4 posts tagged “unscientific science-y tuesday”

EDIT: I never turned comments "off." I apologize to the people who wished to comment and even more apologize to Valerae, who told me she couldn't comment and I thought she meant "just she" couldn't comment. I have trouble and cannot leave comments sometimes on Vox; I figured it's my connection speed. :( I wasn't giving people the cold-shoulder. Me so sorry!
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First, thanks to John and his voxer buddy Noddy for helping out on episode 3. This vox post is to chronicle my weekend attempts and shampooing and rinsing with Borax solution and vinegar.

Friday night, when it application-time came, its watery consistency made judging how much to use difficult.

I poured a handful and slopped it on my pre-wetted head in the shower. That didn't seem to cover much (1/6 of my scalp/ hair). I switched to slowly pouring the solution. To "feel" like everything had been treated, I poured twice-over, using about 1.5 cups of solution.

That was probably far more than a person would need but I wanted to cover evenly.

Regarding the citric acid of episode 3: I was very "on" about using it because I read in two places that neither lemon juice nor ACV were strong enough to counter Borax solution. Since I had no citric acid, I used ACV.

That felt fine in the shower (wet) but my hair felt odd afterward. I made sure to completely douse with vinegar, to remove the solution. Perhaps my hair cannot tolerate much of one or the other?

My hair and scalp is "squeaky" clean but uncomfortably tight and tingling in a bad way. My hair is turning into a wiry, mess (it's still about 50% damp at time of photo, left).  Naturally, my hair is fine, thin, kinky and ginger. Certainly, every hair-dresser I've met thinks they know my hair and then freak out as they try to manage it! Ah, the winning combination of Jewish and Irish ancestry!  :) 

BTW I wash my hair daily; it's necessary to use several styling products and blow-style to make smooth (see photo, above right). I'm air-drying with tonight's experiment, since my hair feels too dry and pouffy (and my scalp feels like I have sunburn)!

-reported Friday, 9 May 08

The next morning, my mother saw me and remarked about my, as she calls it, "Jew-fro." I told her I had used Borax solution and followed with vinegar rinse. She was aghast (she's a licensed beautician from the early 1960's). Stated above, I wanted to give it one more go but as of noon the day after, my scalp still feels like somebody tossed gasoline on it. I pondered letting my natural oils come back on their own (and skip my usual daily cleansing) but after hour upon hour of discomfort, I returned to Neutrogena "Triple Moisture" shampoo and TJs "Nourish" conditioner. My hair is much more relaxed (added oils) but my scalp feels exactly the same (see photo, bottom left; hair is almost 50% dry).

I've decided to leave well-enough alone by not trying straight Borax solution again. I may cook up a different concoction with Borax in it, but not again diluted Borax-proper. Ouch. I still recommend Borax for your laundry, bug repellent/ bug killer and outside cleaning jobs. I think as a shampoo, it's best for those with different textured hair than mine.  I know tons of people use it and that's great, if it works for you!

-follow up, Saturday 10 May 08

As of four days later,  my hair is behaving more "normally." Saturday afternoon, I put about one teaspoon of jojoba oil in my hair and massaged it into my scalp. That set for about 30 hours and then I washed with my normal moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. The only other thing to report is I've lost 2 rather scary chunks of hair (as wads) whilst showering. I've had similar happen after surgery and after having pneumonia, so it's not a complete shock. Those must've been the weaker hairs, eh? At any rate, my scalp is recovered after the 30 hour jojoba treatment, too.

-follow up, Tuesday 13 May 08

Citric acid

Okay, I'll admit thinking, "vitamic C!" but I think, now, that's actually ascorbic acid. And I think I just miss-spelled that. I'll check later. -don't interrupt my train of thought, it's hard enough to keep me on topic

I noticed a bunch of home-made shampoos mentioned using citric acid and water as a rinse. In the first 47 mentions, it all seemed to be used as a conditioner. Finally, after reading pages upon pages -including books; no, I'll not give attribution because they're all so slim in information and they all say exactly the same thing  I thought to stop looking at it from the health and beauty side and go at it from the more science/ chemistry side. Please remember, gentle unscientific or science-y friends, I got the Special Test in school and came away "under par," shall we say: I didn't test into Chemistry 101 or anything harder that Botany, which was set aside for the stoners.

Using only the internet, I pounced upon WikiP as everyone does, and promptly came to the realization that it was a bit over my head, too. I think it's designed more as a reminder for post-Chem 101 students. I'm "pre-Chem 101" so, I looked elsewhere and found this. -with a name like wisegeek, how could I go wrong?

In MT-style, here's what I've gleaned: citric acid, even diluted, doesn't sound like something I want to pour over my head. Sure, I get that it's acid and I think we "do" that to reset the ph level after a Borax-based "shampoo" (really Borax with water poured over it then use the water, NOT including Borax at the bottom of the mixing container). I read somewhere that lemon juice nor vinegar is strong enough to reset the ph after your Borax quasi-solution... This makes Borax not sound like something I want to pour over my head.

Granted, both of these substances seem very safe for the environment and that's important if you live on a farm like I do where our water supply is directly affected by our sewage as in "right there."

Scared yet? Oh, bonjour les pompiers! Check out what's in a common bottle of shampoo from the salon. Um, that's like everything.  I'm not promoting products from this distributor but they have a super-quick list of common products and some of the ingredients you wouldn't want to use on your body or in your body.

I'm just not ready to try Borax on my head. The thing is, knowing myself, I'll probably try it on a whim and certainly once use isn't going to harm me... I don't like the idea of using citric acid, though. It really seems to me that vinegar would be a suitable rinse, if it's really needed. This is when I really miss not having any chemistry background because I love trying to do things myself.

Growing up, we always kept Borax. -"Twenty mule-team strong" or something was their motto  We used it as an additive to our laundry and for general cleaning, particularly on outside stuff like concrete, barbecue pit and utensils and the occasional picnic tabletop. We also made wee Hadrian's Walls to keep out bugs. -you leave a line almost like levees; bugs rarely cross it and many die trying... I'm not sure why and I don't really want to know

I think it's boric acid but I don't know what that is because my learning disability rendered

that part of my brain retarded and I couldn't get the maths scores to get into chemistry -- even in high school. Hence, "unscientific science-y Tuesdays."

What I have wondered about is how I alternately use baking soda in household cleaning but never for bug-warding. They're both white dry stuff, Borax being grainer and baking soda being more powdery. They can both dissolve in hot water, too.

Some web-site had a link with summary of making your own cleanser and I clicked it just to see if it was like what I grew up using, not because we're Hippies but because we're from the Ozarks. Sure enough, many "eco-friendly"/ "green"/ environmentally-safe type DIY articles let loose these long-guarded (in plain sight) family recipes.

What threw me off was the term washing soda. Was that the same as Borax or baking soda and we just never called it the right thing? -you mean like "Grandma ____ peas" are crowders to everyone else in the world?

This morning I tried to look at some more recipes and compare when they use one versus the others. It looks to me like Borax is totally its own thing and washing soda is the more caustic cousin of baking soda. I read one "chemistry for dummies-style" article that told how sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is derived from sodium carbonate. All-in-all, washing soda is going to be a bigger-bang for cleaning but you must wear rubber gloves if you're going to expose your skin to it. Contrarily, baking soda is more refined and won't flay you alive. -my terms, which are exaggerated but please don't go playing in washing soda

Now, if you're adding washing soda to your laundry, it's purported to boost efficacy as much as 40%. That's super but just adding the safer-to-your-skin baking soda helps, too. Don't forget the Borax boosts efficacy, too.

The thing for me to remember, as in how I'd use these things as I always have but maybe even more is Borax still works great as a mini-Hadrian's Wall, it still cleans outside stuff and boosts your laundry detergent. Baking soda is still great for many household cleaning uses including the toilet; I was taught that after cleaning it, dump some extra and force-flush the commode because the baking soda is also good for our natural waste management. We don't have an aerator or connect with the outside world; it's all usn's on the farm, baby.

Since I didn't grow up using washing soda, I don't know if I'll like it or not. On one hand, it seems scary-strong so, it might be really good at those outdoor cleaning tasks for which I grew up using Borax. On the other hand, it seems scary-strong.

I'd love anyone's contributions or reviews of using one over another!

You can google "DIY household cleaners" and spend all day reading recipes so, I won't post any here. I will add that white vinegar and lemon rinds are hugely popular in my family for cleaning. White vinegar is perhaps the best friend you've got!

So’s I ran into this guy last night and hung out to chat for about an hour.

We got on the subject of drive times and mileage and mpg and he was floored that my home-work-home daily commute is 60 miles with NOTHING extra.

“You gots to get you on some greasel.”

He went on to talk about how easy it was go make:

•get some free/ throw-away grease from a take-out resto
•add a small vial of enzymes (or something) that raises the grease to diesel’s flash-point
•occasionally add a very small amount of regular petrol-diesel (he was unclear on this part)

What’s funny is that he seemed like he knew what he was on about so much that he almost had me sold!

I googled and skimmed some message boards from motor-heads and found:
a) um, dude...you need to start with a DIESEL car -duh

b) greasel uses pretty much raw, nasty grease with only rudimentary filtering -think extra-crispy batter on the side at Long John Silver’s but you need to do some modifications on your engine. Kits are available but be careful, several people got theirs and seemed to need more parts

c) biodiesel costs more to make but its plus is not having to alter your engine