Do you no poo?...

...was the question asked of me recently when discussing this challenge with some mums at a recent catch up. "Excuse me?" I said?
She asked again, "Do you no poo?"
I was completely baffled as to what she was going on about until she explained herself. "Do you use shampoo?"
Well yes I use shampoo, doesn't everyone? Turns out not everyone does and quite a few of these ladies in the group didn't. Their hair wasn't a oil slick or a crazy frizball of knots, it looked healthy, it was shiny, and looked how you'd expect perfectly washed hair to look. I was so intrigued that I researched a little when I got home and learnt some interesting things. Apparently our body is designed to make the perfect amount of oil for our hair, and shampoo and conditioner strips these oils requiring your scalp to produce oil quicker and thus requiring more washes. Apparently if left alone your hair doesn't need any of the shampoo and conditioner hype (this little snippet prompted a lot of "I told you so" from Luke. "See, I've been on the right track all along!"). It does warn you though that there would be a trial period after giving up shampoo and conditioner where your hair will be quite 'gross', and gives you a very simple recipe of bicarb and vinegar to get you through the points where you can not bear it any more. It will however eventually get to a point where you do not need anything... WOW! You guessed it, I'm going to try to ditch the chemicals in that area too.

EDIT - Here is a really interesting article a lovely reader sent me. It really is very fascinating.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/richard-glover/the-no-shampoo-challenge/2007/03/22/1174153246888.html

Two weeks into January and the air conditioning in our car has decided to play up, and by play up I mean it's not working. We know what is wrong and it is totally fixable but it has lead to many a discussion. I put the question out to a few people to gauge thoughts, is air conditioning in a car essential, do we fix it? The majority of people claimed that having a child in the summer in Australia made air conditioning an essential. In fact the only person who said it wasn't was my mum, who was prompt to state that she never had it with us. After much thought we have decided NOT to fix it. Sure its going to be inconvenient, and gross, and I'll long for the gentle blast of cool air, but many survive without it and it really is only a luxury I've become accustomed to. After all I didn't have air conditioning in my old car and I survived a summer with a newborn.

I went out to a lunch this week with some wonderful mums. We went to a local brewery, which I admit sounds a little odd but it is very child friendly with a huge sandpit and many kids happily playing. There were gourmet pizzas, salads, yummy chips and ice cold beer on our table. It was hard not to order, I felt in a way like I was depriving poor Lila as all the other children munched on the food. I had planned ahead however, and had cut up some fruit and veges for her to munch on while we were there, and I had eaten before leaving home. We had water packed with us so although it was hard and my mouth was watering, we didn't spend a cent.

We have started working on a small trial vegetable/herb garden. It has been hard to get to it as the days are so hot and our gorgeous daughter wakes up burnt if she even dreams about the sun. On Sunday the evening cooled off and became overcast so we took the chance to rip up the bricks and have a look at what we had to work with, which is not a lot at all. In spite of our lack of fertile soil, or any soil for that matter, we feel like we've made some inroads, and our parsley is sitting there nicely amongst the dirt, although looking a bit dead itself at the moment. We're now on the lookout for some nice soil to replace the sandy dirt, then we'll be off to the markets to get our first plants.