Monthly Archives: January 2012

I Quit Shampoo and Still Have Friends

Posted on January 31, 2012 | 10 Comments

So, there is something that happened on my India trip I didn’t talk about.

I gave up shampoo.

This was my second attempt at “no poo,” as it’s so lovingly referred to. I tried at the same time last year when Jason and I went backpacking in Europe. I’m not really sure why I tried to do it on a trip both times, I think it had something to do with already looking grungy on vacation. But this time, mostly because I had no access to other hair cleaning methods, I actually quit shampoo.

I’ve read several posts from green bloggers about ditching shampoo, so I won’t link to them all here. I’ll just say that if your interested after my post there is a TOn of information about no poo online, so go exploring.

The first couple of weeks were pretty bad. My hair was already greasy before I gave up shampoo and I had to shampoo every single day. This was part of the reason I quit shampoo. My hair was so dependent on shampoo (which is basically detergent for your hair, it completely strips all the natural oils out of it) that if I washed in the morning it would be greasy by the evening. It was just awful. I hated it. So you can imagine that when I quit shampoo the grease build up was pretty gross. I hate wearing my hair up, but that’s what I did every day for two weeks.

This is me, greasing it up about a week and a half into this.

And let’s keep in mine that was in a foreign country with a bunch of people I’d never met before. But somehow I still made friends, and no one caught on to my greasy hair. I was washing with baking soda and water, about one tablespoon of baking soda per one cup of water. I squirted it straight on my scalp and then scratched it in with fingers. Then rinsed. 

But I found that while my hair felt clean from the baking soda, it wasn’t soft or shiny like it would be after washing with shampoo. It was really tangly and just did not look clean at all. That’s when I did a bit more digging on the Internet.  I have a lot of hair, but it’s pretty fine, and it seems that the baking soda and water technique just isn’t enough for us fine haired folks. That’s when I bought some apple cider vinegar to use as a conditioner. I took capfuls of vinegar and applied to my hair, first at the scalp, and then throughout my ends. It depends on the cap size, but I find about five to six capfuls is plenty. 

And once I started using the vinegar my hair was looking a lot better. Like, a lot better, even better than it did when I was using shampoo. It was incredibly soft, very wavy, and over time it seems like my hair is growing even faster than it was before.

This is my hair after just a few days of apple cider vinegar.

Now I’ve been off shampoo for about six weeks and I can’t imagine going back. My hair feels healthier and stronger, and as I said earlier it’s growing faster, but the best part is that I can go about three days without washing. Sure, I shower, but I just rub the water into my hair and that’s it. Even after working out this works. This means I’m washing my hair about twice a week, as opposed to the every day washes I was doing before. This means I’m spending less time in the shower, therefore wasting less water. I’m also using far less packaging every year by using baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair. 

This is my hair today, although not the greatest photo since it was taken inside.

 

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Posted in environment, household products, personal

Book Review: Born to Run & A Running Update

Posted on January 27, 2012 | 3 Comments

While in India I read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen. The book has gotten a lot of attention for starting the barefoot running craze, and while I heard about it over a year ago I wasn’t very interested. Of course, when I finished Couch to 5K I had a lot more interest in running. And it was a great time to read the book, because I didn’t feel any sense of “Why can’t I run like that?” The answer was obvious, I can’t run like that because I’ve only been running for two months.

Of course, reading it in India was also an absolutely horrible idea because it made me want to run all the time. I would read and just feel my legs pulsing, wanting to run so much. The roads in India, at least where I was, were just not safe for running. It wasn’t even an option. So I lived through Christopher McDougall’s story and thought every day about how excited I was to run when I got back to Iowa.

So, back to the book for a bit. It’s the story of McDougall’s search for the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico’s Copper Canyons. This tribe is known for running hundreds of miles, barefoot, and never growing tired or getting injured. They are the ultimate superathletes. McDougall weaves this story into stories of ultramarathon runners in North America, whose stories are equally fascinating. What I loved about this book was that it separated running from a sport or chore we do to lose weight and running for joy. Running because that is what we are meant to do. We are drawn to do it.

There is also a lot of science behind running and McDougall writes about the anatomy of our feet in a way anyone can understand. And he really makes the case for barefoot running, mostly because as a runner he had a slew of foot problems and looked to barefoot as the solution.

I’m talking a lot about running, but there is more to this book. I think what I loved most about it was the writing style. It’s a nonfiction book, but the story and style almost reminded me of Jack Kerouac. I don’t think you have to like Jack Kerouac to like this book, and I doubt most people would even connect the two, but if you like stories about wild trips, crazy parties, and soul then you will love Born to Run. I think you’ll love it whether you’re a runner or not, and maybe by the end you’ll decide to run.

“You don’t stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.” 

So, I’ve been back from India for about a week and a half now and I’ve had three runs. The first one was tough, really tough, because I hadn’t run in about a month. I was afraid I’d have to start all over again, but I was happy to find that running is a lot like biking. You don’t really forget how to do it. That first run I could only go 23 minutes and a couple of miles. Part of the problem was when I first went out to run I was so excited to run. I probably ran faster than I should have and this contributed to me tiring out.

Two days later I went for a run and my goal was simply to run longer than I did the first time. I went for 27 minutes and felt pretty good. I wasn’t focusing on speed, just on getting the time in and overall it was pretty successful. Just last night I went for my third run and it was amazing.

Probably the best run I’ve ever been on.

No, it wasn’t fast. I averaged a little less than 11 minutes per mile. But it was consistent, and after about ten minutes of running my legs were just set in motion. It was almost like I couldn’t stop running. I ran for 33 minutes and for the first time ever, in my life, ran three miles. I felt amazing and when Jason asked me how I was I just grinned.

The thing about running is that it’s not something I was ever good at and it’s not something I ever thought I would do. So when I do it and I do well it’s the best feeling in the world. It makes me feel fearless–if I can do something I never thought I would do and have success at it, then what else could I do if I got over the mental hurdle of I can’t do this?

And that’s what’s really stuck with me from Born to Run. Running is all about mental hurdles. The truth is that all of us are able to run and the human body is capable of amazing things if you just allow yourself to believe. So when I’m running and I feel tired, I just go back to Born to Run and think about everything that book taught me about the human body and our minds. Instead of focusing on how tired I feel or I can’t do this, I think about that book and things seem within reach. There aren’t many books that can give you that feeling, which is why I think this is worth reading.

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Posted in book review, couch to 5k, exercise, nonfiction, personal, running

Wayanad, The Closest Thing to Iowa

Posted on January 15, 2012 | 1 Comment

Some people come to India and stay in resorts, and some people take open air jeeps up into the mountains to interview Adivasis and farmers. Luckily I’m part of the latter group. I had absolutely no idea what our visit to Wayanad would entail but it was much different from what I expected. The place we stayed at, RASTA, interested me from the very beginning because of all the sustainable work they do with local farmers. Wayanad is a primarily agricultural and rural area. Even though it was so different from home (no palm trees in Iowa) I felt extremely comfortable there and it was the closest to Iowa you would ever find in India.

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Even though I felt comfortable I was still very nervous about going to our interviews with the Adivasis. I was afraid I’d ask something offensive or inappropriate, or the topic I was asking questions about wouldn’t matter to them at all. Bryan, my partner, and I were making a documentary about food insecurity in the Adivasi community. This was something neither of us knew much about or cared about at the beginning. That all changed when we met with the first Adivasi community. When I spoke with a group of men from this community I realized how passionate these people were about their culture and the problems they faced.

The Adivasis in Wayanad primarily lived in the forest, but when the government tore down the natural trees and replaced them with trees that produced more pulp the Adivasis lost their food source and natural habitat. They didn’t live like the rest of us, they didn’t own land, they didn’t have jobs. Everything they needed was in the forest. Now they eat rice once or twice a day and the increasing exposure to chemicals and pesticides is difficult for them to adapt to. There are several new diseases showing up in the Adivasi community, including cancer and sickle cell anemia. One boy we met was eight years old but he looked like he was four.

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We took this jeeps part of the way into the forest, but after a while they could go no further and we had to walk for ten to twenty minutes on rocky, hilly terrain. It was fun for us, but I can’t imagine having to walk through those forests when I was sick to get to the hospital. The people in the forest would need to walk three times as far as we did just to get to town, then continue walking to get to a hospital.

I loved speaking with these people because it was less like an interview than a conversation. They were all very open and honest about their struggles and had several questions about what home was like for us in Iowa. The strangest thing for me is that communities like these exist. There are people living in huts in the forest. It’s easy to ignore when you’re living in the United States and everyone has already been integrated into the mainstream, but these people are just now being integrated into the mainstream.

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The saddest thing for me is that this culture is slowly going away. The last parts of the world that have been “untouched” by modernity are now being pushed into the mainstream. All of this knowledge about how to live healthfully and naturally is disappearing as we continue to consume our processed food and gasoline.

Going to Wayanad has forever changed me. I might not have seen very many tourist destinations during my time in India, but the experience I had is worth so much more. I can’t wait to see how everything I learned will change my lifestyle when I get back to Iowa.

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Posted in india, study abroad, traveling

Out of My Element

Posted on January 12, 2012 | 5 Comments

Note: I wrote this post about a week ago for my class blog and am just now posting it on here, so the information is out of date by still interesting.

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Wayanad, and honestly, I’m incredibly overwhelmed. I’m in a foreign country, working on a film (something I know very little about), about the Avidasi community (something I didn’t even know existed until I arrived). I feel completely out of my element. After discussing this film idea with my partner and our instructors I felt even more overwhelmed because there are so many steps to this project and we’re completing it in such a short amount of time. But, before I became too overwhelmed, I considered this trip.

India 2012

I made the decision to come to India in September and as my departure approached in December there were several steps. I had to attend orientation, get a Visa, buy a plane ticket, pack, exchange money, the list went on and on. The only thing that kept me sane was having a checklist. I refrain from using the word plan because plans are restricting and I feel they inhibit flexibility and creativity. I might go on a trip without a plan, but I’d never leave without a checklist.

A checklist alone was not enough, of course. I talked to friends who had been to India, faculty working on this trip, and anyone who would help me with my packing list and other tasks. I relied on all of these people to get me to my final destination, and without them the overwhelmingness of this trip might have stopped me.

India 2012

And that would have been a shame, because just yesterday I did something I never imagined I would do. I climbed a coconut tree. At the bottom of the tree I was terrified, but as I began working up I realized it wasn’t so scary. I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up anymore, and I realized that climbing the tree was actually pretty fun. I even felt like I was kind of good at climbing the tree. The whole walk to the tree I said, “I can’t do this, I’ll never be able to climb this.” And the whole way back I said, “I can’t believe I did that.” The one thing that helped me get up that tree was faith. Faith in myself and the faith all the people around me had.

India 2012

So while this project seems terrifying and impossible right now, I worked out a script with Bryan. We have a list of questions, shots we want to take, and how we want to order our documentary. I have Bryan, who knows about films, and others around to help me through the process and I know once we filming things won’t seem so overwhelming and scary. And by the time this is over I’ll be able to say, “Yeah, I did that.” I know from experience that’s the best feeling in the world.

–Ash Bruxvoort

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Posted in india, study abroad, traveling

Bangalore: First Impressions

Posted on January 1, 2012 | 7 Comments

After four days in Bangalore I feel as if I’ve had an entire trip’s worth of experiences. Right after leaving the airport I came to Visthar, the organization hosting my class. I expected to feel a major culture shock as soon as I stepped off the plane, and as the days have gone by I continue to wait for that shock, but it just hasn’t happened yet. It’s not that India isn’t completely different from anywhere I’ve been before, because it definitely is. It’s not that I was just so well versed in Indian culture that there was no room for shock, because I’ve learned so much in just a few days about Indian culture. I think it’s more that I expected a big, shattering feeling, but it seems like the shock comes in smaller reactions throughout the day.

India 2012

Visthar is a totally different world from Bangalore, and it wasn’t until the third day that we really experienced Bangalore. On the third day we took an “alternate” tour of Bangalore. We each had 30 rupees and that was all the money we could spend to pay for our breakfast and lunch. Thirty rupees is the average amount an Indian spends each day. This was supposed to help us understand life for an average Indian more, and put our analysis of  of their economy and lifestyle into perspective for the rest of our time. After taking a bus from Visthar to Bangalore (which was paid for outside the thirty rupees we each had) we had breakfast (10 rupees) and got on another bus (one again paid for outside the thirty rupees) to the first part of our tour. We visited a slum, which I immediately felt uncomfortable with. I’ve always felt very awkward about “poverty tourism.” I want to visit places like India and Africa, but at the same time I want to remain respectful of the people around me.

India 2012

We weren’t allowed to take photographs while we walked through the slum, which I think was a great choice on our tour guide’s part. While I love taking photos, having a camera in front of your face puts a physical barrier between you and the person or place you’re viewing. Instead of taking pictures, our guide from Visthar talked with several people in the slum, many he already knew, and asked them questions about how much money they make, what their cultural background was, and about the work they were doing. One woman who ironed clothing had three sons and two of them were going to college for engineering. One person from our group asked if there was any way to get out of the slums, and our guide said the two sons going to school had a much better chance.

India 2012

After walking through the slum we visited a mall, mere minutes away from the slum, where there were expensive stores on every floor and several people shopping. Needless to say, nothing in that mall was 30 rupees, not even a soda. Everything was cold and generic, and the people there were concerned with their own shopping and selves, while the people in the slums offered us tea even though they had very little.

This experience perfectly sums up my understanding of India. There are vast extremes, and really India is made up of several completely different worlds. There are the people who live in the slums with very little, working very hard for what they do have, alongside the people who have a great deal. Even though these people live in completely different worlds right next to each other, their worlds cannot exist without each other. The wealthy can buy the goods in the mall because they are made by the people in the slums, but the people in the slums survive off the jobs created by the needs and wants of the wealthy.

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Posted in study abroad, traveling