Glycerine - the universal ingredient for personal cleaning

Using baking soda for a while, my hair is OK.  I thought of getting rid of body wash too.  But I can't do without moisturizer lotion, even if I use Dove for body wash.  I also suspect my dandruff is due to dryness.  I wash my hair everyday so the flakes are carried away without too much visibility.  But if I don't wash for a few days, the flakes come off in large visible pieces.

So I thought of adding moisturizer to my formula.  Glycerin fits the bill.  It's used in many many personal cleaning and cosmetics products.  You can get it easily online.  It's not expensive for the amount you need.

My objective is different from many other home made product blogs.  It have to work better, saving time and money are bonuses.  I believe in evolution work best, or sufficient.  I don't want to change the texture, smell, of my hair or skin.  I just want to give my body the chance to adjust and balance itself.  It also have to work for the kids.

Basically I wash everything with diluted Glycerin, roughly one teaspoon per cup of purified water (or tap water).  You must dilute Glycerin with water or it will absorb water from your skin.  If the whole family uses one teaspoonful per day, the 32 oz bottle will last for 3 months, which is pretty good.

I didn't add any other thing because you could leave it on your hair or skin.  People use it as hair detangler and it works pretty good.  But if you don't use shampoo to strip all the body oil, you can just wash with Glycerin water  and then rinse thoroughly with water.  Yeah, I use Glycerin water like shampoo.  After "washing" the hair will feel sticky when wet, but after the hair dries, my hair feels better than having shampoo and then conditioner.  It looks better.  And the next day I don't really need to wash my hair in order to make it tidy.  So basically I could have wash my hair once every several days, not dedicated by the morning look.

My skin feels good too without using any moisturizer.

If money is no object, you can just pour a cup or two Glycerin water (diluted) on your hair, and spray yourself all over the body.  $10 per bottle per month isn't bad at all.  But my cheap shampoo and conditioner probably last longer.

To save Glycerin, I use a 97 cent Walmart spray bottle to wet my hair, which works pretty good.  For the body wash I created a gel.  I dissolve one to two teaspoon of tapioca starch per cup of purified water and heat in the microwave to boil.  When cooled, you have a translucent gel.  When you squeeze it out from a bottle, it just look like a clear gel.  Of course, I also dissolve the Gycerin before heating.

Actually the best delivery bottle is probably the cheap squirt water bottle with a valve.  The water won't come out even when upside down, until you squeeze the bottle a little.  To get a proper and cheaper one, it's called (medical) cleansing bottle, or perineal irrigation bottle.  It's also very good to squeeze out gel.  It's easy to use for the kids, and water can't easily get in inside the shower even when the valve is open.  That's kid safe.

I also tried to wash my hair with the gel.  It doesn't make noticeable difference.  But I just don't feel right adding a lot of sticky starch onto my hair.  Though the gel can easily be rinsed away.

If I feel dirty, I'll spray myself with baking soda water first.

I also brought some Dr Bronner soap just in case.  The liquid soap can be diluted so it's not expensive.  But I don't think I need it except for my face and neck area.

I think vinegar rinse on hair may be useful.  Acid can remove some oil (and dirt).  It can neutralize the residue baking soda in solution form absorbed at the scalp.  But it assumes leaving the hair slightly acidic is better than slightly alkaline.  But I don't want one more step everyday for the kids.  I also tried diluted lemon juice rinse.  I think there's some difference from vinegar.  Lemon juice is a lot easier and smells good.

My hair looks and feels great, and still do waking up in the morning.