Yikes! I'm Dying Myself to Death

I used to be a redhead

Eliminating chemicals from your environment
may require changing your personal grooming routine

I had eliminated scented products and started using cleaning products with natural ingredients to see if this would help my severe fibromyalgia pain and debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome.  Next I started investigating the things I was putting on my body each day. The list was quite long:

bath soap

deodorant

shampoo

conditioner

hand lotion

moisturizer

makeup foundation

powder

blush

eye shadow

mascara

lipstick

I started reading labels and searching for alternatives.  I tried all of the hypoallergenic and scent free makeup products I could find until I settled on the ones I thought would work for me. There were also a lot of hypoallergenic and/or scent free hairspray, moisturizer and lotion options for me to try.

I read that bath soaps and shampoos that are white and don't contain added scent have less chemicals than those that do so I changed brands.

I found that toothpaste that is white and does not contain added flavoring has less chemicals so I switched to a kind made for sensitive teeth.

One day I was looking in the mirror combing my beautiful red hair when it dawned on me that I achieved this lovely shade by having chemical laden color applied to my hair every month at the salon.  So I went to the beauty shop and had my hair cut in a short style so the color would grow off more quickly. I had been dying my hair for so long I wasn't sure what the natural color would be.  For a while I sported a funky punk rock style with red on the ends, gray at the roots and a pleasantly surprising amount of brown still scattered about.  The color eventually all grew off and I am back to my natural color and enjoying my new look.

You can find all kinds of personal grooming items with less chemical content at your local drugstore or discount store and additional options at health food and organic product stores.  

After just these first few steps I was already starting to notice a decrease in my pain level on some days but I still I had days with severe pain and the chronic fatigue was still keeping me from functioning normally.  But I still had a lot of things to try in my quest to change my lifestyle.  Recovery was coming.  I just didn't know it yet.