Use eco-friendly and body-friendly hair conditioner (Change 129)

To go along with the eco-friendly shampoo, I'm now using eco-friendly conditioner.  I found that the eco-friendly shampoo I am using is drying my hair out.  (I guess all the yucky chemical additives of my other shampoo was what made my hair nice, soft and shiny.  The commercials really are true!) 

I'm using the conditioner every other wash, and it seems to be alleviating the dryness.  I never used to have to use it, so I don't like purchasing another bottle, creating more waste, and using more precious resources so my hair looks nice.  On the other hand, I am a bit vain, and don't enjoy looking like I could double for a scarecrow on a bad hair day!  :)

When my current bottle of shampoo is finished, I'm going to try another brand to see if I still have the dryness problems.  Any favourites among my readers that you could recommend?

Buy environmentally and body friendly shampoo (Change 117)

The toiletries and cosmetics in our house are slowing turning green.  This week I purchased a shampoo that should be safer on the environment and better for my body.   Unfortunately, the brand I purchased does not appear in the Skin Deep database (http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/).  But, I'm getting pretty savvy at reading labels, and can say that there aren't any parabens, pthalates, fragrances or SLS or other really bad ingredients in this shampoo.

It smells like apple cider (yummy), and leaves my hair feeling clean and soft.   DH has even commented on how nice my hair smells.  The shampoo was a reasonable price for the "green" component of it, so I am happy to stick with this new brand.

Environmentally-friendly dog shampoo (Day 88)

Sometimes a quick wash in the baby bathtub is not going to be enough for Molly.  In fact, even though we've only had her 6 weeks, she's already had two showers in our walk-in.  Regular human shampoo is not good for a dog's coat, and I'm certainly not going to share my tiny bottle of Green Beaver shampoo with her.  So I went looking for an environmentally-acceptable pet shampoo.

I was pleasantly surprised to find one in our local pet store.  Priced well, only a few dollars more for the same size bottle as the regular shampoo, the shampoo contains natural ingredients, with no harmful chemicals or detergents.  The packaging is made from recycled materials and the sleeve labels are made from corn (which means they could be biodegraded).

Molly gets to be clean and green - best dog in the house.

Buy environmentally friendly kid shampoo (Day 79)

Another change in our use of cosmetics/hygiene products.  I've purchased an eco-friendly, body-friendly shampoo for my children.  The particular brand I purchased (Green Beaver) is not listed in EWG's cosmetics database (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com).  Interestingly, the other brands I had in mind ALL scored 4 or more on the nasty scale in the database.  A couple of them scored 7 or 8!

I've reviewed the ingredients list on my purchase to the best of my ability - no parabens, phthalates, SLS, fragrance, nor is it tested on animals.  It's not easy on the pocketbook, though.  This shampoo was the same price for a small 250 g bottle as a 2L bottlle of my regular 'scores "5" on the scale' shampoo from Costco. 

A quick look at the Green Beaver company website (www.greenbeaver.com) and a quick perusal of other "green" blogs, indicates that I've made a good choice with this shampoo.  I will admit though, if I can find a "2" or "3" scale shampoo that is more cost effective, I am going to make the switch.