As for the rubbing alcohol for hair washing, it’s actually for scalp washing, you could say. In a pinch you can use rubbing alcohol or astringent to keep the scalp clean when hair can’t be washed with traditional shampoo and water. Here is an article that tells how to do it:
http://www.answerbag.com/article/How+to+Treat+Dandruff+with+Sea+Breeze+Astringent/8874f8cc-7289-d857-4169-9ad300e6601a/cotton-balls

Keep in mind, it’s better than nothing in an emergency. You don’t want to do this every day, as it can dry out the skin. However, if your scalp is very oily from no access to water for washing, the alcohol or astringent will help eliminate the oil.

Thanks for all the great pointers!

Danelle

Now that said, rubbing alcohol does make a great water free sanitzer that dries quickly. It does dry the skin a bit but not too bad & I do keep a good stash in my emergency supplies.

It’s always a good idea to have at least one extra of every thing you use – you never know when a storm could knock down trees/power lines and block the road to the store till crews come through. A year & half ago we couldn’t get to the store 5 blocks from our house due to downed power lines & such (after a tornado) – we were fine because I still stock up on things like my parents did on our farm.
So keeping extras in the hall closet isn’t just for those far from a store. Took the power company over a week to get things straightened up just due to work load – they can only work so fast.

Also- might want to have an alternate heat source in case the furnace is affected by an outage & your in a freezing region. We have a kerosene heater (and two carbon monoxide detectors just for when it ever gets used) and also, as a back up in case the heater has issues, I keep a pile of wood (cut up fallen tree branches) in the back yard so we could get our fire pit going as a last resort (we also use the wood for other things) – although we dug the pit out of the snow New Years weekend this year to make S’mores – good yummy practice