Hello wonderful people! Thanks for hanging in there with the empty space that has been this blog for the past few months. I’m feeling rather lame for not posting in a while. But I think perhaps the blog and I have needed some winter hibernation, to juice up for the next round of inspiration. Shelly’s excuse for not writing is much, much better than mine though. Random thoughts forthcoming over the next couple of days, and hopefully GfG will have a little more life in it come spring.
For starters: I am sitting here writing with a towel on my head because I’ve just colored my hair – one of those semipermanent, 16 washes, do-it-yourself-from-a-box deals. I do this every 4 months or so. (I’m sure I’m not to confess that, but this IS a blog after all). And THIS TIME the crisis of conscience hit. Not only does this little project involve a paper box, paper instructions, plastic gloves, and 3 plastic bottles, but at the end of it I dump a good-sized puddle of toxic chems down my sink and shower drains. What did the planet do to deserve this? Or the people miles away who probably end up with this stuff in their soil? Personal vanity – not a pretty sight.
I know this opens a whole can of worms about women, cosmetics and the beauty industry. In the spirit of small steps that this blog represents, I’ll be going to back that old college stand by, henna. Anyone else have any small changes they’ve made in the world of hair color or other beauty products?
Also there’s this: Why does the crisis of conscience hit when it does? What is the X factor? This was the nth time I opened that box of hair color, and THIS time the penny dropped. This time I SAW the chemicals, paper, plastic and FELT their origins and destinations. And now I don’t think I can go back. As a frequent observer of my own brain, moments like this fascinate me. Anyone else have a “penny dropping” story to share?
You would have to bring up hair color. Well I confess, crisis of conscience not withstanding, I am just not ready to go there yet. After I retire I hope to give up my evil ways and go naturally grayish or whatever it is under there. Bear with me. However I will celebrate that of all my GfG efforts, I have been most successful with the anti- paper towel project. I rarely even miss them.
I have an impressive collection of reusable bags. I especially like the Whole Food bags made of recycled plastic. No movement here in western NY yet to eliminate those awful baggies. Wegmans sells lots of reusables and I’m quite impressed that their check out employees do not even roll their eyes or sigh when I hand them a stack of bags. Someone has done some good training. BTW, Wegmans has stopped selling cigarettes so maybe eliminating plastic bags is not out of the question.
hugs!
mmm, I haven’t thoroughly evaluated by beauty routine. I’ve made a few small changes – shorter showers (motherhood helps) and hair washing every other day at most. Also, more ‘natural’ products in general, but I’ve not done my research to know if it makes a big difference.
I am keenly aware of packaging all the time – this mostly comes from food shopping, but has translated to a few other areas.
Anyone tried Amazon.com subscribe and save – you can buy bulk products on standing order at discounts and they carry lots of 7th generation. I just bought a case of toilet paper and a case of baby wipes. One thing about the TP is that is is wrapped in paper – no plastic anywhere! Just a big old box of TP all individually wrapped in recyclable paper. Very cool.
My biggest penny dropping was the inconvenient truth. it was like I was a fish who could suddenly see water. I actually had to come down off the high of the to start actually making small changes, instead of feeling overwhelmed and guilty all the time.
I used henna all through high school and college and managed to find places that sold it in bulk (no chemicals AND no packaging). I think Cambridge Naturals might have some.
My eye-opening experience is that my boyfriend became vegetarian and then vegan about 6months ago. I have jumped on his bandwagon and though I do have make my own food a lot more, being vegan is a heck of a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. There are how-to videos on vegcooking.com… I still make pancakes, cookies and mac n’cheese.