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I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

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Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#21

Post by burgerbrain »

puredemo wrote: post #16
jessriedel wrote: post #10

>Sometime mid-summer I stopped by a barber and before I'd realized it he'd squirted a glob of shampoo onto my head. It was too late to protest, so I just sat through the scrubbing. For the following 2 weeks my hair was a mess: full of dandruff and totally uncontrollable. I find this hard to believe. My money's on confirmation bias.

Soap strips all the oil away, scalp dries out and flakes. I'm not sure why that would be hard to believe..

Dandruff is primarily caused by bacteria on the scalp. The selenium ingredient (remember 'Evolution'?) in anti-dandruff shampoo acts as a anti-bacterial agent, not as a scalp-moistening agent...

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#22

Post by puredemo »

burgerbrain wrote: post #21
puredemo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soap strips all the oil away, scalp dries out and flakes. I'm not sure why that would be hard to believe..

Dandruff is primarily caused by bacteria on the scalp. The selenium ingredient (remember ' Evolution '?) in anti-dandruff shampoo acts as a anti-bacterial agent, not as a scalp-moistening agent...

It's not always that cut and dry, no pun intended. Although flaky skin might be caused by bacteria sometimes, there can be other causes as well. For instance, extremely low fat diets are known to cause dry flaky skin, bacteria or no.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#23

Post by puredemo »

ericb wrote: post #20
catshirt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's a question of reliability... why would someone make it up?

It took me a long time to realize this, but you can find people who say/believe almost anything, even very earnestly, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons. People might try this out in the winter, and swear by it in online forums until summer comes, or a stressful interview comes up (stress sweat stinks more than normal), or until a coworker with super sense of smell says something. It may work great, but healthy s…

I've done it for a year without any issues, including while playing sports and being in stressful situations.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#24

Post by puredemo »

coffeedrinker wrote: post #9

A lot of the body smells depends on diet. If a person eats foods that make them smell (and the foods can depend on the person) then you get smelly. If you know what those foods are and you avoid them, you decrease the smells your body produces. This is true whether or not you shower :)

I did the no soap thing for the last year as well, and also gradually switched from a vegan to paleo (mostly meat and sauteed veggies) diet during that time.

At least in my case, the dietary change didn't make any difference with body odor. The only difference was actually far less gas on paleo, from not eating soy apparently.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#25

Post by catshirt »

ericb wrote: post #20
catshirt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's a question of reliability... why would someone make it up?

It took me a long time to realize this, but you can find people who say/believe almost anything, even very earnestly, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons. People might try this out in the winter, and swear by it in online forums until summer comes, or a stressful interview comes up (stress sweat stinks more than normal), or until a coworker with super sense of smell says something. It may work great, but healthy s…

Fair enough. But there also seems to be a decent follow up of people agreeing, which is a stronger case. I'm not suggesting to believe it's a magic bullet or completely true, but there seems to be at least a bit of truth (which seems to be: completely depends on the person).

edit: It's also not a "willingness to buck convention", because you can ultimately just start using soap again. There's really nothing to be lost by trying it, imho.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#27

Post by ericb »

puredemo wrote: post #23
ericb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me a long time to realize this, but you can find people who say/believe almost anything, even very earnestly, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons. People might try this out in the winter, and swear by it in online forums until summer comes, or a stressful interview comes up (stress sweat stinks more than normal), or until a coworker with super sense of smell says something. It may work great, but healthy s…

I've done it for a year without any issues, including while playing sports and being in stressful situations.

I don't doubt it. But a few anecdotes of success don't prove it will work for me or everyone. I have certainly met greasy people who smelled, although I have no idea what their bathing habits were. Everyone's body may be different.

To clarify, I am not saying it doesn't work, only that a few claims in a forum aren't "proof." I may even give it a try.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#28

Post by narkee »

> Your body is designed to regulate itself. Smearing chemicals all over it wrecks its own built-in processes, and screws with naturally balanced pH levels. This made sense to me and I thought I'd give it a shot for a month.

These "naturalistic" or "pre-technology/paleo" arguments are bunk. Otherwise medicine would be unnecessary, as this argument leads to the conclusion that the body would regulate itself when presented with illness.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#29

Post by puredemo »

ericb wrote: post #27
puredemo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done it for a year without any issues, including while playing sports and being in stressful situations.

I don't doubt it. But a few anecdotes of success don't prove it will work for me or everyone. I have certainly met greasy people who smelled, although I have no idea what their bathing habits were. Everyone's body may be different. To clarify, I am not saying it doesn't work, only that a few claims in a forum aren't "proof." I may even give it a try.

I actually had (slightly) worse issues with body oder while using soap and shampoo every day. I didn't expect any positive change going the no soap route, the whole experience has been surprising.

Anyway, worked for me. I'm also a fairly skinny guy with a low body fat percentage, not sure if that made any difference.

Re: I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome

#30

Post by eof »

guylhem wrote: post #13
eof wrote: post #8

I went for almost a year never using soap or shampoo. Shampoo I still rarely use. I rinse my hair with hot water and brush it sometimes. If you don't use product in your hair you only have the daily sweat, dirt, and sebum to get rid of. Brushing and rinsing is almost always enough. As for soap I use it as I need to. Sometimes I can't get whatever is living in my pits to go away with any amount of hot soapy water and…

Where were you during that year? I mean, did it get hot?

Vermont. It gets hot/humid in the summer here, but obviously this is not a hot climate.
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