Anyone ever tried giving up shampoo???

[GogoTheSmall]

Since dd was born 15 weeks ago I suppose you could say I've gone a bit fallow. So yesterday I was sitting on the sofa in my own mung so to speak, with dd, and realised I hadn't washed my hair for a week.

It looked like it too!

But then I thought, well I'm probably not too far from the tipping point where my hair will start self-cleaning.

I looked it up on the infoweb and apparently there's a Mexican technique whereby you just rinse your hair with water, nothing else, and when it's wet you brush it 100 times each side with a flannel. This distributes the hair's natural oil away from the root and down the length IYSWIM.

So I'm going to give it a go. I may as well, I'm not exactly dressing up much at the moment. And my showers will be quicker which is a useful thing ATM. Hopefully I won't smell so bad that dd and dh won't want to come near.

Anyone else tried going without shampoo / conditioner?

I know someone (39) who hasn't washed his hair for at least 20 years - maybe longer, I can't remember. He uses water only. Apparently if you can go for 8 weeks without washing it (with shampoo etc) then it will become lovely and self-cleaning.

I have only ever washed ds's hair twice - in the first few months after he born. He's now 3.7 and his hair is fine.

Hmm, don't you think blokes can get away with it a bit more easily??

I'm sure I saw something on telly about this and they proved that it was shite that your hair was self cleaning.

BUt go for it and post us the pics of your manky locks

OK will do!

His hair is quite long too - not quite down to shoulders, but nearly.

I did it when I was 16, at about 5-6 weeks it was really greasy but after that it improved, I used to just rinse it lots, then I started swimming again.....and needed shampoo to get rid of the chlorine so that put an end to it.

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No.

Yuk.

Go and have a wash.

Soap is a good thing.

surely it would be all manky & itchy & smelly?

Definitely will be manky to start with. I just bought some headscarves off eBay. Supposedly it doesn't smell after a while because the sebum levels in your hair calm down (we've all got overactive sebum glands because of the drying effect of shampoo - that's the theory anyway according to the wisdom of the interweb). We will see! I'm sure dh will give me an objective opinion

You can become one of those dread-locked people who people always move out of the way for because they stink.

my xdh tried this on his long hair and it ended up rank

A friend of mine did this when she was younger and it worked. It was glossy and clean and didn't smell after the first month or so.

I'm not sure if he did the flannel thing though. Maybe thats the crucial bit

But what happens to all the sweat your hair absorbs and the dead scalp cells...how does that come out? And any smells hair absorbs?

Couldn't do it.

Methinks the crucial bit was the shampoo, RnBee .

LOL expat

Oh you faithless ones... shampoo was only invented about 50 years ago, y'know. How do you think all those glossy-haired Victorian lovelies and Irish maidens that you see in old photos kept their locks so tumbling and gorgeous? They did brush a lot back then though, I suppose that must have moved the ickies along.

Or did they all just stink?

it does stink to high heaven

my dd gets really greasy hair and it makes me retch when i get a whiff!

They also died of diseases which are prevented today by good hygiene.

Honestly, though, if my husband stopped washing regularly - hair or body - we'd have some serious ishoos.

lol oh poor dh... so far he finds it quite funny and is taking the mick. Let's see if it's still funny in a month's time!

I have! I have! I did it for a couple of months last year as I am a cheap bastard and was hoping to never have to buy shampoo again. It was really really disgusting for about 2 weeks and then started to normalise. Washed it in water every day and it didn't smell. Over the last few weeks I kept expecting it to get better-looking but while it looked OK it never looked great so I jacked it in. Might be more successful if you've got thick curly hair; mine is fine and lank.

Oh, and not to put you off, but you might want to put away the good pillowcases for the duration...

my db did this when he was a teenager, it was disgusting

Lots of stuff on the internet about this, you can rinse your hair in warm water with lemon juice to clean it and as long as you rinse in warm water and brush it everyday it should be fine.