Hello Dear Readers,
Today I summarize my shampoo-free month! Here we go!
Day 0, I was planning shampoo and soap free, but found myself covered in sunscreen and remembering yesterday's conditioner that was still on my hair. I decided this would be my last day of "normal"showering and worked up the suds.
The sunscreen issue got me thinking. How do I go soap-free when there are waterproof things on my skin that I want to get off of me? Then another big concern occurred to me. I want to keep shaving my legs. How do I do that without product? So, I made the call that I would stop ALL hair products and stop using my face soap. I decided that I would continue to use my regular body bar soap until I was able to do additional research and go shopping for a replacement.
HAIR:
Day 1, no hair products. My hair was DRY. It felt like straw. It also dried really really quickly after my shower.
Day 2 and 3 were pretty similar to Day 1.
By Day 4, the grease started. This is significantly longer than I expected before feeling greasy and my explanation to myself is that I wasn't using conditioner and perhaps conditioner makes my hair get greasier faster. (I had previously noticed that, when using conditioner every day, I'd be greasy by day 2.)
At 1 week, things were pretty rough. I was self-conscious that my hair was oily and stinky, but I powered through. My plan was to go a month if possible and an absolute minimum of 2 weeks, which I had read was a typical "transition period." I started brushing a couple of times a day to "distribute" the grease better. At this point, my scalp was oily but my ends still felt like straw.
Days 10 and 11 were the worst. My "Cow-Lick" would not calm down and my hair just looked yucky. The positive was that my straw-hair was gone even at the ends. I really REALLY wanted to put just a tiny bit of shampoo on only my scalp, but I told myself I had to make it to 2 weeks so I didn't give in.
Day 12 was the turn around and by 2 weeks in, my hair just figured it out. No more massive oil. It looks like it did before I started all this. It's kinda unbelievable, but it's true.
Day 17: I'm feeling great and thinking that I'm never going back to shampoo.
Week 3 was generally good. Grease started to build up a little bit, but I'm still amazed at how well this is working.
Week 4: Now I'm less sure about this whole shampoo-free forever thing. I'm still generally fine with the results and I don't feel dirty. However the oil in my hair is making it kinda stiff and unmanageable. It feels and acts as if I had some hair spray in it. I can't run my fingers through it. When I take down a pony tail it doesn't fall down completely. The "cow lick" is also acting up again.
1 Month: Suddenly, I notice some odor. I wonder if it has to do with my hormonal cycle. I see no other explanation for why I made it through 31 days without noticing odor and on Day 32 my hair suddenly smells dirty.
I finally fessed up to the ITH on day 32. He took it in stride but didn't know that I'd been doing it. He did make this encouraging comment:
ITH: I noticed the other day when I kissed your head.....
TDE: Do I smell bad?
ITH: No, I just noticed that I didn't smell anything (meaning I don't smell like my normal hair products.)
TDE: But I don't smell bad?
ITH: No.
Success!
But then, that very same day (Day 32) is the day I first noticed myself smelling (which is why I assumed he was going to say that I smelled bad.) I showered right before bed that night and went to bed with wet hair. When the ITH came to bed after I'd been struggling to get into a deep sleep I snuggled up to him and finally fell asleep. The next morning:
TDE: Last night when you came to bed I snuggled up to you and finally fell asleep. It was good.
ITH: Yeah, but your hair was wet and on me and smelled bad.
Sooooo, did I really suddenly smell bad to him too, or was it just that he now had the knowledge that I had not shampooed in a month? I suppose we can never know for sure, but based on my own olfactory judgement, I think my hair really did suddenly start smelling dirty. Strange.
Summary:
I made it through a whole month and then decided that my hair needed to be washed. However, I didn't use traditional shampoo. I went to the internet for alternatives, but that's what I'll discuss next week.
Overall, I also noticed that I can easily shower ever other day. I did that on both vacations with no ill effects. I didn't feel dirty. I didn't smell bad. Also, traveling just got easier, I've freed up a few bucks in the budget, and my showers are a bit faster. So far so good.
PS: I am now about 2 weeks into my totally soap-free shower experiment. It seems to be working. I just packed for a trip (a week of tap dancing all day every day) and brought bar soap just in case as it is definitely going to be a sweaty week. I didn't pack shampoo though. :)
Friday, July 18, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Why I Ditched Face Wash
A quick side tangent this week and then we'll get into the results of my shampoo-free month next week.
As I mentioned last week, this article inspired me to ditch many of my hygiene products, including my face soap. I was planning to go cold turkey on everything, but for reasons discussed last week, kept my bar soap as my one and only shower product for a whole month. On "Day 0" of the adventure I also happened to see someone post something about the plastic microbeads in face wash contaminating our water and affecting aquatic wildlife. I wasn't sure if my face wash had plastic microbeads or something more natural, but I was already planning to ditch soap entirely anyway so it was an easy decision to at least eliminate my face wash along with my shampoo and conditioner, keeping only the bar soap.
Other reasons I decided to without face wash:
The Practical:
1) Why use something if I don't need it?
2) That New York Times article linked above states that the author's acne IMPROVED when she ditched all her products. Improved acne by getting rid of a product sounds pretty good to me.
3) The possibility of saving money by no longer buying face wash.
4) We did lots of traveling last month. Fewer hygiene items to pack!
The Environmental:
I read the ingredient list on my face wash. Yikes! I'm a chemistry nerd so I understand that all those scary-sounding chemical names are not as scary as they sound. However, do I really need all that crap in my face wash? No.
All those chemicals also get washed down the drain and sent into our water systems (along with those plastic microbeads.) I don't KNOW that the chemicals cause problems, but I prefer to contribute as little as possible to this sort of thing.
Side note: This is also where I learned the face wash I was using DOES contain plastic microbeads. Want to know if yours does too? Check this list.
The Scientific:
SCIENCE! Experimentation! Gaining knowledge first hand rather than just believing what I read. I'm a scientist and I'm prepared to have my face break out in the worst acne of my adult life just to know for SURE if I need to use face wash or special face soap or not.
The results:
What I decided to do was to use body soap on my face in the shower and to use just warm water and a washcloth any other time I needed to wash my face. I usually wash my face first thing in the morning and right before bed, meaning I'd now wash once in the shower with body bar soap and once with just water and washcloth. And, I actually ended up washing with soap less frequently than planned as I didn't take a shower every day.
So what happened? Not much. The first day felt extra oily and I washed my face (with just water) a few extra times. I didn't break out. Almost no change at all.
Really. Try it.
Next steps, soap free. I'm currently about 5 days into a totally soap-free experiment. Results summary coming soon.
Humans survived for a long time we created specialized face wash and fancy shampoos. I now walk down the personal care product aisles with a new perspective. Here are many many things that you can buy that you don't need. We've just been convinced that we need them. I could go all conspiracy theory on you and say that the companies make products that are too harsh on purpose so that you have to keep using them to battle ever-increasing oil production of your skin which is only trying to combat the harshness of the products you use. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me too much to learn that there's some truth there, but instead I'll just give you this more reasonable perspective on the whole thing.
I'm not saying everyone should stop showering or stop using all their products. But, it's definitely worth taking some time to question your daily routine and experiment to see what you can eliminate or reduce. Save money, improve your skin, and keep plastic microbeads out of the waterways.
As I mentioned last week, this article inspired me to ditch many of my hygiene products, including my face soap. I was planning to go cold turkey on everything, but for reasons discussed last week, kept my bar soap as my one and only shower product for a whole month. On "Day 0" of the adventure I also happened to see someone post something about the plastic microbeads in face wash contaminating our water and affecting aquatic wildlife. I wasn't sure if my face wash had plastic microbeads or something more natural, but I was already planning to ditch soap entirely anyway so it was an easy decision to at least eliminate my face wash along with my shampoo and conditioner, keeping only the bar soap.
Other reasons I decided to without face wash:
The Practical:
1) Why use something if I don't need it?
2) That New York Times article linked above states that the author's acne IMPROVED when she ditched all her products. Improved acne by getting rid of a product sounds pretty good to me.
3) The possibility of saving money by no longer buying face wash.
4) We did lots of traveling last month. Fewer hygiene items to pack!
The Environmental:
I read the ingredient list on my face wash. Yikes! I'm a chemistry nerd so I understand that all those scary-sounding chemical names are not as scary as they sound. However, do I really need all that crap in my face wash? No.
All those chemicals also get washed down the drain and sent into our water systems (along with those plastic microbeads.) I don't KNOW that the chemicals cause problems, but I prefer to contribute as little as possible to this sort of thing.
Side note: This is also where I learned the face wash I was using DOES contain plastic microbeads. Want to know if yours does too? Check this list.
The Scientific:
SCIENCE! Experimentation! Gaining knowledge first hand rather than just believing what I read. I'm a scientist and I'm prepared to have my face break out in the worst acne of my adult life just to know for SURE if I need to use face wash or special face soap or not.
The results:
What I decided to do was to use body soap on my face in the shower and to use just warm water and a washcloth any other time I needed to wash my face. I usually wash my face first thing in the morning and right before bed, meaning I'd now wash once in the shower with body bar soap and once with just water and washcloth. And, I actually ended up washing with soap less frequently than planned as I didn't take a shower every day.
So what happened? Not much. The first day felt extra oily and I washed my face (with just water) a few extra times. I didn't break out. Almost no change at all.
Really. Try it.
Next steps, soap free. I'm currently about 5 days into a totally soap-free experiment. Results summary coming soon.
Humans survived for a long time we created specialized face wash and fancy shampoos. I now walk down the personal care product aisles with a new perspective. Here are many many things that you can buy that you don't need. We've just been convinced that we need them. I could go all conspiracy theory on you and say that the companies make products that are too harsh on purpose so that you have to keep using them to battle ever-increasing oil production of your skin which is only trying to combat the harshness of the products you use. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me too much to learn that there's some truth there, but instead I'll just give you this more reasonable perspective on the whole thing.
I'm not saying everyone should stop showering or stop using all their products. But, it's definitely worth taking some time to question your daily routine and experiment to see what you can eliminate or reduce. Save money, improve your skin, and keep plastic microbeads out of the waterways.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Shampoo Experiment - Extension
I washed my hair last night. It was the first time I put anything on my hair in a month.
Yes, for a whole month, the only thing I put on my hair was water. Really.
This is going to be a series of posts because I want to document not only my procedure and results, but also my thought process.
Today: How this all started (Background)
Technically, this all started YEARS ago when a hairstylist told me that I shouldn't shampoo every day. She recommended once a week. I tried skipping days and found that shampooing every other day worked for me. Sometimes I would skip another day, but I'd usually have greasy hair if I did. This same hairstylist explained how sulfates are really bad for your hair. You'll now see lots of shampoo bottles that say "sulfate free." My favorite are the ones that say "no sodium lauryl sulfate" which is true, but they contain various other sulfates or even just some other lauryl sulfate instead. Nice try, but I understand chemistry!
I started using sulfate-free shampoo. It was hard to find and expensive back then. The breakthrough was when I found this. Apparently someone is making a killing re-selling that stuff. I was just at a Trader Joe's last week, and it's only $3 a bottle in the store. Win! Somewhere along the way, having cheap sulfate-free shampoo lead to shampooing every day again. I'm not entirely sure why. The best reason I can come up with is that it meant that I didn't have to remember if I shampooed the previous day or not. The daily shower is something you shouldn't really have to think about after all.
Then, fast forward a few years to the shampoo experiment. This did 2 things. First, it reminded me that I don't need to shampoo every day. Every other day works just fine for me. Second, it introduced me to the concept of "no-poo" and that there are lots of people out there who shun shampoo to various degrees. Many people are in the "once a week" crowd but some don't shampoo at all... ever... So, after the shampoo experiment, I was back to every other day and sometimes every third day. But again, skipping 2 full days between shampoo days definitely lead to greasy hair. Therefore, I was generally on an every other day schedule. Yet somewhere in the back of my head was this thought that maybe I don't need shampoo at ALL. It sounds crazy but lots of people do it. Just Google it.
Then, this New York Times article came out. I was intrigued. It makes some sense. And while the author's experience wasn't entirely positive, it still seemed oddly appealing to me. It at least got me researching the concept more. What did I find? I found people who hadn't used shampoo OR soap for YEARS. Like this guy. There are a few others, but almost everything I found was men. I knew there were plenty of ladies out there that were at least shampoo-free though. The more I learned the more I thought that I just had to at least try it out (save money, easier travel, better for me and my hair? sold!) And, one of the reasons I'm documenting this whole thing is to add another female voice to this story.
I was planning to ditch soap and all my hair products and go cold turkey on everything, but on what was going to be "Day 1" of this adventure I found myself covered in sunscreen (how do I get that off without soap?) and then realized that the previous day's conditioner that was still on my hair. I wanted to go completely product-free and therefore needed to wash off the conditioner with shampoo. Next, I had the realization that I would need to use something in addition to water to shave my legs and that I definitely wanted to keep doing that. So, I decided that it would be my last day of shampoo, becoming "Day 0" and that I'd keep using my bar soap until I had done more research and figured out an alternative.
I told myself I would to go a whole month without ANY hair product. No shampoo, no conditioner, no leave-in conditioner, no sprays, nothing but water. I also told myself that I absolutely HAD to make it past the 2 week mark which I read is generally the "transition period." I also decided to go cold turkey on my face soap along with shampoo. There are a lot of reasons for this decision and I'll discuss them next week.
So for a whole month I used my bar soap and no other body hygiene products.* I still use toothpaste. I also still wash my hands (with soap) after using the bathroom and before preparing food. Oh, and while I did wash my hair last night, I didn't use traditional shampoo or conditioner (more on that later.)
*Note 1: The TDE has been deodorant-free for a couple of years now. That stuff is bad for you and you don't need it. OK, technically it's the antiperspirant that is really bad for you. Deodorant (without antiperspirant) is OK, but you don't need it. Again, there's a "transition period" but I promise your body will adjust. I mean, I tap dance a LOT and I don't need it. In fact, not long ago I put some on for just one day as I was expecting a long and sweaty day, and then cursed myself for three or four days afterwards as my body over-produced sweat in a sort of "rebound" reaction. I must thank the ITH for initially converting me to the no-deodorant club with his simple statement of "I don't use it. Do I smell bad?"
I didn't tell anyone I was ditching shampoo, not even the ITH. I wanted to see if anyone would say something about my hair looking dirty or smelling bad or anything. I went on vacation with my the ITH's family (who probably wouldn't have said anything if they did notice) and then with my family (who definitely would have said something if it was really bad AND experienced week 4 of this experiment.) And yes, the ITH tells me when I smell bad.
What was it like to ditch most of my hygiene products for a whole month? Did anyone comment on my hair during the process? You'll just have to come back later to find out!
Yes, for a whole month, the only thing I put on my hair was water. Really.
This is going to be a series of posts because I want to document not only my procedure and results, but also my thought process.
Today: How this all started (Background)
Technically, this all started YEARS ago when a hairstylist told me that I shouldn't shampoo every day. She recommended once a week. I tried skipping days and found that shampooing every other day worked for me. Sometimes I would skip another day, but I'd usually have greasy hair if I did. This same hairstylist explained how sulfates are really bad for your hair. You'll now see lots of shampoo bottles that say "sulfate free." My favorite are the ones that say "no sodium lauryl sulfate" which is true, but they contain various other sulfates or even just some other lauryl sulfate instead. Nice try, but I understand chemistry!
I started using sulfate-free shampoo. It was hard to find and expensive back then. The breakthrough was when I found this. Apparently someone is making a killing re-selling that stuff. I was just at a Trader Joe's last week, and it's only $3 a bottle in the store. Win! Somewhere along the way, having cheap sulfate-free shampoo lead to shampooing every day again. I'm not entirely sure why. The best reason I can come up with is that it meant that I didn't have to remember if I shampooed the previous day or not. The daily shower is something you shouldn't really have to think about after all.
Then, fast forward a few years to the shampoo experiment. This did 2 things. First, it reminded me that I don't need to shampoo every day. Every other day works just fine for me. Second, it introduced me to the concept of "no-poo" and that there are lots of people out there who shun shampoo to various degrees. Many people are in the "once a week" crowd but some don't shampoo at all... ever... So, after the shampoo experiment, I was back to every other day and sometimes every third day. But again, skipping 2 full days between shampoo days definitely lead to greasy hair. Therefore, I was generally on an every other day schedule. Yet somewhere in the back of my head was this thought that maybe I don't need shampoo at ALL. It sounds crazy but lots of people do it. Just Google it.
Then, this New York Times article came out. I was intrigued. It makes some sense. And while the author's experience wasn't entirely positive, it still seemed oddly appealing to me. It at least got me researching the concept more. What did I find? I found people who hadn't used shampoo OR soap for YEARS. Like this guy. There are a few others, but almost everything I found was men. I knew there were plenty of ladies out there that were at least shampoo-free though. The more I learned the more I thought that I just had to at least try it out (save money, easier travel, better for me and my hair? sold!) And, one of the reasons I'm documenting this whole thing is to add another female voice to this story.
I was planning to ditch soap and all my hair products and go cold turkey on everything, but on what was going to be "Day 1" of this adventure I found myself covered in sunscreen (how do I get that off without soap?) and then realized that the previous day's conditioner that was still on my hair. I wanted to go completely product-free and therefore needed to wash off the conditioner with shampoo. Next, I had the realization that I would need to use something in addition to water to shave my legs and that I definitely wanted to keep doing that. So, I decided that it would be my last day of shampoo, becoming "Day 0" and that I'd keep using my bar soap until I had done more research and figured out an alternative.
I told myself I would to go a whole month without ANY hair product. No shampoo, no conditioner, no leave-in conditioner, no sprays, nothing but water. I also told myself that I absolutely HAD to make it past the 2 week mark which I read is generally the "transition period." I also decided to go cold turkey on my face soap along with shampoo. There are a lot of reasons for this decision and I'll discuss them next week.
So for a whole month I used my bar soap and no other body hygiene products.* I still use toothpaste. I also still wash my hands (with soap) after using the bathroom and before preparing food. Oh, and while I did wash my hair last night, I didn't use traditional shampoo or conditioner (more on that later.)
*Note 1: The TDE has been deodorant-free for a couple of years now. That stuff is bad for you and you don't need it. OK, technically it's the antiperspirant that is really bad for you. Deodorant (without antiperspirant) is OK, but you don't need it. Again, there's a "transition period" but I promise your body will adjust. I mean, I tap dance a LOT and I don't need it. In fact, not long ago I put some on for just one day as I was expecting a long and sweaty day, and then cursed myself for three or four days afterwards as my body over-produced sweat in a sort of "rebound" reaction. I must thank the ITH for initially converting me to the no-deodorant club with his simple statement of "I don't use it. Do I smell bad?"
I didn't tell anyone I was ditching shampoo, not even the ITH. I wanted to see if anyone would say something about my hair looking dirty or smelling bad or anything. I went on vacation with my the ITH's family (who probably wouldn't have said anything if they did notice) and then with my family (who definitely would have said something if it was really bad AND experienced week 4 of this experiment.) And yes, the ITH tells me when I smell bad.
What was it like to ditch most of my hygiene products for a whole month? Did anyone comment on my hair during the process? You'll just have to come back later to find out!
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