Things You'll Need:
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Step 1
Photo credits: Flickr.comBe careful, though what you put on your scalp. It's quickly absorbed. Not all food supplements are useful in shampoos. Check out the safety issues. Test yourself for allergies.
Dog Shampoo - Mix a 1/4 cup of gentle castile soap with a pint of water and a 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Add four ounces of glycerin sold in most discount store pharmacies. Mix all ingredients. Put it in an airtight bottle or jar and label it "Dog Shampoo."
You also can use distilled water and store the generic dog shampoo in your freezer until the next shampoo so it won't get full of bacteria. Don't put this mixture inside your dog's ears. Use veterinary ear wash such as OtiCalm to wash your dog's ears.
Keep the shampoo away from the dog's eyes as vinegar stings the eyes and nostrils or private parts. Rinse with water. For fragrance, you can use rose water extract or edible, non-toxic and non-burning essential oils, such as olive, sesame seed oil, or almond oil, about four drops. But dogs usually don't want the scents humans like. One exception is sesame seed oil. -
Step 2
Photo credits: Flickr.comCat Shampoo - Dry - Mix on a large baking pan a cup of dry raw oat bran or cornmeal. Dry oatmeal also can be used. Bring in a towel and your cat brush.
Put the baking pan spread out with the meal or bran in your oven and bake it only until it is warm. Test on your own inner wrist to make sure it is not too hot for the cat's skin or yours.
Apply the warmed meal to the cat's fur from the back of the head to the tail. Gently massage your cat with the meal. Rub the meal down to the skin. Don't leave the mixture only on the fur.
You want the meal and bran to absorb the dirt on the cat's skin. Rub the cat gently massaging with a bath towel. The meal will absorb the dirt and oil. Brush out the remaining debris and meal until the cat's skin and fur is clean and no meal or bran remains on the cat. -
Step 3
Photo credits: Flickr.comCat Litter Box Cleaner - Wash with baking soda and water. Rinse with vinegar and salt. Rinse with water. Wipe dry. Never use chlorine bleach to clean a cat litter box.
The chlorine fumes mix with the ammonia fumes in the cat urine collected in the litter from what is left after scooping and forms a deadly gas that can be fatal.
Dandruff - Olive or coconut oil may be smoothed onto the scalp and let set there for 40 minutes. Then shampoo twice. Also mink oil soap can be used. Make your own mink oil soap. See the site titled, How to Make Mink Oil Soap .
Deodorant - Lemon wedge or half a lemon rubbed in the armpit. If you don't shave frequently, rubbing alcohol also can be used from time to time on the skin, but never near the gums, nose, or private part as it burns and damages skin other than on the unshaved armpits or on the feet or hands.
Cornstarch doesn't burn the skin and has been used as a deodorant a century ago. A lemon wedge was used as an armpit deodorant in the early 1800s by those who didn't shave.
An excellent deodorant may be made by mixing two tablespoons of warm, melted coconut oil with a tablespoon of powdered coconut milk and a tablespoon of baking soda. You can store this deodorant for a week. So make a small batch at a time. -
Step 4
Baking soda, cornstarch, and green tea at times have been used as underarm deodorants. In the past century a mixture of equal parts of baking soda and cornstarch was used as a deodorant for arm pits or sprinkled on pads used for external feminine hygiene on long travels.
In the 1940s an equal mixture of cornstarch and baking soda was mixed with a bit of petroleum jelly and rubbed like a crème in the arm pits as a deodorant. During the nineties, green tea was added to some stick-type "natural" product deodorants.
A 1940s-style deodorant formula is basic to make about a cup of deodorant. Mix the following dry ingredients and add four drops of essential oils such as rose or orange.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
4 drops of antibacterial essential oils such as rose, olive oil, sweet almond oil, orange blossom oil, or your favorite scent if that oil is safe to dab on your skin.
Check out the Aromatherapy Web site. The site lists and describes essential oils and tells you which are safe for the skin.
