I am no stranger to the belief that your body should be your top priority. Not that you need to be a certain size or that you have to look a certain way to be happy, but that you should try to be mindful of what you put in and on it. And after years of media-encouraged consumer decisions and thoughts about what kind of lifestyle I want to live, I have realized that a lot of the things we use and buy are not because we may really need them, but simply because we are told we do. I have had long hair almost all of my life (minus a few bad short hair experiences here and there), and I know how damaged hair becomes simply through living your life and having hair. Between getting caught in those awful blue chairs at school and washing it every day, I know that just by having long hair, you are asking to have unhealthy hair if you simply don’t take care of it. So I used to take it to other extremes. I washed my hair every single day. But I have done some research in haircare and I am getting a degree in communications and media, so I know what kind of influence the media and marketers have on us. So I have come to an unpopular conclusion on a few things that I have been taught to be “essential”. 1. I am not going to wash my hair for a week… eventually. Yes, sounds gross, and being one day in and it is not very pleasant. My hair is greasy. But here is why (allegedly): Your hair produces natural oils, and when you wash your hair the sulfates and other chemicals strip your hair of that naturally developed “grease”. So it starts over after you wash it with common store-bought shampoo and conditioners, and produces the oil that you worked so hard to avoid having. The chemicals in your shampoo take the natural oils from your hair, which makes it overcompensate for what was taken away, so it gets oily and then you have to wash it again, causing the cycle to begin again. The shampoo is what makes your hair oily. So I am not going to use it. I washed my hair every day using whatever I had on hand (sometimes Alberto VO5, sometimes a purifying shampoo, and other times just whatever I could afford that was semi-okay for your hair). I could wash my hair in the morning and the next morning, I would look like Danny Zuko from Grease from the forehead up. So I am going to try to condition my hair to not produce those natural oils as quickly, because I will not be using shampoo or conditioner to strip the hair of its oils. This is called “The No Poo Method.” More specifically I am going “Low Poo” because I do have a thyroid disorder that does impact the way my hair looks and grows, and my head gets oily. I want to try to use Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap to see if that works as a shampoo substitution, simply because it is easily accessible, I can buy it in bulk, and it is essentially an all-purpose natural cleanser. I like clean hair as much as the next person, but I think that shampooing your hair every day is excessive and expensive. Yes, I love when my hair is soft and bouncy and smells good, but who says I have to buy 5 different products to make that happen. Hair products have not always existed, and the only reason I think it is such a big industry is because we have been convinced that it is required of us to use these products and spend money. 2. The world is impacted by everything we do (by world I don’t only mean Earth, but people, animals, and more commonly, marine life), so I want to try to make a conscious effort to try to reduce the waste I put out. There is a movement called “Zero Waste” which means exactly what it sounds like it means. It is an effort to try to keep your impact on the world low and being eco-friendly. The movement encourages bulk buying (where you buy things without packaging and try to reuse containers that you are given when you buy products), using jars to hold things that you make yourself instead of plastic containers, and buying things that are not tested on animals or are made with eco-friendly materials. Some of the things that you can make yourself stem with the No Poo movement’s belief that you need to know what you’re putting in your body. There are tons of recipes on Youtube about replacements for common items that you buy without knowing what’s in them like toothpaste, deodorant, mouthwash, face wash, shampoos, and tons of other items (if you want links to those videos, comment on this post and I will give you the videos I have seen). I would love to try this lifestyle and the natural recipes, but it is not sustainable currently, given the fact that I am in college and living on a strict budget. 3. I have too much stuff. Not that I am not grateful, but I have a lot of things that I buy and then never use, or have an excess of things that I don’t need. In a recent push for living simple lives and pairing well with the Zero Waste movement, I have gotten very interested in minimalism. Minimalism means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. And I, myself, don’t know how far I would like to take minimalism, but I am willing to try it. With moving every 3 to 6 months, moving a lot of stuff is not ideal, and it causes a lot of extra things to be thrown out and wasted. I am going to try to simply cut back on the amount of things I have from bottles to plastic utensils, to the amount of clothing I have. With these movements and efforts, veganism is often a big influence on the people who live these lifestyles. But you don’t have to be vegan to live more eco-friendly or natural lifestyles. I am not vegan and I don’t know that I ever will be, but just because I am not eating on a vegan or raw vegan diet, does not mean that I can’t live a more conscious life. Even if you don’t believe in climate change, I don’t know why it would be a bad thing to care about what kind of impact you are making on the world. I am going to try to update how my journey with Low Poo and more natural lifestyle, so keep an eye out for those posts and feel free to comment what kind of lifestyle you want to live, or if you have any helpful things you do, let me know. - The Cynic
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I thought you were clever when I made you up (in 2012, but still). I thought when people would see that Britton was actually in my name, that they would chuckle to themselves. But I also knew that you were an example of my own second guessing -- that I always thought I wasn’t good enough for “Great Britton.” It showed insecurity and uncertainty in who I was. But I am past that now.
I am still insecure on bad days, but I am nonetheless still great. I am moving away from being not-so-great. I have grown since identifying as notsogreatbritton. I accept that what I like is simply what I like, that I am just me, and that’s far better than being anyone else. I do not have to be anything compared to everyone else. I’m pretty damn great by myself. When I came up with you as my Instagram username, I was young and dealing with unknown illnesses. I thought everything I did, if it did not fit into the mold of those around me, that it had to just be wrong. But I realize that none of that really matters now. It’s okay to like songs with isolated vocals, and drinking tea steeped in cleaned out Powerade bottles with outrageous amounts of sugar. I am just fine the way I am. Now as far as my blog is concerned, I am rebranding. The URL, the formatting of the site, everything. This is a place for me to be honest and open about the things that I think and feel, so I’m going to be true to myself. I’m a cynic, and anyone who comes in contact with me will agree. So here we go… My name is Gabrielle. I am a cynic, and these are my notes. |
AuthorGabrielle Willingham is a young Arkansan woman who sees the importance of simultaneous cynicism and optimism. Gabrielle is currently working on a MA in Communication with a focus in gender studies and political science. Archives
January 2021
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