Mini-Ep 457: Don’t Forget to Wipe
Listeners send in yet more kitchen towel and rag recommendations! Plus, we get a post-friendship month update, and a listener asks for advice on how to handle female pattern hair loss. Plus, Doree has a dog update and Elise has a summer day out sans children!
Mentioned in this Episode
oral monoxidil
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever 35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise (00:17):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree (00:22):
And this is a mini episode where we hear from you, we share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability. So please remember, we are not experts. We are podcast hosts. We do always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and or mental health professional as needed.
Elise (00:41):
Yeah. Yes, we do.
Doree (00:44):
How's it going, Elise?
Elise (00:46):
It's going great. We are just coming off the weekend, so we're taping on a Monday for a Wednesday, and I was just telling you that I had great day life. People talk about the nightlife of towns, but I also think that LA has great day life. They do cycle via, or is it called scl? It
Doree (01:06):
Slavia
Elise (01:07):
Slavia, where they close down kind of these major six to eight lane streets to only bicyclists or pedestrians or you can roller skate or skateboard or ride a unicycle. And the strip that they closed down was from Culver City down to Venice, so my neighborhood. So I could just hop onto that route from my house and instead of taking kids, we went as adults like me and my good friend Angela and Rob. So the three of us did it and we just had the best time. And then we rode past my house to get tacos afterwards, and that was delightful. And then in the afternoon there was this Taylor Swift cover band concert, shout out to Swift Nation, and it was like the most wholesome thing. It was a free concert in the park in Playa Vista. And so many people went and again, we went as adults rather than with our kids though I ran into so many of my kids' friends and they were like, where's Issa? Where's Luna? And I was like, no, it's just me. It's me. Oh my God. And she didn't sound, she's not in the same vocal range, the main singer of this band, swift Nation, she's not in the same vocal range as Taylor Swift, but she really sang through the eras and had all the costumes and it was a lot of fun. So yeah, it was a good old trip. That's
Doree (02:33):
A lot of fun.
Elise (02:34):
Yeah. What about you? Tell me about your weekend. Fill me in,
Doree (02:37):
Let's see, Saturday I played a tennis match.
Elise (02:43):
Good, good.
Doree (02:43):
Which was fun. And then I'm like, what did we do? Oh yes, that's right. Then Saturday afternoon we went to see our former Nanny Holly's play. Oh, that's right at the Santa Monica Playhouse, which is this little theater in Santa Monica that puts on these, I guess it would be reinterpretations of classic Tales. Oh yeah. Apparently the woman who runs the playhouse writes all of these and writes the music and they're all sort of ridiculous, but kids love 'em. They have a kids series and that's what Holly has been in. So we saw their reinterpretation of Beauty and the Beast. I think we saw that one twice and now they're doing one based on Alice in Wonderland called Alice. It's like Alice in the Wonderful Tea Party or something. Holly has five roles.
Elise (03:55):
Oh my gosh,
Doree (03:56):
We should go see her. It was very fun. Henry was legit belly laughing. He thought it was so funny. And the kids were really into it. I would say it's best for kids eight and under.
Elise (04:13):
Ava
Doree (04:13):
Would not, I don't think Ava would enjoy it, but I think Luna would probably enjoy it. Answer it silly, right? Yeah, exactly. It's very silly. There's a lot of physical comedy and yeah, they sort of involve the audience in a sweet way. And Henry kept going. I think that's Holly my pointing to, because she was wearing truly the most insane makeup. So it was actually a little hard to tell that it was her, but, but it was really sweet. I did that on Saturday and then Sunday I took Henry. Henry does this math thing on Sundays. So we went and then as we were driving there, we went past this park in Beverly Hills that runs the length of Santa Monica Boulevard. That's the one with the classic Beverly Hills sign that people take pictures in front of. Oh yes. Yeah. And we saw some weird, there's always weird sculptures on it. There's always strange public art installations on it. Recently there was this whole thing with elephants. The elephants are gone now, but now there's something else. They just switch them out and he like, yeah. He was like, can we go to this park on our way home? And I was like, sure. So we stopped there. We walked around for a little while and then I took him out for lunch at Nate and Owls, which is this classic love Nate Mouse, Jewish Deli.
(05:47):
Yeah.
Elise (05:47):
Love.
Doree (05:48):
And that was super fun. But Henry is a lot, and I was just, you know how they say in the mountains, one drink equals two?
Elise (06:01):
Yes. Yeah, we were just talking about that a month ago.
Doree (06:04):
Yes. Sometimes at the end of the weekend. I'm like one Henry equals two. He's just, it's a 6-year-old. High energy kid is intense as you know. But yeah, so by the end of the weekend, I think I was in bed at nine last night. Nice. What a treat. A treat. It was a treat. It was a treat. So yeah, so that's going on. Henry goes back to school this week, so
Elise (06:36):
Yay. Everyone's excited about, feels so good. It feels so good to have the kids back into a routine. And then Nate and Als, I don't know if you know this, but Larry King used to go there every single day, apparently Larry King, RIP, and I guess Rob knows this because he's like an Angelino from birth. And the last time we were there, we closed it down. We went after some event and I was like, let's go to Nate and Al's we're nearby. And I thought it was kind of like a Denny's type diner where you could stay for 24 hours. But no, we got kicked out of Nate and Al's. They were like, get out of It does close. It does close. I dunno if I'm welcome back at Nate and Al's because we were like, but wait.
Doree (07:26):
Oh my gosh, that's really funny.
Elise (07:28):
Yeah, I love that place though. So I was really delighted when I saw you bring that up.
Doree (07:33):
Alright,
Elise (07:34):
Shall we? Should we jump in?
Doree (07:35):
Well yes, because before we take a break, we have an email from a listener that I just want to read that I thought was really sweet. This listener wrote, hi, do Elise. This is in regards to the Friendship mini app that we reran while I was on vacation. And so this listener writes, thank you again for reading my letter on missing friends who live far away and finding it hard to get together. We got together, yay. My friend who lives in NYC messaged the group that she was going to the city our two other friends live in for July 4th. And I thought this trip is almost planned. If I can get myself there too, we will all be there. And I did it. We stayed at the same hotel and had a lot of casual together time. We did pick up right where we left off and it was fun to see my two friends with kids as parents and get to know their kids and spend time with my friend without kids.
(08:35):
I ended up going with just my kiddo 18 months at the time. My husband got really sick the day before we were supposed to leave. I felt bad that he missed out on our daughter's first trip, but I just could not cancel and would've taken care of her solo that weekend. Anyway, we had an amazing time. My heart felt very full and the world feels more open to us. Dory, I have been thinking a lot about your sister-in-law. I'm so sorry for your family's loss. She sounded like an amazing person who really knew how to enjoy life. I'm not a Bravo watcher, but have thought of her when I watch and just like that she was an amazing person who really knew how to enjoy life and she did love Bravo. So yeah, thank you for that and I love this update. I love that our rerun of that episode inspired you to write in with an update. Love this update.
Elise (09:26):
Yeah, yeah, that was a good one. That was a good one. That
Doree (09:28):
Was a good one. If you want to write in with any updates or questions or comments or concerns, you can do that by emailing us at Forever 35 podcast@gmail.com. You can text us at seven one five nine one zero three nine zero. You can call us at that number. You can also email us a voice memo. Please do not text us voice memos. We got a couple of texts this week with things that looked like they may have been voice memos attached, but Google Voice was not about it and was like, this file is not supported.
Elise (10:03):
Oh no. Okay. So we're just learning that as we're going along. Then I think we asked you all to text us.
Doree (10:08):
Yeah, I mean, I have mentioned that they don't let you save even if it comes through, they don't let you save it, so it makes it tricky to text us voice memos. But you can email them to us. We love that. And you can just text us regular old texts. So 7 8 1 5 9 1 0 3 9 0. You can visit our website forever 35 podcast.com. We have links there to everything we mentioned on the show. We are on Instagram at Forever five Podcast. Sign up for our newsletter at forever five podcast com slash newsletter. And our favorite products are at shop my us slash forever 35. And after the break we have yet more dish towel, dish rag, kitchen rag. They're not like tea towel dish towels, you know what I mean? Alright, we'll be right back. Alright, we are back. Elise, do you want to read this first one? Sure.
Elise (11:08):
Bar mops for the listener. Looking for a paper towel replacement. I was skeptical at first, but my husband was very committed to getting rid of paper towels in our house. And ops have worked great for us both for wiping counters and kids' faces. It's possible. Dorie, we bought the Utopia brand from Amazon. As I'm searching through my purchase history though, I'm sure they're available in other places. No attachment to that specific brand. I think probably all are very similar. Just use the search term bar ops 12 pack for 20 bucks and it looks like we've replaced slash added to them every two years, which seems pretty good. We have a basket under our kitchen sink where dirty slash used ones get tossed and then all are washed on a heavy duty cycle together. They hold up very well, including to my tendency to bleach them when they have been used on grease like cleaning a cast iron pan and are real gross. We happen to have recently moved and are using paper towels until our stuff arrives and is unpacked and I can't get over how weird slash wasteful it feels now. I also think they just don't work as well as our good old bar ops.
Doree (12:15):
Okay.
Elise (12:15):
Utopia brand 12 for 20 bucks.
Doree (12:18):
Love this. Alright, someone else texted us with another recommendation. They said, hello, Dorian. Elise, another reusable paper, paper towel option. I have these flannel cloths and use them daily for cleaning surfaces, my kid, et cetera. I've had them for over three years and they hold up. Well, if someone is crafty, they could easily make their own from old flannel sheets and a serger or sewing machine. I don't know what a serger is, do you?
Elise (12:49):
I don't either, but I'm not a sewer, so
Doree (12:52):
I guess they're useful for sewing knits.
Elise (12:55):
Okay.
Doree (12:55):
Okay. Alright. Okay. Thanks for all your work in making this wonderful podcast for all of us listeners. And they linked to a company called Marley's Monsters and this product is called Unpaper Towels.
Elise (13:13):
Ah, very cool.
Doree (13:15):
Alright. Yeah, and they look cute. They come in all different kinds of prints as discussed. They are a little pricier, but they seem like
Elise (13:27):
We'll link. Yes. We'll link link to all of these mentions from our show notes so that we can check out. I know it's check
Doree (13:32):
Them out. It's funny, this company also sells an unpaper towel holder.
Elise (13:38):
Oh,
Doree (13:40):
It looks like just a regular paper towel holder, but I guess it's a little smaller and it's made to, oh, this is interesting. They all fit. They sort of stick together. So you can put them on this dowel and peel them off one by one like a paper towel. That's kind of fun.
Elise (13:59):
Okay. Alright.
Doree (14:00):
Okay. I'm learning so much.
Elise (14:03):
Alright, we have one more on, well, one more written one to read on this topic. High forever. 35. Long time. A hundredth time ha. Smiley face. But for real, been listening since the very first episode. Elise, you have been such a great addition. Anyway, I was just pausing the pod, as they say, for the caller looking for rags. I was picking up exactly what she was trying to wipe down. Oh, that's funny. For these tasks I use muslin washcloths that I wipe my kids' faces with. And hot tip, I also wash my own face with them. Quick sidebar, I use the washcloth after I've rinse my face off and then I hold it under hot water and just kind of hold it over my face. It's so relaxing. But then I really wipe my whole face, neck de area behind the ears and back of neck.
(14:48):
It just makes you feel fresh. Okay. Back to regularly scheduled programming. Use those cloths to wipe the babe's faces for the kitchen rags. I'm also kind of stuck and have just gone back to sponges from Costco, but I also got a roll of rags from Lowe's or Home Depot and I use those when I would use paper towels and then they just get thrown in the wash. The mileage on that one role is going to be a long time because once you have a few in rotation and then start washing them, I haven't needed to throw any out. My youngest is one. I might have that role still when he graduates from high school. Anyway. Love the pod, keep on keeping on. Fuck Trump and the patriarchy forever. 35 butt masks.
Doree (15:28):
Wow. Butt masks is an old callback.
Elise (15:37):
Well,
Doree (15:37):
Like she
Elise (15:38):
Said, she's been listening
Doree (15:40):
From the very first episode. Yes. So yeah, that is an old callback. I've not thought about butt masks in a long time, so thank you
(15:50):
For referencing those. This is just reminding me of this. I went on a few dates with this guy when I first moved to la. I mean he was real weird, but he didn't use paper towels. He was very, and I couldn't tell, was it because he was cheap? Was he actually environmentally conscious? I think it was because he was cheap. He was very cheap. But now in retrospect, 12 years later, I'm like, oh, he was kind of ahead of his time in that regard. I feel like there have always been people who didn't use paper towels, but now it's much more mainstream.
Elise (16:31):
Yeah. It's in vogue now.
Doree (16:33):
Yeah, exactly. Alright, we have one more voice memo about dish towels. I mean, again, a,
Elise (16:43):
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
Doree (16:45):
It is the gift that keeps on giving. Okay, here we go.
Listener Voicemail (16:50):
Hi, Dorian Elise, I wanted to call in after hearing from the listener who was looking to swap paper towels and Clorox wipes. That's a swap we've been working to make in my house. And sometimes the best alternative is really just a good old cloth napkin, which you can kind of find at any HomeGoods store. But yeah, I have various sets and they're all in a cute little container on the kitchen table and they're great for little messes and little hands and little faces. And I also keep a spray bottle, a refillable spray bottle with sort of a nice non-toxic, all purpose cleaner. There's a lot of different brands out there, blue Land, clean call, branch basics, that'll offer some sort of concentrate or refillable, all-purpose cleaner that you can use for your surfaces. That and a cloth napkin can go a long way. And then for heavier messes, I have this sort of, believe they're called flower sack towels, second Jane Elise's Ikea wreck for those because they tend to be pretty affordable and hold up really well over time.
(18:00):
I have some that I've had for five years and they're still not that gross. The key to this system though, is having a place for your dirty napkins and colabs when you are done cleaning with them because having a bunch of dirty CLOs around the kitchen becomes a problem in and of itself. So for me, the solution is a little bin and I keep the little bin under the table where my cat eats. You can't really see it, but I know it's there. And that's where I put my dirty napkins and linens before it's time to do laundry. Just one of the little things that helps me feel cleaner and less wasteful in my house. It really is the little things sometimes. Thanks for all you do. Bye.
Elise (18:41):
The bins are so important now that I'm getting more into organization, which I generally haven't been for the last 40 years of my life. I love the bins, I love containers and labeling things, and I think I'm getting this from my daughters who are far more into organization than I am. Ava is very, she's a Virgo, felt this way about her since she was little. She used to to keep lists and to-do lists when she was four years old. And then when she was six, she had prompts for what she was going to journal about and she kept it on a wall. And these are the things I'm going to journal about, what I'm grateful for and any highs and lows of the day. All the So sweet. So Ava though, it's so Ava. And then if you go look at her vanity, which she now has this vanity that Raul put together for five hours, which I've talked about. It's so organized. She has her brushes in one place. She has a certain drawer just for face. She has a certain drawer for body, she has all the skincare products and all these things. So it's so funny. And now having followed her example with the bins, now I have laundry, cleaning and house cleaning labeled as separate bins above my laundry machine, which is the first time I've ever done that in my life. So bins. Bins for these rags slash towel wiping mechanisms. Love that. Love it. So good. Thanks for the suggestion
Doree (20:03):
Bins.
Elise (20:04):
It's all about the bins.
Doree (20:05):
Oh my gosh. Wait, I forgot I have a bow update.
Elise (20:09):
Okay. Yeah, let's talk about it before we go to break.
Doree (20:12):
So his blood work was perfect, everything was fine. The biopsy came back a little inconclusive, but the vet said she wasn't really concerned. She said if it had been something, they probably would've seen more conclusive results. And she thinks it was just kind of how they did the biopsy. She's like, we could redo the biopsy. She was like, you would have to pay for it. She's like, you could also just kind of keep an eye on it and monitor it if it seems to be getting bigger or changing or then come back in. But the way she said, it was kind of like, I have to tell you this information, but I don't actually think it's an issue. Do you know what I mean?
Elise (20:57):
Okay. Yep, yep. I get that vibe.
Doree (21:00):
And Matt listened to it too and he was like, that's what I think as well. So yeah, so all is well in Boland and he is just living his best senior citizen life
Elise (21:16):
Show up at Denny's at four 30 for the moon's over my hammy.
Doree (21:19):
Honestly, that would be his dream. Alright, we are going to take another short break and when we come back we got a listener question about my hair loss journey. So stay tuned. Alright. All right. We are back. And this listener wrote, hi. I'd love to hear more about Dorie's journey through navigating hair loss. I'm just at the beginning of my journey of identifying a lot of shedding. I saw a derm who ordered labs and offered a few options for medication topical or oral minoxidil and or oral spironolactone, spironolactone. She suggested against biotin, but encouraged collagen as it can't hurt, curious to learn about dorie's experience and other words of wisdom, tips and tricks and morale, boosters. I knew I was shedding a lot of hair. My ponytail felt smaller, but hearing the derm say female pattern hair loss had me in tears. Thank you for all you do. Okay. Happy to talk about this. When I first went to the dermatologist, he started me on oral minoxidil. He also, I wish I could remember the name of the medication, but it was a topical liquid that I put through my hair that he said would help stop the shedding because Minal takes about six months to see any
Elise (22:52):
Results. Oh, okay. I didn't know that.
Doree (22:54):
Yeah, so you kind of have to have patience and you also go through a period of minoxidil, I guess about six to eight weeks after you start taking it where you shed. So I think for people who are already losing their hair, it can be very disconcerting, but everyone is just like, what everyone says is you just have to stick with it. And then I also had been doing some topical minoxidil. I stopped doing the topical, you have to do it twice a day. And it really, I felt like made my hair so greasy and gross that I was like, whatever marginal benefit I'm getting from the topical minoxidil is sort of offset by how gross it makes me. I feel like it makes my hair look. So I'm just going to do the oral and we'll see how that goes. I think it's going pretty well. I'm actually going to my dermatologist next week for a mole check and I'm going to just check in with him. But yeah, I mean, I would recommend it. My hair definitely looks fuller. I have regrowth. My hairstylist was like, oh, I can see the regrowth. Yeah. And I know hearing those words, female pattern, hair loss can feel alarming. But I think it's just that people don't talk about it as much. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just happens. It's just a natural part of getting older. And fortunately we live in an age where there's things we can do about it.
Elise (24:44):
I read in New York magazine that they think that they've solved it for men too.
Doree (24:48):
Wow.
Elise (24:49):
Yeah. They have all these AI images of what Putin would look like with hair. Wow. Check it out. Yeah.
Doree (24:59):
Okay. Thank you for this question. Feel free to ask me if you have other questions. Feel free to ask. I feel like it's important to be an open book on this topic. And then lastly, Elise, I forgot to write this down on our document, but I have, I've been making some new dinner recipes.
Elise (25:21):
Oh, okay. Do tell. And
Doree (25:23):
There's one in particular that I do want to share because I thought it was delicious. If you are someone who likes cooked fruit, if you like, I made these, the name of the recipe is one pan chicken and pineapple tacos. So you bake the chicken with the pineapple?
Elise (25:46):
Yes.
Doree (25:47):
I really like a grilled or a baked pineapple or a grilled peach or something. A grilled peach. Yes. Yeah. I like stuff like that. I know some people don't, but if this is kind of your thing, then I think you'd like, you make a marinade for the chicken that has a nice kick to it and you use chicken thighs and then you cook everything on a sheet pan. And then when you take it out of the oven, you squeeze some lime juice over it and you put in some diced shallots and just mix everything up. I thought it was so good. We will link to this recipe. It's from a British food writer, so you do have to convert some of the measurements, but I'm sure everyone can handle this. It was so good that we were like, oh, it's too bad. There's not enough for leftovers. Oh
Elise (26:48):
Wow.
Doree (26:50):
I will definitely make this again. And then there was another, and we will link to this as well. And then there was another recipe. I was in the mood for a summary pasta, and I made this cherry tomato pasta recipe from love and lemons, which I've gotten good recipes from before, that I also thought was delicious.
Elise (27:20):
I love cherry tomatoes. The girls love cherry tomatoes. That could be a contender at the Hugh House,
Doree (27:26):
It sounds like. Yes. And it's super easy. You also don't have to cut the tomatoes.
Elise (27:31):
Oh yeah. Which could be annoying because they're so small.
Doree (27:33):
Yeah. It's so time consuming. But it's very flavorful. There's capers in it. I'm usually not a huge Capers fan, but it does give it a nice flavor. So yeah. So we will link to this as well. But I just wanted to share because I know I've been complaining about having no dinner creativity and these were two recipes that I made this week that we really, really good.
Elise (27:58):
Great. Alright, we'll share those two.
Doree (28:01):
Okay. Alright everybody, thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you soon. Okay. Talk to you next time. Bye.