[Herbalist] Strange Weekend Experience

[Carowyn Silveroak]

I thought I'd share this, since many of you work with soaps and 
fragrance oils....

I was down at Chincoteague VA this weekend - yes, the Chincoteague 
from the Marguerite Henry horse books! - for their Second Saturday 
art stroll.  They have a festival every second Saturday of the month, 
to feature artists who demonstrate their skills for the public.  
Fun!  

http://www.chincoteagueculturalalliance.org/upcoming-events.html

Under Demonstrations, under Island Cottage Collection - my mundane 
name is Meredith Harmon.  Wheeee!  Anyway, I digress, because I'm 
excited....!

So I was in the hotel room, and I was using their complimentary but 
cheap shampoo.  You know the type?  Well, of course, being thrifty, I 
take the remnants of the bottle home to use at a later date.  And, no 
matter if I use it today or in a year, it still gives me an asthma 
attack.  Durn fragrance oils....

But, I noticed something that's always held true - in the hotel, at 
Chincoteague, I've never had a problem with the shampoo!  So, of 
course, the next question is WHY?  The only thing I can come up with 
(without getting expensive tests done) is that the water there is 
*extremely hard*.  I live in the limestone regions of PA, but 
Chincoteague's hard water blows our local water away!  What if water 
hardness has something to do with how fragrance oils come out of 
solution (that makes sense), but what if that also affects asthma??  
What is we've been hurting ourselves with this kick to get water 
softeners put in everywhere??

-Carowyn, doing that "thinking" thing again, LOL!!