Step One: Personal Hygiene and Beauty Choices

Transitioning your lifestyle into an organic, all-natural one can seem like a daunting transformation to take on.  However, with the organic industry growing some twenty-five times over since the 1990’s, applying all-natural/organic principles to your daily choices doesn’t have to be as challenging as you may think.

With there now being such an increased awareness and availability of consumer options that are readily accessible, everyone can find a suitable, all-natural alternative to those harmful, chemically-drenched options that are unfortunately still widely used in many households across America.

Over the next week, I will be focusing on 3 easy starter concepts that anyone and everyone can initiate in order to begin living naturally.  Today, we’re going to focus on cleaning out your personal hygiene and beauty products.  By doing so, you will immediately positively alter you and your family’s personal exposure to harmful toxins (while also looking out for the planet…double bonus!).

Becoming conscientious about the products you and your family use on your body is one of the most important choices that you need to make for personal overall health and well-being.  Getting rid of any soaps, lotions or body washes that contain the harmful toxins (that you may have otherwise thought of as safe) is a key step.

So, let’s start off with an easy one, fragrance.  The term “fragrance” should be a major red flag for all consumers.  Fragrance can be comprised of a multitude of miscellaneous, harmful combinations that otherwise are not required to be broken down on a bottle’s label.  Just to name a few undesirable effects of fragrance, it has been linked to: Hormone disruption, skin allergens/dermatological irritation, and blood flow disturbance (decreased blood flow to the head), and migraines.  More so, fragrances are developed to be long-lasting which ultimately does not allow for their chemical compounds to break down easily and naturally.

In addition to fragrance, it is imperative to remove products from your soap pumps/medicine cabinets/showers that are NOT designated as “Paraben-free”, “Phosphate-free” and “100% Biodegradable”.

So why do products need to be paraben-free? Parabens are unnatural product preservatives that have been tied to such nasties as: Contact dermatitis, many allergic reactions and once again, hormonal (estrogen) disruption.  To take it a step further on the hormonal disruption front, parabens have been strongly linked to certain types of cancer (namely, breast cancer).

Okay, so what about “phosphate-free” and “100% biodegradable”?    These two criteria almost work hand in hand.  If a product is NOT 100% biodegradable and phosphate-free then unfortunately you’re going to be messing with Mother Earth.  You see, when a product (that contains phosphates) is flushed down into general water waste (through sinks, showers) it penetrates the water supply and ecological underbelly of the ground and soil.  It can then meet up with naturally occurring phosphates and when it does, it can cause dangerously high levels of phosphorus in the environment.  If a product is not 100% biodegradable, then it can create an ecological imbalance in the environment (after you have disposed of it down your drain) and furthermore it’s compounds will not naturally degrade.

So, let’s regroup on today’s assignment.

1.      Toss any beauty and hygiene products that do not meet the following criteria:

-Fragrance-free

-Phosphate-free

-Paraben-fee

-100% biodegradable

2.      Begin re-building your beauty and hygiene regimen with clean, simplified, all-natural products (Again, remember! Fragrance-free, Phosphate-free, Paraben-free, 100% biodegradable).  A recommended source of such a product line is G.B. Proudfoot’s All Natural Body Care (www.gbproudfoots.com).  This family-owned and operated body care company carries everything from liquid soaps to lip balms (with everything in between) and best of all, I like that you can rest assured that you’re using a high-quality natural alternative that will be good for everyone in your family (and mother nature too).

Stay tuned this week for Steps 2 & 3 to further round out our lesson on “Starting Your More Natural Lifestyle! Part I”