Amazing Crunchy Tips From … You!

Ideas. They are everywhere.

Helpful hints litter the internet. In a good way. Not in a bottle-full-of-urine-by-the-train-tracks way. (I just saw one a few weekends ago. The horrible image burned in my brain. It is now in yours, too. You’re welcome.)

But Crunchy Betty … well, I like to think we have the best hinters and tippers ever. You guys send me emails, leave comments, and participate in the Crunchy Community.

When you do that, I’m left with a plethora of new, incredible tips and hints. And I love that. I love you.

So, today, in honor of all you incredible Crunchy Betties, here’s a small sampling of some of my favorite tips, hints, and ideas that you guys have left over the last year or so.

I shouldn’t be the only one seeing these things. I really shouldn’t. The immense power is too much for one person to wield.

And please, for the love of cheese, KEEP LEAVING ME/US/THE UNIVERSE ideas! Then we can all join in, partake, and discuss. It’s the right thing to do. Really.

Helpful Tips From Crunchy Readers!

Helpful Hair Tips

Dandruff: In the post 5 Foods You Have In Your Kitchen that Could Be On Your Hair, Preeti left this really helpful tip:

• Adding a few drops of lemon juice to warm sesame oil works for dandruff.

Curly Hair: In the same post, Kendall had this great tip for people with curly hair that gets crazy on occasion:

• I live in Florida, so my curly hair goes wild with the humidity and numerous styling products. The best homemade hair remedy I’ve tried was a mix of avocado and honey. Half of a mashed avocado (no skin) mixed with two tablespoons honey, work into dry hair and leave on for about 20-30 minutes, then wash hair as usual. My hair has never been so soft and shiny.

Cleansing, Nourishing Hair Mask: The fantabulous LisaLise posted this tip in the Community:

• If you want to clean your hair without shampoo, making a mixture of rhassoul clay and water will do the trick. You can either put it on as a mask (a step by step instruction to be found here) or, if you can’t be bothered waiting the 10 minutes the mask needs to stay on, you can simply use the mud mixture as you normally would a shampoo (rub it around on your hair, then rinse out).

Hair Gel (and Crackers): This one’s long, but it was so incredibly helpful. This comes courtesy Katie from my adventures in making homemade flax seed hair gel:

First of all, I use 1 tbsp flax to 1 cup water. SO I would have doubled the liquid in this recipe. Cook until you get the same consistency, but you end up with way more! Secondly, dump the aloe. The aloe makes things crunchy, and not in DIY-goddess way. It makes it crunchy and it makes it clump to the hair. Thirdly, DO NOT put the sieve in the pan. I thought that this was a brilliant idea, but what you end up having is a whole bunch of flax gum inside the sieve, and water outside the sieve.

SO this is what I did, and this is how it worked the very best!!

I added 4 tbsp of coconut oil to the water and flax seed mixture. Heated it all up. Let it get all gel-like. THEN I put the sieve over a large bowl, poured in the flax mixture, and put a smaller bowl inside the sieve. I filled that small bowl with rocks from outside, and then let the whole thing sit.

Came back 20 minutes later, lifted the weighted bowl out, stirred it a bit, added more…

Works like a charm!

AND the very BEST part is that you can use the still-gummy flax seeds to make gluten-free crackers! Add some black sesame seeds. Add some sunflower seeds. Add some chia seeds. Add some minced garlic and shallots. Salt and pepper. Rosemary. Spread out and dehydrate or bake.

Hair gel AND crackers?

Oh yes.

No ‘Poo: This has, by far, been the topic you guys have weighed in on the most. There are just SO many great tips, I can’t post them all here. If you’re thinking about going no ‘poo, read this post, this post, and this post – and ALL of the comments. Here are just a few:

• I have healthy strong and shiny hair just by using baking soda and apple cider vinegar. For extra shine and moisture I use an olive oil compress every 2 weeks or so. – From the lovely Marlowe
• BS didn’t work for me, and in the beginning I had no idea what else I could use. Turns out just about anything: sugar, applesauce, herbs, tomato juice, vinegars, teas, water only, bananas, the list goes on. Different things suit different hair, it’s all a big experiment. It’s so cool so many people are trying this! – From The Simple Poppy
• For conditioner: 1 part ACV to 3 parts water, a couple cinnamon sticks, a bit of vanilla extract and one or two drops of tea tree oil – Good for people who don’t like the smell. – From notthatsw33t in the Crunchy Community

Soapnuts Shampoo: The illustrious Hilda Blue gave her excellent soap nuts shampoo solution in the Mother of All Soapnuts Resources:

• Boil about 10-15 nuts with two cups of water. Store in a separate jar in the fridge. When washing your hair pour a few tbs of the mixture into a big plastic bottle bottle (you’ll need space as it’s going to foam), add around i teaspoon of lemon or lime juice and shake very well. You will get a foam that you can spread over your head. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Beautiful Skin Tips

Naturally Beautiful Toners: Anastasia just emailed me the first toner idea a few weeks ago – LOVE it. The second toner is a recipe from Victoria at My Homemade Beauty. Thanks, girls!

• I like to use a toner made from ACV, realllyyy strong green tea, and a bit of witch hazel.

• I would love to share my fave lemon toner recipe: 250 ml (1 c.) of water, 5 teaspoons of finely grated lemon peel, 1 cup of fresh mint leaves. Add ingredients mentioned above to a boiling water. Boil 1 to 2 minutes, until peel is soft. Remove from heat, let it cool, then strain.

Easy Homemade Facial Scrub: From Katie at Look, Listen, Eat, posted on the Homemade Bronzer/Contour Powder post. Love it!

• I recently started making my own green tea and rice face scrub and it’s fantastic! I use sweet rice flour (which I have on hand because I use it in baking alllll the time), ground green tea leaves, milk powder and a bit of baking soda. It’s so lovely!

Simple Microdermabrasion: Okay, this was from one of my REALLY old posts, but Caitlin brought it up in the Community, and I remembered how awesome it is. Here’s how she says to do it:

• In a small container (preferably with a lid), mix about 3 Tbsp. baking soda with just enough water to make a runny-ish paste. Add about a Tbsp. of honey. Mix well. That’s the scrub. (I’ll add: Scrub lightly on a clean face for 5-10 minutes).

Beautifying Facial Steam: lmarie from Closed Lids mentioned this sweet tip in the Community, too:

• For beauty: once a week I do a facial steam. I add nettle/horsetail to boiling water and I steam for about 10 minutes. After I steam I put on a mask for 1 hr. I have been doing this for about 3 months and I keep getting compliments on my skin.

Handy Household Tips

Citrus Peel Cleaner: Geraldine posted this awesome tip way down at the bottom of the 19 Things You Can Do with a Little Leftover Lemon post. Bet you didn’t see it!

• Peelings from oranges, lemons or limes; wash real good then peel and put some in a jelly jar with a little water and vinegar. Store in a dark place for 2 weeks and you got yourself a very awesome cleaner.

Shining Shoes with Coconut Oil: Heather, in the Millionish Uses for Coconut Oil post, gave this awesome tip:

• Shoes! Seriously, I’ve rubbed coconut oil on a pair of leather shoes that need a little oil-type love lots of times. Proper shoe oils might be better, but, coconut oil gets the job done, makes the shoes happy, and it’s already handy.

That-Time-of-the-Month Solutions: I’m going to just straight up give LulaLola credit for starting this crazy discussion. I’ve learned SO much.

• The main topic of conversation has been The Diva Cup and alternatives to tampons. So come over, learn, join in – there’s too much (personal) stuff to post here. Even though, you know, it’s all public and everything at the community.

Quick Homemade Mouthwash: When I posted about Making Your Own Toothpaste, Miri left this really great mouthwash recipe:

• It’s very easy and takes me just a few minutes to make: 1/2 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 drops peppermint essential oil, 2 drop tea tree oil. Instructions: put in bottle. shake well. presto – instant mouthwash (I also shake it before pouring some out)

Have Any Other Tips?

Leave ’em in a comment here, or visit the Community and tell us all about them there.

If you didn’t see a tip you left me here, don’t fret! This post represents a TINY fraction of the tips I pulled from comments/email/community – and I left out the health and miscellaneous tips all together. So if you guys like this, I’ll do another one soon! There’s plenty more to share.

Thank you guys SO much!

Crunchy Betty wouldn’t be nearly as crunchy without you.

MWAH!