Tapioca starch miracle: deodorizer , shampoo and body wash

Two to four teaspoons of tapioca starch per cup of water. Pour on dry hair and this alone is a deodorizing shampoo. Massage evenly into hair. Rinse thoroughly after a minute.

I have oily hair. Even if I wash with pure Castile soap and leather twice daily I still smell. If I'm not careful, it's not smell, but horrible smell soon after shampoo. The kind that people accidentally came close within a feet will bounce back and cover their noses. But after I got the smell, a tapioca starch shampoo alone can remove the smell immediately. It's not a cover up. The hair 'smell' better into the day when the very mild starch odour disappears.

I have tried baking soda. A lot of it in a paste enough to pour on hair and massage into it. To my surprise it doesn't work.

My theory is that the root/scalp has oil that repulse water. If you apply soap/detergent, it's like washing a grease filter with soap/detergent. It won't work as detergent works on the surface and cannot handle bulk grease. Baking soda can deal with grease but it doesn't work on scalp. Maybe dry or wet, the coarse particles cannot reach the scalp. All shampoos have the formula to reach the scalp but then they are too strong and strip away oil on the shaft.

Of course tapioca starch (and similar starch) used in cooking is an oil emulsifier. It doesn't dissolve in water nor thicken cold water so water is a good carrier of it. Shake well so the starch is evenly in the water bottle. Just pour and the starch will reach the scalp.

You can use dry tapioca starch but I doubt it will reach the scalp as efficiently as a water mixture.

Now I'm using dilute castile soap and tapioca starch mixture. They don't seem to cancel each other. With soap it's easier to tell if the mixture reached your scalp. It seems the mixture stays on the scalp longer and it is easier to massage into it. The soap also smell nice, with moisturizer and acidic balance.

My hair can take straight liquid Castile soap (or solid bar), which is already mild. Diluted is enough as long as I don't smell. With tapioca I think I don't. I have little helpers to check it. It seems that I can use less tapioca with soap in it.

Wet shampoo isn't a bad thing because that's how to rehydrate skin and scalp. But you need moisturizer to go with it. Castile soap have lots of it. If you don't want soap with tapioca starch, you can add your own ingredient.  But be careful, I tried to thicken the starch water mixture with Guar gum but it's a disaster.

If you search for tapioca, you can find the better home made articles for personal care. It is used in many commercial things like dry shampoo, deodorizer. 

For my soap tapioca mixture, it's a deodorizing shampoo and body wash all in one, how convenient. It's also a 'conditioner' too as you don't need one. It's almost as easy to use as a bottle of concentrated shampoo, but preparing a bottle for each kid is a bit of work. I'm trying to figure that out.

Putting science in home made shampoo to avoid disaster

There are just too much info on the net that good articles are well hidden. Firstly, people avoid off the shelf shampoo for various reasons, animal testing, environmental, harmful substances, customization, money saving.

I read a few disasters all because many 'recipe' are worse than cooking receipts, no quantity, no how, and no steps.

Reasons for no 'poo

The strongest reason was to avoid SLS, which is almost universal in cleaning products. The reason was that a toxic trace substance was detected in SLS, not SLS itself is proven harmful. FDA didn't set a limit on that toxic thing, relying on manufacturers to self regulate.  I think the reason is that the toxic substance shouldn't be there at all. It's either the chemical process generates the substance unknowingly, or the plants are contaminated.

I think the problem is eliminated now as this is under so many watchful eyes. But obviously all the contaminated SLS bottles were sold because the FDA must be thinking that short term exposure to the toxic substance is not critical. And that how do you recall all cleaning products?

The funny thing is that some people when they sport the word L on a shampoo bottle, they call the manufacturer and ask why it is still there. In the chemical world, if the compound is slightly differently named, the process to produce it is different, and that the batch will not be the same as the contaminated SLS batch.

Know your hair type

The best hair 'conditioner' is natural 'oil' produced at roots in the scalp, with the theory of evolution to back it up. It's is very light and makes your hair shiny. The problem is, with any detergent or soap, every very mild, the oil is stripped off. You may feel dry and lack of conditioning. So you apply artificial conditioner that makes you feel good, if only for a later part of the day. Then you feel dirty and sticky, and have to wash your hair the next day.

I have oily hair but thought I has dry hair because that's what I feel after shampoo. I always use conditioner until when I went no 'poo for a while (to save money) my fingers feel so perfect running through my hair.

If you have oily, the danger is that if you stop using a strong shampoo, you may develop dandruff, the kind caused by high bacteria activity feeding on scalp oil. If you have dry hair, some innocent ingredients could be a very strong oil stripper if you use it incorrectly, eg, baking soda.

Castile Soap

The other definition of oily hair is: if you use pure liquid Castile soap such as Dr Bronner's, no matter how much clean you feel after you shampoo everyday, your hair will smell in no time! I though it was due to something else, but it happened to me again and again, even with twice lathering and rinsing. You can add this to the one of the disasters. This is even worse as you cannot smell your head, everybody knows except you.

Other than the big problem, my hair feels great with daily shampoo.

The other misconception is that soap is bad. Real soap is good as you make moisturizer when making soap - glycerin, which has healing properties as reported on research papers. But manufacturers take out the glycerin, sell the soap and sell the glycerin to make cosmetics or moisturizing shampoo or body wash.

Baking soda

Baking soda emulsifies oil, or may be absorb/dissolve oil. There is no way detergent can deal with the grease under microwave hood filters, no matter how much you pour on it, but baking soda remove all the grease just by gentle rubbing baking soda powder on it. Dissolved in water, baking soda does nothing. And baking soda is highly soluble.

So, when people copy baking soda rinse, it can be anything and disaster can happen.

Some clever girl use BS for deep cleansing after oil treatment. She got a mess on her head of course. Like when I wash oil filter with BS. You have a paste of BS and oil on your head. It's worse with coconut oil as it is solid or semi-solid in room temperature.

If you have oily hair, it's rather difficult to get the BS onto your scalp. Also, any powder can be bad for the lung system. I tried to saturate water with BS so there is a lot of white powder left in the water. Then I shake the bottle and pour and massage onto my scalp. I would think this is a case of not enough cleaning on the scalp and too much on the shaft.

But I think other than it is slightly alkaline, my skin doesn't seem to like it. I always rinse thoroughly. That bring out another potential disaster. If you don't rinse enough, or you think it will be more effective by leaving in your hair for a while, it could be dangerous. pH I think is log scale. So you have to dilute with a lot of water to move down the scale to neutral. The same is true if you think leaving your hair acidic will help to maintain the natural pH of hair. Did you measure the pH?

Acidic rinse

I think a vinegar rinse (dilute) after baking soda make sense. BS do not decompose so you have to neutralize it. But vinegar is organic (from living things) so excess of it may decompose to harmless materials.

Also, after acidic rinse, my hair feel fluffy immediately. I have to say it works. But it just too much work and that I can't explain to kids why my hair stinks after shampoo.

I was trying to be clever to use lemon juice, the crystal version of it is cheap and convenient. I knew it would lighten hair under the sun so I use little, 1/8 teaspoon per cup. But still the hair lightens. I have dark hair so it's a disaster if I didn't notice it until later.

Another author claimed that her hair is damaged after 3 years and have pictures to show for it. I think a likely cause is she neutralize the BS on her head without enough rinsing and with neat vinegar. I wash my carpet that way - sprinkle on carpet BS and replace carpet shampoo on a steamer (carpet washer) with vinegar. It's very effective that way but I can't explain it chemically.

I think just the dissolving of BS in water is a non-insignificant reaction. The neutralizing of BS is not just releasing carbon dioxide but something else in the transient state. Anyhow, the lesson is, it should take 3 days or 3 weeks to discover any disaster, and watch carefully.

I might try other fruit juice that do not belong to the citric family. Aloe or guava. Some of them contain the other organic acid that is used for treating dandruff. The cost isn't much higher than citric crystals but it is inconvenient if you do that day in day out. And that part of my body skin don't seem to like baking soda.

Flour and starch

Then I discovered somebody using flour to wash hair. That make a lot of sense as cooks have been emulsifying oil since the dawn of time, making sauces. Immediately I thought of one of my fav ingredients - tapioca starch, which is commonly used in several continents.

It's a teen movie star recipe to treat acne and pores. Let it dry on the skin and absorbs all the grease around the pores. It's dry and bacteria can't survive on it.

But then I'm not original. Many uses corn starch. Flour is sticky, starch is less and tapioca starch is least. It is also finer than corn starch I think. It is also used in dry shampoo!

I don't want to breath powder. And to deliver starch powder to the scalp, I use a bottle to shake water with a lot of starch in it. Before it settle I pour it onto dry scalp, so I know where the starch went. After leaving it for a while on the scalp, I rinse and then finish with some castile soap. In contrast to using soap alone daily, my scalp doesn't smell (so far) and my dandruff seems to be almost invisible.

Next time will be my experiments on conditioner.

The chemistry of baking soda and how to use it for hair

You can experiment on it.  Baking soda reacts with oil similar to the process of soap making.  Therefore thick layers of grease in the kitchen can be cleaned up in no time.  You just rinse it off.

On the other hand, baking soda dissolved in water does nothing to oil.  This is a common fact that most things that dissolve in water or oil, do not dissolve in both at the same time.

Baking soda is completely opposite to soap and detergents that works on surface, and have a hard time to work on bulk grease.

So BK is ideal especially for oily hair.  If you apply BK to your scalp even after a week of nature camping with no shampoo, any oil and grease and odour disappear immediately.  Because the whole mass of hair has so many surface area, it's impossible to strip too much oil from the hair shaft, which can eliminate the need for conditioner.

Dry BK is messy and mildly abrasive.  So I use wash/rinse bottles with enough BK and water in it.  I keep shaking while applying to guarantee enough solid BK delivered to the scalp.

BK is pretty safe.  On a pH scale of 1 to 14, BK is at 8, one from neutral 7.  BK is used a lot medically and often to neutralize acids and maintain a near neutral pH.

BK is of course you can say "natural" and therefore biodegradable.  It doesn't degrade much as some form of sodium salt will always be there, which is natural occurring.  BK with hydrogen and carbon dioxide atoms could be safer than common salt with chloride atoms.

There should not be long term effects if you always rinse thoroughly.  And avoid excess stripping off body oil.  It may be a good idea to neutralize BK with organic acid.  Harmless sodium salts will be left and excess organic acid will degrade into something simple.

As for any shampoo and body wash, you may need conditioner and moisturizer for your scalp and skin.

The engineering approach to shampoo

After trying a lot of things, I recommend Nexxus or some other expensive shampoo with visible immediate results.  I also recommend Dr Bronner's "pure liquid soap" as it seems to be gentle.  Tresemme works for cheap.  For the no-poo camp there is the baking soda.  But use it carefully.  Shampoo also depends on conditioner with different degrees.  See, I'm totally unbiased.

Your hair type is critical, which explains that there are so many shampoos on the market.  The scalp will produce body oil at the root carrying down to the shaft.  After shampoo and drying, try fingering your scalp for a while and see how grease your finger tips feel.  And try it the next day or longer if you don't wash your hair that often.

Do you need to disrupt the natural process that much?  If your scalp don't produce enough oil for the long shaft, I would think it's easy to remedy, if you don't want to cut short your hair.

The problem with oily hair is that bacteria will feed on it, accelerate skin flaking and results in dandruff.  I think that's from medical sources but that's not the universal cause for dandruff of course.  That's not really a big deal as I have dandruff but I have great hair and they don't turn grey and they don't fall down.  The other problem is that if you try fragrance free shampoo and not strong enough your head will smell weird.  It could be all normal - that everybody's head will smell different and weird like without deodorant.  But it's just not socially acceptable.

So be warned.  If you go no-poo carelessly, you could get dandruff and your head can smell weird.  It's hard to know if you have pre-existing conditions.  If you wash your hair everyday with a normal fragrance shampoo, any flakes will be minute and you can't smell anything other than the shampoo.

People always say this is good if you have dandruff.   But I really need somebody to say that I had dandruff, I used this, and dandruff never come back.  A pharmacist say that you have to rotate with different dandruff shampoo to keep dandruff at bay.  I have to wash my hair everyday so it makes little different whether I have dandruff or not.  Nobody is going to split my hair repeatedly and watch and count the minute white spots floating down my hair.

Baking soda is many things to many people.  If you use powder or paste, it can remove years of accumulated grease in your kitchen.  If you use a teaspoonful or two per cup to rinse your hair, it may be too mild.  Too mild that my head smells.  My hair is great though.  I will experiment some more.  The stuff is just too convenient and cost next to nothing and so many people swear by it.

Never drop baking soda on your hair after oil treatment or vice versa.  That's how to make solid soap.  Your hair will be full of soap scum. 

Dr Bronner's seems to be mild, even though it has lots of sud.  But it's not very pure soap.  I remembered it had some glycerin in it for moisturizer.  But everything should be organic.  As with pure soap for skin, if you don't have suitable conditioning, your hair can be messy.  Whereas for Nexxus, if you hair type is one of those, your hair hardly need conditioning after the shampoo.

Whatever you use, you have to use it for a while to see the effect.  For example, some conditioner coat your hair a bit.  So if you change to some other systems, it takes time for the coating to disappear.

My great discovery is that, if you hair need detangling, and if you don't use conventional conditioner, it's a great time for detangling in the shampoo phase.  Just use a detangling wet brush to comb your hair while there are lots of sud.  In the following procedures, just don't mess up your hair again.

The engineering approach to alternative hair and skin care

Alternative hair and skin is a big business.  People sell books and sell stuff.  Some use scare tactics saying that some common ingredients are very bad.  Some just appeal to those organic people that what you don't eat shouldn't put on your skin and hair.

Those are long stories.  The problem is, you find the same home made receipts all over.  I bet most promoters didn't try it themselves, not to say if they ever rely on the alternative stuff long term.  I bet even authors will use the most expensive shampoo and conditioner when they have to appear in public.  Those with good results are hardly applicable to many other people.

By engineering approach I mean looking into cost, and time.  Tell a man to do an oil treatment every few days!  Also, what's the long term effect?  What can go wrong?

Some receipts are hardly practical.  A few dollar a bottle of shampoo and it lasts for months.  No hassle.  If you are afraid, try to buy expensive ones with mostly good ingredients.  So I almost gave up.  But I am interested in answering the question - are the skin and hair care company selling you a big lie?  That you hardly need any shampoo, or at least much cheaper.

Launching Evorganics line of personal care products

Ha ha, it's next to free so I don't bother to market it.

Step 1: Greasy

Coconut oil.  First of all it's a kind of reverse conditioner for hair or skin.  You massage straight into your scalp or skin, then you try to rinse it off as much as possible.  So it is self equalizing.  People have been looking for the conditioner just right for them.  That's a wrong or expensive approach.

Some use it to kill bacteria responsible for dandruff.  Some use it to repair damaged hair.  Some use it to soften tough skin.  In any case, I don't advice to leave it on for more than a few minutes.  It should also work if you do it more often.

The research is to dilute oil with glycerin and then water.  You can apply a lot less that way and feel better in the process.

This step is optional of course if you hair don't need conditioner.  I used to but I don't after switching to Evorganics.

Step 2: Soapy

I would suggest Dr Bonner's liquid soap.  The best part is that it can be diluted with water to a concentration that you like.  Avoid this step if you can.  The body should produce the right amount of body oil given the chance.  You don't want to strip off all the body oil. But if you put oil in your hair, probably you want to use soap to feel better.

As with all other steps, you should feel good about it.  But don't judge when you are wet.  It will not be squeaky clean as we are all brain washed to feel.  Say when your hair are dry, you should feel like having shampoo and then conditioner.  That's why you don't need them because you will feel the same with Evorganics.

Step 3: Salty

Baking soda solution in purified water (or tap water of course).  One teaspoon per cup is salty enough for your tongue.  Use it to rinse your hair.  Baking soda can dissolve grease in bulk, which is different than soap that only works on the surface.  It is pretty safe, used in and out of the body in medical applications.

Rinse thoroughly with water after each step.  If they can be combined I would have combined them.  Combine Greasy and Salty will result in soap.  That's why some morons on youtube cry foul, generating skunk in their hair.

This step is optional if you don't feel that your hair is dirty at all.

Step 4: Fruity

One teaspoon of citric acid crystals for several cups of water to suit your own taste.  If you can drink it, it won't be too harsh for your hair and skin.  This is an alternative to the more common vinegar rinse.  It's acidic but smell nice.

People use citric acid (or vinegar) to cure or prevent dandruff.  I think it's believable but don't leave it on over a minute.  It has cleaning properties at opposite of the pH scale of baking soda.  So you will have best of both worlds.  Mixing fruity and salty will give you carbon dioxide bubbles, and cancels each other.  But that's what some morons do in their washing machine.  Citric acid is also an excellent water softening agent.

I think I feel a lot of difference between vinegar and citric acid.  With citric acid, I feel my hair is shiny, fluffy, and the greasy feeling on my face disappeared at an instant.  But maybe that's just psychological.

This is optional if you don't feel your hair or skin dirty, and you don't need to prevent dandruff everyday.

People use lemon juice to lighten their blond hair and skin.  I agree that lemon juice contains more things and the process is more complicated.  I don't think that dilute citric acid and immediate rinsing will do anything to your hair or skin.

Step 5: Sweety

One teaspoon of glycerin per cup.  It's extremely common in personal care products as a water soluble moisturizer.  You know if you wash with just water, you will feel bad and dry.  I was hoping to compensate that by adding a moisturizer.  I'm not sure it do anything but I don't feel bad at all washing my hair and body with just glycerin water.  You can even leave it on as a moisturizer or conditioner.

Sweety combines with fruity to produce a little bit of polyester for making cloth fibres.  So don't combine.  This is the only essential step, or otherwise you are not even washing anything.  Glycerin also dissolves oil so it has it's cleaning powers.  It is also used in washing out ear wax.

You must add enough water to glycerin, say half and half, or it will take water from your skin.  Otherwise, the more glycerin the better but this is the only ingredient that cost some money.

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.

Hair care update

I use 1 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of reverse osmosis water and put them in a large juice or milk bottle.  Then pour them into an old shampoo to apply to dry hair, until they are thoroughly wet.  You can dissolve a lot more soda but the taste is shockingly salty.  I don't suggest more concentrated solution because it's alkaline (base) after all.

I rinse with water thoroughly before vinegar rinse.  I don't use apple cider vinegar because I use white vinegar for clothes and white stuff is cheaper.  I mix 1/8 cup of vinegar to 1 cup of soft water.  This is mild enough not to stink your eyes.  Again I put the mixture in a large bottle and pour them into smaller shampoo bottles to rinse my hair.  In winter, you can make double concentrated solution and dilute with warm water when use. 

Always rinse thoroughly.  It's not a good idea to leave alkaline or acid in your scalp.

I've been using this for over a week and very happy with it.  I have to wash my hair because of the desert climate and to bring my hair strands down.  During wash, the hair felt a bit oily.  But when my hair is completely dry, it's the same feeling after I shampoo and then apply plenty of conditioner.  What a waste of time before.  The clean feeling last a day or may be too.  Since I have to wash hair everyday it's perfect.

You can't go wrong with baking soda because it's a deodorizing agent.  It can dissolve grease and calcium deposits.  I doubt if the vinegar does anything, but most people suggest that as rinse.  I read an article that the optimum hair condition is acidic.  That looks like a technical article.  It may be bluffing but as long as it has claims, somebody can fact check it sooner or later.  But I won't try to leave any trace on the hair.  Maintaining a certain pH without exact control of the amount of materials is tricky. 

The alternative to vinegar is citric acid.  It's a good chelating agent, meaning it can prevent calcium from depositing on your hair.  It won't have the vinegar smell.  You can get it in powder form or lemon juice.  I don't know how much to dilute them for use.  It could end up quite expensive than vinegar.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - oral

The two ingredients are of course baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  But using them carelessly you can do great harm to your teeth and gums.  Many commercial oral care products contain the same ingredients, safer, but not perfectly.  Some warned that you cannot use the whitening toothpaste for more than a week, and some cautions for whitening mouth wash.

I won't use dry baking soda to grind you teeth whiter.  It has to be a very precise process to avoid grinding your gums.  At most I would spread dry or paste baking soda on the surface of your teeth to apply them effectively, and make them wet for whatever cleaning effect they have on your teeth.

Or you can mix baking soda solution with glycerin so the paste can stay on your teeth, but all baking soda are dissolved.

Baking soda can remove water stains, which is calcium deposits.  But I doubt if it can dissolve your teeth away by just brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth.  There are whitening mouth rinse that contains baking soda.  The salty taste is a dead give away.  The concentration doesn't really matter as long as you rinse your mouth thoroughly after.

Baking soda will definitely whiten your teeth but a simple rinse could prevent your teeth from getting more and more stains.

Baking soda is slightly alkaline while sugar caused tooth decay is an acidic process.  It might protect your teeth against decay.  But I will still use a fluoride toothpaste for my kids as we don't drink fluoridated water, we have reverse osmosis.

Baking soda is a deodorizer, so it would help to combat bad breath.  Daily rinsing may cure bad breath.  For emergency I would rinse mouth with concentrated solution and then rinse thoroughly.  You can also work baking soda powder gently into the voids of your teeth, to go where your tooth brushed or flossing missed.  And rinse thoroughly.  Although baking soda is only slightly alkaline, I won't suggest to leave anything in your mouth.

Hydrogen peroxide attacks anything organic (living or once living) and then some.  Certainly it will remove most stains.  Certainly it will attack your gums and anywhere in your mouth.  You pay a lot of money at the dentist to protect your gums while remove stains in the most rapid way.  But a diluted mouth rinse should not cause any harm.  Indeed, 3% peroxide solutions are diluted with equal parts of water for mouth rinse, to reduce bad breath, for first aid, and to kill germs.

Somehow concentrated hydrogen peroxide can dig deep into your teeth around the gum line if you don't rinse after use.  So be very careful what you are using and following instructions.

I use daily a mouth rinse made up of at most 1/8 part of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution and 1 part water, saturated in baking soda.  That is suppose to reduce stains, kill germs, prevent tooth decay, and cure bad breath.

I suggest to use whitening tooth paste unless you are prepared to make your own "pure" toothpaste using glycerin.  If you want a boost, you can stick baking soda to your tooth paste.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - skin

For "body wash" I use the same thing as my "shampoo" - saturated baking soda solution in tap water, or the softest water you can get.  That's about one teaspoon per cup.

You can pour the solution on your body with an old body wash bottle.  Or you can simply put the baking soda into a bath.  First clean yourself with a little water in the bath, then add water to whatever level you desire.

I don't suggest to use another vinegar rinse as that's too much trouble with no reason.

I hope I don't need skin moisturizer in the long run, at least not everyday.

I suggest corn huskers lotion on a as needed basis or on trouble spots.  It solved all my skin troubles as the alcohol in it makes it medicated.  I use it for after shave, and moisturizer after I removed tough skin on my heel with "floating stone".  The formula has been used for just less than 100 years and all the common ingredients are said to be safe.

Some people suggest to use it for moisturizing your hair too.  But I use it on my scalp when there's something like an insect bite, or where there are some dry spots.

You may turn your solutions into lotions or gels if you mix glycerin with it.  You can make your body wash solution into something like body wash lotion.  It is easier to apply for kids and it can last for a week instead of a day or two.

Food grade glycerin is about 50 cents per oz online. You need to further dilute it into lotion. Glycerin is the main ingredient in corn huskers lotion, itself a good moisturizer and found in many personal care products and food as base.

I use it for the face too.  After washing I don't feel the face oily, nor dry.  But the oil free feeling don't last long, but not even the strongest face wash that I use last that long.  I repeat with the BS solution if I need to, or just wipe face with a wet towel.

For body scrub I sprinkle a little BS from a pepper bottle into my wet hands and rub it gently on my face or where it's needed.  Dry BS is very fine crystals and can cause fine scratch lines on glass when dry.  But it dissolves as soon as it touches water.  And it won't scratch your skin because the "floating stone" are many times tougher than that.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredents - hair

I have sensitive and problematic skin so I had tried a lot of things.  My recent experience of cleaning triggered me to research on cleaning myself, with safe and effective ingredients that I already have.

I use the most thick moisturizing body wash and that is not enough.  To sustain problem skin I need to cover myself with a good body moisturizer. 

After shampooing, I must use good conditioner or my hair will go crazy.

All these doesn't make any sense to me.  After I stripped my hair and skin of body oil, I reapply something else to re-moisturize my body.

So I found some common natural personal care routines that I can use.  I will concentrate on the simplicity of the process, the chemistry, and the safety.

For hair "shampoo" I use 2 cup of reverse osmosis water and saturate it with baking soda in a measuring cup.  That means roughly two teaspoons of baking soda dissolving in very soft water.  Then I pour the solution into an empty shampoo container and use it to apply to my dry hair thoroughly in the bathroom.  Then rinse THOROUGHLY before next step.

Over saturating the solution with baking soda probably won't do much.  If the solution don't have enough cleaning power you are the first one to know.  You aim to rinse off thoroughly so the concentration of the solution isn't critical.  You can use tap water.  But soft water itself cleans by dissolving hard deposits, and it dissolves more baking soda.  Baking soda also may have softening effects as in commercial softeners, where calcium (in water) is replaced by sodium (in Baking soda) and then extracted somewhat.  That's why people should not drink softened water, especially those who need to watch sodium intake. 

For the "conditioner" I use apple cider vinegar.  I dilute an oz or two of vinegar with reverse osmosis water in a measuring cup, giving the water pale colour but not too smelly in the bathroom.  Then I pour the solution into another bottle for use in the bathroom.  Apply to wet hair thoroughly and then rinse THOROUGHLY.

You can use white vinegar but the smell is stronger.  The two solution aren't really shampoo and conditioner as such, but the concept is never to mix them together.  They will start off a famous chemical reaction forming carbon dioxide bubbles and a temporary acid.  It may be good for carpet stains but not a good idea on your head.

Baking soda is a deodorizer and eatable, so it's fail safe.  You don't need to smell your own hair to be sure that it doesn't stink.   BS can remove grease and water scale effectively.  I would think the vinegar is optional.  But a lot of people tested it and it shouldn't cause any harm.  BS is slightly alkaline and vinegar is acidic.  So it may be cleaning in different ways.  Keep them on the dead hair and you won't go wrong.

As for the problem of dandruff, I suggest you do more research before trying.  I have no worries as my best shampoo and best conditioner still leave me with dandruff.  Every week or two I need to use medicated tar shampoo to treat my hair.  It isn't really treat but just a quick wash.  But I bet in my case it's drying of the skin under the hair so my alternative hair cleaning shouldn't get any worse.  I hope it gets better without stripping the oils everyday.  I tried other dandruff shampoo but they don't clean that good or the hair don't feel that good.

I'm happy with the effect so far, but not a long term test.  Your hair don't feel so clean during the washing, because you aren't removing all the oil.  After natural drying, my hair feels like I shampooed and conditioned as before.  So what a waste of time before.  It feels a little sticky at the end of day, but I have to wash my hair everyday because of the weather.

I have tried on kids very long hair.  It doesn't tangle that much without stripping the oil.  But it's not a long term test either.

For me the preparation is easy.  I just go to the kitchen and use the same measuring cup I use for cooking.  It's easier then making coffee.  And you can make more to use for a few more days.  For the whole family you may want to use two large milk bottles, put them high up in the shower, and fit taps on them.

Better than Flowbee

To understand why Flowbee and the older Robocut works, we have to understand haircut theory 101. If every hair in your head is equal in length, you look OK. Of course you adapt the theory to shorter sides, etc. Most haircut, say, business cut, will involve a lot of this basic cut.

So basically both the Flowbee and Robocut hold your hair straight up via vacuum, and cut into equal lengths. That's why they work to some extend. I believe some reviews that the Flowbee cuts more like a scissor with no pulling effect.

I actually build a cheap Robocut in 15 minutes and tried it out using PVC pipes. The main thing is a 3/4" water pipe with a slit cut in it - for the scissor to come in and cut. The other is the attachment to a powerful vacuum.

It works decently to cut a kid's hair (poor kid). The problem is that cutting is slow because you have to put the scissor in restricted place. And that even after blocking some of the air passage with a plastic plate and tape, some hair in each batch are missed. Also because of the difficult in cutting, the cuts are not clean and the hairs are not exactly equal in length. But at the end it looked decent.

After I realized the first principle in hair cutting, I developed the touch cut technique with the touch cut hair clips. Each clip is made of two plastic cards, hinged together by tape. You pull a small strand of (wet) hair straight between the clips, and cut the excess length of hair outside the clip. This is exactly what hair stylists do, but without the precision measurement.

For a man's business cut, you use shorter clips at the sides and gradually shorter at the neck. The Flowbee is fast but the different length blends better by hand.

The "invention" is really suitable for cutting your own hair - hence named touch cut. You do not need to see what you are doing! Because you cannot go wrong. You cannot cut any hair shorter than your clip dictates. If you repeat on the same area long enough, all hair will be of equal length. In practice it's pretty fast, almost as fast as your hair stylists. My experience is that you can cut any hair around your head easily with an ordinary hair scissor, by twisting your head if necessary. If you cut your kid's hair, it's real easy.

A big challenge is a man's business cut for straight hair. The challenge is around the ears and at the neck line. You may need very short length hair. In that case you can use your fingers as clip, meaning hair length the thickness of one finger. You can have two finger width if you stack your left hand fingers and right hand fingers to clip the hair. The Flowbee cannot blend in different hair lengths so easily.

For a business cut you do need to need to trim off the hairs that are out of place to get the neat look. I am not aware of anybody who do this. I attach an old camcorder to a TV, so I can watch the back of my head comfortably, and I can zoom in to watch each hair. It can be done but not too simple because you have to move the cam around your neck to be sure that no hair is out of place.

For precision trimming it's really difficult using scissors looking at the TV like a mirror. I suggest an electric hair trimmer.

The good old clipper is a totally different kind of fish that stylists don't use. Firstly, it cannot cut equal lengths using the hair guards, because you are not pulling the hair straight, and only cutting those.