The Picard ManeuverMaybe they're onto something
BobYou don’t need shampoo or conditioner except sometimes medicinally!
If you do not apply some sort of (proven) cleaning agent to your hair on a reasonably frequent basis, i dont care how in touch with nature and your primal self you are, you stink. If you dont want to deal with the maintenance cut it off, rocking the wrecking ball aesthetic is pretty great actually.
The no-poo (no shampoo) movement is very real and definitely works for many people (dependant on hair type and oil secretions). Basically, once you stop washing away your natural oils daily, the production normalizes and then a regular rinse with water and occasionally something like diluted soap, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
I’ve met them, I was one, I know them. You wouldn’t know unless they told you.
queermunist she/herand occasionally something like diluted soap, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
i.e. some sort of (proven) cleaning agent
By occasionally, they mean once a month at most.
Hair only stinks if you get crap in it.
Okay, but it’s important for everyone elseto know that they aren’t going years without using a cleaning agent like wild animals.
You ever smell an animal’s fur? It’s not great.
If you are brushing them often, feeding them good food, and not letting your dog roll in everything, they smell a lot better.
That being said, animals in general do have stronger smelling oils than humans - often for some evolutionarily advantageous reasons.
On the other hand, dogs don’t sweat.
And sweat rinses off quite easily.
What about sweat that’s been in your hair for 12+ hours? Growing things.
If your sweat is growing things in 12 hours, you need a doctor or an exorcist.
Remember, many indigenous people across the world used steam to bath, as the steam and new sweat rinsed off the old sweat quite effectively.
Moisture+Oil+Dead Skin=Bacterial Growth.
Full stop.
Which is why y’all are occasionally washing with lemon juice or vinegar or certain oils, because that actually disinfects.
well it’s either wet, which means you should shower, because otherwise that shits going to be really annoying, or it’s dry, and it’s probably not a big anymore. Once you shower that shit is getting cleaned off properly anyway.
Just so we’re clear here, sweat is supposed to provide life to bacteria, that’s why it stinks.
If you don’t use some kind of cleansing agent the bacteria is still there.
It doesn’t have to be shampoo, lemon juice/vinegar/rain water can kill bacteria because they’re acidic, certain scented and essential oils as well are antimicrobial.
The facts don’t change, though. You can’t just rinse your hair with tap water for a year and expect nothing to grow in it.
i mean sure, but there’s shit that grows all over you constantly, there’s shit that grows under your fingernails. For the longest time in humanity hair just existed, and it doesn’t seem to have ever been a significant source of health problems.
Even if you wash and shampoo your hair you would still expect shit to be growing in it, though living in it is the more accurate terminology.
Yeah, and then you wash the shit that grows on you off with some kind of cleanser. Otherwise it just keeps growing and makes you stink, and sometimes bad stuff grows in there and makes you unhealthy and itchy.
And for the longest time humanity was kinda stinky. It’s normal for animals to smell. Then we figured out how to wash with oils and captured rain water and acidic fruit juices and such, and realized we didn’t have to stink.
I’m not going back.
yeah, but my point here is that it’s not gonna kill someone. It may be socially taboo in some respects, but there are most certainly worse things one can be doing with their personal hygiene.
Okay, but my point was they aren’t actually going years without using a cleaning agent. They’re using acidic and/or oil based disinfecting cleansers on occasion, because they’re not feral. For some reason y’all keep arguing with me about that?
i wonder how true this is throughout society. Probably more true in some places rather than others. Europeans for a while didn’t bathe very regularly at all.
Like as far as i can tell, the most significant effect bathing has is that it reduces the spread of disease, and gets rid of dirt build up.
Bathing with cleansers also reduces the instance of fungal and bacterial growth which causes dandruff and acne, which are caused by the immune system responding to the shit growing on your skin. Hence, no-poo still involves other types of cleansers.