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By Vanessa Query — August 29, 2016 Filed Under: Culture, Personal Hygiene, Wellness

The Origin of Modern Personal Hygiene Standards

The Origin of Modern Personal Hygiene Standards | They Call Me Oystergirl

Have you ever wondered how our modern personal hygiene standards were formed? A little over a hundred years ago, several factors came together to make it possible for our truly dominant beliefs about cleanliness to emerge. These factors were: the increased availability of indoor plumbing and hot water the increased availability of soap germ theory advertising Prior to […]

By Vanessa Query — August 10, 2016 Filed Under: Personal Hygiene, Wellness

Radically Natural Personal Hygiene

Radically Natural Personal Hygiene | They Call Me Oystergirl

Did you know that many parts of our bodies are self-cleaning? I’m sure you know a few of our self-cleaning systems: our digestive tract and kidneys are famous, as is our liver. The lymph nodes and lungs are also part of the team that rids our bodies of toxins, but fewer people know that our […]

By Vanessa Query — May 5, 2016 Filed Under: Personal Hygiene, Wellness

My Natural Menstrual Care Routine

My Natural Menstrual Care Routine | They Call Me Oystergirl

Welcome, readers of The Montague Reporter! This post is especially for you, an addendum to my May 12 column, “The Surprising History of Menstrual Care, Part 2.” Thank you for joining me. 🙂 (I am a ciswoman—I identify as a woman and was assigned female at birth—and write from that perspective.) I learned about menstrual […]

By Vanessa Query — November 12, 2015 Filed Under: Personal Hygiene

A few thoughts on hygiene

A few thoughts on hygiene

1.) The concept of good hygiene is cultural, not biological. 2.). Our bodies have several self-cleaning mechanisms, one of which is the skin (with assistance from hair and hair follicles). 3.) The combination of frequent washing and synthetic products can disrupt the skin’s self-cleaning process. 4.) You might never guess that the people around you—the […]

By Vanessa Query — April 23, 2014 Filed Under: Culture, Personal Hygiene, Wellness

Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is: A Conversation

Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is | They Call Me Oystergirl

In part 1 of “Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is”, I began the story of how I changed from the constantly-compulsively-cleaning agent of mainstream synthetic hygiene I grew up as, to the crunchy, hairy, au natural, only mildly dirty hippie you smell before you. In part 2 of “Good Hygiene Is Not […]

By Vanessa Query — March 18, 2014 Filed Under: Culture, Personal Hygiene, Wellness

Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is (Part 2)

Good Hygiene is not always what you think it is | They Call Me Oystergirl

In part 1 of “Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is”, I began the story of how I changed from the constantly-compulsively-cleaning agent of mainstream synthetic hygiene I grew up as, to the crunchy, hairy, au natural, only mildly dirty hippie you smell before you. It began when I was 20 and continued […]

By Vanessa Query — March 5, 2014 Filed Under: Culture, Personal Hygiene, Wellness

Good Hygiene Is Not Always What You Think It Is (Part 1)

Good hygiene is not always what you think it is. | They Call Me Oystergirl

I have a very live-and-let-live approach to my hygiene. I agree to not bludgeon my body’s natural cleaning processes into submission with the use of synthetic commercial products, and in exchange, my body stays clean and socially acceptable with just a tiny amount of work on my part. I was not always this way. I […]

By Vanessa Query — May 3, 2013 Filed Under: Personal Hygiene, Sustainability, Wellness

Homemade Tooth Powder and Mouthwash

Check out my guest post over at Healthy Roots, Happy Soul for recipes for tooth powder, mouthwash, and a toothache remedy.

By Vanessa Query — January 8, 2013 Filed Under: Personal Hygiene, Wellness

Quote: “everything is anti-bacterial now”

Quote: “everything is anti-bacterial now”

“If you watch advertisements, or cruise the supermarket shelves, you can’t fail to notice that everything is anti-bacterial now, as if common household bacteria have suddenly become as exotic and deadly as Ebola. “It’s a great marketing coup, but potentially a dangerous one. In our enthusiasm for all things anti-bacterial we are, thanks to the […]

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