found treasure and the chain of connection

to my one and only DEAR MOM (unless there's a secret explanation for why you're so tall and i can't reach a can of beans without a step-ladder),

i present... a little treasure i found at the flea market! (stop making that face.)

i'll be wearing it... often.

it is a tiny address book that i put on a chain. it's at least fifty years old and traveled all the way from Argentina before finding its way to me!

inside, there are little tiny pages to keep track of your loved ones.

and who's my first entry?! why who else....

nombre, nom, name: i keep track of you in multiple languages.

since it's about an inch big, i had to write really, really small to get the information down... in fact, i might have to buy a tiny pencil to note those who are NOT you.

and before you get started on the folly of this finding, my dear friend alicia sully used to walk around with mini-pages of notes clipped to her belt loops on binder rings -- and that seemed to work out just fine for her.

and on that little note...

 M oh M!

with love and cramped fingers,

g

the art of shampooing without shampoo

dear mom,

in this loving post from October (which you read last week because you 'forgot' about my BLOG of which you are only the very NAMESAKE but no hard feelings), i alerted you that i'd be transitioning to a shampoo-free haircare method. five months have since passed. so six months from now, you'll definitely be wondering: how in heaven did gina's bizarre hair experiment turn out?

(i like to plan ahead.)

initially, i decided to use the baking soda wash method, which goes something like this:

1. put a tablespoon of baking soda into a bowl.
2. add a few drops of water and work into a paste, like so:

3. bring paste into the shower and apply to the roots of your wet hair. work in thoroughly, then rinse!
4. condition with a glass of water, mixed with one teaspoon apple cider vinegar. leave on for two minutes, then do a final rinse with cold water.

what could be simpler? no packaging, no plastics.... no problem? my hair -- it's just like your hair, if you turned time back thirty years-- was often oily. but it became soft, supple and full like... hm, someone you would know...  barbarella's?

well -- not quite. it really looked like this:

i even went so far as to simmer fresh herbs -- rosemary and lavender -- to create a sumptuous herbal rinse, which i kept in a sport bottle in the shower. which was all fine and well, until one day, haha, after getting caught in a flash flood ---

'Come on and get to the point, Gina. I've got a prayer meeting in an hour and --- stop pulling on my bathrobe, you goddamn mother-loving dog!'

 --- well then.

the problem came when I moved to Geneva and the water quality suddenly changed from country soft to city hard. my hair became stiff and waxy... and i was full of despair. i tried everything: changing measurements, using sea-salt rinses, channelling mystics, all to no avail.

but i was loathe to go back to 'regular' methods.

the answer? for the moment, shampoo bars. so far, i've used them to great and surprising success. also! they last a long time and are pretty inexpensive.

my bars:  honey, egg and beer, mud and clay & ayurvedic herb.

mine come from a little company called Chagrin Valley Soap. they are detergent-free, stuffed with herbs and they really, really work. they give my fine Irish hair (thanks again) fantastic body. and yes, i still use 'salad dressing' to condition my hair....

... but other than that, consider your pantry safe.

je t'aime! lather. rinse. repeat.

until next time,

Gina, freshly-scrubbed