So much conflicting information out there! :sad: Plus, I guess a lot of it is going to come down to personal experience, which varies. For example, I know a lot of people swear that silicones are death for hair, but my hair loves silicones!

I see. I didn't know if there was any evidence of that being linked to impaired function or health problems (alongside normal post-prandial numbers, that is). When I went LC, my post-prandial numbers improved *immediately*. My fasting numbers were much slower to go down. Like, years. Have you been doing LC for long?

I need that product! :D Thanks for mentioning it!

I don't have an answer for you, but I am curious about one thing. Assuming that your post-prandial BG is normal (stays under 120), then is there real reason to be concerned about fasting levels? I don't mean that in a "challenging" way but in a genuinely curious way. Organ damage starts to occur at 140, and obviously you are well below that when fasting. So if your post-prandial numbers are staying below that too, is there cause for concern?

Oh, that's worse. Build-up can always be removed with a good clarifying shampoo.

Wow - well that's disappointing but also good to know. The horrible things that it did to your hair - was it that it left a lot of build-up on it over time? That's what I experienced with the non-shampoo stuff.

Weird! Thanks for letting me know - next time I'll just ask. Or I could try Sally. There's a Sally in a shopping center that I'm at frequently for other stores anyway. Thanks for mentioning that!

When I had my hair long years ago, I did experiment with several non-shampoo methods/products, and I didn't like any of them. I was hoping the sulphate-free shampoos would be gentle on my hair, but still get my scalp clean and keep it happy (it would get gradually itchier and yuckier feeling the longer I used the non-shampoo products). I do remember liking Jason, so maybe that one will work. Or Mastey - that seems to be well liked. Or maybe I'll just have to go with a CWC method with regular shampoo. But I'll have fun experimenting anyway! :001_smile:

I'm not impressed with the Renpure shampoo I bought, so I'm definitely going to keep experimenting. Or maybe sulphate-free will just take some getting used to? This one didn't seem to rinse clean, but left my hair feeling a little heavy/greasy. I hope that's not typical.

Oh, where should I have looked? I was on an aisle with shampoo and conditioner on one side and styling products on the other. I just assumed if they had it, that's where it would be.

Thanks, Suzanne! I have used some Jason products before and liked them. In fact, it seems like I had some kind of seaweed shampoo of theirs years ago -- sounds weird but I really liked it! I think I stopped buying it simply because the store where I always shopped stopped carrying it. I had forgotten about that. I'll have to see if any of the other local health food stores carry it. And I will check out the Mastey website, too!

So, this is weird. I assumed, like you said Suzanne, that shampoos for color-treated hair would be more gentle, but I checked both of the brands I have on hand, and the ingredients are just like any standard shampoo! Sodium laureth sulfate is second on the list, just after water. I had to go to Target today anyway, so I looked for a sulfate-free shampoo. I didn't find any of the ones mentioned here, but I did find Renpure Coconut Milk Shampoo. So I'll try that and if it doesn't work out then I have an excuse to go to Ulta! Thanks for all the help!

Wow, I never thought about this.

I'm so sorry that she's having such a rough time with it. I really hope you can find something that will help. My daughter is currently using CeraVe facial cleanser not only for her face but also as her body wash. And she uses Joico shampoo. Both are available at Ulta. I think there are other brands out there, we just started with those because I found them easily. My dd doesn't do this anymore because she doesn't like the feeling of oil on her skin, but when she was a baby, I would use either pure coconut or almond oil on her skin, and it really seemed to help. So if your daughter is more tolerant of heavy emollients than mine is, you might consider that as well.

Thank you all so much! I will definitely check out that community, Arctic Mama, and the silk pillowcase sounds like a great idea. I appreciate everyone's product recommendations too!

My daughter wants to create an Etsy store where she sells some original artwork, mostly dinosaur-related stuff. For a store logo or mascot she drew a sort of "cartoonized" version of a dinosaur, and gave it a very clever scientific-sounding name, which will also be the name of her Etsy store. So, in a way she has created an original character, and my husband and I thought it was really well done and that she might want to offer some merchandise with this character on it. It's the kind of thing you might see on a t-shirt, for example. So is that the sort of thing that we should copyright? If I'm understanding correctly how this works, we would not seek a trademark, because a trademark is more like a brand name. Is that right? Any advice at all would be appreciated, as this is uncharted territory for us!

I've had my hair long in the past - waist length at the longest. Right now it's shoulder length, and I'm thinking I'd like to grow it out to mid-back, bra-strap length. When I had it long before, it was what my stylist calls "virgin hair": no chemical processing whatsoever. Also, I just washed it every other day since my scalp does not tend to be oily. And I didn't heat-style it either. So it was super healthy, with no visible damage or split ends or anything, even at that long length. Now, I color my hair (to cover gray), *and* I have to wash every single day now (since I exercise every day and get sweaty and disgusting!). So I think I will need to treat it more gently than I did before in order to keep it undamaged at a longer length. Any advice for me regarding super gentle shampoos or anything else I can use/do to keep it healthy-looking?

I would cut out the foods that you know have bothered her in the past, and see if that helps. Also, anything such as sugar that increases the body's inflammation response should be avoided - that's what my daughter's dermatologist said when I asked her about preventing/reducing outbreaks. She recommended a low-glycemic diet. Another thing we've found, which you may already be doing: avoid fragrance like the plague! No scented laundry detergents, body wash, lotion, shampoo, hand soap, anything! And I may have people disagree with me on this one, but that absolutely includes "natural" fragrances like essential oils. At the chemical level, they are still aromatic hydrocarbons, they should still be avoided. Also, a very wise person on these boards recently recommended that we try low-pH shampoo and body wash, and that seems to be helping as well.

Fall, when the temperatures range from 40's to 60's or so, the sky is clear blue and sunny, the air isn't too humid, and maybe there's a very light breeze -- that is my idea of heaven! Second choice: cold with snow on the ground. I am so over summer. I've lived in New Mexico for 18 years now, and over those years climate change has been making the summers longer, drier, hotter, and less tolerable. Now it feels like summer is a fiery inferno ten months long and we get two months of relief. I'm exaggerating. But not by much! ;)

Thank you so much for this encouragement, Taryl! I really hope I'll be able to get back on it soon, or at least someday if not soon. Our needs definitely seem to change with time and circumstances. So maybe mine will change back. :001_smile:

Yes, I probably should have recommended caution rather than just saying don't go there. I have heard of people with thyroid issues who do well on LC, but I've also heard so many stories of people with thyroid issues that don't do well on LC that I think caution is advised. Also, men, children, and post-menopausal women seem to generally have good results with keto, but for women in their childbearing years, it seems to have more mixed results. For me, for ten years, it really helped improve my hormone balance and reduce the awfulness of my periods. But then when I hit perimenopause it was a disaster. It really exacerbated the hormone problems, and it took me more than a year to figure that out, because it never occurred to me that the diet that had been so good for me for so long could be hurting me now. A friend pointed me to some online info written by women who did not do well on keto, and it sounded just like the problems I'd been having. It seems that there's some women who do much better in the 100-150g of carbs per day range than in a ketogenic range. I LOVE the ketogenic diet and would recommended it enthusiastically for those who do well on it. I really miss it! It controlled my appetite so well, and I am really struggling with that now. It controlled my weight so well, and I am really struggling with that now, too! :cursing: It also kept my immune system much stronger than it is without (on keto, a cold would be a real nuisance for three days. off keto, a cold knocks me on my butt for more than a week, and then I get a secondary sinus infection which requires antibiotics, and then I get digestive issues and I end up being sick for a month. . . it's a mess!) I am really hoping that I'll be able to go back on keto once I'm through menopause, but my doc said that will take 10-15 years! :crying:

No advice to offer, just wanted to say that I'm sorry you're going through this, and I hope he gets the help that he needs. :grouphug:

Ketogenic is the best for that, in my experience, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have any thyroid or other hormone issues. If you don't want to go that route, you can still emphasize satiating calories from protein and fat over carbs, especially fast-burning carbs which increase appetite for a lot of people.

Sadly I'm not coordinated enough to take Zumba, but I learned the word bailamos from that Enrique Iglesias song back in '99 or so. I still love that song! :D I've picked up a *few* Spanish words and phrases from living in New Mexico, and yes vámanos is a pretty common one if it penetrated even my stubborn brain.

It's true the precision of the monitor is always an unknown. If you're going to have blood-work done with your doctor anytime soon, ask him to run a BG test too. Take your monitor with you, and right before or after they draw blood, test your BG with your own monitor. Then when the results come in, you'll have some idea of how close your BG monitor is to the more accurate test that the lab does. I did that, and my monitor showed only one point different than the lab's test, so that was pretty reassuring.