Skincare and routines
A small disclaimer that I am writing with a feeling of deep appreciation towards every human being's unique path: the entry below certainly does not describe how every human being needs to relate with their own skin, hair and with products, but rather how I do it.
I have come to the realisation that for me, the best way to relate with skin and hair care products is not via routines, but via listening to my body and its diverse and changing needs, every day. The only times I follow skin care routines (i.e., I use prescription medication) is when I struggle with challenges caused by the autoimmune skin condition I live with. Such challenges have diminished substantially since I began to use very minimal skin care and stopped wearing makeup.
Water is the only care product that I use consistently. Every day, or rather every morning, I take a shower. At times it's hot and at other times it's cold. An important part of my care towards my skin and hair is eating whole foods too. In summer, I try to be with the air as much as possible and practise naturism whenever I can. I also try to be with the sun early in the morning or late in the evening, for some minutes.
And then I add products depending on what the needs of my skin and hair are. My partner and I share almost all the products that are in the picture above. My stepchild uses some of them too. More generally, we prefer to only have those products that all of us can use.
We use a bar of soap every day, for our hands and body. We also have liquid soap that we refill.
We have a crystal deodorant, but we use it only when we feel we need to.
We keep a small tin of petroleum jelly at home. It lasts a very long time and doesn't go bad. My partner uses it as a lip balm, I use it on very small cuts to avoid plasters.
Recently, I invited a natural balm into my life again. I've lived without one for many months, but my skin usually gets drier as it gets colder here in the Nordics in winter. I use this balm for everything: as a lip balm, hand cream, face cream, body lotion, and even for my hair.
We use sunscreen mostly in summer.
Most of the time, I wash my hair only with water. But occasionally I use shampoo too. I used to borrow my partner's shampoo, but when it ran out, I bought an unscented one for both of us and my stepchild. In fact, none of the products we use, apart from the sunscreen, have a scent. In pregnancy, I have become even more sensitive to scents, so we avoid them.
Generally, I prefer products that are multi-purpose (such as the balm I mentioned above), that can be used by the whole family, zero-waste, locally produced, with simple and natural ingredients, unscented, certified, accessible (so that I don't need to order them from another country), and affordable. It's not always possible to fulfil all of these requirements at once. In the past few months, I have not been able to get some of the products I used to use, or prefer, either. For example, I used to buy solid shampoo bars from a local shop. Due to hyperemesis gravidarum I could barely walk to the bathroom, let alone to the shop.
Over time, my skin care hasn't changed much. The picture below was taken almost exactly a year ago, in January 2024. There's a bar of soap, solid shampoo, a multi-purpose balm, lip balm, crystal deodorant and toothpaste tabs. In the past month or so we have been using conventional toothpaste. We picked it up in the hospital where I stayed overnight. As I'm looking at the picture below, I'm thinking that many of the same products were used by my mother and grandmother too, and by myself when I was very young.
At times, my fellow humans ask me if there are any particular brands or companies that I would recommend. It's certainly not what I strive to do (though for transparency, I always tell my fellow humans where something comes from, if they ask). For this reason, I try not to signal brands in my autoethnography. My main area of expertise, as an academic, is sustainability in business. After researching many businesses over the years, I see how complicated sustainability is. I also don't want to discuss any brands that I know rather little about, that I haven't researched myself as a sustainability researcher (not only as a consumer). Whenever possible, I try to buy from companies that are small and local, and what is local to me might not be local to my readers. Personally, I avoid being loyal to brands. In the past several years, I have moved a few times. In northern Sweden, I used a balm and a soap made in Sweden. In Finland, I bought similar products made in Finland by small Finnish companies.