Chronic conditions?

I'm going out on a limb here and I hope I don't get branded with a "TMI" label.

After I started using natural soap from Oil and Spice, my chronic acne seemed to get a little better. I especially love Mary's tea tree and eucalyptus soap (although apparently I need to put that word on a spelling list because after four tries I still can't get it right). I follow that up with some tea tree oil diluted in water on a cotton ball. When my face does break out, this clears it up within a day. I grew up massively OD-ing on Clearasil, and quit using it when I got married because I didn't want to bleach all my newly acquired bed linens. Now I wouldn't use it for other reasons, but I digress.

I inherited poor skin from my mother (she would say) and since she still struggles with acne (she would say) I presumed it would be a life-long problem for me. And then :::::::::drumroll:::::::::: after 20+ years it has almost disappeared. And for $25 you can click here for one mom's secret to white teeth a clear face. Not really...this is a public service announcement.

A friend told me she used baking soda to wash her hair, and vinegar as a conditioner. We don't spend that much on hair products as it is (those days ended when the kids started coming) but I was looking to move away from the chemicals in bath products. I don't use her exact method; I put a tablespoon of baking soda in a cup, a tablespoon of vinegar in another cup, and then fill them each with warm water from the shower when I get in. I pour the baking soda mixture over my hair first and scrub and rinse, and then I pour on the vinegar and let it sit there for a minute or two before rinsing. My mother-in-law remembers having her hair rinsed with vinegar as a child so it's a time-tested conditioner. I use white vinegar, and I guess because I've switched over to using vinegar more for cleaning, the smell doesn't bother me. I don't smell it at all once I'm out of the shower.

The first perk I noticed: I never get nasty soap scum film in my shower. I do still have to clean the tub, but it's a breeze. Then I realized that my face and back were rarely breaking out (unfortunately, this combo can't get rid of hormones). I went out of town for a weekend and just used shampoo/conditioner, and within a day my face started breaking out again, and it took several days to clear up.

My husband has been using dandruff shampoos for years with little success (he would say) and now that he uses this baking soda/vinegar combo his scalp doesn't itch and the dandruff is gone. So these "chronic conditions" were actually caused by our bath products, which in turn caused us to have to go out and buy more harmful products with which to treat them. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do wonder why I've never read anything about the side-effects of shampoo. Shampoo seems harmless, right? I'm not here to go into anything too deep about SLS or anything, just wanted to pass on these tips to anyone else who may be struggling with what they thought were life-time annoyances.

Have you run across any other bath/beauty products that are causing problems? Any other natural solutions you could pass along?