Life in the Depression

A friend recently posted a link to an NPR piece on the "No 'Poo" movement. The report focused on folks who were going without shampoo for ecological reasons: plastic bottles, chemicals that if ingested would be considered poisons, water purity. The people who follow the movement often site that our hair is like animal pelts and does not need shampoo to be clean. I've read some who say the use of shampoo aggravates and increases oil production, requiring the use of more shampoo and conditioner to boot, because shampoo dries out the hair shaft by removing the oil that would typically moisturize the shafts. Some report that if you stop shampooing, your hair will improve and the oil production decrease.

In a British test several women took the six week challenge: no shampoo for six weeks. Some reported an improvement in hair condition and reduction of oil production after a few weeks and like the test. Others reported greasy, ugly, smelly hair with no improvement after several weeks.

Some No 'Poo folks use nothing at all. Others use dissolved baking soda as a wash and apple cider vinegar as a rinse. And they do it less frequently than they used to shampoo.

One reporter found an allegedly Mexican tradition of rinsing the hair with water and using wet washcloths to redistribute the oil from the top of the head down the hair shaft by stroking these cloths 100 times down each section of hair.

One report stated that shampoo didn't exist until sometime in the 1930's and even then wasn't used daily until ad campaigns of the early 70's encouraged it. This comment together with my personal experience as a child: washing my hair once a week and using apple cider vinegar as a rinse, got me to thinking: how did people REALLY wash their hair in the 1930's? Did they do it as seldom as some of these reports state? Did people really not use soap or shampoo regularly?

The following is a response from someone who was a child during the Great Depression to the questions: what did you use to wash your hair/body as a child/teenager? how often?

As to hair:
As a child:
1) We used soap--the same kind and thing we used for bathing. Sometimes
Mother used water and vinegar to rinse my hair and sometimes she probably
used nothing but water. There was no running water so this means my hair
was washed in a small "wash" pan and rinsed by pouring water from a bucket.
2) I don't know how often it was washed but my guess is it depended on
weather and events. I.e. in winter, less often. In summer, maybe weekly.
If we were to attend church, visit family, have pictures made, etc. it
would have been washed for that I'm sure.
3)Between washings we just brushed or combed it!

As a teen:
1) Same as above except I did my own. If we had shampoo, I used that.
2) Weekly--every Saturday!
3) Same as above!

As to bathing:
As a child:
We used soap and water. I doubt we bathed even weekly. Most of the time we
bathed using the small "wash" pan which meant you did what we later referred
to as a "spit" bath (not everything got very clean). We sometimes bathed in
a zinc tub--much better bath! In summer it was in the backyard. In winter,
inside by the fireplace! I do remember in the winter my heels would get
grungy which meant I certainly wasn't doing much scrubbing on them!

As a teen:
We used soap and water. Bathing was similar to above except much more often
and much cleaner. When we moved to a house with running water, bathing was
in a bathtub. Hair was still washed only once a week and bathing was as
needed. I do know that by the time I graduated from high school bathing was
daily!

That ends the response to my questions about shampooing and washing during the Depression and 40's/50's. It only represents 2 people's experience, but it's interesting. It intrigues me to look at what we take for granted daily nowadays. How extravagant are our expectations? How much of that is mass-marketing produced reality? And how much of it is necessary or a good idea? Many things to ponder as Earth Day approaches.

And about a month ago, I cut back on shampoo. I was a daily washer. Now, every 2-3 days. My hair is pretty oily by day three usually, but the second day is doable.

Communion

gods and saints don't like me
cause I spit my shame into the wine
Thought that's where the guilty thoughts went
when the deeds won't stay behind
So I confess to anyone who doesn't listen anyway
Gonna break the record for obsession and toss the hand grenade
Don't taunt me into battle with my rough and bloody hands
The stains of my communion with the other side of Hell
I expect my life to lead me straight down the wide and curvy
Should I stumble back onto the narrow guide me where the earth don't tremble
I was there when they laid him in the tomb of his remembrance
a plot of earth so stained with blood it seeped like oil around us
and the guns tore up the sky leaving nothing but the darkness
and I found a tear inside me with a message sent from God.

Ain't gonna stay

I'm outta here. I'm on my way. Ain't gonna look back. Gonna get away. Don't care if it rhymes. Don't care if it's brilliant. I can't stand my own skin. Don't want to be in it. Time to check out. Time to check out. Time. To.

Do we scream until we're speechless; then smile and walk away? Do we whisper vapor smiles that fade before our lips move? Would we know the difference? I. Can't. Hear. You.

Have the stakes been lowered till anybody can pitch a penny ante, don a crown and stake a claim? I've got two pair of nothing and couldn't find a care to raise or call. In my pocket is a piece of paper, folded, bent, crammed. A receipt with words in pencil on the back. How long will they last? Will you hold me to them? Will you take that as a marker? Or did you write your own notes on a napkin and toss it in the garbage.

I'm outta here. Ain't looking back. I need a world where gods fear to tread because the humans shake and rumble like seeds.

Feeling Moorless

Did I pay the moorage fees for life on Earth? Today I drift.

Snow Days

We're on our third snow day. The family sleeps while I enjoy the quiet. Yesterday we had a snowball fight, made snow angels, took pictures, ate snow cream, baked homemade cinnamon rolls, walked and slided through the streets of snow, played a ruthless game of Sorry, and started a snowman. The only must-do left for today is to finish the snowman.

We saw three teenagers snowboarding down our hill and two cars stopped without arriving at their destinations. If you consider that the first is possible, the second doesn't seem extraordinary.

Sometime before Christmas, I need to wrap presents.

The computer is mostly down due to a software crash and troubled reinstall, so we're back to a simpler way of life, like it or not. How long will we make it? Hopefully, we will look each other in the eyes a few times before the snow melts, dispose of unkind words, and reengage.

But right now, it's time to take out the garbage, on the off chance the truck gets up the hill.

Holidays

How is it they run up one against another in a seamless stream of take down, clean, store, take out, set up, repeat? Add in work, errands, quiet time, other responsibilities, and our lives seem seed-beaded together into a necklace of celebrations and the work feeding into them.