The Ghost of Deathly Follows

Goosebumps don't lie. You can feel it when someone is staring at you. 

When I saw her, a cold draft spilled into my spine.

She's been looking at me for a while, that pale-looking woman with dry, tangled hair, sunken bloodshot eyes, and blotchy-red skin. 

The horror! The horror!- Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

I'm beginning to get scared. I don't like strangers who stare like you're someone being judged for the gallows.  Like you're someone she'd bring with you to her gallows. 

I look at her closely. She looks so familiar and yet so unfamiliar. There's something sad and desperate in her eyes, like she's crying for help. Like she's crying for someone to save her.

I look closer.

I have to look closer. 

She looks back. She stares long and hard at me. 

Siphoning all the courage I have, even tapping my daughter's courage reservoir because she's braver than me on many accounts, I stand up. I walk slowly towards her. I am no longer afraid. 

I reach for her face. 

I see myself touching my face. That woman is me.

That's me and what I've become relying too much on commercial products. 

That's me, the Ghost of Deathly Follows, the woman who follows what's "in" because prime-time commercials say so, because celebrities say so, and because everyone else who don't really give a rat's ass about my true welfare says so.

I don't want to be possessed anymore by the Ghost of Deathly Follows.

Donned in a Ghostbuster's suit, I sat in front of my computer, flexed my fingers, and typed, "homemade shampoo" until I reached Simple Mom's "How to wash your hair without shampoo." I read her blog and numerous other articles on no 'poo.

The dam of knowledge exploded. I was washed away. I followed Tsh's advice on going 'poo less.  Baking soda shampoo followed by apple cider vinegar solution for conditioner. 

I was washed away the second time, literally, and it was the best washing ever. 

Since then, I wanted to be washed over and over again. 

From inside to outside. 

This is the reason why I started wearepracticalmoms.blogspot.com. 

Because following the most popular manufactured products in mainstream media is not always the best and the most practical option.

Because we all need a good washing every now and then.

Because we all have our ghosts to vanquish.

From now on, I vow to overcome the Ghost of Deathly Follows through DIY, natural living, and a simple, more meaningful lifestyle. 

From now on, I shall no longer be stared at during the wee hours of the morning by some sallow ghost!

Come! Help me! 

Let's vanquish these ghosts of what we were, so that we can be the goddesses we are meant to be!

Let's wash away our insecurities and floods ourselves with new and practical knowledge and skills that will redefine who we are in our own terms!

Let's break the gallows that haunt us because this time, we are the executioners- the executioners of our fate!

Next Chapter: Baking Soda Wars