[tripzilch]

How long is your hair? I have a LOT of shoulder-length hair and I'm just not sure if I can clean that amount of hair with just water and no soap.

Also, you say "no one noticed I stopped using [soap]", but then you talk about a temporary increase in BO which "takes 1-4 weeks before [..] you become less smelly".

Which one is it?

Did you stay indoors for the first month? Or did people just not comment on it maybe?

I tried the no shampoo thing some years ago (my hair was shorter), my then-girlfriend did in fact comment (after I tried it for at least a couple of weeks) that my hair was more greasy (it was definitely not "much nicer"). Got a bit of irritated scalp too. I didn't feel very clean either, as if I was just smearing the hair-grease onto the rest of my body in the shower.

I felt a bit of resistance typing the above things. Are we sure it's not just confirmation bias? Because I can imagine people this experiment, IF they have success, they will report "my hair is so much nicer", but guess what, who is going to report "Yeah so I stopped using soap and shampoo, and surprisingly, my hair got greasier and dirtier, and you know the weirdest thing? I kept this up for a period of time and it didn't get better!", because people will just respond "um yeah, so take a shower already".

I have no problems with the idea, really. And I did try it, because I wanted it to work (no soap? sure! saves me having to find one that smells okay), several times even. But my experience just hasn't been very good. That's my empirical inquiry.

Actually I still want it to work, so maybe you tell me what I did wrong?

[king_jester]

> How long is your hair? I have a LOT of shoulder-length hair and I'm just not sure if I can clean that amount of hair with just water and no soap.

> I tried the no shampoo thing some years ago (my hair was shorter), my then-girlfriend did in fact comment (after I tried it for at least a couple of weeks) that my hair was more greasy (it was definitely not "much nicer"). Got a bit of irritated scalp too. I didn't feel very clean either, as if I was just smearing the hair-grease onto the rest of my body in the shower.

Most people find best results with still occasionally shampoo-ing, usually a couple of times a week. Doing daily shampoo will strip your hair of its own chemicals and oils which is damaging in the long run, but for a lot of folks not shampoo-ing at all can cause issues with dandruff or scalp irritation.

[tripzilch]

Yes, but doesn't everybody know you shouldn't shampoo your hair daily, no matter what it says on the bottle? I do it about 2-3 times a week.

BTW this thread is starting to feel like a Reddit discussion :) [and I don't mean anything bad about Reddit that way btw, just that it's kind of unusual to talk about haircare on HN :)]

[graeme]

When I say I had a temporary increase in BO, I mean I noticed mild BO after, say, 6 hours during the transition period, and I showered again.

Before trying this, it would take 12 hours to get that level of BO.

And currently, I basically never notice that level of BO during a 24 hour cycle. It just vanished.

Measurement was....smelling my armpit.

[MichaelGG]

>And currently, I basically never notice that level of BO during a 24 hour cycle. It just vanished.

Are you sure you just didn't get used to it? I had a friend that got into this and while he thought he smelled fine... no one else concurred except other people also living the same way.

[graeme]

I had to keep repeating this in various posts in this thread, but: I've had plenty of spontaneous comments from lovers, who didn't know I didn't use soap.

So yes, pretty sure. Especially since I DIDN'T get used to it before I stopped using soap. I was familiar with the smell of BO. But now it just doesn't arrive.

[u124556]

I wonder if it is that BO is really gone or is it just that you don't notice it anymore.

[raldi]

Wash your hair with conditioner, not shampoo. See #5 and #6 here:

http://thecurlyhairproblems.tumblr.com/cgmethod