Who doesn’t love a good bath? I know I do, and with the monsoon here in full force, having a hot shower now tops my list of fun activities. (Cold showers are better for the environment though) I used to have a shower cluttered with plastic bottles full of product, and used to be known to indulge in a nice soak in a bathtub. Now – I make sure to turn the shower off while I soap up.
I’m not 100% there yet, but I’ve made changes that have made bath time lower impact, funny though, that many of these changes didn’t happen out of a need to go zero waste, but because what was already on my shelf wasn’t working for me.
A couple of years ago, I started to get hives on my back and stomach, any minor irritant, as silly as a slightly scratchy label would set it off. Around the same time, I found that my hair was thinning and my scalp had become itchy. I saw a dermatologist and she told me it was stress and gave me a mild antihistamine. I took this for months, and it barely helped.
I must have run out of shampoo and resorted to using something from my stash of freebies (yes, totally guilty of having been a former master thief of free toiletries) and everything felt better. Two washes in and my hair was still dry, but wasn’t falling off at a horrifying rate. This was totally working for me. I walked into Forest Essentials and month after month bought their shampoos and soaps. Hair and skin still dry, but the hives and hairfall were under control, without the antihistamine or calamine lotion.
Now their stuff isn’t exactly cheap, plus, it isn’t plastic free. So last year when I decided to change up my life, I started looking for alternatives. Something more affordable and preferably not in plastic. Here is what I’ve ended up with:
My entire bath time routine
I use a shampoo by Omved it’s about the same price as forest essentials, but I prefer it for 2 reasons. One, my hair is super soft now and my scalp doesn’t feel dry at all. Plus, no excessive hair fall. It comes in an Aluminium bottle, which is 100% recyclable. After a whole lot of looking, I found these lovely soaps from Auroville (a place I need to visit) that come wrapped in fabric and wax paper. The Shea butter ones are super moisturizing and make my skin feel awesome. I don’t even use a separate face wash any more.
Last week I posted about how much microbeads suck. When my last natural face scrub ran out, I decided not to buy a new one. A couple of months ago, I had bought a Loofah (fun fact: it’s actually a gourd – from the same family as the Zuchini) which I use to scrub everything from my face to my tippy toes.
The BEST exfoliator ever
Finally, I finish off with a little bit of body oil. I still have a bottle from Forest Essentials, it’s practically a year old and i’ve barely made a dent in it.
My shelf of shame – AKA ghosts of products past
Earlier, I probably would have used a shampoo, a conditioner, face wash, body wash, face scrub, body scrub and a moisturiser. That’s 7 products which would have come in plastic containers I’ve replaced with just 4 which are also Sulfate and Petrochemical free, and I’ve never felt better.