I recently updated you on my hair care (not the most important topic in the world, but hey, you’ve been asking). While the baking soda, vinegar routine work well for my family because it’s frugal and non-toxic, I realize it may not be ideal for everyone. That’s okay.

I figured it’s a good time to update you on my other beauty and health care routines.

More than anything, I think it’s important to make an informed choice about what goes on our bodies. Just like what goes in (food), what we slather on our largest organ also affects our health. Plus, quality health and beauty products can really empty the wallet.

So our family sticks with the simple, which also happen to be pretty natural and (usually) frugal.

Several years ago, I listed what we were using for health and beauty. For the most part, this hasn’t changed.

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One of the all-time most popular posts here on Simple Mom is about my hair. In that I don’t wash it. Almost two years old, and this post still gets at least one comment per day, it still makes its way around Twitter, and people in real life still ask me all sorts of questions.

I wonder sometimes if those people are closely inspecting my hair, wondering if I hide spider webs underneath, or if it would smell like — I dunno, something gross if they came too close.

Reader Sandra recently wrote and asked:

“I have been reading your blog and found the no shampoo post interesting. I see it was posted a while back — are still doing it, and if so, how your hair is today? I started to do this last week and I am finding my hair very dry and tangled. I am wondering if this is part of the process, or if I am doing something wrong.”

I suppose it’s time for a hair update. Because I know you’re all on the edge of your seats, wondering if I haven’t washed it in 24 months.

Drumroll, please.

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The following is a guest post from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.

I haven’t worn deodorant since last Christmas.

I hope that wasn’t too personal for you. The best part is that I don’t stink, so there wouldn’t be anything to smell even if you visited my house (and that would really trip my husband out, so please don’t).

Wouldn’t you like to know why I gave up deodorant? (Antiperspirant, actually–there’s an important distinction.) I’ll tell you, but the even better question is: What’s on my armpits now?

Why Avoid Antiperspirant?

Since antiperspirant goes on skin that has often just been shaven, it’s going to be absorbed even more quickly than other products you put on your skin. Which, consequently, have as great an impact on your system as what you put in your mouth. Your skin is your largest organ, and one of its jobs is to absorb.

There’s a little experiment in Greg Horn’s book Living Green that proves this point: rub a cut clove of garlic on the sole of your foot. Within 15 minutes, you’ll taste garlic in your mouth.

The simple fact that my skin absorbs what I put on it is one reason to be cognizant and careful about any personal product — but antiperspirant has a few more. Last December I learned that antiperspirants (not deodorants) have aluminum as an active ingredient. This list gives me pause:

1. Aluminum may impact breast cancer risks.
2. Antiperspirants block sweat glands. Is that a good idea?
3. Aluminum mimics estrogen. (technical term: “hormone disruptor”)
4. Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer’s.

For more factual information and citations for this dismal list, see Analyzing Aluminum in Antiperspirants: Hazard or Hoax?

My mother tells me that in her youth (before antiperspirants were on the market, even though she’s not that old), everyone was just used to the feel of sweat. Now we’ve become accustomed to dryness, and sweating in the armpits seems like a problem. Isn’t sweat a bodily function that serves a purpose? I tend to believe that God had reasons for what He gave us, even if it feels a bit unpleasant.

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