Boycotting all things “normal”

I love to looking into one of the counter culture movements over taking  Utah county- the “crunchies”. The crunchies participate in what I can only label- “a boycott of all things normal”. This boycott includes “normal food”, normal medical practices, normal parenting, and normal personal hygiene.  I need to preface this by saying I am in no way condemning their belief that this way of life is best for them, I am just saying that I am intrigued by their lifestyle.

Okay back to the boycott: someone alerted me to the idea of not using shampoo a few weeks ago- I have to admit my first thought was “this is insane!”, after some careful research I have come to conclusion that, yes it is insane, and not only is it insane- it seems like a huge hassle, but whatever. So here’s the idea- shampoo- the normal stuff that can be purchased at Walmart- is too harsh for your hair, instead of helping, you are actually frying your hair so the idea is not to use shampoo, the movement is nicknamed “no poo” (okay really doesn’t that give it away that this is a terrible idea?). Instead of using your trusty shampoo (we use suave since we are poor and it is cheap)  you use a homemade mixture of  baking soda, maybe some vinegar, lemon juice, and if you are feeling adventurous honey. You use this instead of the store bought stuff, apparently your hair looks nasty for awhile, but then is soft, shiny, and healthy. Oh yeah and you don’t need to wash your hair as often… all I have to say to that is… no. I know that is very close-minded of me, I know that I am living “in the box”, and that I am not being open to new ideas- but that is totally okay with me, it just doesn’t sound… clean. Maybe it is, maybe magical things would happen for me if I just gave it a chance… but it sounds gross so I am going to stick with showering every day and using suave green apple shampoo- purchased at, you guessed it- Wal Mart.

Just in case you are thinking about trying this super fun idea here is the link to a forum full of tons of great information, including recipes for your own “poo” (yes they call it that).

http://community.livejournal.com/no_poo/

 

Okay the next piece of the crunchy movement I am fascinated with- cloth diapers. I don’t have any experience with cloth diapers- I don’t have any children, and I am pretty sure my mom used disposables with all of her kids, she used them my little sister and that is the only one I remember. I don’t know many people that have used cloth diapers, but those that do seem to be happy with them, granted I haven’t heard the people using huggies complain either so that isn’t really much to go on.  The idea of cloth diapers seems to be a step backwards to me. I know this is a pretty harsh statement, but it just seems like there is a reason we have Huggies (to make life easier), why not use them. Maybe I am biased because the idea of doing that laundry kinda makes me want to throw up. I think I need more information about the subject. It just seems like the amount of laundry you would have to do would be daunting- and I already hate doing laundry- adding more makes me want to curl up and wear dirty clothes forever. As part of looking into cloth diapers (purely for information sake) I have asked around to people that HAD to use cloth diapers, none of these women recommended going down that route, most of them looked at me like I was insane when I asked the question, so I am just going to assume that the idea of that much laundry haunts them to this day, and that is a good enough reason for me to stick with Huggies.

 

The last piece of the crunchy puzzle that I want to understand is the boycott of “normal medicine”. By normal medicine I mean anything that an MD, NP, or DO prescribes, things like antibiotics. I am currently reading a book titled, The Great Influenza. The book chronicles the 1918 flu epidemic, and what the medical community did in response to the massive death toll. They didn’t have antibiotics, they didn’t have antiviral, they didn’t even really understand oxygen support therapy- so basically people died. Today we do have access to those medicines, why are we  reverting back to the medicine that didn’t work? Why in the world do we think chamomile tea,  ginger, or  peppermint extract is going to be more effective than actual medication? We might as well spray some Windex on it. Here are some natural remedies I found for common health problems

·      Asthma- the patient should be given garlic cloves boiled in 30 grams of milk daily (this sounds disgusting, and I doubt it helps manage severe asthma the same way the steroids do)

·      Pink eye/conjunctivitis- put a drop or two of honey directly on your eyes (if your infection is caused by a bacteria they will give you antibiotic eye drops- so the burning goes away, the infection is over, and so you don’t infect every person you come in contact with)

·      Cough- gargling with warm spinach juice (where do you even get warm spinach juice, and how do you keep it in your mouth long enough to gargle)

I didn’t even have to search for these, they were the very first suggestions that came up- I am not sure what to say about this except to ask why are we throwing away hundreds of years of medical research? I get that people in our society are over medicated but this seems a little bit dangerous.

I might need to do some more research on the crunchy movement- I wonder if it has taken hold in Dallas yet (I am going to go with no, since Texas is the land of guns and meat)