Introduction
Sometimes you wake up in the morning and find that you're disgusting: your armpits stink, you hair has a funky odor and I don't even want to mention the inside of your pants. When you go outside you find that the only animals around you are flies. This is when, if you are going to be around anyone, it might be a good idea to clean yourself. But you're in the wilderness; there's no shower, no tub and you really don't want to submerge yourself in the freezing cold river/stream/lake.
Here's what you do
1. Wait until the warmest part of the day (about 1-2pm) and get a towel and some soap (Dr. Bronner's Magic Castile Soap is great; you can get it at Trader Joe's).
2. Go down to that cold river/stream/lake and take off all your clothes. First, make sure no one is around.
3. Step into the water; I know you thought you could avoid this but you can't.
4. Get your feet accustomed to the water's temperature, just surrender yourself to the cold- bathing will be much easier if you do this, if you can't it's okay just to everything as fast as possible.
5. Get your armpits and crotch wet, soap them, then rinse them off. Usually I stand there for a little bit and let those parts of my body warm up a bit before the next step.
6. Bend over and splash water onto your hair. Dunk your hair a few times to get the dirt and smell out of it. Squeeze the water out and repeat until it doesn't stink anymore.
7. Dry yourself off with your towel, put on your clothes, and if you are cold go into your sleeping bag and stay there until you're not cold anymore.
Side note:
Yes, I didn't tell you to soap your hair. This is because it's impractical to soap your hair in the wilderness. If you're going to be away from a shower for a long time stop shampooing and conditioning your hair at the beginning of your trip. Shampoo is meant to take moisture out of your hair and conditioner is meant to put it back in. If you stop doing this to your hair it will naturally balance itself and you will only need to use water to get the dirt out of it occasionally. Right now I've let my hair be for about a month, its a bit more oily than it was before (because it's trying to balance itself) but its much easier to manage. If you have long hair brush it daily or every other day and keep it in a braid- this keeps it from getting tangled and dirty.
p.s. I don't know why people decided shampooing and conditioning were good ideas.
About Alex and Candice
- Alex and Candice
- Bay Area, California, United States
- Alex was born in London, England and has been living in the States for about 5 years. He has had many jobs in his life including being in the British Army, being a promoter in London and bartending.
Candice was born in Los Angeles, California and has been living in San Francisco for almost five years. She has also had many jobs in her life including being an archaeologist, an ESL teacher and a Director of Studies at and ESL summer camp. Her current hobby is learning to fix ailments using essential oils.
Pebble is a female dwarf tuxedo hamster who has recently found much joy in escaping from her cage and running about! She is always a rambunctious barrel of laughs!
Peanut was a standard dwarf hamster. He was a lover of his bed and enjoyed sleeping most of the day. He died peacefully in Southern Oregon and is buried near a river there.
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