Get green locks with Henna

In good conscience, we all want to go 100% natural and organic but not all of us are prepared to go back to our roots to do it. And by roots I mean hair roots.

The ability to renew our youths through the masking our graying locks and opportunity to explore the hair colors that we weren’t naturally born with has been and possibly still is one of the most celebrated beauty secrets of a woman - A luxury that many find hard to part with.

So how do we stay committed to our efforts of being eco-friendly without sacrificing the ability to pull a chameleon with our hair? Well, we turn to green beauty and seek the alternative to synthetic hair dye that’s how.

Mother Nature gave us natural hair colorants in the form of Henna (Lawsonia inermis) and Indigo. Gifts have been used in India for thousands of years.

Making your own hair dye with henna and indigo is fun (it’s like a little chemistry project), safe (for the environment and for you because it’s all natural) and effective (your hair colour WILL change) but as with anything to do with dyes…it gets a tad messy so be prepared for it.

Making Exercise Sustainable

It's kind of a funny thing about our society. We have cars and buses, which we drive or ride in to get to where we're going. They save time, sure. And we have countless little helpful machines around our homes: dishwashers, washers and dryers, lawnmowers. They save time, too, and lots of work for us. So what do we do? We get back in the car and drive over to the gym, where we can spend all that time we've saved trying to burn all those calories we didn't have to expend doing the work that our machines do for us.

Does that seem like a step backward to anybody else?

I realize that it's not practical, or even possible, to walk everywhere. But I bet you can walk more places than you think! How long does it take to walk a mile? Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty? How long does it take to drive to the gym, get out, gear up, walk a mile on the treadmill, shower, and drive home? A lot longer. Sometimes our shortcuts turn into long, meandering, wild goose chases. And we're the ones looking an awful lot like a wild goose.

Dealing with Diaper Rash

If you have a baby, you know about diapers. And if you know about diapers, you know about diaper rash. It is one of those inevitabilities of life with infants, like spit-up stained clothes and never quite enough sleep. Warm weather tends to increase the frequency and severity of diaper rashes, and they can become quite itchy and painful for your little people. So what are your options?

Well, there's always the old stand-by: zinc oxide cream. While zinc oxide itself is a chemical compound made by dissolving zinc ash and combining with an alkali. It's considered non-toxic, so if you're okay with using it, here are a couple of great options:

• California Baby Diaper Rash cream, reviewed at Eco Child's Play

Make It: Natural Fragrances for Personal Use

Perfumes are commonly made from synthetic chemical compounds, and while that isn't always a bad thing, it isn't always a good one, either. These synthetic fragrances may attract the male of your species, but they will also attract flying little insects that bite and sting. That is definitely not a good thing. You have some options for smelling good and staying natural. Let's start simple and work our way from there.

• The smell of citrus is fresh, appealing, and cheerful. I prefer lime, but you can also find lemon, grapefruit, and sweet orange. A dab of citrus-infused oil on your wrists and neckline will create a lingering scent that freshens but does not overpower.


• Of course, there are many options with aromatherapeutic oils. If you don't like the idea of just dabbing a bit on your bare skin, consider a wearable aromatherapy diffuser.

Herbs: About Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is so easy to grow. It is a no-nonsense herb, requires the minimum for life and health: a patch of dirt, occasional water, and sunshine. Plant it and it will grow, and grow big: it can reach three feet in height. It will flower in mid-summer, but you can use the leaves anytime. And this herb is so prolific you will have plenty of leaves to use, so here are a few ideas.

This recipe came from Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac for the year 2000, page 34 and sounds lovely:
Lemon Balm Muffins
2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons minced lemon balm
Grease muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray, butter, or oil. Blend together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whick the eggs until blended. Add applesauce, lemon juice, and minced lemon balm. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well and drop into muffin tins. BAke at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm with butter.

Make It: Natural Insect Solutions

It's summertime, and the livin' ain't always easy. We have bugs. Bugs are helpful, sometimes, in some situations. Spiders eat other bugs that bug us. Ladybugs eat little garden pests. Mosquitoes eat us. Flies bother us. Roaches make us turn pale and frantic. We like grasshoppers most of the time, but when they just fly up out of nowhere into our faces, we get a little ancy. (Not that we want to kill them; we just wish they would not jump in our faces. Bugs tend to ignore personal space.)

I don't mind most bugs, as a general rule, and I recognize that they have a place in the life-nature cycle. Still, when they venture indoors or bite my legs or munch on all of my tomatoes, it's necessary to draw a few lines. The line-drawing can be done without chemical pesticides, as you'll see here.

For garden bugs that aren't helpful:

• Dilute a couple of tablespoons of Dr. Bronner's soap (or another mild soap) in a spray bottle of water. Mist the leaves and fruit of your fruit and vegetable plants. Once the soap-water mix washes off, it won't be helpful, so you'll need to repeat this application every day or so.

Reduce Waste and Be a "Diva"

I’ve recently been thinking of ways I can “clean out my bathroom,” and reduce the unnecessary chemical and physical waste that become a byproduct of my time getting clean. But I came across a source of waste that has a very large impact on our environment, and not many solutions. Menstrual waste.

While some sanitation help springs for problems like the Condom Conundrum and recycling diapers,

Fix It: Natural Cures for Summer Burns

Beaches. Water parks. The local pool. The kiddie pool in your backyard. Barbecues. Picnics. Hikes. Camping. Concerts in the park. What do all these have in common? They're outside. And what else is outside? Oh, yes, that great big burning ball of gas in the sky, shooting its rays down on our heads and cheeks and unprotected arms.
We all know what comes next. Sunburn. The pain. The tightness. The red, red skin. If you're reading this and grimacing in pain, now is not the time to tell you that prevention in the form of sunscreen is the best natural remedy out there... even though it is.
Assuming you goofed on the sunscreen application and now you just need help, here are some safe, non-toxic ideas:

- For all-over burn, or a big area like legs or back: Make a spot o' tea. Apparently the tannic acid