Monday 14 February 2011

2 weeks without shampoo

I will use my friend's joke, and will welcome my 2 fellow readers now: Elloooo. Which is, I guess...including me ;)

Well enough of funny stuff I have some updates for you. This time it is not gonna by day by day, as you already have some idea how my "typical" week looks like. This makes me wonder if I like it. You know, Monday-Friday work, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday floorball, Monday mostly some cinema, Tuesdays usually poker, Friday some drinks etc. Hmm sounds like a good comfort zone, but I guess this should be the topic for another blog!

So, back to the bathroom experiment. This week went pretty well!

Still not using any shampoo neither shower gel, still happy, with some new findings.

First of all, the hair grease is getting much better! since Thursday, I've noticed that hair is not that oily as before. They still feel oily and hard when wet, but after dry they are well ok. Also easier to style, and they are even more curly! At the same time, the fringe is not dry as it used to be and does not look like bunch of grass planted in the middle of Sahara. On the other hand, hair is quite difficult to comb after the shower. They are all stuck together and it takes me some time to comb through them. Also I keep finding some stuff in them while comb is doing its job, I guess the water is not going deep enough to the skin whilst washing. Will explore more ways of washing and will post them in the next articles.

Party in my tummy 
On Thursday, we had company poker night. Some other colleague came down to London from the other office and as I am recognised as a bin (finishing all food) in the company, he always brings some goodies for me. Well, I mean for us, but I never forget to remind him about it. So, Jaffa Cakes, Digestives (mmm dark chocolate ones are irresistible) on my desk! Naturally I had some for breakfast, before lunch, after lunch and before poker night. Well that is pretty standard and it is not doing any harm, but there is a but. At the lunchtime we decided to go and have curry. You know, with colleague down here from other city, why not to have something special. And it was special indeed, very good and spicy indian mmm big tasty! As you probably know, good indian meal has some advantage. You will enjoy it later on again...Ok let's swap it to disadvantage instead.

To summarise: Milk with cereals for the breakfast, Jaffa cakes, Digestives all day, Curry with fried onions and beer for lunch, 2 another beers during poker night, some Cheese and onion crisps. I think you may know where I am heading with all of this. To the place, where even King is walking to! To the place where everyone can fulfil a "being a drummer or saxophonist" dream.
Enough said, it was some nice gig lasting for a few moments. As a proper drummer, the sweat was all around you and I guess that was the only reason for the unlimited tissue consumption. And still not enough. My first thought in these circumstances was - the shower gel will save me!!! But this time, wait a minute - my hand will save me...You know what I mean. No soap, no gel, just me and water...Only hope that it go smoother than flushing the loo...Ok will keep it simple - all went good! Went to shower, some water, some moves, some closed eyes while taking "smelly-test", and then just relieved feeling that dogs and cats are not alone.

Erectangle
Have met my friend again and passed smelly-test without any problems. However, I was target of her flatmate's jokes straight away after I turned up. "What is the smell here? Can you smell it as well?" "oooh your hair looks really 'healthy'" etc etc. He also refused to smell me, I told him I need another smelly-test result. So I said ok, fair enough, I like fun and it was worth of waiting. While he was working on his graphic project, the question raised out of nowhere: "What do you think, do you prefer this circle, or erectangle, eeerm, rectangle." My only though at that moment was, that my "woof woof" smelling body was just  so irresistible that rectangles are turning to erectangles. I am just happy there was no smoke and no need for him to shout something like "hurry up, we need to evacuate"

Illness
I guess I should mention, that this week I was feeling a bit ill. Had no temperature, just had some nose products coming out of me, and also my eyes were reddish for some reason. I wouldn't say it is related to my bathroom experiment, but some people may think I am not killing enough bacteria with just water only. I don't believe this is the case, so will see how the next week is gonna be. BTW, I am still using soap for my hands.
Also have pain in my back after today's training - went to play without straight without any warm-up..


Summary after 14 days
  1. Hair is less oily, and right now can't feel any grease at all. Took me ~10 days to get to this stage.
  2. Hair is harder and also are harder to comb. However, I am not combing them very often. I guess it would have been better if I was doing it every day.
  3. The shower is still fun and easy going without the shampoo and gel. While I was having a shower after training today, the smell of the shampoos and gels from the next cabins was soooo strong and intensive for me that I think I am now much more sensitive to bathing products and their perfumes! And I don't need them even after curry, ha!
  4. I don't smell bad. Well, if I do please let me know! If you wanna "try me", let me know
  5. I am still using a bit of deodorant every morning, but much less than I used to
  6. Some weird body issues occured as mentioned above in Illness section
  7. Overall = I am happy so far and will definitely continue

Monday 7 February 2011

First week update. Testers, hands up!

It is exactly 7 days since I've started my Bathroom experiment. So far no major issues, no complains, just  several observations and funny-ish stories. But lets go one by one.

Sunday
and my floorball training. I must admit that I am not really surprised that spell checker doesn't recognise word 'floorball'. I am sure, that all of you do. In case you don't, check YouTube or watch Summer Olympics 2016+. My trainers are very stable, but they are getting a bit smelly with time passing. Is that the price for stability? Naturally, this is a good test setup for my no-shower-gel-no-shampoo shower.
Didn't ask the shampoo carriers for the shampoo this time, I was having my lovely water only shower. "Smelly-test" results were great, no issues at all and I was able to go to tube happily. Hair is normal - no difference yet.


Monday & Tuesday
Not sure I had a shower both days. Shocking? No. Had definitely at least one. Here I started to observe some differences. Hair is getting bit harder and more oily. When in shower they feel 10x thicker. Next day at work they looked normal, but a bit oily when touched. I heard that this should go back to normal after circa 2 weeks, so I am not worried as they actually look good! No one to touch me so all ok. My skin still smells OK, quite nice actually...well, smell of the body woof woof!

Wednesday
Another floorball training (damn spell checker!), after which I met my friend. She is a proper human doggy nose. Her nose cannot be tricked, and her honesty cannot be questioned. This is the ultimate "smelly-test" setup. Surprisingly I passed without any problems, I was even told I smell nice, no dodgy comments around!
Training time and my lovely trainers again. I had a shower after training, my hair was HARD, oily-ish again (especially when wet), but otherwise all OK. Later on, as I was happily sitting on the chair in my bath robe, when friend's friend suddenly dropped some crazy concentrated soya sauce very next to me!! Result - sauce everywhere!! On the chair, on the sofa, on the bag, in the bag, on the wall and naturally, on my "water-only-leg", flip flop and my face almost got it too. Oh..the smell was so strong that my nose got smelly only by smelling it! My eyes were smelly only by looking at the mess! So I was thinking, what to do now? I've had my lovely shower just minute ago, no soap, no gel, and now I have a soya sauce on me!

At least I hope it was a good thing to kill bacteria! So, I went to another shower and YES-please forgive me, I did cheat. I used a bit of the soap for my shin...but that's it! Nowhere else, not on for hands or for "flip-flop-soya-smell" feet. I felt bad about the soap, but you know how it is...you gotta to do what you gotta do, especially when having a concentrated taiwanese s..a on your leg? Only when you undertaking bathroom experiment? Well, after using just a bit of soap on the leg, I managed not to smell for the rest of the week so all went ok again and I half-survived the first log under my feet!


Thursday
All good during the day, hair again a bit oily when touched - but good looking. Well at least I was happy with the look :) Ok, another training, floorball, trainers - good stress test combo!! Shower in the shower, gel smell from the next cabin only, no shampoo in my eyes, only my hardy friends with me. Hair to clarify.
Body smells like there was no sport activity. One thing to mention here: I am still using a tiny bit of deodorant, I am not brave to go without it yet. It should be not that bad to not use it, as if I smell weird, I can just put it on. So maybe I'll try that later. Check for updates!


Friday
Well,  as I had been out and came late, all I managed was to check some youtube music videos until 5:30am and then went to bed. I suppose I was still fresh and nice smelling as the cats still love me and sleep with me, so I guess it is OK. Or maybe they are after my animal beastly aroma? You know, I live with 2 cats now (used with 3 for 3 weeks), so my "cosmic cat" friend pointed out, I might be turning into one......they are just licking themselves as a shower, and they still smell nice! Hmm, if you catch me licking myself, please, hit me! And no cameras!


Saturday
Had a shower around 3pm in the morning. My hair is even harder! wow!! I tried to comb them for the first time this week - yes that's correct! Probably I haven't mentioned yet, I have quite big, curly hair, that's why they are used to be quite random after shower. Anyway, combing them was a quite a shock! They were like covered in hair styling product, was able to do any shape I wanted! Actually, it was probably the oil in them, but in a good way! Easy to shape, easy to play withWhen they got dry, their look got back to normal and they lost their ability to get styled freely, but were still quite nice and I was pleased with another shampoo and gel free day!

Sunday
Another floorball training and another quick meeting with my "smelly-test" friend. The shower turned just bad! Not because I was jealous of all the shower gels around me (I wasn't!), but because the water was just HOT / BOILING with no option to regulate.
"Go under the shower, I will press the button, and you'll tell me where the millions $$ are hidden!" Or burn like Krueger. Just don't come back..
So with this delicate water on my body, I somehow managed to get rid of all the salt and jumped out. My hair was ok, looked funny, no comb, 90 degree Celsius-water, they were not dry at all, and still looked healthy. So I met my friend, and she again confirmed I am not smelling bad, but indeed, quite nice! Hmm, have just realised that she didn't smell my hair, only body...will sort out this next week.
Came home happy and not that surprised, and then another log my coming my way! I decided to clean our bathroom off mould! So did put the gloves on, T-shirt across my face as a mask, and started to battle these mouldy creatures. I was on the winning side, when I started to battle on ceiling...Started to spray Dettol above me, but had realised slowly as a blonde Barbie that it is all falling back on my uncovered hand! Felt like Gremlin in the rain. But  stayed calm, went to sink to wash it off, and then realised = "Gosh, I cannot use soap. I mean, I don't want to use soap!" All these Dettols and soya sauces are just tests from the above! Body will manage! So I put only hot water on it, and continued killing the germs with even more passion. You know, these stuff don't get off skin that easily! So after that, when all that was left in bathroom were black body bags full of mould, I took another shower, just water, and all was gone. Just bacteria free right hand! No smell. I am proud. That was my Sunday afternoon. Not lazy this time


First week summary
  1. My body smells quite nice. I can say that all parts. Not that I was smelling everywhere though!
  2. Skin is absolutely the same, not dry like my Slivovica bottle after Friday, nor spotty like a night sky or  dirty like a red light district. Cannot see any bacteria or worms either, so I guess all is good.
  3. My hair is more oily, but never dry-looking, they are more manageable and looking dark and healthy. I hope :) And they are more curly, but that's because I am not using comb that much these days. 
  4. All in all, I am happy with the results so far, not to mention I have passed 2 "smelly-tests" :)
Next
I will continue next week. Wondering what will happen with the hair. Body seems to be coping without a difference yet..


Sunday 6 February 2011

No soap, no shampoo, the same bath

I recently came across an interesting article about using no shower gel or shampoo in the bath. A lot of people were reporting that their skin and hair got better. I thought it may be worth of trying. I will try to list some cons and pros and you might get some idea about what was behind this decision. If you found out, please let me know.


PROS:
  1. I don't have to carry any shampoo to my trainings. This is not a big issue anyway, but you know, every little helps as little says. And  I don't have to worry about accidental droppings of (shower) gel in prison.
  2. I am kind of pill-less person. I'm not using painkillers at all, and really can't think of the last time I've eaten some pill. Maybe this made me think that the body should be ok without the shower gel as well, especially when I currently can't see any reason for using it...Smells nice? Well, for 1 hour? Kills bacteria? As well as your natural skin protection layers..?
  3. My hair are RANDOM after each wash. Sometimes shiny, sometimes dry, sometimes flat, sometimes curly, sometimes I am snowing even in the summer...So I will work out if it is due to shampoo, water, my hands or random cosmic rays...
  4. Tiny bit more environmental friendly as water does not contain any chemical stuff. If we are not considering my dirt.
  5. I have read about many positive people's experiences.
  6. If it goes wrong, I can stop at any point.
  7. "Don't wash! I am coming home!". Napoleon's quote. Smell of the body. Adorable. When have you last washed your cat? Does she smell? Bottom line: "You haven't washed..I am coming right now..." this is how the quote above should continue..
  8. I finally have some blog...More to come, I have a lot of inspiration but no kickers. So kick me to the ass and you'll get more! Don't worry, I am still using shower gel so feet should be ok after the kick

CONS:
  1. I do not have any serious issues and it is best to avoid major changes in these circumstances. But points from above are enough for me to do it.
  2. Well, if you think about your dishes, it is really hard to clean them using just the water. You do need a washing up liquid to get rid of grease quickly and easily. But who knows if the same result cannot be achieved with hot water only, but who likes to wait these days? + human body is much more sophisticated than bowl dirty of mayo
  3. I am not sure what will happen with my hair, with my smell, with my hands cleaning the parts I am thinking of getting gloves for.
  4. What if I met Bonaparte in the tube? :-o


Well, keep reading, bookmark, share, check for more about my progress. And if you want to be part of the "Smelly-test(r) group;", feel free to drop me an email. Only safe areas for general public.