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Still Sick (But with Good Hair!)

Still Sick (But with Good Hair!)

It’s Day Ten and we’re still (still!) suffering from the cold that will not go away here at Casa Bettinelli. Dom went to Mass by himself this morning while I stayed home with the coughing chorus, of which I am a member myself. We don’t seem to feel all that sick any more and I don’t think we’re contagious any longer; but staying home was an act of charity toward our fellow parishioners, who I am certain would be terribly distracted by the coughing and snotting.

We have gone through half a dozen boxes of tissue so far. I am heartily sick of small children coming up to me and yelling, “Snot!” with the expectation that I’ll wipe their noses. (Anthony doesn’t yell Snot! but he does come up to me when his nose is dripping down his face. And then he freaks out when I actually wipe his nose. It’s like he’s torn between wanting me to do something about it but then Oh no, Mama, not that!.

But on the plus side I have very nice hair right now. When I was pregnant with Sophie I suddenly became allergic to the Suave shampoo I’d been using for decades. Since then I’ve tried with varying degrees of failure to find hair care products that don’t make me break out and that do keep my hair looking nice. For a while Mane and Tail was treating me pretty well; but recently I’ve fallen out of love with it. It just doesn’t seem to keep my hair very clean any more. Normally, I change brands when that happens but I’m afraid that everything has so many smells that would either set off my asthma or make me break out. Then to top it all off I couldn’t even find more Mane and Tail at my usual stores.

So the other night in desperation I tried the baking soda and vinegar treatment I’ve read about in many various places. I took two plastic cups to the shower with me, one with a bunch of baking soda in it, the other with some white vinegar. I made a paste with the baking soda and then scrubbed it into my roots until I felt like I’d covered all the greasy spots. Then I scrubbed some more and finally I rinsed it out. Then I dipped the ends of my hair into the vinegar and let them soak in it for a while. Finally, I dumped the vinegar over my hair like a rinse. I let it sit for a minute or two and then rinsed it all out thoroughly until my hair didn’t smell like vinegar. The next morning my hair looked and felt fabulous. All the greasy residue that had been weighing it down was gone and it was shiny and easy to brush. (Which, given that it almost reaches my waist, is very impressive.) Unless someone tells me that eventually this treatment will ruin my hair—keeping in mind that I wash my hair about once a week on average—I don’t think I’m going to go back to shampoo ever again. Not only is this cheaper; but it works so much better. 

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4 comments
  • A wonderful suggestion, and one I wish I had had with my oldest child.

    I have often thought that the pre-bedtime fussiness was a child’s way of getting rid of the last bit of energy so that s/he could sleep.

    Good luck!  Please post on how this proposed method works for you.

    FWIW, my MIL always asserted that ignoring temper tantrums worked best for her because the child would get rid of the problem by himself (she had 5 sons).  Being present but not feeling responsible for curing the situation strikes me as an even more effective approach.  Your Bella sounds a bit like my oldest, very high-energy, creative, and demanding of time and attention.  I’ll be interested to see how you fare.

  • I realize that when our kids hit a rough spot of not being able to go asleep well, we do this sleep method. Except we put baby/toddler to sleep in their crib/bed and lay down on the floor or bed next to them until they fall asleep.  We can’t stand to leave them while they are crying, but we do not want to encourage that they must be held or nursed to sleep.  It has worked great for us so far (5 kids, and they all go to bed at 7pm and sleep for the whole night through). 

    As for the crying tantrums being a stress relief, that is a good reminder.  Usually we just realize our children are hungry or tired, and try to feed them or put them to sleep!  Now I will try to just let them blow off some steam by crying.  Thanks for this post smile

  • I love this story about Anthony. We’ve sort of arrived at that (by baby 3) over time—I wasn’t able to hold Ana or nurse her to sleep, so once she started her “sleepy cry,” we’d place her in her crib. Todd would rub her back while she cried and she almost always was asleep within ten minutes. It makes sense to me, too, because I always feel so much better after letting myself cry in “mommy time-out.”

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