OATMEAL: natural exfoliant, or sticky, pastey mess?

The skincare aisle, beauty rags and every "natural-cosmetics-you-probably-already-have-in-your-home" list have long sung the praises of oatmeal or products made with oatmeal. When used in cosmetics oatmeal is called "avena sativa kernel meal" and when used in products for treating skin irritation it's called "colloidal oatmeal". There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of recipes available online for formulating and using your own oatmeal-based cosmetic and personal-care products at home, but one tip I saw over and over again was the use of oatmeal and water as an exfoliant. The idea is because oatmeal is coarsely ground (but not so hard or coarse that it will be abrasive) it is similar to scrubbing the skin with almond shells or apricot kernels. Supposedly, oatmeal also contains some natural compounds that "draw out impurities in the skin". Having run out of the scrub product I typically use, I decided to give it a try. Here's what happened:

1) I took a small handful of dry oatmeal, and ground it with a mortar and pestle

In hindsight, I don't know that this was necessary however, a lot of what I had read recommended the oatmeal more finely if you planned to use it as a facial scrub.

2) I poured the oatmeal into a rocks glass, and mixed in a small amount of water

It was really small, like less than 1/4 teaspoon. The first time I did this I actually used no more than that it was still too much water.

3) Next, after taking the oatmeal paste onto my fingers, I scrubbed my face with it




This is when I discovered I hate the smell of wet, raw, America's Choice traditional oatmeal.

4) RINSE!

The verdict: While, as I mentioned, it turns out I hate the smell of wet, raw America's Choice traditional oatmeal on my face, I still got that nice clean feeling I get whenever I use a scrub. However, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that I would get this feeling from the simple act of washing my face, regardless of what I used to wash it. I've been using the oatmeal scrub every other day for about a week now, and it certainly hasn't made my skin any worse.


So...

PROS
-"All natural"
-Inexpensive
-Easy to make
-Is readily available
-Is biodegradable
-Non-toxic*

CONS
-Smells
-Can be difficult to get the correct ratio of oatmeal to water
-People being weirded out over you washing your face with oatmeal
-Could potentially clog your sink if you were to wash it down the drain. It's recommended you scoop out the oatmeal and discard it in a trash-can or rubbish-bin.

POTENTIAL HAZARDS

-Unless you know how your oatmeal is grown, harvested and processed, like with all other foods, you never know what pesticides or chemical residuals could be sitting on your cheap-and-cheerful kitchen cosmetic. I don't know the exact level this presents in foods used as external cosmetics but like with anything else in life, I imagine there's some risk, but I also imagine that it's quite small.
-Everyone's skin is different and it is possible a person could suffer an adverse reaction while using oatmeal as a natural scrub, especially if they have allergies or a pre-existing skin condition. When in doubt, it's best to consult a dermatologist.



*Please see the potential hazards section.
Cheap and Cheerful is not written by dermatologists and accepts no responsibility for injuries, chemical burns or allergic reactions sustained while attempting to use oatmeal as a natural skincare product.

Egg Yolk and Olive Oil: cheap and natural hair treatment, or sticky mess?

Enough websites and pseudo-scientific sounding articles tout the financial, health and ethical advantages of using "natural" cosmetics and beauty treatments that I was convinced to try one of these kitchen concoctions myself last month. One evening, being out of conditioner and just not bothered enough to drag myself out to the shops I turned to le internet for an alternative. –Searching “natural conditioner” ended up being not the best idea as it returned over 690,000 results. Then I vaguely remembered something about using eggs as a conditioning treatment as they contain some kind of special proteins that are good for your hair, and hey, they feed raw ones to dogs for a glossy coat right? Suddenly I had somewhat improved search parameters.

If you do a search for "egg yolk and olive oil hair conditioner" you get a slew of results such as the one found here at eHow.com. These were not the exact instructions I used, but it gives you a basic idea of the procedure and the ingredients. In the end I used an amalgamation of the first ten or so results I found. My method was as follows:

1) Crack an egg, and separate the yolk from the white. Discard white (or make a reduced fat omelet with it, whatever you gotta do man).

2) Scramble that yolk with a fork.

3)Measure out one tablespoon of olive oil. Pour olive oil into scrambled egg yolk, rescramble contents so that the oil and egg are combined. Here’s what mine looked like:



4) Now go wash your hair and take egg and oil mixture with you.

5) After shampooing and towel drying your hair, carefully pour egg and oil on the top of your head. (Don’t do what I did and spill half of it in the tub, then you have to start over) Do this slowly and carefully as the mixture is rather runny.

6) Spread mixture into hair. (I’d like to say combing the egg and oil through is the best method, but that’s not how it worked for me. I just worked it in to my hair, starting at the root and working down towards the ends as I pulled them up and piled them on the top of my head.)

7) Let the mixture sit on your hair for about twenty to thirty minutes.

8) Rinse hair thoroughly; finish rinse with a run of cold water to improve shine.

My results were better than I had anticipated, but I had anticipated a sticky mess that smelled like salad dressing. The shine factor of my hair was definitely improved, but I didn’t notice those follicles getting that much softer. While this endeavor went over better than I thought it would, I still encountered two problems. First, I failed to rinse all of the conditioner out of my hair. A little bit of the egg and oil remained in my hair overnight, and by the following morning that section of scalp was considerably greasier than the rest. Second, I completely forgot about the risk of salmonella associated with raw eggs, and the fact that rest of my household would kill me if they knew I’d gotten raw egg all over the bathtub and sink. I ended up having to scrub and disinfect the sink and tub before retiring.

The verdict: while I wouldn’t say egg yolks completely fail as a natural hair conditioner, I’d say using them in your hair care is more trouble than it’s worth.