Well, I'm yet to be convinced that they're unnecessary. Besides, if I'm gonna start regretting every unnecessary consumable I've ever paid for I should probably start with, say, tequila or croissants which have additional deleterious effects.
On a risk/reward scale, giving up on shampoo and soap just doesn't seem to cut it. The best I'm going to do is save a few tens of dollars a year, while the worst I'm going to do is have everybody who encounters me react subtly worse to me, perhaps without even knowing why.
I'm willing to pay the cost of the soap just in order to have the peace of mind of knowing that if people do dislike me then at least it's not because I'm filthy.
Interesting. I used to shampoo my hair every day, but found out that the more you shampoo it the more oil your hair produces and thus the faster it gets "dirty". So I switched to only doing it twice a week and I have not noticed any negative effect. I think I am going to try dropping it altogether.
Do you use any hair products at all like gel or wax?
Do you have a source for that? I have super curly hair and in a futile attempt to manage it I researched hair care for a morning a few weeks ago.
If you didn't know curly hair tends to become dry towards the ends. This is due to the natural oils not being able to reach the ends because of the curls. I found a few sites advocating shampooing about once every two weeks to let the oils do their thing (along with moisturizing conditioner every day).
That being said my hair is still a mess so I'd love to see if I am "doing it wrong".
I also have super curly hair. I only use conditioner, no shampoo unless my scalp needs extra cleaning, which is very rarely. And I use hair products like gel and spray. Conditioner combed through my hair and then rinsed out removes all hair products.
Check out the DevaCurl starter kit - it has "NoPoo" shampoo, which is shampoo without harsh sulfates, conditioner, gel, and spray. Their products are great for curly hair.
No source. I just found that shampooing every day caused my hair to get really oily if I missed a single day of shampoo. After not shampooing for an entire week I went down to doing it twice a week and excess oil is no longer an issue.
I have semi-curly hair as well. Going to give no shampoo at all a shot next.
I have the same problen and tried limiting my shampoo schedule on the suggestion of a friend and gave up after about six months. It didn't work out so well for the manageability of my hair or for its comfort. The best way I've found to manage my curly hair is to keep it short.
> Do you use any hair products at all like gel or wax?
I do not. I'm guessing that if you use gel or wax you pretty much HAVE to shampoo your hair.
I've never thought about my hair very much, but now that I am thinking about it, the entire industry of shampoo/styling/shampoo seems... profligate at best, and predatory at worst.
Like you, I used to use shampoo everyday. I've been doing the no shampoo experiment for about a month now, and found that I no longer need any styling products (I used to use a bit of clay on occasion). I just kind of use my hands to style it and it stays how I like it.
