Farewell My Subaru by Doug Fine

I stumbled upon this book in one of Brattleboro's FIVE bookstores. It was on sale so I picked it up, thinking it looked like fun. Turns out you can judge a book by its cover, because fun it is. Doug Fine is a humorous writer and a great story teller. At 200 pages it's a quick and enjoyable read but still full of insight.

Fine moves to the New Mexican desert with the goal of kicking his fossil fuel habit and getting off the grid. He has no experience whatsoever with ranching, farming, or any of the things people need to be self-sufficient. To top it off, he's a Wal-Mart addict. But, he kicks his addiction early in the book and makes no secret of the fact that he asks for help whenever he can. He also buys two goats to help him get his other habit off-grid: ice cream.

A few solar panels, and one veggie oil run monster truck later and Fine is well on his way to reaching his goals. He plants a garden (several times, due to many crop-decimating hail storms), installs a solar hot water heater and gets himself some chickens. He almost makes the task seem simple (given the right friends and enough money, of course). He certainly makes it seem fun, especially with all of the humorous and well-placed recipes (rattlesnake stew when he discovers a rattlesnake near his home, although in this case the rattlesnake escapes unharmed).

The part that I found most interesting was his veggie oil car. I had all but forgotten about these little miracles with my secret (ok, not so secret) obsession with buying an electric car and powering it with solar panels. Of course a much cheaper option is to get an old diesel car and convert it to veggie oil. It's a great deal all around because normally restaurants have to pay someone to pick up their used oil and normally drivers have to pay higher and higher prices for their gas. The image of a massive fuel-guzzling truck roaring around town spurting out chinese food-scented emissions is almost too good to pas up!

My only criticism of this book is the lack of sources. Throughout the story Fine drops a few facts and figures having to do with energy and resource consumption, typical statistics to find in a book on environmentalism, but he sites no sources. Where did this information come from? There is no bibliography, no where to go for further reading. If he picked these facts up from the internet, what are the websites? Who did the studies? Who collected this data? I've never come across a book with facts that lacked sources and I found the whole thing confusing.

All in all, it was a great book and although it's not in my section at the bookstore now, it will soon.

Buy it Indie!

Dish Soap

Does the packaging involved with dish soap count as food waste? I think it might. The soap is associated with my dishes, which is of course for my food. What to do?

The soap I have is Seventh Generation, a Vermont company that makes phosphate-free soaps along with other household products that are easier on the environment than what is normally found in people's homes. I don't think I can get this soap in bulk, so I thought I'd take a peek at the ingredients to see exactly what is in it, because maybe I could concoct something close.

I was shocked to find sodium lauryl sulfate as the second ingredient. Much like I had with Tom's of Maine, I took for granted that a company that prides itself on being all-natural, earth-friendly and vegan, would not be hazardous to my own health. Oops. No more Seventh Generation soap for me. My dishes don't need cleanliness with a side of poison. I clearly need to find a new source for my dish suds.

Along comes a possible solution. I have this awesome, teeny book called Nontoxic Housecleaning. I'll write more about it later, but it's the book I consult for all of my cleaning needs. I opened it up to see what it said about dish soap and apparently any unscented castile soap can be used for dishes. Dr. Bronner's is castile soap and I can get it in bulk. Problem solved? I'll experiment with it a little and get back to you on that.

**We interrupt this normally scheduled blog silence to bring you an important update**

I said I was taking a break to make more time in my life. That's still true, though admittedly, I miss my little blog outlet. I especially missed it this morning and, since I have some extra time, I thought I'd share a small rant that's been bouncing around in my head.

My workplace has recently acquired a ridiculous contraption called a K-cup coffee maker. It's such an expensive and grossly wasteful purchase I can't even fathom how it made it into our break room. Recently one of the staff members sent out an email with some information about all of the ways Green Mountain Coffee, the makers of the individually packaged, single-serve coffee grounds, is an environmentally friendly company. Next to the coffee maker, we also have disposable cups and lids. I suppressed the urge to reply to that email with this:

The notion that our new coffee maker is in any way environmentally friendly is ludicrous. The machine is one of the most environmentally unfriendly purchases this establishment could have made, and to say that "it's not as bad is it could be" equates to sustainable is just misguided.

I would like to take a moment to point out that one fifth of Pakistan in now underwater after seeing the worst downpours on record, Russia burns during the longest drought on record, and it United States is blowing up mountain tops, looking for coal, rather than trying to curb energy use. All the while, we sip single cup coffee from wax-coated cardboard cups, topped with plastic lids, and call ourselves environmentally responsible for at least using the Green Mountain brand.

Also, can I direct you attention to this machine, which brews a single cup of coffee, the only waste being coffee grounds and a bio-degradable coffee filter. My grandmother, who watches so much Fox News she probably thinks of the climate crisis as a political farce, has one of these. She's greener than my "forward-thinking" workplace. Way to go people. I guess having to replace a filter, spoon out some coffee grounds and clean your own mug is just waaaaaay too much effort. We could have been composting those grounds.

Shopping bags

This post is dedicated to a little item that frustrates me endlessly: "disposable" shopping bags.

No one needs disposable bags. Chances are you've got at least ten plastic bags floating around your house. I know I do and I don't even use them. I have no idea where they come from. They litter our streets, clog up streams, and they don't even biodegrade. They'll be on this planet even after your unborn great-grandkids are gone and you don't even need them. Oh, you use paper? That's not much better. Paper comes from trees and all that wood needs to be cut down, processed, made into bags and then shipped to you. You're paper bags may have been cut from trees in South America, shipped to china to be made into bags, then shipped to California to a distributor, before being shipped all over the country.

I can't even begin to share with you my frustration with people who come into the bookstore, buy one little book and say they need a bag. It's just one little paper bag. It doesn't even have handles! I resist the urge to tell them, "Carrying that book in a paper sleeve is no different than just carrying it in your hand." So if you refuse to re-use bags for shopping, at least don't ask for one when you've made a purchase small enough to be carried, or thrown into your freakishly large purse. You carried that item to the register, I'm sure you can make it to your car.

To help you understand the seriousness of the situation, here are some insane facts:

• Consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.
  
• Americans use over 380 billion plastic bags per year
  
• Americans throw away approximately 100 billion plastic bags per year (what they do with the other 280 billion is beyond me)
  
• It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down
  
• Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
  
• Worldwide, an estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year. Tied end to end that’s enough to circle the earth 63 times. In case you didn't get that the first time, we can circle the planet with plastic bags 63 times EVERY YEAR
  
• For more numbers and general information, go here, here, or even here.
  

Think paper bags are the solution? Think again!

• Paper bags are made from wood, a renewable material, but more energy goes into producing them than plastic bags.
  
• Paper bags are biodegradable, but many still end up sealed away in landfills and will not biodegrade. This is true of most waste in landfills due to lack of water, oxygen and sunlight.
  
• Paper bags generate 70 percent more air and 50 percent more water pollutants than plastic bags.
  
• But if that makes you think plastic bags are better than paper bags then let me remind you, we can circle the planet with plastic bags 63 times EVERY YEAR
  
• More on paper bags here andhere.
  

Please, please, please think about these numbers next time you go to the grocery store. It's so easy to have reusable bags in your car at all times. Many grocery stores even give you a discount for bringing your own bags, so they'll eventually pay for themselves. And for one more interesting thought, my co-worker Sarah told me that if she ever forgets her reusable bags in the car or at home, she just piles her groceries back into her cart and brings the whole thing out to the car. Then she'll beg them up to take them inside. That's dedication!

For a great look at where bags come from, check out this article

A scattered and belated post

These past few weeks have been crazy. Never a dull moment around here between cars, jobs, family members. At least it's warmed up and it's finally starting to look like spring. I also could have sworn I wrote a book review for Eaarth. Now I'll actually have to think about it. That'll come this week.

I'm going to NYC tomorrow for about a week to work on Keen Company's next show, I never Sang for My Father. That should be fun. I've shortened my time there, so I'll be back on Friday, just in time to work at the bookstore. This means I miss the Sustainable Vermont talk this month, where Oliver will be talking about CSAs and sustainable and local food. I hear one of the WWOOFers is going to make a killer power point presentation for him. Ah well.

So while I go work on that book review, you should ponder this little green tip:
Reusable water bottles. Yes, we've all heard of them, but for some reason people still drink bottled water. Odd. Mine is a glass Nantucket Nectars iced tea bottle. People are sometimes a little weird about carrying glass bottles, but I've done it for years and never broken one. I did have a cool metal water bottle, but oddly enough I dropped it and the top broke. Go figure. Anyway, I highly recommend looking into a reusable, non-plastic, water bottle. As is the case with mine, they don't need to be pricey or fancy. If I do lose mine, which has happened once or twice, I just treat myself to an iced tea, rinse the bottle out and presto, a reusable bottle.

When you think about bottled water, it makes no sense. A large-scale company takes the most abundant resource on the planet, puts it into a chemical-leaching, plastic bottle and ships it hundreds or thousands of miles so you can take a few sips and then throw it away. Then, after all that needless effort, to add insult to injury, the plastic will last longer on this planet than you or anyone you know. All for water, something readily available and usually free. Don't like tap water? Look into filters!

For further filter research, check out this blog post.

Adventure in my pants: Part 2

It's been two anxiety-filled days of waiting for the amazing conclusion.

Five days to test four different feminine hygiene products and figure out if full-time sustainability is practical enough for a period.

Day 1: Diva Cup

I figured I'd better start serious and break out the Diva Cup. Getting it in is a little tricky, and even though the instructions tell you to only use this product when you're on your period, I'm going to recommend you practice getting it in and out before your cycle starts. You'll be glad you did. Figuring out the logistics of my body while on my period was annoying, to say the least.
Anyway I did finally get it. It was quite comfortable. I had to trim the stem a little, but apparently that's normal.

The packaging says that the Diva Cup does not leak and only needs to be emptied every 12 hours. This wasn't exactly the case for me and I needed to empty it several times in the first 24 hours and I went through two liners. Luckily it was my day off, so it wasn't an issue. I'd like to give this product another test run next month before I give my full recommendation.

Day 2: Tampons and Liners
I paired up the tampons with the liners, just to be safe. I had already used two of the liners on day one, which was stupid of me, so I was a little worried. When my period finally started I was so excited to use my new stuff that I didn't really plan ahead at all. I was so used to having boxes upon boxes of pads and tampons that I just went ahead and used whatever, without thinking.

This made me especially nervous because I didn't know how well the tampons would work. I packed an extra liner and all the tampons into my wet bag and also shoved a few disposable tampons into my backpack, just in case. I knew that using them would mean that I failed my own sustainable challenge, but I didn't want any embarrassing issues at work.

The day was a success. The reusable tampons worked just as well as my disposable, organic ones, if not better. They're easy to roll up and put in and I had no leak problems that one little pantiliner couldn't handle. The bonus to the reusable method that I didn't foresee was that because there was no packaging, there wasn't any of the embarrassing noises associated with ripping open tampon packages in the bathroom. I don't mind blogging about my period, but I'm not about to broadcast news of my cycle at work.

Day 3: Tampons and Liners
Much the same as day 2.

Day 4: Reusable Pad
Well, here's where I panic a bit. I was out of liners and tampons. I had to suck it up and use one of the full sized pads, which I had only been using for evenings (in case you were wondering what I did at night). When I removed the inserts the pad was undetectable with slightly baggy pants. Really, these pads are great, it's just that they are longer than I need and they make me paranoid. Still, the day was fine. I pulled the pad forward a little and I don't think it ever became visible from behind. Phew.

Days 5 and 6: Pad Insert
There is maybe a bit of spotting by day 5 and 6, but as I said, I was out of liners. I decided to use an insert from the pads, even though they don't have wings and snaps to keep them in place. Amazingly I discovered that you don't really need the wings and snaps to keep pads in place. They just stay. No shifting at all, even after walking around all night at the bookstore.

Care and cleaning:
After using pads or tampons I rinsed them and tossed them into a small bucket of cold water with a lid sitting under my bathroom sink. I changed the water daily, and on my heaviest day I put a little detergent in there. If you change the water daily, it won't smell. By the last day the water will be clear. I dump the water and throw everything into the wash with my clothes. In the months since I started using the cloth pads overnight, this is what I have always done. I have never gotten a stain on my clothes and there aren't even stains on the pads themselves. Don't believe me? All of the pictures in the previous post were taken the day I wrote this, meaning they had all been used at least once and washed with my clothes using all natural powder detergent.

Tampons: Rinse them as soon as you can after use. They store just fine in the wet bag, but I really don't think you'll want them sitting in there for any longer than necessary.

Pads: Can usually be thrown right into the bucket without rinsing. Use your judgment.

Diva Cup: Follow the directions that come with it. They are detailed and easy. I used Dr. Bronner's unscented body wash instead of the Diva Wash, because I don't need to order yet another overpriced product from the internet.

Wet bag: Wipe it out daily and wash it with everything else at the end of your cycle.

Conclusion:
Even though I carried disposable tampons around in my pocket all 6 days of my period, I never used them. Not one.

I splurged on my period, but I'm happy I did. I can honestly say I'm not going to be buying reusable pads or tampons any time soon and it'll save me so much money. The convenience of always having them here, ready for use is enough to sell me, but the environmental and safety issues are the greatest bonuses.

Adventure in my pants: Part 1

I'm going to start this post with a Disclaimer. This post is about periods. Yep, it's about that perfectly normal thing that most women on this planet deal with every month. Before all of you boys run off, I'm going to ask you to -try- and be mature about this. While you're obviously not my target audience, if you're eco-minded, or just plain thrifty, it's good information to have. Plus, it's about time men got over the whole fear of periods thing. And any ladies out there who are squeamish about their monthly cycles... suck it up and hear what I have to say. Maybe you'll learn something that will make your monthly visits a little easier to deal with. No, there won't be any gross pictures. What the hell kind of blogger do you take me for? Ok, now that we've lost all the big babies out there, let's get started!

A few years ago, while I was still in college, a friend of mine made a passing comment that kind of stuck with me. She was annoyed that women have to spend so much money on their damn periods. Everyone needs food and water and those subsidized by the government. Systems for getting these things to people have been put into place so that the things we need most are available to us for a pretty low cost. But what about women? We have periods every month and we need to buy products to help us deal with them so we can leave our houses and function as though we're not completely inconvenienced and feeling like shit. That stuff is expensive and wasteful and actually quite bad for us.

I'm going to start with a quick list of facts you might find interesting about disposable pads and tampons:

Tampons and pads are made of bleached cotton and rayon and contain dioxin, a chemical linked to infertility, immune system suppression and hormone abnormalities. Do you really want to put those inside your body?

The average woman will use 12,000 tampons or pads in her life. That doesn't take into account the applicators and the packaging. This is basically a mountain of bloody waste per woman. That's quite a lifetime achievement!

Tampons and pads are not sterile. Yes they are individually wrapped (more waste), but they are not sterile.

For more scary statistics and sources click here and here.

When I first learned about dioxins a few years ago I made the obvious switch to organic. The organic brands out there offer pads and tampons made of unbleached cotton, with little to no plastic packaging. I also ditched applicators, because they are so unnecessary. You should be washing your hands before and after dealing with tampons anyway.


Last year I discovered Heather. At the time she was still Holistically Heather, but has since branched out and created a new Etsy shop called Aunt Flos Pads, dedicated to offering women a sustainable solution to their monthly cycles. Her blog post about reusable pads really got me thinking and I decided to try it out. Heather's pads come with two inserts: one for light days, one for medium and then you can pair them up for heavier days. I've found that the pads work so well that I never need more than one insert at a time at night. Sometimes I wear them without the insert at all. A disclaimer: Heather's usual pads are far more attractive than the ones I asked her to make for me. These were the first reusable pads I had ever seen or purchased and I was really worried about staining. I'm stupid.

I'll admit that I didn't embrace it fully at first. The reusable pads are a bit bulky for me and can't be worn under just anything. However, her pads promptly replaced all of my nighttime and sitting-on-my-butt-at-home pads. The purchase of just these three pads has saved me a bundle of money and there hasn't been a leak to speak of.

Last month I realized I needed to get a little more serious about it. I have less and less time to go shopping these days because I work all the time, and I was constantly running out of tampons and liners and not being able to go to the store. I also had a lot of eco-guilt associated with all of the waste. However, I didn't want to give up tampons. They're so damn convenient I can't even deal with it. In a moment of desperation, I turned once again to Etsy. I did a quick search and found the answer to all of my problems.



For liners I found Brittany, who was willing to deal with all of my picky requests. Brittany agreed to make me a shorter liner than usual, leave out any stitching down the center of the pads (I've heard that can cause leaks) and line it with PUL, a waterproof liner that blocks leaks. I made sure my pads were cute this time. The pads also fold up and snap for easy storage, as you can see above.



I then found Barb. How unexpected. It seemed to good to be true! A reusable tampon? I was worried, so I sent her a message asking her if she really used these things. How does she deal with changing them when she's out? Do they really come clean? Do they smell? All of her answers were satisfactory and her prices were even better. So I told her what kind I wanted, what the wet bag should look like and I made my purchase.


There was just one more thing. As I was reading Sleeping Naked is Green, I rediscovered The Diva Cup. My friends and I used to make fun of The Diva Cup. I mean, the title alone is ridiculous enough, but come on, a cup? In your vagina? Not so sure about that. But Vanessa loved it, and she talked about other women who loved it. That got me reading blogs about the serious love of Diva Cups. Women swear by them. After checking out their website I decided to give it a shot and I ordered one.

I figured I'd better make something of all this crazy spending and write up a nice blog post about it. The thing that sold me the most on all of these products was hearing about them from another woman, even if I didn't know her. The kind ladies I purchased from on Etsy use their own products and the bloggers who wrote about Diva Cup are not paid for it, so it added a very human touch. In an attempt to add yet another human touch, I tested all of these products the best way I could think of, on myself.

This ends part 1. For the results of the Sustainable Period challenge, check out part 2!

A post about Stuff

I know you are all waiting on the edges of your seats for the extra special post I promised for this weekend, but this is not it. The extra special post involves some things that are currently wet and I would like to have them dry before I take pictures. You'll have to wait until Monday, which is when I've scheduled it to appear (magic!).

Right now I would like to take some time to talk a little about Stuff. We all have it, lots and lots of it. Even those of us who do our best to keep it minimal have more stuff than we actually need. I get endlessly annoyed with all of the Stuff out there in the world, begging to be purchased. All of these things that are supposed to make our lives better, easier, more complete. I talk to some of my co-workers about this and they tend to agree. But then, booksellers are a thousand times smarter than everyone else and have no faults whatsoever. Ahem.

The product that always jumps first into my mind and annoys me more than any other product out there is The Swiffer. Can a product possibly get any more needless than a Swiffer? You replace a broom and a mop (perfectly sustainable and long-lasting, cheap tools) with something plastic, disposable, and expensive. Yeah, ok, the refills are cheap (I'm guessing here, I've never bought any), but holy crap! you don't need it! And you have to keep buying them. Over and over and over again.

I recently saw some products on Etsy for reusable Swiffer heads. A step in the right direction? I almost bought some for my mother. Maybe I will.

So basically, when people talk to me about the problems with American Culture, the first thing I think of is a Swiffer. I know there are worse things, but this a pretty good metaphor for what's wrong with the developed world.

This brings me to an important point. The point, actually, of this post. I'm going to be writing a few posts about the wasteful everyday items we use, well, everyday. The Logger was complaining about the lack of paper towels in this house the other day when I reminded him that I don't use anything disposable (except toilet paper), so we don't have any. Sorry. You'll have to use those cleaning rags after all. And to kick off this little series of posts, I'll start with the Super, Extra-Special, Weekend post I promised you. Monday is the new Sunday, so look or it then!

I end this little post with my favorite green tip:
Not all modern inventions are bad. Washing machines are awesome (cold water people, cold water). But seriously, who needs a dryer when you live in the most beautiful, green place all summer...


and you've got a rockin wood stove all winter.


PS- I started a new book! Check it out in the left hand column!

A mid-winter check in

I recently posted about the mid-winter warmth we've been having in Vermont. All over town and even in my backyard I can see actually grass. Real grass. Not covered in snow. Or at least I could until two days ago. It was as though the sky finally looked at the ground and realized it was looking a little too much like spring and promptly dumped a few inches of snow on us. I really enjoyed the use of the word squall that happened on several occasions at work. At one point we looked outside and saw nothing but white. NOTHING BUT WHITE. OK, OK, I know this is Vermont, but it's not the arctic, this kind of stuff doesn't happen very often.

And now is as good a time as any to check in with those changes I told myself I'd be making in my life.

1. Step up my commitment to the environment. I'm doing a pretty good job of this. I've made a few changes recently that are small, but significant. One of those changes does not include driving less. It's endlessly annoying that I have two jobs and usually work at two locations everyday. This kind of kills any chance of carpooling, because I would need to orchestrate something between three different people who don't share my schedule. However, come spring I plan to bike more. Right now it's not feasible. Not because of the cold, but due to the danger of ice and snow banks in what would be the shoulder of a highway. No thanks.

But here's something fun! I'm going to try and include a fun environmental... something (who knows) at the bottom of my non-book review posts. Starting today.

2. Become a for real Vermont resident. I am officially a Vermont voter! And I have a PO Box! And I applied for health insurance. I don't have a Vermont ID yet, but that's because I don't have time to even think about driving to Bennington for such a trivial thing.

3. Get even more organized. Yeah... about that. I haven't done this.

4. Check!

5. Read more. There isn't enough time to read all of the books on my book list!!! But I'm trying.

6. Make new friends. Um. Well. I think I'm kind of trying. I mean, I've gone out to social events I would normally skip out on, but I also go to the movies alone every week and never even try to have company. Socializing is so much work! I just want to have friends without having to go through the stress of making them. (yes, I said stress. This might explain why change is so difficult for me)

7. Continue my efforts to eat whole, home-made, unprocessed food. I haven't had a single Soy Chai Latte since I wrote that change! I have had several bagels though. Clearly I need to go out and get me some rice cakes, because I'm all out and I'm substituting bagels. Still no blender. Gonna go make a new freecycle post about this.

So... yeah! I'd say I'm chugging along. But I'm gonna go chug along down to the kitchen and make me some rice flour pancakes.

A green idea: I get paid weekly at my internet job. Gordon leaves our paychecks in an envelope by our time sheets. There are 52 weeks in a year. That's 52 envelopes a year! I buy a box of 50 envelopes and it lasts me forever. I don't want my paychecks costing the earth a box of paper envelopes a year. So on Fridays I put my packcheck into my backpack and hand the envelope back to Gordon. He reuses it next week. My little envelope change inspired one of my coworkers as well, so that's a little over two boxes of envelopes a year we're saving for pretty much no effort whatsoever. Woo!

No 'poo

After reading Sleeping Naked Is Green, I felt inspired to start making my own small changes. I already do a lot of what was talked about in the book, but something I had been curious about and even managed some failed attempts at, was giving up shampoo. In truth, I don't think the author ever really did it, but I wanted to.

For as long as I can remember I've always had dandruff and buildup. Actually, I've had dandruff caused by buildup. No matter what shampoo I used or what kind of water I washed it with, I always had buildup. And my hair is super-italian-greasy and heavy. It gets pretty gross after a few days of not washing.

I figured I'd give this no shampoo thing a try, so I read up about it on the internet first. Turns out it's not just as simple as, stop washing your hair. Your hair gets stripped of it's natural oils when you use shampoo, so it over-compensates and starts producing massive amounts of oil to recuperate. When you initially stop using shampoo your hair will be extra-ultra greasy. It takes a while for your hair to balance out and stop over-producing oil.

I avoided this period pretty easily (or at least shortened it drastically) by only shampooing once a week for a long time. My hair was at least half way to balanced. I also mixed up a solution of 1 tablespoon baking soda and one cup of water. I keep it in an old Dr. Bronner's bottle in the shower. I massage it into my scalp when I "wash" my hair. The baking soda helps to break up excess dirt and grease in your hair. Another thing I did to help with the transition was to use shampoo only on the bottom part of my hair, where it didn't touch my head.

Baking soda will feel strange at first, mostly because it feels like almost nothing. It won't lather, it won't smell fruity, and it won't make your hair slippery and silky int he shower. Actually my hair feels kind of weird and stiff when it's still wet after I've scrubbed with baking soda. However, once it's dry it feels AMAZING. It's so light and soft. It's almost annoying how much lighter it is (in terms of weight), because before all of the grease was keeping my hair weighed down and out of my face, now it just kind of flows and moves easily, it falls in my face a lot more.

I also don't have gross buildup and my dandruff has gotten much much better. Better than it was when I was using shampoos made especially for dandruff. I still have a little bit of it and my scalp stills gets a bit itchy. I think that has to do with genetics (thanks dad for the oily hair and dry scalp you passed on to your only daughter) and a little do to with the baking soda itself.

One thing I read online is that the baking soda can cause a little irritation or dandruff because it is so basic. If that happens you can rinse with a solution of 1 tablespoon vinegar and a cup of water to neutralize the base. I used to use vinegar to wash my hair when I was swimming a lot. Yes, it smells bad in the shower (use apple cider vinegar for less of a smell), but it will not leave your hair smelling like vinegar. The smell is gone as soon as the vinegar dries.

As soon as the Logger finishes his current bottle of Dr. Bronners, I'm going to mix up a batch of vinegar solution and let you know how that goes. Yay for no more 'poo!