The Hair Experiment - how to spend less on shampoo

[NoSleep]

Are you assuming I cough a hairball up into my glass of water after I stir a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate into it?

[Cerys]

Don't we all?

[mook]

i certainly wouldn't put it passed him.

[Ray Travez]

I stopped using shampoo in 1999. I think it's a monstrous con, I can barely believe people get willingly suckered into buying it. It's a petrochemical spunk bubble.

My hair's fine without it. Naturally, I have very curly hair, a bit like Chrisp Morris, and washing with shampoo turns it into a fluffy electrostatic mess. So glad I left it behind. Every few months I'll make a natural conditioner from organic hemp that has been harvested under a full moon by wiccans, but apart from that I just leave it.

If you eat a lot of meat though and don't wash your hair at all, you might start to smell like a dog when it rains... so somebody told me.

[Cerys]

Fortunately I don't eat a lot of meat.

Well, my hair is mostly dry now, and considerably less greasy than it was earlier.  I'll probably repeat the process in a day or so and see what happens.

[WesterlyWinds]

I tried this at uni but gave up fairly quickly. If I remember correctly the bicarbonate of soda is for 'washing' as it scrapes away dead skin and dirt. You can then, if you wish, use Apple vinegar as a 'conditioner' - although make sure to blast your head with cold water first otherwise your hair will essentially absorb it and stink for ages

[Big Jack McBastard]

Why not try everything in the condiment cupboard then move onto the spices? You never know paprika and tobasco sauce might be the best hair cleaning combo ever but no-one's been mad enough to try.

[olliebean]

If the aim is to spend less, apple cider vinegar is a non-starter as it costs more than shampoo.

[Cerys]

If I want to condition it I'll probably use an egg that's gone past its use-by date.  I'll have to turn the water temperature down, though, in case I accidentally cook it.

[Dex Sawash]

If I want to condition it I'll probably use an egg that's gone past its use-by date.  I'll have to turn the water temperature down, though, in case I accidentally cook it.

Make the perfect egg-yolk-sauce everytime to drizzle on any fucking thing to order.

[Cerys]

There you go - he has his uses.

[popcorn]

I would like everyone to know I have switched shampoos and my dandruff went away. No more picking bits of parmesan from my lusty locks! Confidence restored! I can ace any interview, bum any arse.

[Cerys]

And would this have happened had I not decided to wash my hair in baking ingredients?

[Cerys]

As a non-shampoo user I've yet to see anyone explain what actual benefit caffeine in it brings. And I also wonder how effective a campaign in the UK based on "the Germans like it" was...

Would you like me to wash my hair in coffee and report back?

We have no instant coffee so I haven't done that yet - but we have some ground coffee kicking about so I'll cafetierise it at some point and do it then.  In the meantime, I have washed my hair with baking powder and conditioned it with an egg.  I'm quite pleased with the results, but it isn't at optimum silkiness yet.

[touchingcloth]

I have washed my hair with baking powder and conditioned it with an egg,
I've combed it with a lettuce, and rinsed it in a keg.
My kitchen's now my bathroom, and we very soon shall see,
If my dishes glisten and sparkle, when I clean them with my wee.

[Cerys]

Damn right.

[Cerys]

Bump!

I chopped my hair a couple of weeks ago (shoulder length), and with less to spread the natural oils through it went all kinds of disgusting.  I've combated that with coal tar shampoo and declared the experiment over.  I'm glad I did it, but it's time to move on.

[Emotional Support Peacock]

You didn't wash your hair for two and a half years?

[bgmnts]

I mostly just use shower gel but every so often i'll chuck some shampoo on. Is it bad for your locks???

[pancreas]

You didn't wash your hair for two and a half years?

If you're suggesting she has spent two years being a stinking ho, then I don't think that's very emotionally supportive, is it?

[Cerys]

There's support, and there's support.

[bgmnts]

This isn't a "how to spend less on bras" thread.

[thenoise]

I mostly just use shower gel but every so often i'll chuck some shampoo on. Is it bad for your locks???

Just buy a 'shower gel and shampoo' bottle, it's great for us simple men because I can just take one bottle into the shower and don't need to get confused, overwhelmed and frightened by all the different cleaning products that the complicated women use.

Or just use a bar of soap all over, like my old uni housemate used to. His hair looked like he was playing with a van der graaf generator, but he always smelt fresh and clean.

[solidified gruel merchant]

I did this when I gave up heroin. I became all healthy and puritanical about chemicals and decided that, seeing as I'd shaved all my hair off anyway, I'd grow it back and never wash it with shampoo.
And it bloody worked. It grew back very strong and healthy and never looked dirty. I just rinsed it in the shower every day and that was that.
I can't remember why I started using shampoo again, I think it was probably when I got a job and it just slipped back in to my routine.

[Cuntbeaks]

Get some coal tar shampoo.  It's great.

I used Polytar for fucking years to try and manage dandruff/ scalp psoriasis. It did absolutely fuck all apart from smell like tar, which I liked.

Switched to Nizoral and it worked within a week.

[St_Eddie]

All i know is that if I don't wash my hair for a few days, then it itches likes absolute crazy.  It's this weird sort of burning itch.  Extremely unpleasant.  On those occasions, I've immediately washed my hair and the result is instant eradication of the itches.  Don't think I shall be giving up on washing my hair anytime soon.

[Cloud]

The no shampooing thing isn't as gross as an article I read about women when choose to shower only once a week.

Yeahno, not a good idea, that's how if you're lucky you get pulled up by your manager and told to sort your BO problem.  Voice of experience... I do wonder how people managed in my parent and grandparent generation when a weekly bath was the norm, often with shared water, everyone must have reeked or maybe their noses just gave up?

Hair is less susceptible to stank afaik, but anyone going for several weeks without shampoo is much braver than I!  You can't smell yourself generally (if you can, then everyone else is choking), and most people are too polite to bring it up.

[Cuellar]

I literally can't remember the last time I shampooed my hair. And I am not bald. Just water. Sometimes I even put styling stuff in it. Still, just water.

[thenoise]

I've started using head and shoulders on my beard, after getting fed up of getting snowy flakes all over my natty black t-shirts.  If this doesn't clear it up I'm going to fucking shave.  Beards are past peak fashionable anyway.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Shampoo lasts me fucking ages, it's shower gel I got though, so switched to bars which also last ages.