EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

Dreadlocks taught me everything I need to know about natural hygiene. What started out as a hairstyle seven years ago, quickly turned into a lifestyle. My dreadlocks were a golden ticket into new communities—Mendicino hippies, East Village funkier-than-thous and South Caribbean Rastas all welcomed me with winks and open arms. Not because I looked so overwhelmingly cool, but because of the silent understanding that I had transcended social standards, questioned unspoken authority and stopped washing my hair.

To keep my white-girl, straight-hair naughty knotting, I don't wash or brush it. Heck, I rarely even get it wet.  When I reveal this secret to the hoards of admiring strangers that approach me everyday, their faces change from compliment to concern—as if I had gone Goddess to Gollum in one sentence. But I explain to them, like I will to you now: my body is a self-cleaning organism.

Natural Personal Hygiene
As long as I sweat via exercise every day, my scalp stays clean as can be. As long as I eat raw, animal-free foods, I experience little "build-up." As long as I do what is natural (exercise and eat living foods), I allow my body to do what is natural (keeping itself clean inside and out). Crows don't use shampoo. Snakes don't use toothpaste. What got us humans thinking we are so dirty anyway? And how does this obsession with sterility affect the way we clean our bodies in private?

The stateside obsession with sterility seems based in a fear of nature. Perhaps it began with Ireland's Great Famine of 1845, when potato disease (and other political/economic factors) caused starvation, illness and emigration so severe that 25% of the population was lost. Whatever it was that initiated our fear of nature, it is time to consider if today, in the United States, in our bathrooms this afternoon, there is any continued need for this fear. Perhaps it is time to let down our guard against nature and put it up against the toxins we are using to kill nature off.

If I address the root of dirt and disease, rather than its symptoms, I am on my way to a naturally hygienic, chemical-free life. If I don't drink coffee, maybe I don't need to bleach my teeth. If I get plenty of rest, maybe I don't need eye drops. If I exercise everyday, maybe I don't need deodorant. If I stay clean on the inside, maybe most of this obsession with sterility dissolves right away—and saves our thyroids toxic overload, our groundwater chemical run-off, our landfills empty plastic containers, and our pocketbooks money on useless, habitual, hazardous medicine-cabinet items.

Diet and exercise are first in progressing toward a naturally hygienic lifestyle, and trust in water is next. Water is the most powerful cleaning agent available on Earth—we dilute our insides with it, we run our cars through it, we submerge our clothing in it—anything we wish to see clean is subjected to water in one way or another. So now is the time to trust that our water is doing what it does naturally. Water cleans everything really well, almost immediately.

Healthy Hair Care
When I finally do wash my hair (about every eight weeks), I use water and massage my scalp for a good 10 minutes before pouring a cup of apple cider vinegar diluted in a quart of water onto my scalp to strip residual oils. I rinse, soak and massage under water for five minutes more before pouring a cup of sea salt dissolved in a quart of water on my hair to alkalize, sterilize and tighten my dreadlocks. I do not rinse the saltwater out. Washing my hair is really as simple as that.

If I wish for my hair to be shinier when it has dried, I comb through coconut oil for a gorgeous shine. Aloe vera is the model for all subsequent hair gels and I use it to keep flyaways down under studio lights. Sometimes, also on the film set (because why would I care if I weren't on camera), I use shea butter as a kind of putty to stick the ends of my bangs together. Occasionally, I use beeswax to hold my lock-ends together. I'm sure there are many more ways to clean and style one's hair without collections of chemical products accumulating on one’s shower shelf. And consider: if you end up not liking a whole-food product that you gave a shot, you can always eat it.

Eco Bath and Body Works
I avoid soaps and cleansers on my skin by beginning every day with a skin brushing—the friction naturally removes dead skin cells and dirt. For skin health, sweating via exercise is vital. I think of it like rain on a city street; the first 15 minutes makes everything slippery and dirtier, but after that, it begins to wash away and leaves the streets cleaner than before. Sweat is the same way. Four times a year I scrub my entire body with equal parts salt and melted coconut oil before lathering it off. And about six times a year I use a bentonite clay mask to bring fresh blood flow to the surface and clean pours.

If we work in a shop or choose to wear cosmetics, just a little coconut oil will remove eye makeup, and for mechanic or gardener hands, mix that coconut oil with an abrasive-like fine salt, oat bran, barley meal and fresh lemon juice to replace that creepy, Fast Orange stuff. A gentle, moisturizing and exfoliating non-soap for the bath is a large cotton teabag filled with oats. Let it steep into your bath water and then scrub yourself with the bag before composting the contents.  I have a local, sustainably wild-crafted, four-ingredient vegetable bar soap (no plastic container) from Juniper Ridge if any oils are left to be removed.

Fresh Teeth and Breath
Ideally, I would be eating exclusively fruit and greens and my teeth would be self-cleaning as well—my diet is great, though not perfect! So I still use a brush. I have found that learning proper brushing and flossing technique is all that I personally need for tooth and gum care. I have tried abrasives like baking soda in the short term and Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste in the long term, but honestly, nothing removes the very little tartar I experience better than patient, proper brushing and strawberries. Yes, you can just eat strawberries. They clean tartar off your teeth. Well.

My breath doesn't smell, ever. I am sure if it did—and I had already quit drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and eating animal products—I could whip up a clove, spearmint, frankincense essential-oil mouthwash that would feel good and keep things kissing fresh. Instead of chewing gum, chomp parsley after meals as a natural breath freshener. It is no coincidence that parsley comes on the side of many dining entrees.

Anti Antiperspirants
Finally, we all know antiperspirants and conventional deodorants contain ingredients detrimental to one's health. After all, natural hygiene would tell us that sweat is a natural cleansing process, so any product that keeps our body from cleansing itself through sweating is bound to generate health havoc. To avoid aluminum, talc, propylene glycol and other potential carcinogens being applied directly to some of the most integral glands in my body, I start by eating a raw vegan diet that does not create bad smells. Then I sweat via exercise daily to keep what smells I do have moving outward. And if I want extra protection, on my way out of the bath I rub a chunk of wetted Himalayan salt over my underarm skin. Then when that is dry, I smooth a light covering of coconut oil over, too.

To tell you the truth, I find a lot of information in smell. And if I smell the healthy, clean pheromones of a fellow human, I find it exciting. Sometimes I wink and welcome them over with open arms. Because I know of them, like the Rastas knew of me, that they have questioned authority, transcended social standards and redefined their perception of themselves from an unclean human with smells and colors and problems to suppress, into a human being. It’s great just being human—no artificial anything required.

See also:
Natural Home Hygiene: Cleaning Your House Without Harming the Earth
Converting and Running Your Car on Waste Vegetable Oil

[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

Updated 9/7/10; originally posted 10/14/09.

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