i don't bathe... kinda ;)

"I can't believe I just listened to you talk about dry shampoo, for an hour. Again." ~ My wife (true story)

It's really important to us: living our enviro values and doing what we can to lessen our enviro footprint. Other people are figuring it out, why not us too? Having already eliminated toxic household cleaning products (check out my blog post here), we decided to move on to our personal and household water consumption. The wet, H2O-combo mystery that's good for our outsides and insides :) We asked, how can we drastically reduce our water consumption in a sustainable way in our lives? First step, we chose to take personal action and accountability for our choices and impacts, and to learn more.

The David Suzuki Foundation website outlines How to Conserve Water:

"Our households consume about 340 litres of water per day. And the thirstiest culprit is your toilet, followed by laundry, faucets, showers and leaks."

340 litres of water per day per household? Wow! We looked to Mr. Suzuki's 5-pronged approach to reducing our household water consumption:

1. Toilets ~ luckily our place came equipped with a low-flow toilet. We made a commitment to no more paper towels: instead we clean up messes with the dish and tea towels we already owned. Lastly, it is my intention to buy or make some handkerchiefs for the winter, to reduce our use of disposable tissues. ~ DONE! IMPACT: reduced 50% or more

2. Lauder Less Often ~ as recommended, we now re-wear our clothes probably about 2 to 4 times before washing (excluding essentials!). It's really not a big deal for us, since neither of us gets that dirty throughout the day. We save all our laundry for big, efficient loads on the weekends. Also, we are currently engaging in a clothing minimalism program so we have way fewer clothes overall to wash, which is amazing! Lastly, when we were lucky enough to be able to afford buying one, we made sure to purchase a high-efficiency washer/dryer machine ~ DONE! Impact: reduced 50%

3. Faucets Off ~ we've employed the beautiful water jug we received as an engagement present to hold drinking water (instead of running the faucet each time). However, we haven’t incorporated the other recommendations yet: rinsing toothpaste spit with waste water from the shower, etc. ~ PARTIAL COMPLETION

4. Fix Leaks ~ we have no leaks since our place is pretty new, however we do check and fix the caulking around the sink/tub, and check the washing machine/hot water tank annually. ~ N/A

5. Short Showers / Fewer Showers ~ Aha! This was the big challenge, which would ask for a major lifestyle adjustment: shorter showers, I get, but fewer showers? How could this be accomplished?! In two ways: taking inspiration from our history and from modernity.

I am second-generation “running water”. My grandmother and grandfather both lived on farms in a time before running water, which meant outhouses for doing business, and buckets and basins for washing. Wonderful would be the summer days if you could jump in a cool lake or river. Comforting would be the winter evenings if you could sit in a tub of warm water, heated on the stove. Without getting too personal, between swims and baths, folks would simply use a wet wash cloth to clean their bodies. And that was after heavy-duty days of dirty, dusty, sweaty manual labour on the farm.

My life and work doesn’t comprise anywhere near that amount of dirt, dust and sweat, so the wet wash cloth method was easy to adopt. I save so much time, soap and towels, plus, my skin feels healthier and more balanced. I still wash my face twice a day: morning with a gentle, all-natural cleanser; and evening with a few warm splashes of water only. I feel refreshed and… obviously, gorgeous! ;)

We both wash our hair —omg! I’m admitting this on live internet!— 2 or 3 times a week. Here’s how:

Day 1: Wash all over & condition ends only. Wear hair down. Keep hands out of hair to reduce oil transfer. Use a brush instead. At bedtime, apply all-natural dry shampoo (like this one, that I use) to roots. Sleep with hair rolled up into a top knot.

Day 2: Best hair day: up or down! Either enjoy your loose curls, or take advantage of your hair’s shine and texture by doing any variety of chignon bun. This website has great diy tutorials, that, with a little practice, you can easily master.

Day 3: Up do. Major texture means braids will hold really well, or go for an unstructured top-knot if your hair’s feeling a little oily.

Day 4: Go for another up-do if you dare ;) Or, wash & repeat…

~ ENVIRO ACHIEVEMENT: 50% – 80% reduction in personal water usage from reducing showering from 6-10 times a week to only 2-3 times a week. Incredible.

This loose schedule is inspired by our shared environmental justice commitment (my wife and myself) and my own faith commitment to creation and human/environmental justice (myself). As you can see, reducing showering to 2-3 times a week each greatly cuts our water consumption in measurable ways that are sure to accumulate into big enviromental impacts.

If you have any questions on this, please do email me. I would love to help you reach your environmental goals.

The great fringe benefits of putting our goals into action, is that we can save time, personal energy, hot water tank energy, hair products and money, all while benefitting the strength and healthy balance of your hair and scalp, AND reduce our impact on the water supply. This experiment in a more water-conscious lifestyle has been a win-win-win-win-win situation.

{video: "Beautiful Braided Bun" by Twist Me Pretty}

Online hairstyle tutorials are about women helping women. See video above. As a matter of priority, I don't want to spend my days grooming. I want to spend my days living, and living well! One obvious alternative is to cut my hair short, which is awesome for some people. Personally, I like my hair long, and I enjoy looking and feeling polished and lovely.

Online tutorialists, such as diy hairstyle gurus Twist Me Pretty and The Small Things Blog (both of these women are out Christians, btw), can help women achieve their enviro goals and appearance preferences.

These talented YouTubers champion a kind of modern throw-back to the elegant buns, braids and chignons that our grandmothers wore. Beautiful, timeless and useful hair-dos employed to manage busy lifestyles and the desire for lovely hair-dos, while considering their lack of access to regular clean water. Today, relearning the women-wisdom of these traditional diy updo techniques can also help us live our personal and environmental commitments, with less waste and more time spent doing amazing things... while respecting where women are at with "beauty" in their lives.

Finding solutions to reduce our personal and household water consumption has been as easy as looking for solutions, and holding ourselves accountable to employ them in our home. Now, I’m proud to say that I rarely bathe! LOL :) …this bold tongue-in-cheek statement starts conversations with a laugh, that creates openness to sharing ways so that we can all do our part. xo