Shampoo is unnecessary

[Michaelangelica]

Shampoo is unnecessary.

The No Shampoo challenge - Richard Glover - Opinion - smh.com.au

 

All my life I have had danduffy flakes in my hair.

I would spend between $10-$20 per week on medicated shampoos and conditioners.

 

A local radio announcer (Richard Glover) started

The No Shampoo challenge

The No Shampoo challenge - Richard Glover - Opinion - smh.com.au

(see also his ABC website)

 

If you leave your hair untouched by shampoo for six weeks the theory is the natural oils come back and your hair is healthy and clean.

 

This does not mean you don't wash you hair you rinse it under running water every day or two or three.

 

I nearly went bizrerk at week 4, wanting to wash my hair; but hung in bravely

 

Now I have the least dandruffy problems than I have had in 40 years and after numerous vists to dermatologists. My hair is 99.99% dandruff free; something I could not achieve with shampooing 4-5 times a week.

 

It is just great and I am saving $20 a week!

 

My worry is that this thing has taken off to such an extent that the Shampoo multi-nationals will take out a contract on Richard's life!:)

[InfiniteNow]

Hmm... perhaps you've simultaneoulsy been using some sort of follicle cologne? Some hair perfume?

 

 

Dude! What's that smell!?!

I dunno, but he's got zero dandruff. :)

[Queso]

shampoo is chemical disgust.

I use water and occasionally dr brohners magic peppermint soap for my dreadlocks and just a couple drops does the trick.

I can't believe that people put so much **** in their hair and on their skin on a daily basis...it's scary.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I don't know why... but if I don't use shampoo, my bed-head doesn't go away. :)

I don't have any problems with dandruff though, so I don't have to buy anything special.

[CraigD]

For years, I used very little on my hair (which, at its longest, was pretty long for a man – about a meter). If I had a bit of fine sand on hand, or a bit of mild soap, I’d use it. My hair did quite well until my mid thirties, when it began to become difficult to prevent from splitting at its ends.

 

At my present age of 47, I must use a moisturizing conditioner, or my hair frizzes and looses length. If I don’t wash its roots, it appears thin and stringy (I know this from trying the Glover challenge earlier this year). Smell isn’t an issue, but a slight oily “stain” on anything on which I rest my head, such as sheets and pillows, is.

 

I’m faced with the choice of cutting my hair short (or off), or using shampoo and conditioner. I chose the latter. Though Michaelangelica notes

It is just great and I am saving $20 a week!

I calculate my expense at about $1/week

 

:clock: What a drag it is getting old

[Racoon]

I agree Micheal..

 

Most commercial shampoos are nothing but harsh smelling chemicals. Just read the ingredients

 

Indeed continued use day after day from these chemicals will wreak havok on your hair. dry, thin, brittle.. you wash and strip away the essential oils the hair follicles produce, and then are lead into product merchandising to buying a product that perpetuates the symptoms you're trying to eliminate! ;)

 

I shower almost daily, but shampoo only 2-3 times a week with Paul Mitchell Awapuhi or other high quality shampoo.

I keep my haircut short, but its all there!!

Thats not to examine the Male Pattern Baldness chromosome, but you thank God when you aren't inflicted!

 

Those cheap *** shampoo brands are BS.

Another perpetration of bad marketing and unscrupulous practices.

 

This is something most people disregard in pursuit of misleading marketing ads...

[jungjedi]

i shampoo with shiney silver to keeep my blond highlights glowing and active. plus im in the pool alot

[Qfwfq]

I've never washed my hair more than once a week and that's usually more often than enough. I've rarely had dandruff, maybe when under acute stress. I always buy the cheapest large size bottle and it lasts me years.

 

I mean literally years! I use very little each time, according to hair length and dirt, in two applications with a thorough rinse in between, an altogether small quantity.

1 cc? 2 cc? That's plenty of weeks with a big, cheap flask! :shades:

[DougF]

The first twenty years of my life I have had dandruff flakes in my hair then I started washing my hair once a week with "softsoap" my dandruff went away split ends gone, no oily “stain” on anything, and leaves a nice clean smell not all perfume like some shampoos do.

(Note: hair is shoulder length now.)

 

 

Softsoap® Antibacterial Moisturizing Soap Premium rich lathering liquid soap with mild' date=' yet effective skin cleaners. Antibacterial formula with four gentle emollients and conditioners to help maintain and protect skin’s natural moisture level and pH balance. [/Quote']

 

 

Colgate Palmolive 26017: Softsoap Antibacterial Moisturizing Soap | OfficeWorld.com

[HomoSapiens]

Well you leave your hair dirty. Shampoo isn't an issue to me anyways. Dandruff are liek when you wash your hair less than normal. Wash it!

[Racoon]

Well you leave your hair dirty. Shampoo isn't an issue to me anyways. Dandruff are liek when you wash your hair less than normal. Wash it!

 

What is dandruff?

flaked off dead skin cells from your scalp..

 

Considering skin flakes off naturally from all parts of the body, does that mean dandruff is terribly bad?

 

Maybe by marketing, beauty and glamour standards..

 

So remedy it by rubbing in harsh chemicals that can seep through your skin..

 

[Michaelangelica]

Well you leave your hair dirty.

no dirty you still rinse it in water

Shampoo isn't an issue to me anyways. Dandruff are liek when you wash your hair less than normal

.

the dandruff has GONE AWAY with not using shapoo.

Dandruff is partly afubgal problem.

Wash it!

I challenge you to the 6 week no-shampoo Glover-no-wash challenge!

6. UPDATE! Is shampoo a ripoff? The Final results are in. 30 Apr 2007. ABC Sydney. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

Summary: Has Sydney given up shampoo? We reveal the results of the six week challenge. UPDATE! Is shampoo a ripoff? The Final results are in. 30 Apr 2007. ABC Sydney. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - 41k - [ html ] - Cached - 30 Apr 2007 - Similar pages

7. UPDATE! Is shampoo a ripoff? The Great Shampoo Experiment. 23 Mar 2007. ABC Sydney. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

Summary: After 4 weeks, Emma has reverted to poetry to cope with her hankering for shampoo. UPDATE! Is shampoo a ripoff? The Great Shampoo Experiment. 23 Mar 2007. ABC Sydney. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) - 33k

From the results, it's pretty clear that those who have undertaken the challenge and voted believe their hair is at least as good - if not better - than when they were using shampoo.

 

It's a great result for household bills, the environment and discovering something that you might have viewed as an essential is actually - for many - not a necessity! Not so great for the shampoo and cosmetics industry perhaps!

 

Thanks to everyone who participated and took part in our No Shampoo Challenge!

 

What's the theory?

 

The theory is that shampoo actually destroys the balance of your hair's natural oils. The cycle might go this way: your hair produces natural oils, and after a few days, starts to feels greasy, oily and dirty. So, you wash your hair with detergent, which strips away the grease.

 

But, as the grease is natural, your hair and head start to fight back by producing more to compensate for the loss, so you wash your hair again. And so on.

 

But what happens if you don't shampoo your hair? Well, the theory says that your hair will get more oily, greasy and smelly, but after six weeks it will become sweeter smelling, bouncy, the natural balance will have been restored. It will even look more attractive, more sexy and wonderful than every before!

 

We know, that promise sounds ironically like a the script for a shampoo advertisement, but hundreds of 702 ABC Sydney Drive listeners have taken the challenge.

 

After three weeks...I have still not had anyone mention to me that my hair looks in anyway different

 

It all began when Drive presenter Richard Glover discovered that London Times columnist, former Tory MP and political sketch writer Matthew Parris had not washed his hair for 15 years. He rinses his hair vigorously with water, but just doesn't use shampoo.

 

"There is no doubt or controversy about it. We make enough grease, but no more than we need. We keep stripping it out, but the habit of overproducing oils in your hair will stop if you stop stripping the grease away."

 

Drive listeners are keen to try. If you've taken part, or want to comment on the challenge, its outcomes or your personal triumph in teh challenge or to read what hundreds of others have said, check out our Message Board .

 

Diary of the 702 No Shampoo Experiment

 

Emma Rowles is a 21 year old bravely decided to take the Great Shampoo Challenge, and to document the experience.

 

Week Six [Final Entry]

 

Well I thought by now I honestly would have secretly 'snuck a wash' however I'm still just 'watering' my hair and it has never looked (or felt!) better! I have had some small breakthroughs this week.

 

I have realised that brushing is great. I. . .

.etc

702 Drive » ABC Sydney

[Monomer]

I find that shampoo generally makes my scalp itchy, so I've resorted to using Head & Shoulders which doesn't irritate my scalp. It costs about $5 a bottle, and it lasts for months because I wash my hair every 4-5 days.

 

As for the no shampoo challenge, I may think about trying it when I'm on holidays... I really hate the smell of oily hair.

 

You know I've heard a similar thing about foot odor, that if you don't use soap to wash your feet, after a while your feet stop smelling bad.

[CraigD]

What is dandruff?

flaked off dead skin cells from your scalp..

 

Considering skin flakes off naturally from all parts of the body, does that mean dandruff is terribly bad?

Good points.

 

Dandruff isn’t a health-threatening condition, nor necessarily a symptom of any other disease. All scalps shed flakes of dead skin. Because the scalp has more sweat (sebaceous) glands than other parts of the body, these flakes are usually oilier, and thus larger and sturdier than on other parts of the body. The increased moisture and thicker, denser hair, makes scalp skin flakes tend to have more microorganism than other skin flakes – especially the Pityrosporum ovale species of Malassezia yeast, which doesn’t appear to be able to live anywhere but on human scalps.

 

As Racoon goes on to note, people are bothered by dandruff for esthetic reasons – it’s simply something that people consider of as gross and ugly. Though frequent scalp washing and/or abrasion (eg: vigorous finder massage) may reduce the size and quantity of dandruff flakes, dandruff is not necessarily a sign of poor hygene. Adolescents or other people who secrete a lot of fatty oil (sebum) are more prone to dandruff than people who secrete less.

 

Although a sudden increase in dandruff can indicate that one’s immune system is stressed by disease, most dandruff is not an abnormal condition. Nonetheless, perhaps our cultural revulsion of dandruff is due to an instinctive suspicion that people with dandruff are sick or weak, and thus poor choices for a reproductive mate?

[Monomer]

Dandruff isn’t a health-threatening condition, nor necessarily a symptom of any other disease. All scalps shed flakes of dead skin. Because the scalp has more sweat (sebaceous) glands than other parts of the body, these flakes are usually oilier, and thus larger and sturdier than on other parts of the body. The increased moisture and thicker, denser hair, makes scalp skin flakes tend to have more microorganism than other skin flakes – especially the Pityrosporum ovale species of Malassezia yeast, which doesn’t appear to be able to live anywhere but on human scalps.

 

As Racoon goes on to note, people are bothered by dandruff for esthetic reasons – it’s simply something that people consider of as gross and ugly. Though frequent scalp washing and/or abrasion (eg: vigorous finder massage) may reduce the size and quantity of dandruff flakes, dandruff is not necessarily a sign of poor hygene. Adolescents or other people who secrete a lot of fatty oil (sebum) are more prone to dandruff than people who secrete less.

 

Although a sudden increase in dandruff can indicate that one’s immune system is stressed by disease, most dandruff is not an abnormal condition. Nonetheless, perhaps our cultural revulsion of dandruff is due to an instinctive suspicion that people with dandruff are sick or weak, and thus poor choices for a reproductive mate?

 

 

Good points CraigD!

 

I was just thinking about Racoon's post, and came to the same conclusion.

[HomoSapiens]

What is dandruff?

flaked off dead skin cells from your scalp..

 

Considering skin flakes off naturally from all parts of the body, does that mean dandruff is terribly bad?

 

Maybe by marketing, beauty and glamour standards..

 

So remedy it by rubbing in harsh chemicals that can seep through your skin..

 

 

Yea i afraid it was the marketing, beauty and glamour standards. I can't believe why they create the superious on our hair and head skin? I stick with water.

How about the dandruff shampoo one? "Head and shoulders" Brand.

[Michaelangelica]

Mercola

Can Greasy Hair Protect Your Lungs?

 

hair, hair care, personal care products, air pollution, air quality, ozone, ionic filters, ozone generators, chemical reactions, dangerous chemicalsGreasy hair might reduce the amount of ozone you breathe in. When researchers exposed samples of washed and unwashed hair to ozone for 24 hours, they found that the unwashed hair absorbed around seven times as much ozone.

 

Ground-level ozone can cause respiratory problems, and it has been associated with increased mortality. Having greasy hair could reduce your ozone exposure.

 

However, unwashed hair samples did produce more secondary-reaction products created from the interaction between ozone and hair oil.

Sources:

 

* New Scientist March 1, 2008

 

 

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My first thought when reading this article was, “Is there even ONE good reason for clogging up the information highway with this kind of nonsense?”

 

Well. Since no one was around to answer me, I decided to do some digging, and will share my findings with all you loyal readers who deserve to know the answer to this pressing question, and perhaps -- at least partially -- restore your faith in the mental faculties of our educated scholars.

 

Turns out this research may not be the result of an LSD experiment gone wrong after all.

 

(On a side note, if you don’t have much hair, like me, then this is not a big deal. But I will start some investigational ADULT stem cell topical therapy soon, and there is a 90 percent chance I will have a full head of hair in one year -- so at that time I’ll be paying more attention to my hair care. Dr. Phil starts it this week.)

 

Personal Care Products and Indoor Air Pollution

 

After unearthing some information about the author of this study, Associate Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Glenn C. Morrison, I found that this is merely a small part of a much larger investigation into the physics and chemistry of indoor air pollution -- something that does concern us all, more so than deciding whether or not washing our hair will affect our lifespan to any measurable degree.

 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air is up to five times more polluted than outdoor air, on average. So, considering the fact that you spend about 90 percent of your life indoors, the study of indoor pollution is a worthy one.

 

Their main aim is to determine what kinds of chemical pollutants are created indoors, and how they accumulate in indoor environments. Related projects include “secondary pollutant emissions in homes,“ and “pollutant transport to indoor surfaces,” for example.

 

Morrison states:

 

“Since proximity to a pollutant source is as important at the source strength, we have begun evaluating pollutant dynamics and chemistry in the region around the human body, specifically the head region.

 

“We have learned that ozone flux to human hair is very fast, and that ozone reactions with human sebum will be responsible for lower ozone exposure, but also responsible for higher exposure to oxidation products such as aldehydes and ketones.”

 

Aha, here’s where it actually gets interesting, albeit meandering, so stay with me.

 

They found that dirty hair absorbs seven times the amount of ozone -- a respiratory irritant -- compared to clean hair.

 

This means, when you let your hair go to funk, you inhale one-seventh the amount of ozone as your squeaky clean neighbor (since your hair absorbed more of it).

 

But, the ozone level is only lowered because of the chemical reactions that take place with the squalene in your skin, AND while ozone levels are lowered, secondary chemical reactions create yet another nasty byproduct: 4-oxopentanal, which is a different respiratory irritant.

 

Are you still with me?

 

To recap the finding, grungy hair does NOT necessarily mean healthier air around your head, due to the secondary byproduct being produced, and Glenn Morrison states that this finding, in and of itself, may not mean anything.

 

But, in another published study, “Personal reactive clouds: Introducing the concept of near-head chemistry,” co-authored by Morrison, they found that ozone reactions with certain chemicals contained in personal care products can lead to elevated, and potentially harmful levels of ozonides, which rapidly decompose into carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes and ketones.

 

In plain English, your personal care products can spell double-trouble for your health.

 

First, by being absorbed into your skin -- which I’ve written about before -- and as described here, through the process of chemical reactions with your skin and hair. Hence the reason for this grungy hair study.

 

Morrison underscores just how little we know about ozone -- that unstable oxygen molecule (O3) that oxidizes anything it bumps into -- and how we may be exposed to unknown toxins simply because we don’t understand how it reacts with our body chemistry.

 

What Health Concerns ARE Implicated by This Study?

 

In conclusion, this “nonsensical” study actually points out two important areas of potential health hazards, due to the secondary chemical reactions that occur with ozone.

 

First, personal care products that are sprayed or applied to your skin (such as lotions, hair spray and perfume) can cause secondary chemical reactions, causing you to be exposed to high levels of potentially dangerous compounds.

 

And second, it also points out yet another reason for avoiding ozone generators and ionic air filters in your home.

 

Although ozone generators work for removing odors, killing mold and mildew, it can also kill small animals with enough exposure. And what this research tells us is that there may be many more secondary reactions that we’re just not familiar with yet that can harm your health.

 

To wrap this up, I recommend you review the related articles below about BAU Biologie & Ecology for more information on how to improve everything from your indoor air quality, to the health of your entire home.

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Can Greasy Hair Protect Your Lungs? - Articles