Thursday, December 23, 2010

Breaking a lifetime habit

For years now, I have been intrigued by the possibility of going shampoo-free. At first, I couldn't believe you could simply stop washing your hair, and it would eventually become self-cleaning. And then I thought, what a big con those drug and cosmetic companies have on us all, producing unnecessary smellies that we supposedly need. (Of course, if you use a lot of styling products, maybe you do need to shampoo often - but then it's still a big con and a massive money-maker for those companies!)

Finally, after a lifetime of daily shampooing, and just as my holidays have started, I just stopped.
Well, in actual fact I went three days without a hair wash, and the next time around I am going to wait 4 days (that brings me up to Christmas Day - I should probably try to be fresh for Christmas Day). And after that I am going to try going a whole week without a shampoo.

After that I'm back at work, so it'll be interesting whether I can keep it up under the pressure to still look presentable.

The weird thing is, I was expecting to get the major greasies - but I haven't at all. I reckon my scalp has probably gotten increasingly drier as I've gotten older (thereby producing less sebum) and I just haven't noticed!
It's so cool that I can now save money on shampoo, and not have to worry about adding hair products to my skincare quest.

7 comments:

Watson Woodworth said...

My hair (what's left of it) is too oily not to wash daily.
At least that's what I'm led to believe.

Anonymous said...

Although (Nigel) a dermo might argue that you're actually increasing the oil production by washing it so often. But I wouldn't really be game enough to try either...

My hair definitely looks better if I don't have to wash it all the time, but my itchy scalp drives me insane! Otherwise I reckon I'd wash my hair about once a week.

I reckon the thing I'd miss is that nice 'freshly washed' hair smell, but you could probably get some kind of hair producty/spritzer thing to give it a bit of a fresh smell?

Interested to know how it pans out for you.

Amanda said...

I don't think anyone needs to wash their hair everyday but stopping altogether...hmm. Mike tried this and his hair ended up smelling awful. His pillow ended up smelling really bad too. Just saying...

Anonymous said...

I met a lady who has stoped shampooing her hair. She just washes it with water in the shower and just puts conditioner on the ends of it. Her hair looked clean and healthly and I couldn't detect any smells. Hope it works out for you. I might try the same as I have four weeks off work. I would love to save money on shampoo considering how expensive it is and my daughters go through it so quickly.

Violet said...

I'd agree with donnasoowho about shampooing more often leads to the need to shampoo more often. I reckon that's how I got into the daily habit in the first place.
There is also that dry shampoo I've heard about but never tried. It's supposed to remove the excess oil without risking over-washing your scalp.
Apparently most people with healthy skin don't actually moisturiser either, until they get to their 50's!
Amanda: you worry me with your experience of Mike's hair getting smelly. But Anonymous says that it might not happen, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

april said...

I used to be one of those who washed her hair every day, but now I'm down to washing my hair every 3-4 days, and it's not particularly greasy. I actually don't use regular shampoo anymore either - I use a Lush shampoo bar. But I usually leave it down for the first two days, and then up for one day and on the fourth I stretch it with dry shampoo (which really is awesome - since I have thinner dark hair I use Big Sexy hair volumizing dry shampoo (recommended to not show talc on dark hair like some others do)). I've gone 5 days before, but the itchys get to me by then. The only reason my hair ever looks greasy anymore is because I haven't dyed in awhile because I'm trying to decide if I'm going to grow it out or not, and roots are 1 1/2 inches of dark.

Also, I stopped using so much product which helps with not needing to wash so much. I used to use gel and smoothing stuff, and hairspray all to dirty it up a bit for volumizing and smoothing at the same time because I have straight hair which seems to frizz a lot. I'm down to just using Aveda smooth infusion and I'm very happy.

It's obviously late and I'm rambling but good luck!

Violet said...

April: It sounds as though a lot of the products that are used to make styling easier, would be redundant if we left our hair alone long enough!

funnily enough, I'm starting to miss shampooing my hair because without that task my shower consists of getting wet and shaving my shins.