To never wash again

[Horridhenryrules]

Am I being unreasonable to never wash my hair again. Does anyone else not wash their hair?

Someone I used to know didn't wash their hair. They went on about how it self cleaned and such but it really didn't. They looked exactly like they hadn't washed their hair in years.

I couldn't think of anything worse.

If I haven't washed my hair I don't feel clean, even if I have washed the rest of my body. My head itches and I just feel so scummy.

Not to mention the smell. I just couldn't not wash it.

I have terrible problems with shampoo so 7 years ago I stopped using shampoo for a couple of months, then started only shampooing once a week. I still rinsed with water a couple of times a week. My hair never smelt bad, but it didn't feel nice.

Up to twice a week since I had DS - while I was pregnant my hair was greasier and I found I could use cheaper shampoos that had more than seven ingredients. As long as they weren't perfumed.

My cat smells gorgeous like a floofy marshmallow. Hth.

I use shampoo once or twice a month at most, the rest of the time I scrub it thoroughly with water in the shower. It's clean, feels fantastic and doesn't smell.

After I've washed it with shampoo I tend to need something like the Aussie "Three Miracle Oil" in it just to calm it down again. My hair is very fine and dead straight and, when I wash it with shampoo every day I really REALLY need to wash it every day.

It took a while to get to this point. I started off with doing the bicarbonate of soda/cider vinegar routine but that didn't work for me. Maybe on other hair types it works better.

They can smell of their food if they've just eaten. Or their breath might if they have tooth problems. But i really don't think their fur smells.

How do you wash your hair with egg and gelatin and all that stuff? You wash it out with water yes? I'm not sure i'd feel properly clean.

My cats don't smell

I remember reading Tracy Edwards' book Maiden (we are going back a few...decades), the first all-woman Whitbread crew.
They couldn't wash their hair for weeks, she said it got rather grim but then it sorted itself out.

I had a friend at uni who didn't use shampoo and only ever rinsed his hair with water. It stank - horrible greasy smell. I've read that it's supposed to self-clean eventually once the oil balances out but there's no way I could stick it for more than a day.

If you mean co-washing, like the Curly Girl method, YANBU. But just never to clean your hair, though, I think is VU.

I would like more information on the self-cleaning hair, though

I'd no sooner stop washing my hair than I would my bum.

A friend at school tried this and got to a few months, waiting for it to start self cleaning, but it got so ridiculously smelly that she gave up.

I've had to have have the managerial "you smell" chat with one of my staff and I knew it was her hair before we even started. Her head looked like someone had emptied a chip pan of grease over it and it had kind of almost solidified.

How I managed to get through that talk without heaving I'll never know. It took the rest of the day with the windows wide open to get the stink out of my office.

I know a couple of people who do not wash their hair, my (very long-haired) son among them.

After a month it settles to its natural pH level or something apparently and becomes self-cleaning.

When he told me I asked didn't it smell. He said "Sniff it and tell me what it smells of." I did, and told him "6 months worth of cat spit" (Family joke - one of our cats chews and lick hair).

But actually, it didn't smell of anything, and doesn't look dirty.

I can't understand how, myself - just all of the rubbish floating around in the atmosphere should muck it up - we don't live in the Alps ir anything - but it doesn't seem to. Perhaps it gets so greasy that atmospheric filth just slides off?

I've lined up friends who will tell me if it smells, looks bad. After an egg wash, it is as clean as a whistle! I can't do it too often, as it strips it too much. I wash once a week.
Whatever method I'm using, I mush it into the dry hair, leave for a bit then rinse out. I scrub my scalp to get rid of any skin/oil then rinse well. If I could post an anon. photo I would.

Why don't you want to wash your hair??

My DB has only washed his hair with water for about 10 months now. He researched how people kept their hair nice before modern shampoos etc were invented and apparently it's all about the brushing; a good quality brush, suitable for your hair type is all you need! His hair is very thick and wavy. It used to be unmanageable and wild but since he stopped 'washing' it it looks fabulous. Doesn't smell at all.

I moved seats today on the bus, the guy next to me stank and I'm pretty sure it was from his hair.

I couldn't do it personally. Why not just cut it all off very short? Easier to handle, maintain and quick wash over. No smelly, lank locks. I've also read lots about it "cleaning itself" after a while, but you have to go through the shit stage of grease, itching and smelliness. I went to school with a few boys who had unmaintained dreadlocks and they were absolutely disgusting and stank to high heaven (and before anyone starts, yes I am aware that dreadlocks properly looked after do not smell and are not dirty!).

IT still needs looking after. It took attention and work to get to this point. Personally I couldn't just stop and go 'sebum only' in one step. That is when people sometimes smell. Eventually. I might be able to go sebum only, or water only. At the moment it is water only one week, then some kind of wash the next.

I've had compliments on my hair from people who don't know what I'm doing.

If it ends up non-smelly, how on earth do people get through the stinky phase?

But how can it not smell? 'Self-cleaning' just sounds like nonsense.

If you live in a soft water area, bicarb/acid rinse is all you need (my hair is so manageable on it too)

In a hard water area though, it's really tough - you can use boiled water for the bicarb solution which works a bit, but really, not as well as it should.

'Self-cleaning' just sounds like nonsense.

Yes.

Well, I guess if you are a Special Fragrant One, you can ditch washing. We ordinary mortals stink.

I didn't wash my hair with shampoo for a while when it was a very short pixi cut. It takes a few weeks but eventually settles down and really doesn't smell. It would get wet in the shower obviously and I would brush well in order to clean my scalp. I found my hair behaved much better when not washed and looked great. I started washing again once it got longer.

I have also known quite a few people with very long hair who don't wash it with shampoo. Again it really doesn't smell and you wouldn't know unless they told you.

You do have to be prepared for a period of really horrid hair though until the oils settle and it stops being greasy.