Friday, June 05, 2009

Anatomy of Roadside Hygiene

Figure 1: Subject has not showered for six consecutive days.

God's give to travelers? Wet wipes. The face kind. The key to not getting stinky lies with the face wipes... they clear you face, your feet, your pits. It's glorious. 

Wearing makeup seems to be more hassle than it's worth on the road. Opt for gigantic sunglasses instead. They cover half our face not only making you seem more mysterious, they cover the sleep dust in your eyes when you're heading to the McDonald's bathroom to get dressed. 

The second best thing next to wipes is dry shampoo. Normally, I use Psssssssst!, but Dalene got me some salon stuff for Christmas. It works great for days 2 through 4. After day for though, the grime is too much. A headband does wonders- it says to the world, "My hair is supposed to look like this, thankyouverymuch." I have really embraced the headband on this trip for just that reason. (See above.)

Rivers are a great way to refresh your face and get your hair wet so it doesn't stick up everywhere... but mind the freezing glacial rivers of the north. They will freeze your scalp and give you a headache!

When you get really desperate buy some cheap shampoo (if you don't already use that crap)- it lathers really easily, then using a large jug of water (I used a gallon jug but didn't empty it) wash your hair. It feels amazing. Especially after having dirty hair for 5 days. If you are really lucky, there is a bathroom nearby with hand dryers. Kneel under the dryer and use your fingers to rub your hair and dry it out. Be warned: this takes forever. It's totally worth it though. 

Because I have been camping my nails got really dirty. I tried to clean them out with the pokey thing in the nail clippers, but nothing gets them clean like washing your hair in the shower... so I painted them. It worked great! Now I don't feel like the dirty chick with the gross nails.

I was going to write this post like a textbook. Oh well. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Still lookin' good!