The post about hair gel last month reminded me that I’ve got an almost full canister of hairspray in the back of our bathroom cupboard.

I bought it way back in the day one summer when I was trying everything and anything to try to stop my curls turning instantly to frizz. It didn’t work so was relegated to the cupboard of forgotten toiletries.

I don’t know anyone else that uses spray - all by friends either have shaved heads or prefer their hair to move instead of being rock solid - so 1980s-theme parties aside, I won’t be able to find a good home for it that way. But the responses to the hair gel suggestion made me wonder if it could be used as an adhesive or something like that instead. Anyone know?

Or anyone got any other suggestions?

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We had an email from Tamara last month that got buried in my inbox but I found it again so here it is:

I wanted suggestions on how to recycle pill boxes… like the kind you get with birth control.

I thought I could use one as a wallet, but you see, twelve a year for an indefinite number of years, and a wallet just isn’t going to be a good enough idea for very long. Any suggestions?

I’ve never taken the pill myself (because I can’t take any pills without choking - very annoying but all in my head) but unless US television has lied to me over the years, in the US at least, they come in clam-shell shaped containers which help you keep track of the days. And all americans live in giant mansions or on ranches. And everyone’s problems are solved at neatly after 30 minutes.

So any suggestions for the clam-shells? I’d be tempted to use them to hold beads but suspect every time I opened the clasp they’d go flying across the room - and while that would be funny the first three or four times…

(In the UK, I believe the pilles usually come in blister packs with the days written around the edge. On a related note, we’ve also featured plastic pill and vitamin bottles in the past too.)

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We’ve had an email from Katherine, asking:

My niece left about half a tube of hair spiking gel behind at my house; I’m not about to change my style and use it myself but it’s not worth the postage to post it back… Any ideas on what to do with hair spiking glue other than spike hair?

The brand, if this makes a difference, is Schwarzkopf ‘Got2b’. If I were a chemist I might be able to work out from the ingredients list whether it can be basically used like ordinary glue!

We’ve got a few half-tubes of gel in our bathroom cupboard too - donated from by a friend who no longer needed them when John was going through his faux-fro phase last year - so I’d like some ideas for this too. I guess we could repeat the donation but I don’t know anyone who would use it - like with the other half-used toiletries, it could go to a shelter I guess but I don’t know whether they’d prefer just practical things.

I suspect hair wax/oil type products could be reused for lubrication purposes in the same way as most greases but gels tend to dry sticky or crispy so couldn’t be used for that.

Any suggestions though? Or ideas about the glue thing? I wonder if like toothpaste it can be used as a temporary fix for, eg, sticking light posters to walls… anyone know or care to test it?

(Photo by asterisco)

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We’ve had an email from Victoria, saying:

My grandfather has moved out of the house and left a very large collection of used razor blades. For what reason he never seemed to throw them out and just let them pile up in a bathroom cabinet. Can this item be recycled?

I’m presuming Victoria means safety razor type blades - not fully disposable razors or straight blades.

If they’re just metal (without plastic casing) then I suspect they can be recycled in the same way as other steel (most household waste sites have special containers for scrap metal) but what about reuses?

(Photo by iannai)

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Deodorant bottles were one of the first things we featured on the site but Julie has a bit of a spin on that suggestions:

Could you help me with what I could possibly do with toiletries such as deodorant, body lotion that have either not been used or of they have only once. These have either irritated the skin or just don’t like them now.

It seems such a waste to throw them away, so I would welcome any ideas of organisations that might benefit from them.

I’ve had the irritating the skin problem with some deodorants too and now they’re sitting in the bathroom cupboard until the day I, I don’t know, develop leather-like lizard skin that can’t be irritated by anything in a roll-top bottle.

I suspect like with old cosmetics and unused but not required sanitary towels/tampons one answer might be a local women’s or homeless shelter - but any other suggestions?

I think I remember something about some body lotions being used as a moisturiser/softener on old leather but have no idea where I picked that up - anyone know either way?

[6] comments