The TDE's Shampoo-Free Month

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. :)