In response to our recent No-Poo post, commenter Jadea suggested making your own hair care products as a way to avoid icky chemicals and excess packaging.  I had planned to write about Farmer’s Markets this week, but since it feels like November outside here in the Pacific Northwest and I can think of nothing better than a hot shower, your Green Goal this week is to try out one of these eco-friendly hair recipes.  And of course, please share your favorite natural haircare tip in the comments!

Rosemary Rinse for Oily Hair

Ingredients
1/4 cup organic dried rosemary

Directions
Simmer rosemary in 1 1/2 cups of water. Strain mixture and discard rosemary. Use remaining mixture as the final rinse after shampooing.

Ginger Dandruff Treatment

Ingredients
Ginger root (grated)
1 teaspoon organic sesame oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions
Squeeze ginger root through press to obtain one tablespoon of juice. Mix all ingredients. Apply to scalp and let dry before shampooing. Repeat three times a week for best results.

Color-Enhancing Rinse (Red)

Ingredients
1/2 cup carrot juice
1/2 cup beet juice

Directions
Rinse thoroughly (and carefully — beet juice can stain!) through hair after shampooing to add or enhance a red tint.  Brunettes: Try a rinse of black tea or coffee to add shine and deepen color.  Chamomile and lemon juice will brighten blonde hair.

Banana Avocado Mask for Dry or Damaged Hair

Ingredients
1 banana
1 egg
1/2 avocado
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp buttermilk
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions
Mash banana, egg, and avocado in a small bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Apply to hair from roots to tips. Leave in for 30 minutes and then wash out with a moisturizing shampoo.

Nourishing Tea Treatment

Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp ground lavender
Dry contents of 2 peppermint tea bags

Directions
In small saucepan, heat olive oil, lavender, and peppermint tea. Do not boil. Massage into scalp over damp hair. Cover hair with shower cap or towel to keep in heat and leave in for 20 – 25 minutes.

Sources: LongLocks, SheKnows, Stash Tea

Wow!  In just over a month, the GladRags community has donated over 150 pads to send to girls in Zambia.  I almost can’t believe how overwhelmingly positive the response to our donation program with Beth’s Girls has been!

With your donations, we’re helping Zambian girls stay in school — one reusable pad at a time.  Haley W., a representative from Beth’s Girls (EBZEF), had this to say:

“According to UNICEF, a girl can miss up to 10 percent of her school days during menstruation. This is a critical problem in Africa where girls and women miss on average 50 days of school or work because they cannot afford effective sanitary pads. By donating reusable cloth pads to Beth’s Girls in Lumwana West, Zambia, Africa, you will be helping a young woman care for her sanitary needs in a safe, clean, and environmentally gentle manner that gives her the confidence to attend school and continue striving to reach her goals.”

Linda Bowers, a founder of EBZEF and Beth’s mom, hopes to have just three pads per girl by the time she makes her annual trip to Lumwana West to visit Beth’s Girls this July.  That’s 300 total pads — and you’ve already donated half!

Let’s keep this generosity going: help us reach 300 donated pads by July 1st to support Beth’s Girls!  Learn more about donating GladRags (or sewing your own pads to donate) on our website.  Thank you to everyone who has already donated!  You have made a huge difference in the life of a Zambian girl!

• Sewing blogger SlipStiches brings us a great article on making your own cloth pads out of scraps that you probably have around the house.
• The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) will be airing a documentary about menstruation called “Seeing Red: A Cultural History of Menstruation” on June 14th & 21st.  Hopefully we can find a way to watch it here in the States!
• CNN has a very fair-handed article about period-eliminating contraception titled Periods — Who needs them anyway? Women have mixed feelings.
• Endometriosis blogger EndoFriendo brings us two great article about why she loves the Keeper and GladRags!
• A short and sweet article from Today’s Natural Living on how Conventional Menstrual Products Get Revamped.
• This great, funny, interesting article, The Strangest Ads for Menstrual Products, from Rabbit Write is a must read!  See the ad to the right for a teaser.
  
• Excellent article and lots of discussion from University of York’s student newspaper, Nouse: Increasing our understanding of women’s natural cycles is essential.

If you’re like me, you don’t have plastic produce bags to bring to the grocery store to reuse because they’ve all been used to store leftovers, trashed, or just plain lost.  And so every time I got to the store I end up needing another plastic bag for my veggies.  My way of solving this problem is to not use any bags at all.  Just plop the product in my shopping cart and go!  The problem with this is that the produce goes bad so much more quickly.  And I hate wasting food!

Turns out, there are ways to keep your veggies fresh without using a new plastic bag every time you go to the grocery store!  The Green Phone Booth has a handy guide to to keeping produce fresh and to keep you plastic bag free!   One great tip is cutting and storing your carrots in a container with water.  This keeps them crisp — and readily available for snacking.  My parents always did this and until now, I never knew why!  Ah, the wisdom of parents, you never know its utility until long after its been passed on.

Your mission this week?  Try out these alternative methods to produce storage after your next grocery run and see how many plastic bags you can avoid. Or share tips of your own in the comments!

Take a break from your (hopefully not too) manic Monday with this week’s Menstrual Monday: a line-up of interesting news articles, blogs, art, and more, straight from the GladRags Twitter feed.

• Pick up a copy of the latest Mothering Magazine for their awesome article on cloth diapers; a lot of the concepts in “The Diaper Dilemma” apply to cloth pads, too.

• Lunette Selenes are in!  You’ll have to excuse us shouting this from the rooftops, because these cups are just so darn pretty.  I think I actually clapped my hands with glee when the package arrived at the office.

• Read “Saving the World by Not Using Tampons” to learn more about the founder of Green Drinks Singapore and why her first experience recycling was not so fun.

• “Eight Myths about Washable Pads Dispelled” makes me love the folks at Scarleteen even more than I already did.  Such an amazing resource for young people!

• Kali from The MakeUp Drawer Blog recently heard about cloth pads for the first time and shares her thoughts.  She says she’s not a convert (yet) but wants to hear your experience in the comments — so make sure you let her know how much you love reusables!

• Go Green Street has five super easy tips to help ease menstrual cramps — naturally.

• What does it mean to stop menstruating?  The Great Whatsit reflects on the finale of her 29 years of menstruation.

• Here at GladRags HQ we’ve been preparing for this year’s Green Festival in Seattle.  We’re hoping lots of GladRags fans will stop by our booth to say hi! Volunteers for the festival get free passes, so there’s no excuse to miss this incredible event!

Last fall, Alex and I stumbled across the Instructables guide to going no-poo and challenged ourselves to go without shampoo (‘no-poo’) for a month.   Instead of shampoo, baking soda is used to clean the scalp, with a vinegar rinse in place of conditioner. Now why exactly did we choose to do this?

Think about conventional shampoo: it comes in plastic bottles, costs a little to a LOT of money, and contains some icky chemicals that you’re not only exposing to your skin, but are washing down the drain into our water.  Not to mention the fact that using shampoo on your hair every day causes it to dry out and become damaged! Your scalp produces oils for a reason, and frequent shampooing can throw off your natural balance of oil production, requiring even more frequent shampooing.  A vicious cycle!

Going no-poo means not only using baking soda and vinegar in place of conventional shampoo, but also washing your hair less often.  During our shampoo-free month, I rinsed my hair thoroughly with water almost every day and washed with baking soda and vinegar only about once a week or less.

The first few days took some getting used to: my scalp was accustomed to daily shampooing and one of the side effects of going no-poo is increased oiliness while your scalp readjusts.  It helps to brush your hair often to move the oil from your scalp down to the drier ends.  There are a whole lot of green bloggers who have experimented with going no-poo — from The Crunchy Chicken to Life Less Plastic — with a variety of results.

Personally, I could only manage about two months of no-poo — and I even “cheated” once or twice when I wanted to wash my hair for important occasions.  My hair felt super healthy without shampoo, and looked great  — but only the day or two after using baking soda and vinegar.  The rest of the time I looked like I hadn’t bathed in weeks.

In the end, vanity won out for me and I gave up my no-poo lifestyle.  But I decided to stay “low-poo”: less frequent washing, and no shampoos/conditioners with harmful ingredients or excess packaging.  Shampoo bars — often sold with little to no packaging — are a great option, and seem to last forever!  I’m still using the same bar I bought almost six months ago.  You can also find shampoos in bulk at most co-ops or natural foods stores.  Just make sure you run a background check on the Skin Deep Cosmetic Database before you buy; with all the “natural” products out there, falling for a greenwashed shampoo is all too easy!

Your Green Goal this week is to take inspiration from the no-poo movement and reduce your impact when it comes to keeping your locks clean.  Find a more eco-friendly shampoo, wash your hair less frequently, or even try out no-poo.  And of course leave us a comment to let us know how it went!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for!  The winners of our Name our New Bag Contest are… (drumroll please) ….

“Petal Perfect” (green) – Margaret

“Sonic Bloom” (black) – Rita Davis

Congratulations to Margaret and Rita, who’ll each receive a Queen Bee Carry Bag as their prize!  Thanks to everyone who participated, and don’t forget that Queen Bee Carry Bags are still on sale for a little bit longer, so grab one now!

The weather is beautiful again, which makes this the perfect season to spend time outside!  Your Green Goal this week is to make one trip on foot or by bike, instead of driving or taking the bus. There are many benefits to using alternate forms of transportation.  Not only are biking and walking awesome forms of exercise, but you’ll be traveling independent of environment-destroying gasoline or electricity.  You’ll see and experience your town in an entirely different way.  You can interact with your community, discover places you never knew existed, and even pick fresh fruit!

Often people are afraid of looking sweaty when they get to their destination.  Try short distances at first to become more comfortable with what clothes you need to wear and how much extra time you might need to give yourself to cool off.  You will soon end up feeling energized and good about yourself when you arrive at your destination!   Don’t forget a helmet — and bike lights, too, if you plan on biking at night.

Here at GladRags we love biking everywhere!  Of course we do have the advantage of living in Portland, OR, a biking mecca.  Tomorrow I am representing GladRags at Bike Economics: a fundraiser showcasing local, woman-owned, bicycle-oriented businesses.  I am really excited to connect with other bicycle-loving women in my community.  If you are in Portland, you should join us!

Do you bike or walk everywhere?  What obstacles did you face when you started?  Comment and let us know what biking and walking is like where you live!

Do you live in the Portland area and love GladRags?  We’re looking for an intern to join us at our North Portland HQ for the summer — COULD IT BE YOU?!?!?!

Under the guidance of three (pretty awesome, if we do say so ourselves) staff members, you’ll get ongoing training on projects that will exercise your research and networking skills. You’ll be encouraged to take part in our staff meetings and will have opportunities to learn the ins and outs of the green business and women’s health fields. During the course of your internship, you’ll gain valuable skills that can be put to use in the non-profit sector, advertising, green business, and more.

We are all super excited to have an additional team member this summer and hope to find someone who is as enthusiastic about working at GladRags as we are!  If you’re interested in joining us, please read the “fine print” below and apply by emailing us at orders@gladrags.com with a letter of interest, resume, and writing sample.  Deadline is May 14th — we can’t wait to hear from you!

The Fine Print:

Please have an interest in environmentalism, the ability to talk about menstruation openly, and a desire to learn more about the green business market. It’s important to us that you embrace the GladRags mission and believe in our products.  Bicycling to work is not necessary, but strongly encouraged!  Biking companions may be provided depending on route (if you ride with us, you may be required to stop for donuts occasionally).

Wage/salary/stipend: Unpaid

Schedule:  180 hours for the summer.  Flexible scheduling.  A firm time commitment is required.

• Read the heartbreaking story of the 29 girls who were kicked out of their school for menstruating in Nepal School Expels Girls for ‘Being Accursed’
• RH Reality Check brings us another great article!  Read Tampon Safety and Our Monthly Affair with Toxins to learn more about the chemicals used in tampon production and their harmful effects.
• Have you seen the Huffington Post‘s article about alternative menstrual products?  You can read the interestingly titled Make Her Vagina Green here.  Being mentioned on such a big news outlet is awesome, but I wish should would have at least tried our products before writing about them.  What do you think about it?
• Amy Ziz in Austin writes about her experiences and first impressions of the Moon Cup in this article.
• Creative Madness Mama has a great article on using GladRags.  She provides lots of tips on using and buying GladRags in GladRags- Menstrual Monday.
• The title of this funny and informative article says it all: Menstrual Cups: Why They Are Awesome and You Should Get One.