Yay for Cloth!
Well I just finished a full period using only cloth. Here’s some things I found out.
1. Cloth is way more absorbent than the synthetic stuff. Period. I always would leak to the sides of the disposables, even the maxi ones or superabsorbent ones. They’d be full and sort of “wet” all over, even with a dry layer. The cloth feels much drier, and even if I bleed a lot, it stays in one spot, and doesn’t start leaking off to the sides. I may sometimes have to check my layering and change a pad because without a waterproof plastic layer it is more possible to bleed through (though the wings on the underside are another extra safety layer), but I didn’t run the risk of bleeding off the sides. Cloth is just far superior to whatever the disposables are made out of as far as that goes.
2. Cloth doesn’t move around. Unlike my constantly bunched up disposables. It’s right where I left it, and when I sit down I don’t need to worry like I used to that I might not be sitting “on the pad.” Same goes for sleeping. The blood won’t slip off the back of the pad or anything. It will go into the cloth first.
3. The sweaty smell is from the plastic, not from me. I smell kind of nice actually. I guess if I put a piece of plastic tape around my armpit and walked around all day, it would probably stink too. Duh.
4. Don’t buy a whole ton at once, because it’s really fun to shop for new prints. It’s almost certain that once you buy a lot from one place, Lunapads will post a new print that you love. Once you get a whole set, you feel guilty for buying beyond what you need. It’s like getting yourself a pretty pair of panties. You want to have the excuse.
5. It’s funny how a little thing like changing your pad can change your whole attitude toward your period. I never really thought of it as a “special time” or anything. Mostly just an annoyance. But suddenly, not being in the yucky disposables (but I didn’t realize how yucky they were before) and being in touch with your body makes you feel a lot different about the whole thing.
6. I realized how much the ads for the main companies annoy me. They manipulate women, femininity, and feminism to sell stuff. It’s either, “You have to hide everything,” “It’s delicate like a pretty flower on the box…(so here, put on a diaper),” or “You’re a woman on the go, and we’ve got you covered;” they all irritate me. Yes, I am a hard working woman on the go. And I do like pretty things. But you really haven’t done anything for me except sell me stuff while patronizing things that I care about, like feminism, in order to do so!
Peace out, Sara C.
Jerusalem, Israel
