By Bailey Bop
The conflation of “wellness” (the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal) and cosmetics (treatment intended to restore or improve a person’s appearance) is lucrative. Consumption in both markets continues to rise year after year and their combined industry is expected to soon reach $2 trillion.
For years, my personal consumption habits matched these figures. Even as someone who rarely wears makeup, skincare and other beauty products such as shampoo accounted for most of my spending after rent and transportation. I had long been resisting my capitalistic impulse to just “get a new one”, making an effort to buy my clothes and household goods used and sparingly, but the allure of beauty and personal care products remained for me.
Frustrated with the ruthless marketing and pressure to over-consume personal hygiene and cosmetic products, I swore off buying any skincare, haircare, or makeup products for a year. I felt I was subverting the belief that capitalism had instilled into me, which was that I was supposed to need all this stuff to care for myself.
I do not believe that revolution is a matter of consumer choice; however, I’ve enjoyed rejecting beauty products as a challenge to compulsive and wasteful consumption practices and I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I am able to meet most of my hygiene needs with ingredients that I can purchase with food stamps. For me, this has been a small act of rebellion, wherein I get to play with food and reject overbearing beauty standards.
What follows are a few suggested alternatives to highly marketed personal care products, all of which can be bought with EBT:
1) I stopped using shampoo. After some adjustment time, my hair stopped getting greasy in the way that it did between washes when I used shampoo, but it also doesn’t feel squeaky clean in the way that I was used to it feeling after shampooing. I’m fine with that. I spray diluted apple cider vinegar on my scalp and upper third of my hair and then wash it out in the shower. Every 4 months or so if I really feel like I need it (like if my hair gets really actually dirty for some reason) I may use a super super diluted shampoo.
2) I occasionally also apply honey to my scalp. I like the scrubby feeling of the raw honey if my scalp is itchy, but this can leave hair feeling less clean as the honey is moisturizing.
3) For conditioner, I work a tiny bit of olive or coconut oil into the ends of my hair before showering or going in the ocean. I also have made a mask using arrowroot powder mixed with a tiiiiny bit of coconut or olive oil (really really tiny as it goes a long way!), and a little honey and water. I apply this mixture to the bottom third or so of my hair — just the ends, but I have long hair.
4) I wash my face with raw honey — I hadn’t heard of people doing this but was curious if it would work since I know honey has antibacterial and moisturizing properties — it seems to work fine for me. I sometimes leave the honey on as a sort of mask and also sometimes use a tiiiiny bit of baking soda for deeper cleaning or exfoliant. Refilling an 8 oz. container at the co-op with local honey has cost me around $6. One thing to note is that I don’t wear foundation, so I’m not sure what people might use for makeup remover but perhaps you could use coconut or olive oil, which could also be purchased in a refillable container.
5) For household cleansing as well as washing sports bras, I use white vinegar and baking soda. This makes for an astoundingly effective soak and is an exciting throwback to elementary school science class.
These are just a few examples of homemade solutions. Do your own research and find what works for you! A majority of the literature I’ve come across on this topic is contributed by individuals seeking to avoid toxins and synthetics, so that can be a good thing to keep in mind when researching methods. For instance, I know there are a lot of alternative recipes for deodorant out there (I think most are based on baking soda and essential oils), and most are contributed by people trying to avoid aluminum.
I came across a book at the library called Low Tox Life: A Handbook For A Healthy You and Happy Planet — the author is coming at it from this “low-toxin” perspective, but she turned me on to some ingredients / recipes.
Another book I’d recommend which I also found at my local library is one from the early 70’s called The Intelligent Consumer: How to Buy Food, Clothes, Cars, Houses, Vacations, Appliances at the Least Cost to Yourself and the Environment by Christopher and Bonnie Weathersbee.
I don’t view any of these practices as all-or-nothing. I don’t snub products that I come across in free piles or that are given to me. Oftentimes, I use any products I come across or obtain in a diluted form. I also use skin and haircare products more occasionally and less religiously than marketing might encourage us to. Using less of a product is still cutting down on consumption, and making incremental change is more than making no change. I refuse to depend on any one particular product or to compulsively purchase products in the hopes of magically changing my appearance. We don’t need all this shit!