Photo credit: Photo by Flickr user Lauren Chagaris

Are you staring down a pile of dirty laundry right now (Full Disclosure: I am. Basically always)? Laundry, like dishes, can feel like one of those endless chores. No matter how often you do it, you just keep generating more of it. The clothing that we wear every day should be as toxic-chemical-free as possible; but with our busy schedules (including those endless chores like laundry), detoxing your clothing can feel like a hassle. Luckily, there are easy, budget-friendly ways to make your laundry safer without adding a lot of extra work to your laundry process.

Cool it: Save money, and energy, by lowering the temperature of your washing machine. According to Savvy Brown, 85% of the energy used to wash clothes goes entirely to heating up the water. Cold water is color-safe, gentler on delicates, and a money saver, since lower temperatures can lower your gas bill too. Surprisingly, cold water can also have a positive effect on your indoor air quality. Alexandra Zissu, author of Planet Home, says “heating water blasts volatile chemicals, including chlorine in municipal water, into your breathing space.”

Buying laundry supplies: Keep these rules in mind when you stock up on laundry supplies:

• Skip the fragrances: Avoid laundry supplies with fragrances, which may be linked to toxic chemicals like phthalates. Washington Toxics Coalition recommends looking beyond products with Fragrance-Free labels, which may still contain fragrances, and choosing products that list all of their ingredients
• What to look for: The Center for Environmental Health recommends choosing “vegetable-based laundry detergent (made from corn, palm kernel, or coconut oil) that is fragrance-free, dye-free, and does not contain optical brighteners.”
• Look it up: Look up products using on-the-go tools like the Good Guide. Learn more about toxic chemicals in popular laundry brands, and cleaning supplies, with this fact sheet from Women’s Voices for the Earth.

DIY laundry supplies: Replace a few standard laundry supplies with easy, DIY versions featuring just a few inexpensive ingredients.

• Bleach: Try this tip from Women’s Voices for the Earth! Substitute bleach with hydrogen peroxide; Soak your dingy white clothes for 30 minutes in the washer with 1/2 cup 20% peroxide.
• Laundry detergent: Baking soda, castille soap, and water are all you’ll need for this DIY detergent recipe.
• Fabric softener: Healthy Child, Healthy World recommends replacing your fabric softener with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of baking soda. 

Easy stain removal: Ditch toxic, commercial stain removers (and save a little money) and try out these easy old-school stain removal tips. This infographic shows you how to remove common stains with ingredients like baking soda, lemon juice, and club soda.

Dry cleaning: But what about those dry-cleanables lingering in your closet? Perchloroethylene, a chemical prominently used in dry cleaning, has been linked to cancer as well as nervous system, kidney, liver and reproductive disorders. If it’s not possible for you to give up dry cleaning, there are some easy solutions. Switch from traditional dry cleaning to wet cleaning, which replaces common toxic solvents with biodegradable soap. Debra Lynn Dadd (The Queen of Green) has an outline of which solvents to look out for, and which ones are safe to use. Healthy Child, Healthy World recommends using these two directories to find local, green dry-cleaners.

If you want to stick with your dry cleaner, try to dry clean less items, less frequently. Go through your dry clean only clothing and determine if any of it could be washed by hand instead of sent to the cleaners. And when you bring dry cleaning home, take it out of the plastic and let it off gas outside or in a well ventilated area.

CHIP is short for the Children’s Health Insurance Program which was reauthorized three years ago this weekend.   To mark the occasion, we at Say Ahhh! hosted a Super Blog-Off between Patriots fans and Giants fans.  But here’s the kicker – they have to compete for kids.   That’s right, we’ve taken HHS Secretary Sebelius’ “Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge” quite literally and want the teams to compete based on how much they are doing to help uninsured children.

While we won’t likely reach over 110 million people or be able to sell ads for $3.5 million per thirty seconds, our goal is to help reach the 4.3 million uninsured children who are eligible for CHIP or Medicaid coverage but not yet insured?

Photo by Flickr user Wednesday Elf- Mountainside Crochet

Last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers won.  That’s right.  They might have lost the football game but they won in our books by going to great lengths to reach out to uninsured children.  Pittsburgh fans even swaddled newborn babies in “terrible towels” declaring that no baby should leave the hospital without an insurance card or a terrible towel.

This year, when you are kicking back to watch the game, think about what we could achieve if we dedicated just 1/100th of the time and effort that goes into a Super Bowl into ensuring that every child in America’s has health care coverage.
So whether you are a Pat’s fan, a Giant’s fan or wish there were a team from some place west of the Mississippi in the Super Bowl, you can bring home a victory for uninsured kids in your state by supporting efforts to enroll them in Medicaid or CHIP and keeping those programs strong.

Please visit Say’s Ahhh’s Super Blog-Off and vote for the best children’s health outreach team. Health Care for All blogged on behalf of Patriot’s fans and the Community Service Society of New York took the field for the Giants.

Today, there are 7 million elders in our nation who need long- term services and supports and that number is expected to grow.

Often, the family caregivers who make it possible for their loved ones to remain independent – either at a distance, nearby, or living with their children – depend on home care workers to supplement their caregiving. It takes a team to help someone who is frail or struggling with one or more chronic diseases to remain in the home.

Women who are caregivers turn to home care workers to provide their loved ones long-term services and supports so that they can go to work, care for their children, and/or prevent the burnout that afflicts many family caregivers over time. It is a very tough job.

Home care workers — 90 percent are female – provide an array of critical services such as bathing, dressing, food shopping, meal preparation, medication management, and transportation to medical appointments. Yet these hardworking home care aides are undervalued. Half of them earn wages at or below200 percent of the federal poverty level and rely on public assistance like food stamps and Medicaid to take care of their own families.

Worse yet— home care workers are exempt from basic federal minimum wage and overtime protections that most workers in our nation enjoy under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 1974 when other domestic employees (housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs, gardeners) were granted minimum wage and overtime guarantees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Congress enacted what is known as the  “companionship exemption” —a rule that excludes workers who provide casual “companionship services” to the aged and infirm from these basic protections.

For the last three decades, the rule has been interpreted so broadly that almost all home care aides—nearly 2 million, according to the Department of Labor– regardless of the level of services they provide, have been subject to the exemption.  The result has been the growth of a vibrant $84 billion industry that relies on millions of workers living on the edge of poverty.

Comment on New Proposal to Extend Home Care Workers Basic Federal Labor Guarantees

Fortunately, the Obama administration has proposed new regulations to ensure that home care workers receive fair pay.  Between now and February 27, the U.S. Department of Labor is soliciting public comments on the new rule.

Now it is our turn to support home care workers.

Please tell the Department of Labor that home care workers deserve fair pay – as well as the dignity and respect that extending basic labor rights to this workforce will help to imply. Tell the Administration that home care workers should be treated like the professionals that they are. Explain how without the essential services that they provide, our parents, grandparents, and other loved ones would have to move to a nursing home at greater cost rather than stay at home as they prefer. Ironically, the workers who would provide the services they need in a nursing home have the minimum wage and overtime protections that their home care workers do not.
Your comments in support of these workers are critical and will make a difference.
We need to build a quality home care workforce to meet our nation’s need for quality long term services and supports. We must ensure that home care employers can attract and retain experienced home care workers instead of paying for costly recruitment and training for a revolving door of aides. That requires quality jobs—extending basic labor protections to these workers is a great place to start.
Visit the PHI Campaign for Fair Pay to learn more about the companionship exemption and why the home care industry can afford fair wages; see sample comments; and access the official public comment site.
PHI is a national, not-for profit organization that works to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care—and the lives of the workers who provide that care.

In California, CHIP is known as the Healthy Families Program and provides health coverage for more than 870,000 children. Healthy Families has meant that the Reick boys of Fresno can get the care they need to manage their asthma, and that the Skinner kids of Riverside can stay active in their extra-curricular sports programs. Healthy Families has provided a variety of needed care for the Magana children of Los Angeles, from immunizations and check-ups to the diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening thyroid cancer.

This success of CHIP nationally was in part boosted by federal CHIPRA incentive bonus payments for states that simplified the application process for children’s coverage and made significant progress in increasing the number of insured children. In December 2011, the federal government awarded nearly $300 million in CHIPRA performance bonuses to 23 states.

Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, California failed to qualify for a bonus, losing out on millions of dollars of federal funds that are desperately needed. While California has made efforts to streamline enrollment for children, and launched a new online enrollment tool for Healthy Families (available in English and Spanish at www.healtheapp.net), the state has not made significant enough strides at enrolling uninsured children into health coverage.

The state’s inadequate enrollment gains are made more stark by the fact that two out of every three uninsured children in California, close to 700,000 kids, are currently eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families but not enrolled.

In 2012, California must do better at connecting uninsured children with the quality, comprehensive, affordable health coverage they need to grow healthy and learn well. To that end, the 100% Campaign (a collaborative effort of The Children’s Partnership, Children Now, and Children’s Defense Fund-California) have developed a Healthy Child Checklist to remind parents of some easy ways to ensure their child stays healthy this year, including applying for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families coverage, which families can do at any time of the year, and with www.healtheapp.net, at any hour.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which President Obama signed in March 2010, further strengthens coverage for children by no longer allowing private insurers to deny coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition. Further, the ACA has already benefited children by requiring coverage of preventive services without co-payments, eliminating lifetime or annual limits, and prohibiting insurers from rescinding coverage.

Looking back on how much has changed for children’s coverage in the past three years, there is much to celebrate. More children have health insurance today than at any point in American history. The opportunity to improve children’s health will continue to grow as California moves forward with implementation of important provisions of CHIPRA and the ACA.

To make these opportunities most meaningful and successful for children in California, we need to focus now on enrolling eligible children and creating a “culture of coverage.” If we work together, we can ensure that more California children have the health coverage they need to grow up healthy.

California parents can learn more about children’s health coverage by calling

1-877-KIDS-NOW (1-877-543-7669) or apply for children’s health coverage directly online at www.healtheapp.net or www.benefitscal.org.

In their small town, there were no women’s health clinics. She did not have access to breast cancer screening. She found the lumps herself. By the time she was diagnosed, it was too late.

Yesterday, the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood.[1]

*Urge the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood–and tell them that regardless of where people stand on pro-choice/pro-life issues, breast cancer exams for low income women shouldn’t be a political football.

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/

Each year, millions of women are screened for breast cancer at Planned Parenthood health centers, and Susan G. Komen’s funding pays for about 170,000 of those screenings. [2]   These services are particularly important for women from under-served communities like my grandmother.

Now isn’t the time to cut funds to ANY entity that provides affordable breast cancer screenings.   In fact, more funds are needed for education, care, and screenings as a combination of these are necessary to save lives.

*Join us in urging the Komen Foundation’s Board of Directors to restore the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of women to get breast cancer screening through Planned Parenthood:

http://action.momsrising.org/letter/KomenDefundsBreasts/

Please forward this e-mail to your family, neighbors and friends–and post this action link on your Facebook page too.

Together, we are a powerful force for women and families.

[1] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/31/146160911/susan-g-komen-halts-grants-to-planned-parenthood

[2] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/31/susan-g-komen-drops-funding-for-planned-parenthood/

Skip the cans: Limit the BPA in your game day snacks by limiting your canned ingredients, or choosing BPA free alternatives. Soak beans overnight and boil them the next day for baked beans or bean dip. If you’re making chili, avoid canned tomatoes or tomato paste and look for boxed or jarred alternatives. You can also replace canned tomatoes with cooked fresh tomatoes. For beverages, Healthy Child, Healthy World recommends choosing beer and soda in glass bottles instead of canned if possible.

Less packaging: Look for ways to reduce the amount of plastic and packaging you purchase for your party. Save money, and avoid packaging, by buying bulk snacks, sweets, and ingredients. Steer clear of overly packaged convenience produce, like prewashed lettuce, premade carrot sticks, or individually wrapped fruits or veggies. These items often carry a higher price tag. Look for loose produce at your supermarket, or use this tool to find a local farmer’s market. Skip plastic tubs or bags by using minimally packaged ingredients to make one of your favorite snack foods at home, like potato chips or salsa.

Smarter produce: Veggies may not seem like a big part of your Superbowl menu. But a lot of traditional game day foods feature a few pieces of produce: cut up veggies for all those dips, chopped onions and peppers to top off a bowl of chili, celery sticks cozied up next to chicken wings. Remember to rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Wash inedible peels; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife. For edible peels, peeling non-organic fruits and vegetables is an easy way to avoid the chemicals that are absorbed into the peel.

Rethink disposables: If you can lose the disposable silverware and plates, that’s great. If you can’t, what about losing one of them? Keep your disposable plates, but use regular silverware. Use the restaurant trick of keeping a bowl of hot water by the sink and dump used silverware in the bowl so it’s rinsed and ready for the dishwasher. Or add dishsoap to the water and give your soapy silverware a quick scrub and rinse when the party is over. Try bamboo or unbleached recycled paper products for dishes and napkins. Remember to make recycling obvious by clearly marking your recycling bin.

Lose the shoes: Lower your toxic chemical exposures by asking your guests to leave their shoes at the door. Lead-contaminated soil from the outside creates the majority of lead dust inside our homes. Leaving your shoes at the door can cut your lead dust levels by 60 percent, and also reduce your exposure to pesticides, dust mites, and more. Create a designated space for shoes by the door and make it obvious to your guests by putting up a sign, placing a mat in the space, or putting a few pairs of your own shoes there.

More Non-toxic Tips Tuesdays:

• Take BPA Off of Your Grocery List
• Five Tips for the Non-toxic Chef
• A Green Makeover for Your Cleaning Supplies

Do you have any green Super Bowl party tips or recipes? Leave them in the comments, or visit our Facebook page and share them with the MomsRising community.

Photo by flickr user Mananetwork

Earlier this week, Thao Nguyen covered some important improvements that will make the future brighter for all American dragon babies.  Significantly, dragon babies can not be denied insurance due to preexisting conditions under President Obama’s health care reform law.

Yet, for Asian American mothers, this lucky year may be more dangerous than fortunate. Certain health barriers pose serious hazards for many Asian Americans mothers and their dragon babies. Here are some trends that may fire you up:

Higher HBV Infection Rate for Babies

Hepatitis B (HBV), which attacks the liver, is one of the most common infectious diseases in the United States and can be transmitted from moms to babies at birth. Nationally, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders account for less than 6% of the U.S. population, but more than 50% of chronic HBV cases. Up to 10,000 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander women who have HBV infection give birth in the U.S. each year, and babies infected at birth have a 90% chance of developing chronic HBV infection. Thankfully, there is an effective vaccine, but uptake is far from universal. This year, let’s make sure that all babies at risk for HBV infection have the opportunity to receive this lifesaving preventive care.

Higher Rate of C-Sections

According to research, the rate of cesarean section for first time Asian and Pacific Islander moms increased by 70% between 1991 and 2008. C-section rates for these women are also 19% higher than the cesarean rate for first time mothers who are white. In addition, some studies indicate that Asian American moms who have white partners are more likely to give birth by cesarean.  It’s unclear why there’s a disparity in this important health outcome, or what information Asian American mothers are receiving about this increased risk. However, what is clear is that improving the quality of health care through cultural competency trainings, increased language access and the development of a diverse workforce is critical to improving the care that moms and babies receive.

Higher Risk of Gestational Diabetes

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) women are more likely to suffer from gestational diabetes. Yet, health care providers do not yet fully understand why there are significant differences between ethnic subgroups. For example, among AA and NHPI moms who develop gestational diabetes, Native Hawaiian and Filipino women are more likely to suffer poor outcomes related to the condition.

More Data Please

While there’s predictability in the movement of the stars and the cycle of our calendar, some Asian American health issues remain mysterious. It’s clear we need more data concerning Asian American moms and their babies. Let’s make some progress in data collection in the Year of the Dragon 2012!

Taking toxic chemicals out of your home can feel incredibly overwhelming. But you don’t have to throw everything away, and you don’t have to throw out your budget. Take small steps. Make changes that make sense for your budget. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Over time, I stopped making that frenzied, and ultimately unhelpful, race through my apartment. Instead, I found simple, inexpensive (often free) changes I could make to take toxic chemicals out of my home. Recently, we discussed easy tips to give your bathroom a non-toxic makeover. This week, lets take a look at simple solutions for taking toxic chemicals out of your kitchen

Cleaning supplies: Give your kitchen cleaning supplies an inexpensive nontoxic upgrade by making DIY versions (don’t worry: these are simple, two ingredient fixes):

• Garbage Disposal Cleaner: Try this recipe from the Smart Mama–Combine water and distilled white vinegar in ice cube trays and use the frozen cubes as a homemade disposal cleaner.
• Sink cleaner: Use Savvy Brown’s sink cleaning solution by scrubbing a dirty sink with a simple mix of vineger and baking soda.
• Oven cleaner: A simple paste made from baking soda and water is an excellent oven cleaner. Follow these steps from Healthy Child, Healthy World to clean your oven the non-toxic way.

Cooking materials: One easy way to reduce toxics in your cookware is to think about which pot or pan you use the most and focus on making that the safest. If you are in the market for new cookware, try these tips on materials from Planet Home:

• Glass: Ovenproof glass is “inexpensive, reusable, and recyclable.” While it’s great for baking, most glass can not be used on the stove.

• Ceramic: Make sure it’s lead-free, and skip painted ceramic dishes in particular unless you’re certain that they don’t contain lead.

• Stainless steel: Aim for completely stainless steel if possible; these versions are the least likely to leach components into cooking foods.

Other durable, nontoxic materials include cast iron, copper, and enamel-coated cast iron. If you are currently using pans with a nonstick coating, make sure to replace them once the coating has been scratched or torn.

Tap water: If you’re in the market for a water filter, the Environmental Working Group’s  water filter guide will help you choose the filter that’s right for you and your budget needs. If not, there are a few easy tips you can use to make your tap water safer:

• Always cook with and drink cold water from the tap.
• Let water for a minute in the morning before you use it.
• The Green Guide recommends placing an open container of water in the fridge for a few hours, which helps filter out chlorine, and let water run for a full minute before you use it for cooking or drinking.

Wash everything thoroughly: The best way to detox your fruits and veggies is to make sure they’re thoroughly cleaned so that you’re not consuming any chemicals that are lingering on the skin. This is especially important for non-organic produce.

• Rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Not sure how to time 30 seconds? It’s about the length of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice in your head.
• Wash inedible peels; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife.
• Try a scrub, but don’t waste money on pricey commercial versions. Check out this guide to washing produce by Mama in the Kitchen; it has two simple, vinegar based and salt based scrubs that you can make at home.

Making the most of your produce: Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of any healthy diet. Try to choose the healthiest produce for your budget, and make it last, with these easy tips:

• The Dirty Dozen is a list by the Environmental Working Group of the most highly pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables. If you can’t buy organic versions of these items, that’s okay. Try to reduce your consumption of them if possible and make sure to stringently follow the cleaning tips listed above. Or, swap out Dirty Dozen items with produce from the Clean 15; this list from the Environmental Working Group shows the conventionally grown fruits and veggies with the least pesticide contamination.
• This guide shows you how to store fruits and vegetables so they’re less likely to spoil quickly, and how soon you should eat them after purchase.
• If you find a great deal at your local supermarket on organic produce, why not create your own frozen food? The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives you a rundown of how to freeze specific fruits and vegetables so you can store and freeze your produce safely.

Cleaner Living: Toxin #4- Coal Tar

By Dena Fleno, CTWorkingMoms.com blogger

Um, what?

I hadn’t heard of this one until I started researching.

Coal Tar in personal care products is the same as the stuff they use in pavement sealant, just in lower doses. It is a known human carcinogen, with industrial coal tar recently being banned in Washington after it started turning up in ordinary house dust as well as in streams, lakes and other waterways at levels that concern government researchers. It is banned for use in cosmetics in the European Union. It is also a photosensitizer, making skin more at risk for burning and overexposure in sunlight.

As for its use in personal care products, it gets a big whopping 10 on the hazard scale that EWG uses. Coal tar used to be found in dark-colored hair dyes , but has since been removed from those products (though what they use now may not be any better) since it caused allergic reactions in some people (the cancer thing is just icing). It is, however, still being used in dandruff shampoo such as Neutrogena T-Gel Shampoo and some psoriasis creams.

What to do?

Though it is not one of those products found everywhere it is found in some pretty popular brands that people buy, especially men. There is no definitive evidence (since it hasn’t been studied enough) that using personal products with Coal tar lead to increased cancer risk, but why would you want to slather your head or body with something that has been banned for use on a road?

Switch the coal tar products for those without it, and let your loved ones know as well.

Her other posts to date:

Cleaner Living: Toxin #1- Phthalates

Cleaner Living: Toxin #2- Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A)

Cleaner Living: Toxin #3- Oxybenzone

About Dena:

Dena is the busy mom of a 6-year-old son and a 19 month old daughter. Her other job is working as a representative for a labor union. In her “free time” she enjoys a good book, a glass (or 3) of wine, cooking, and looking forward to the day she may finally be able to pee in peace. Her biggest hope in life is that she will produce two happy, healthy adults who will treat themselves and others with compassion and kindness

Body wash and Soap: A good liquid castile soap can be used as a face wash, body wash, and as a simple hand soap. Check the label when you’re buying liquid castile soap; Women’s Voices for the Earth recommends avoiding sodium lauryl (laureth) sulfate (SLS) and Diethanolamine (DEA). For sensitive skin, you may want to use unscented soap, or dilute it with warm water. If you’re buying other soaps and shower gels, make sure to look them up on the Skin Deep database first.

Shower Curtains: You know that sharp, new shower curtain smell? That’s the smell of chemicals off-gassing. According to Healthy Child, Healthy World, “shower curtains contain a host of other chemicals (Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs) which are linked to central nervous system, liver and kidney damage.” Next time you’re in the market for a new shower curtain, choose a cloth curtain, or one of the PVC-free shower curtains on this list from CHEJ. If you do purchase a new vinyl curtain, open it outside and let it off-gas outside of your home before you hang it up.

Cleaning supplies: Tub cleaners, sink scrubbers, tile sparklers—according to your local cleaning supply aisle, bathrooms require quite a few specific products. Skip the toxic chemicals in many conventional cleaning supplies by trying these easy DIYs.

• Toilet bowl cleaner: Women’s Voices for the Earth recommends sprinkling your toilet bowl with baking soda, then drizzling distilled white vinegar in the bowl, and letting the mixture soak for at least 30 minutes. Then scrub the bowl with a toilet brush.
• Tub cleaner: Try this recipe from Healthy Child, Healthy World– Mix 1 2/3 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup liquid soap and 1/2 cup water.
• Glass spray: My favorite easy recipe, from Alexandra Zissu: Just mix equal parts water and distilled white vinegar.

Shampoo and Conditioner: Do a little research before your next haircare shopping trip. Look up shampoos, conditioners, and hair products on the Skin Deep database and the Good Guide. Both of these sites offer handy apps, so you can look up products while you shop. Or skip the searching (and save some money) with these easy DIYs.

• Shampoo: This Planet Home recipe is so easy, and uses ingredients you probably already have at home! To whip up a bottle of homemade shampoo, just combine ½ cup of baking soda with three cups of warm water in a bottle.

• Conditioner: Here’s a recipe from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. You’ll need: one egg yolk, ½ teaspoon olive oil, and 3/4 cup lukewarm water. Beat the egg yolk until it’s thick and white. Add the oil and mix well. Then add the water into the egg mixture and mix well.  Massage into clean, damp hair. Rinse with plenty of warm water after about 10 minutes.

Reduce bathroom moisture: Damp bathrooms can be breeding grounds for mold. Try these two easy tips from Planet Home to reduce your bathroom moisture:

• Shower with a window or door open, and the exhaust fan on.
• Take colder showers, which not only reduces moisture on the walls, but saves energy!