I just looked up the ingredients in a bottle of shampoo, and here are some of the more interesting results (side-effects) that I found online:

Sodium Laureth Sulfate: Damage to the hair follicle, skin damage, irrepairable eye damage in children, and liver toxicity.
Cocamidopropyl Betaine: Known human immune system toxicant, wildlife and environmental toxicity
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate: Carcinogenic pollutants can be formed in the production of this chemical
C12-13 Pareth-3 (whatever that means): Animal studies indicate possible brain, nervous system, gastrointestinal and skin irritant effects.

I recommend that shampoo bottles instead have this ingredient list:

So what did Dave do about all this? Dave met up with his sister and niece to test out some homemade shampoo recipes that they found on the web. Let the chaos ensue:
Hibiscus Recipe: This recipe called for mashing up hibiscus leaves into a messy pulp. Luckily, we had a mortar and pestle lying around, so we threw a few leaves in and began crushing them. At first, there was nothing unusual going on, but around the third or fourth minute, the leaves began taking on a different look. The concoction had the consistency of something resembling either real shampoo or a handful of boogers. If you try this out, we'll let you decide. Our studies* concluded that our hair felt... interesting. Not necessarily clean, but our hair did have a somewhat pleasant "plant-like" scent afterwards. The one negative side effect was that we had to pick out miniscule flecks of plant matter from our heads.

*studies - leaning over the bathtub and taking turns trying out the shampoo

Egg Recipe #1: One (1) egg mixed with an organic oil of some kind. We had coconut oil lying around, so we heated it up a little to make it easier to work with and we pitched in in with the egg. We whisked the two together for awhile, and quickly realized that the cold egg turned the oil into 1,000 tiny beads of hard grease. But my niece still went through with it and tried it out. She came back looking rather displeased and her hair never looked like it dried fully. The oil doubled as "hair product" and gave her a 1950's "Greaser" look.

Egg Recipe #2: One (1) egg, well beaten. That was it. I tried this sucker out, and it was the strangest feeling rubbing cold egg into my scalp. There was some leftover residue afterwards, but I will say that my hair did feel extremely soft throughout the rest of the day. Keep this one in the fridge when not in use.

Vinegar Shampoo: The simplest one of all, and my personal favorite. All you need is 8 oz. of water, and a capful of apple cider vinegar, plus a few drops of your favorite essential oil. The nice thing about this one is that you don't need to worry about it spoiling after a day or two, and you don't need to keep it in the fridge to preserve it. Also, you can use many different essential oils, and if you do a little research, you'll find that certain oils can help your body in different ways (very cool). Tea tree oil and peppermint are some nice ones that give your head that tingly feeling after you shower, which I love.

Until next time...

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