A selection of sustainable products, including Bite toothpaste bits, a bamboo toothbrush, and a reusable pink water bottle, on a pastel blue-and-pink background. Share along Pinterest
Hannah Austin began using more than sustainable personal care products, like the ones depicted supra, after she experienced degenerative hives. Conception past Alexis Italian lira; Photography courtesy of Hannah Austin

I woke up covered in welts one morning over Christmas break from college. My pelt was hot and unhealthy from unknowingly scratching myself in my sleep in.

Information technology marked the beginning of a precise long, painful year.

O'er the next several months, I saw many doctors and specialists, and washed-out way overmuch time online trying to lick the cause of this on-going response.

Eventually, a doctor diagnosed Maine with chronic idiopathic urticaria. Put differently, chronic hives with no known suit. I was told the hives could last anyplace from 1 to 5 years, and they could come rear again at whatever time — a disheartening thing to get word.

Doctors prescribed me antihistamines for the hives. But each time I was given a high dose, and the medication would work for only a few years before the nettle rash came back.

So, I sought KO'd other treatments. I took oatmeal baths, put ice on the welts, put-upon lotions — cipher worked.

My skin always felt like it was happening fire, and the symptoms spread to other parts of my body. Sometimes my lips would swell up. Sometimes my palms and the soles of my feet would get painful.

The hives ready-made it difficult to start through unremarkable life. I couldn't revolve about my classes, internships, or summertime jobs. I knew I had to find something to sooth my shin.

Blotchy red spots, known as hives, can be seen on Hannah Austin's arms and wrists. Share along Pinterest
Hives on Hannah Austin's body made it difficult for her to focus on school and work. Design past Alexis Italian lira; Photography courtesy of Hannah Austin

That's when I started digging into the ingredients labels along the personal care products I was using. I sentiment that maybe if I took a more holistic coming and cut out potentially toxic ingredients, I could finally find around relief.

I began swapping everything from my lotion and shampoo to my laundry detergent for cleaner versions. Simply every bit I continued to do my research, I realized that the ingredients weren't the lonesome thing I requisite to worry well-nig in these products — it was also the plastic containers and waste.

I couldn't believe I had ne'er realized how much I threw away each day you bet I was supporting companies that were creating far more than their sporting partake of pollution.

I was heartbroken thinking of the animals whose homes were organism exterminated, of the people most vulnerable to the devastating effects of global climate change, of the planet we are rapidly destroying.

I soon found another corner of the net that sparked my stake: the zero-waste campaign. Members of its large and ever-growing community aspire to send atomic number 3 little as feasible to the landfill away avoiding disposable packaging and single-use products.

Given the way our society is set risen, creating no neutralize some tush feel like an impossible goal. That's why many masses in the movement simply focus on practical sustainability and purchasing products with minimal waste — which is what I did.

As I ran forbidden of my bottled shampoo, I switched to shampoo bars with no packaging. When I needful a new comb, I recovered a bamboo one instead of conventional plastic. And I began buying my apparel and furniture secondhand instead of new.

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Hannah Austin found sustainable swaps for everyday products, wish the ones pictured above. Design by Alexis Lira; Picture taking courtesy of Hannah Austin

On the way, I found so many wonderful small businesses with dumfounding swaps for everyday products that created little to no emaciate and controlled holistic and healthy ingredients that would benefit my skin.

And as I continued to learn the importance of demanding better from companies and powerful multitude, and how important it is to vote with my dollar bill and planet Earth in mind, sustainability became an more and more valuable part of my life-style and identity — and information technology all started with my hives.

Patc I wish I could have knowledgeable these lessons without the itchiness, I'm withal grateful for the experience. Through it all, I found a passion for holistic health, sustainability, and intersectional environmentalism.

My hives finally went away after 13 months of almost daily irritation, and they've been gone always since. Information technology turns out they were an early sign of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune stipulation that affects the thyroid, which I was diagnosed with 3 1/2 years later.

Did my interchange to a more sustainable lifestyle stop the hives? IT's potential, but I can't be certain. They might have just gone away for no clear reason at all.

The one thing I am reliable of, yet, is that sometimes our biggest life lessons can come from the most unexpected places.

Hannah Austin is a graphic decorator in Michigan. She has taken her passions for innovation and sustainability to create Earthical, a imagination for finding eco-sensible swaps for everyday products, likewise as the stores that sell them. Her purport is always to make sustainability as available as accomplishable. In her free time she likes learnedness about sustainability and holistic wellness, and spending time outside with her dogs. You can find her on Instagram.