Small update

It has been a long-ish time since the last update. Yeah, no shampoo is still on.

I had another hair cut, another one with shampoo, they call it "wet cut". Sounds good to me. Next time I might go for massage, I hope they'll have wet one.

So how does my hair feel? Same as usual. They are periodical cycles, when hair is more oily, I'd say it is around 1 week a month. Most of the time they are just normal. During all this time I am doing this experiment, I've never had problem with dandruffs, and I had them in my shampoo era.

My body is doing very well without shower gels. Absolutely no problem so far with some smell I can smell or someone else complaining. In fact, my little 4yo brother was visiting me 1 week ago and he had some era of kissing me all over my face and neck etc...Don't get me wrong, it was pure innocent child brother love, I don't want to make it sound worse but I am sure you understand. I can see some people laughing right now but well all normal ones knows what I mean. Ehm what is the point? That he must have enjoyed it and if I smell he'd tell me I guess. You know, children are honest. Weird paragraph let's jump to another one

It must have been around 4 months I am doing this experiment now...I am planning to carry on, I wanted to try some other stuff as baking soda for my hair, avoid deodorant but I will see how it goes. Right now I am not gonna change anything so all said in previous posts is still valid.

See you when by the next update.

Still going

Hey, I am still going

I made some exception though, I went to hairdresser. For this occasion I washed all my hair with shampoo for the first time in weeks.
The reason was that they will be softer and easier to deep comb. I realised that I don't like them after using shampoo....they are leather soft, but I dont like that. It is better if they are bit heavier and not that dry.
I dont have to use any styling product at the end. Well they are also curly so it makes it even better.

So just to let you know, still no soap, still no shampoo, still no smell, still no complains. I am pretty amazed how the body can cope with water washing only. Reactions are very different, but most of the people can't believe it and when I tell them that I am not using any soap they are sometimes shocked and disguised. Without telling them, they wont be able to realise though :)

It is just proof how we are all perfectly manipulated by nonstop advertisement of today's world.....How many times have you cached yourself singing some advertising "jingle" or saying some advert line?

As I mentioned in my blog before, my hair are not perfect and sometimes bit oily, but it is getting better after time and the cycles between bit oily and non-oily hair are getting longer towards normal looking "just a normal" oily hairy.

So far, I have no reason to use any shower gels, my body has absolutely no smell even in the areas you would have expect so (fingers, etc...;). It is true that you will become used to your own scent, but I don't think it is the case because from time to time I am asking people to smell my arm, for example :)

So. I'll keep going.

Time for the experminent within experiment (EwE)

There we go, I managed to do experiment within experiment (EvvE) yesterday!

Good news about this post is, that you'll finally get to see some images of my bush. Breathe deeply...

Setup

I decided to wash the right half of my hair with shampoo (!) and the left one just with the water

So it was pretty simple. While having a shower, I grabbed a shampoo and properly and carefully washed my right side of the head only. Just like old times

Please note, I haven't used shampoo for a good couple of weeks....6,7?

Goals

To find out answers to these questions

1. How the hair will react to the shampoo?
2. If I do compare them, will there be any difference between left and right side?

Expected results

1. They will become dry-looking with possibility of dandruffs appearing. 
2. Shampoo side will be more comb-friendly, softer, and not oily. Also more uncontrollable

Experiment results

All went well in the shower. I used shampoo on right hand side, and then repeated the process to make sure hair will absorb as much of it as they can. Left side was untouched. Just water. I didnt dry my hair at all and went straight to the following steps..

First touch. 

Shampoo hair is much softer and much easier to comb. I guess this was because the shampoo removed all natural oil built in my hair over the last few weeks. No shampoo side is heavier and harder to comb. As usually.

Comb

I combed my wet hair as straight as I can. Fringe straight, around the ears straight, back straight..

Right after the combing, I noticed that shampoo side is getting curly and I am not able to control it. This was due to lack of oil in hair. Have a look on the pictures with wet hair:

Pict 1. Wet shampoo hair - not able to control

Pict 2. Wet water only hair - much better styling options

Pict 3. Left is shampoo side, you can see more of my ear. Also fringe is more curly

Feel of both sides was actually pretty similar. Water only side was not that oily. Touch experience felt nearly the same for both halfs. The theory is,  that hair is producing natural oil in cycles, so you can have some periods with hair not greasy and periods with hair getting oily a bit more.

70 minutes later

I took another picture and was ready to go to bed. Didn't touch hair at all, I was curious to see what will happen in the morning 

Pict 4. Shampoo side curly from the middle down. nearly the same as when wet

Pict 5. Water only side getting curlier near the end. Still not as curly as right hand side

Night conclusion

As I mentioned in my posts before, wet water only hair is much easier to style, you can do any hair style you want and have quite a lot of fun. Shampoo hair lost this ability immediately. Said good night to them and went to bed. Note, hair still wet.

Morning surprise

Straight after woke up, the styling advantage of water only hair is gone. They look messy and random. Have a look and compare these two pictures before and after sleep

Pict 6. Before sleep. Shampoo side is on the left

Pict 7. Morning bomb :)

After repeating my straight comb as on Pict 3, results was quite satisfactory on both sides. Have a look:

Pict 8. Sorting hair after morning bomb (Pict 7)

So at the end pretty cool :) You can notice that shampoo side is still bit more curly and up, also water only side hair stick together more. I cannot include close ups, as I screwed it up...I took pictures of right side with the sunlight from the window and the other side towards the sunlight so it is not reflecting reality...Next time I will repeat this experiment and will post more head to head pictures. What do you think? Which side is the lucky one?

Before the overall conclusion, I will do close-up as the hair look now, exactly 24 hours after the experiment. Will perform my straight comb first as usual..

Pict 9. Water only side 24 hours later

Pict 10. Shampoo side 24 hours later

Final conclusion

I didn't get any dandruffs although was not expecting them after first use of shampoo. Shampoo hair is softer and not oily at all. Also they have bigger volume and are really easy to comb.

Straight after shower I lost control over shampoo hair and curls took their way. Water only hair stick together much nicely. I can imagine getting "dry-look" effect after shampooing all my head.

When I touch both half, the shampoo one feels like "dry mix of standalone hair", the water only half is more compact but I can also feel a tiny bit of oil. At the end, it is the oil that holds them together.

As per look they look nearly the same, you can see that in the pictures and judge for yourself.

Happy with the first images of my experiment? Would love to hear your feedback and/or questions in the comments bellow.

Why not to try it?

Ha! I actually think that it is now more than a month without shampoo and shower gel.

Impressive isn't it? Especially in combination with one of my longest hair ever! At this point I have to sooner or later think about hairdresser...As I traditionally pay under a tenner for my haircuts, it is going to be quite interesting to see how these very skilled hairdressers can cope with my adorable uncombable hair. And I always go for the posh wet cut. Should I say, "No shampoo please?"

Ok now quality...Skin smell - nice, I don't need shower gel at all. Hmm,some of you may wonder what about the places I can't, or lets say I don't want to smell closer. My opinion - all is OK even there, but obviously I need to put that through some thorough "smelly-test(r)"....Check for updates.

Hair....the same old story really. After shower and on the day of shower really good control, next morning a bit of explosion due to length...Maybe time for  a styling gel? Have never actually tried that, but I guess I'll stick with natural hair for the moment. Natural is woof woof at the end, isn't it... Wet hair is again with oily touch. One thing I can really say is that hair doesn't look as dry as it used to be after using shampoo..

Oh......when I was cleaning my hands with the shower gel in the shower (yes, I still wash my hands with soap), again, just a tiny bit of standard gel smelled SOOOOO strong to me that I couldn't believe that...Seriously, I can't imagine washing all my body with the shower gel! The smell is so strong and intensive and I never noticed that before when I was using it regularly. Very interesting observation.

Sum up:

Skin

• smell, feel, touch is very normal and have nothing bad to say about this area.

Hair

• still bit oily while wet
• very good style-able after shower
• no dry-look during the day or next day
• quite funny looking next day or in the morning due to length...will see what will happens after haircut
• very hard to comb after shower
• in the previous posts I've mentioned that hair is bit messy and dirty after using comb. This area got better as I try to wash them properly and bit longer to get rid of all "spider houses". 

After more than month of strictly water only shower, I can recommend to ditch shower gel to both wo-and-men. Shampoo may be a bit tricky to leave for a woman with long hair..The thing is, it is still possible to use shampoo every 5-6-7 days instead of every day and this can be the right balance. But I am definitely sticking with water only.

Dear reader, why not to try to ban or reduce the use of shower gel for the start, and leave me some feedback in comments about how are you finding it? You can give it a try - absolutely for free!

From this point, you can consider these options:

1. you will like it and you will ditch gel completely
2. you will like it but you will still use shower gel for certain areas
3. you will like it but once a time the full body gel coverage may occur
4. you will not like it that much but you will still try not to use gel every time
5. you will not like it at all and you will use gel all the time as normaly
6. your special case?

Sounds painless and easy, doesn't it? Let me know!

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

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 with. When 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..

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.