Frugal Skin Care

Here are some tips I have learned over the years. There are frugal ways that I care for my skin. My kids say I’m cheap, but I do watch my pennies. I pinch them and on occasion I do make Abe Lincoln cry. These thoughts dawned on me as I shaved and showered this morning. Standing at my bathroom mirror, I see the healing scar on my chest from my open heart surgery and think, “I almost have the look of a super-hero with the emblem of lightning on his chest.” Then I smile and begin my ablutions. I first brush my teeth using hot water. Then the water is hot enough to splash on my face in preparation for my shave. I shake the can of shaving cream, squirting out a small amount, then with my fingertips, I smear a light coating of cream over my whisker stubble. I’ve learned that a small amount lubricates as well as the mounds shown on shaving cream or blade razor commercials. There’s no need to send money down the drain. I don’t rinse my face, because I step directly into the shower. While the water from the tap warms, I lean over and wet my hair, pour on shampoo, and lather up, rinsing under the showerhead only after the water becomes warm. I gauge by how much lather I produce when it’s time for a haircut. Because I try to use the same amount each time and my hair doesn’t lather well, it’s time.

A washcloth and a bit of Dermasil soap to wash my neck, then the rinsed cloth cleans my face and ears. Soap hasn’t caused my face to dry in years. I learned to use the nylon netting scrungie and body wash soap for the rest of me (And there’s more than enough to scrub.) When my daughters lived at home, they used scrungies, explaining that the body wash with the mesh scrub doesn’t leave a ring in the tub or shower. That’s another way for me to save time and energy. All rinsed off, I reach for the towel. It’s not the fluffy towels seen on television, suffocated in perfumed softeners, but a towel dried in the sunshine and wind on a clothes line. Fabric softener is nothing but liquefied wax and waxy clothes don’t absorb water. I prefer the fragrance of air dried linens better anyway. Solar and wind power just adds to the energy saving benefits. Bending and reaching to hang becomes exercise for my muscles. My daughters hated the stiff air-dried towels. They call my roughened towels, sandpaper…Sandpaper, I just call it exfoliation. It becomes another of my inexpensive dermatologic beauty treatments.