I think it may just be time to de-fog the headlights.  They have gotten pretty cloudy, indeed.

After our last road trip we decided it might be time to do something about this.  The car wash place where we go offers this service for $45.  My hubby did some research and found out he could buy the supplies on e-bay for around $20.  We live on a budget (see my post on Nerd vs Free Spirit) so I didn't really like the idea of spending all this money to restore our headlights, even though it now seems to be a safety issue.  Hubs and I were talking and he offered that maybe toothpaste and baking soda would accomplish the same goal (I love my crunchy guy!).  I did a little research and found a lot of "home remedy" articles agreeing with him!  I took my research and his idea and we set to work (which means he did all the work and I got out the camera- thank you, honey!)

First, I went around the house and collected some toothpaste samples.  We use "crunchy, hippie" toothpaste, and I didn't want to "waste" it on this project.  Plus, all the recipes call for a white paste, and not a gel or anything else.  We (my husband and 4 year old son)  squeezed out all the paste into a bowl and mixed with baking soda and water to form a thick paste.  We then filled a separate bowl with water for the rinse and collected some old rags, a sponge and a toothbrush.  Ready to rock!

The basic process is, apply paste in circles like a wax, then rinse with damp cloth.  Repeat until you are happy with the results.

This first step took a whopping 5 minutes for one light and definitely made a difference (though I'm not sure you can tell it in the picture.)  But, I had also read that you could follow up with a vegetable oil polish for extra shine, and our 4 year old volunteered to apply the oil, in circles with a cloth.  Definitely improved things even more!  (Side note: we do NOT cook with vegetable oil, very bad for you, and I did not buy this oil, inherited it and it has come in handy for a few projects around the house...)

End result: shinier, more clear headlights ready to light our path!  We still need to take off the light covers and do the same process on the inside to get the full effect, but for a 15 minute 2 cent fix, I'd say job well done!  Yay for crunchy home remedies that work!  (And yay for hubby who gets as excited about this as I do!)  Let me know if you try this out, and if you have a crunchy home remedy that I should know about.  = )  Happy crunching!

Why “No Poo”?

Why “No Poo”?

Penned by Brandi Schunk
September 12, 2013

Being the Crunchy Mama Hippie Chic, people often look at me strange or ask a lot of questions about the lifestyle choices I make.  One of those questions, often paired with a skewed look on the face, or followed by “Ewwww, gross!” is “Why do you no poo your hair?”  Let’s start with what “no poo” is and isn’t.  It is not a reference to my bowel behaviors for starters, no relation there! ; )  It is a choice to not use shampoo or conditioner.  Why?  Here’s how it happened for me…

My husband and I have strong commitments to our financial goals, which means I keep costs down wherever I can.  For years I have been buying the 99 cent Suave shampoo and conditioner from Wal-Mart.  A couple of years ago, I started getting strange growths on my scalp.  My mom was worried so sent me to the dermatologist to have the biggest one removed and tested.  Turns out it was nothing, but it started growing back after removal, and had some new friends with it as well as a twin on the other side of my head.  These “bumps” didn’t hurt too much, but were quite bothersome when wearing sunglasses, brushing my hair, or wearing a ponytail, all pretty normal occurrences for me.  Several months ago, in effort to heal my scalp, I bit the bullet and went on a quest for fully natural, gluten-free shampoo.  You would be amazed at how hard it is to find shampoo that does not contain wheat, barley, or rye, even in a health foods store.  After an exhaustive (and exhausting) search, I finally settled on a product I felt comfortable with, at $8 a bottle.  Buying both shampoo and conditioner, this quickly ate into my grocery bill!  I kept it up for a few months anyway and noticed that my scalp was healing and the bumps were going away- hallelujah!

A few of months ago, I started buying more organic foods, and so was looking for ways to cut back on the budget in other areas to make room for these purchases.  Of course, the $8 hair products were the first to come under scrutiny.  I posted a question to my “crunchy” friends asking what they would suggest, and the unanimous answer was “no poo!”  No what?  I had never heard of this and had no clue what they were talking about.  Was this a shampoo brand?  After further research I had my answer, and my next step down the crunchy path.  No poo is simply replacing your regular shampoo and conditioner with baking soda and apple cider vinegar.  Simple.  Easy.  Cheap.  I liked the sound of it!

Now, for the experiment… my research clued me in that I needed to commit to trying “no poo” for at least one month to know if it was right for me.  Okay, cool, no problem.  And so began June.  The first week my hair was, well, to be frank, nasty.  I wore a lot of scarves and ponytails to cover the yuck.  But I was committed so I kept going.  Week 2 things started to normalize, a bit, then not anymore.  After more research and trial and error, here are a few things I learned about no poo:

1. The general recommendation is 1 Tbsp baking soda to 1 C water as a “shampoo” and 1-2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar to 1 C water as a “conditioner”.  However, if you have REALLY hard water, like I do, then you need to adjust to find that perfect balance.  I switched things up and found perfection!  1 ½ Tbsp baking soda to 1 C water, and a 50/50 combo of ACV and water.  Now I got it!
2. It is recommended to put your mixtures in a squirt bottle to wet your hair.  I had been doing this with the BS, but for the ACV I was using a jar and just dipping the bottom half of my hair in the mixture.  I switched to squirting, getting the mixture closer to my scalp (but not on) and this helped get the yuck out.
3. Letting both the BS and the ACV sit on your hair for a few minutes seems to help.
4. After showering, I brush my hair and then wrap it in a towel for a few minutes.  I put my hairbrush away and don’t touch it again until after my next shower.  I let my hair air dry and the natural curl comes out.  When I do a partial ponytail, it actually looks like I have a perm.  Love it!
5. No poo naturally extends how long you can go without “washing” your hair.  When you are not constantly stripping your scalp of its natural oils, it doesn’t work overtime to catch up, and you can go days without your hair being oily.  I used to wash every other day, now it’s more like every 4-6 days, even with swimming and exercising.  I rinse with just water or rinse and do the ACV rinse if I feel I need an extra something between full “washes”.

Here we are, 3 ½ months after my initial no poo, and I am hooked!  I don’t see any reason to ever buy or use shampoo or conditioner again!  I get compliments on my hair all the time.  No one has told me my hair stinks.  I save time and money by not buying shampoo or conditioner, not washing as often, not buying styling products, and not blow drying my hair.  If this sounds intriguing to you, I encourage you to give it a try.  I would love to hear about your “no poo” experiment!  There are a lot of great resources out there to learn more and read of other successes.  Two of my favorites are: http://www.pistachioproject.com/2010/01/going-no-poo.html and http://www.crunchybetty.com/no-poo-to-you-too.  A simple web search will give you plenty of research material!

As always,
Happy Crunching!

Warmly,
Crunchy Mama Hippie Chic
AKA Brandi Schunk