making your own personal-hygiene stuff

In the last day or two here on permies, I saw some mention of the no-shampoo decision (something I recall trying 8 or 9 years ago but eventually relenting). During my shower today, I figured this bottle of shampoo will be my last.

Got me wondering. What other store-bought personal hygiene products have you stopped using? If you replaced them, what did you replace them with? What do you make yourself now? What store-bought items seem impossible to replace? (for example, toothpaste, for me, seems like one that'd be hard to adequately replace)

Dogwood twigs have long been used as toothbrushes and are supposed to also be whitening and good for the teeth inherently. I switched to dogwood toothbrushes years ago and mostly use them alone, chewing the bark as the paste, though sometimes with toothpaste.

Combs and brushes might also be able to be replaced with detangling by hand. I have found it to help with spreading natural oils more evenly throughout. In the winter things went awry and keeping neat hair went down on the priority list but when I got back to it I figured out that with some patience and care my hair would be fine without those tools, and with less strands pulled or broken.

Baking soda works as a reasonable toothpaste substitute .  Kirk's Castile soap purchased in the stores in the white wrapper seems to work quite well instead of shampoo.

I replaced toothpaste with bicarb soda (baking soda) and it works really well. Just wet the toothbrush and dip it into a shallow dish of it and it works well. If you like a peppermint taste, then add mix a tiny amount of essential oil into the powder.

I've been using soap or shampoo bars in my hair for years. I haven't gotten around to making my own yet, but am keen to try. After washing with soap and rinsing well I do a final rise with a tablespoon of cider vinegar in a litre/quart of water and that helps. I've washed my hair without any of this just in plain water while travelling and didn't like it, but lots of other people do.

Beef tallow works really well as a moisturiser or hand cream.