50 Days and NO shampoo!

It has been exactly 50 days since I last washed my hair (with shampoo)! It has been a very interesting journey so far and I've had my good and bad days. The whole thing is a learning process and you have to find what works for your hair type and what definitely doesn't!   

Today I'd say is a bad day. I washed my hair last night with bicarbonate of soda and conditioned it with cyder vinegar and this is what it looked like this morning...

Please excuse the serious lack of make up and ghostly pale skin, I feel rather rough today!

To me my hair looks greasy but still frizzy and just generally looks grim. I have decided that there could be three possible reasons for this...

1) I feel ill and think I have a some kind of infection as I have lost my voice so perhaps this is having an effect on my hair?

2) I didn't use the right amount of bicarbonate of soda when I washed it. I was running low so perhaps I didn't use enough?

3) I haven't eaten very healthy food this week. I read somewhere that what you eat has a big effect on your hair. Too much greasy food this week I think!

 I feel I have kind of lost my way with this process and I'm currently not seeing a huge improvement or any particular benefits to it. Don't get me wrong I won't be going back to using shampoo, I just don't know if I'm doing the whole 'no poo' thing right! 

I'm currently washing my hair once a week with either my egg wash or bicarbonate of soda and I'm definitely preferring the egg wash (it feels softer afterwards). I have about three days where I can wear my hair down and then I have to tie it up for the remaining days because it looks oily. It's hard to brush the oils through my hair because it's curly and the minute you put a brush near it, it puffs up into a mass of frizziness! 

I'm not using any products at all at on it at the moment and I desperately want to dye it because the roots are looking hideous but I don't want to undo all of the hard work of not putting gunk on it! There must be an alternative, natural, solution for dying hair out there??

However I shall persevere with my 'no poo' adventure and hopefully I will see an improvement soon. 

I'd love to hear from anyone else that has under gone this process and if anyone has any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong.

Check out my other posts on my 'no poo' adventure...

 To Wash or Not To Wash

Goodbye Shampoo 

Week Two of Social Suicide 

Week Three of Social Suicide

Week Four of Social Suicide 

Fighting a Losing Battle

One of the main problems with depression is that it never really goes away. No matter what the experts say, no matter how much CBT training or counselling you have, it is always there, somewhere in the background!

I refuse to take medication for it, probably not the best idea I've ever had but I just think it's un-natural to pump our bodies full of medication all the time. I also swear that the medication changes people, they become very detached from the world and un-naturally dosile.

Over the years I have tried many different methods for managing depression and none of them have really worked but I do now have a sort of system that seems to work quite well.

It is quite simply a weekly routine. Everyday we have at least one thing to go to or do. Like today, Tuesday, we go to one toddler group in the morning that starts at 10am, so I have to get up, get dressed and get out of the house. Now to anyone that has never suffered with depression this wouldn't seem like a big deal, but to someone that does suffer sometimes just managing to get out of bed in the morning is a massive achivement! 

Then this afternoon we have another group to go to. It helps to split the day up so you know that you don't have a whole day at home with two little ones that will inevitably get bored and start playing up. It helps me to know we have stuff to do and places to go, it helps to put me in the right frame of mind for the day.

So on days like today, when I feel tired, achey and just general rough it helps me to drag my behind out of bed and forces me to get on with it even though all I want to do is curl up in a ball in my bed and never get out again. 

What about you then, do you have a coping mechanism? Or are you one of the lucky ones that has never suffered with it? 

Personalised Reward Charts

 Today we were sent a very cute, personalised, potty training reward chart for my daughter.

 

There are loads of different styles to chose from on the website such as dogs, pirates, ponies and football. You can also chose different themes such as potty training and brushing teeth. 

They are great value at only £3.00 each and come with stickers and a pen.

We went for the potty training one as we are about to go through this stage again! (Something I'm not looking forward to!)

As you can see from the picture my daughter was very impressed with hers and hopefully this might just make the process of potty training a little smoother.

 Wish us luck!

To check out all of the other designs and themes head over to 

www.personalisedrewardcharts.co.uk

This company is run by a Work At Home dad who runs a couple of small businesses making products aimed at children and their parents.

Check out his other sites below

www.personaliseddoorsigns.co.uk

www.personalisedcarsigns.co.uk

 

The Joys Of Charity Shopping

I had a very weird day on Wednesday! It was my first morning all on my own in about 4 and a half years. My baby went to pre-school.

I didn't really know what to do with my self and I thought I'd just go home and catch up on 4 and a half years of housework, that just never gets done and then I thought I have devoted all that time to my children taking them to toddler groups, sign and rhyme classes or whatever the latest craze is at that time. So I'm going to spend the morning doing something that I want to do and something that I just can't do with two little ones in tow. Raid the charity shops!

I love charity shopping. I get a real buzz when I walk into a shop, not knowing what treasures you will find inside. I then I get an even bigger buzz when you find a real bargain. I hardly ever buy new anymore, I just find new products boring in comparison, they have no history and no story.

Sometimes you don't find anything in any of the shops and then you have days when every single shop you go into has something that you simple must have. This day was one of those days.

Here's a few bits I found that I was really pleased with...

 These two Moroccan lanterns were £3.99 for the pair!

 and these two, his and hers, crochet blankets were just £2 each.

The kids love them and it's really cute when they are all snuggled up on their chair together with their blankets.

So what about you are you a charity shopper or does the idea of buying second hand goods just not appeal to you?

The Mad Blog Awards

It's that time of year again...

...yes I'm talking about the Mad Blog Awards

I think every Mummy and Daddy blogger out there is thinking about it, posting about it and tweeting about it. So I thought I'd follow suit.

Last year when the Mad Blogs was on I was still a newbie blogger. Still blissfully unaware at quite how addictive blogging can become and spending most of my time either telling everyone that would listen that I just got a new comment on my blog, logging into blogger every 5 minutes to check my page views for that day or googling 'how to get more traffic to your blog'!

Now a year and a bit later and I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting my head around it all, what with all the tweeting, tagging, linking, memes and comments. There are still things that I just can't get my head around but I'll get there one day I'm sure.

So if you haven't already voted and you are going to then I'd just like to say that I would love some nominations for either one or (if you are feeling the love) both of my blogs . I know it's a big ask as there are so many, much better, blogs out there but if you find yourself with a space in a category then feel free to put me in. It really would make my day year!

 

 If you would like to vote or just find out more info about the Mad Blog Awards then click here.

Teaching a Two Year Old to Read!

I am very excited this morning!
We have been sent a new product to review and I generally can't wait to get started with it. 

'Teach your child to read, and help your child become a fast a fluent reader!'

  It's called the Children Learning Reading Program. Now I know what your thinking, Oh God not another 'teach your child to read product', but this one looks different.

The programme has been created by a family that have three children of their own. 

If you check out the videos on their website then you can see their daughter at the age of 2 years 11 months reading and then another video of her reading at a grade 3 by the time she was just 4 years and 2 months! There's no tricks in the video, she is generally able to read that well through learning with this programme that her parents have created.

If you still don't believe me then check out their website here and see for yourself.

'The Children Learning Reading ^TM program comes in two jam-packed e-books presenting a simple, logical, step-by-step, and extremely effective system for teaching your child to read quickly, effectively, and fluently without watching television or sitting in front of the computer.

The program is instantly downloadable, and contain a total of 50 step-by-step, super simple, yet amazingly effective lessons that will show you how to easily teach your child to read spending just 10 to 15 minutes each day. Whether your child is 2 years old, 3 years old, 4 years old, in pre-school, kindergarten, or in early grade school, our system of learning to read will help your child become a fast and fluent reader'. 

We have started the programme this morning with both our 2 year old and our 4 year old. I will keep you updated with our progress and maybe even throw in a video or two (if I can work out how to do that). As I said already I am generally very excited about using this product and can't wait to see the results. Wish us luck x

' If You've Had Enough of All the Other Hyped "Quick Fix Programs" that Promise Easy Results - Programs that Sit Your Child In Front of the TV and Computer for Hours Upon Hours, That Have Failed You and Your Child in the Past, and You Are Ready to Teach Your Child to Read the RIGHT Way, Then This is the Honest and Truly Effective Learning to Read Solution You've Been Searching For'

 60 Day - NO RISK, UNCONDITIONAL MONEY BACK, SATISFACTION GURANTEE

www.childrenlearningreading.com

 

Week Four of Social Suicide

I have become obsessed with hair! I find my self staring at other peoples heads, thinking 'ooo their hair is so soft and shiny and looks so clean'. When I'm washing the kids hair in the bath I have to restrain myself from dunking my head in a swishing it around in the lovely sweet smelling strawberry stuff.

I'm now in week four of my 'no poo' adventure and I'm starting to think that I should just be like 'normal' people and wash it with shampoo. 

I'm really not liking the once a week wash with just water, it just goes what I can only describe as waxy, here have a look...

I can't wear it down after a water wash, it just looks hideous!

 

I last washed my hair on Friday (6 days ago) with an egg and lemon wash. After this wash my hair did feel quite nice and clean but still not the same result as if I had used shampoo. 

I think my main problem is that it's gone so dark, it's neither blonde nor brown at the moment, just a kinda of greyish/brown colour! I thought that the cassia obovata that I used a few weeks ago would help to lighten it a bit but it just seemed to make it a darker but richer colour.

 Anyway this is what my hair is looking like today ... 

Saying all that though I am starting to notice a difference this week. As I said I last washed it 6 days ago and it's only just starting to go greasy today. So that's a major improvement. I've also been able to wear my hair down all week, which I haven't done since starting my 'no poo' experiment. So maybe it's not all bad.

I have also noticed that my dandruff has pretty much gone now, which is awesome.

 

 The next step that I plan to take is to try washing with bicarbonate of soda and condition with cyder vinegar. I'm want to try this just to see if it gives a better result than the egg and lemon wash. 

I'm slightly concerned about using the bicarbonate of soda incase it dries out my scalp but we'll see I suppose.

I'll let you know how that works out.