When something is a part of your life, every day for decades, it feels very different when you stop doing it. Even something as small as shampooing my hair every day has left a bit of a void where it used to be. I’m still marveling that my hair isn’t falling out or a mass of grease. It’s doing… fine.
Now, I did have a headache last weekend. A long, drawn out one that wouldn’t quit until Monday morning. Boo.
BUT I don’t think it was hair related. Period related, likely. Maybe bowel related.
I didn’t cave and wash my hair though. I persevered and the headache was gone on Monday morning (just in time for work, oh joy).
When I saw my hair stylist for a cut, I told her about my decision to stop shampooing. She was all for using less product, but a bit leery of me never shampooing again. I agreed to do it on occasion, but I plan to only do it if I use hair product and need to clean it out. I do some girly things, but hair products ain’t one of them. I own a few, and use them MAYBE 5 times a year.
My boar bristle brush arrived. I really don’t need to brush my hair since it is super short, but the scritchy bristles feel so nice on my scalp that I do it anyway. Less hair brushing, more … petting? Sure, I’ll take that.
Last week, I was using baking soda almost every day. I decided to curtail that, because I don’t want to be using it every day or even every other day. I don’t want to depend on it. Plus, I don’t have a baking soda dispenser for my shower, so I keep forgetting to get it before I get wet. It’s hard to handle baking soda once your hands are wet.
I know that correlation isn’t causation, but I have noticed that my body seems to be running hotter since I stopped shampooing. And I’ve lost weight, but that’s something I’ve been working on all year. With two less steps in my shower routine (shampoo and conditioner), I think my showers have been a little faster. Not much faster because I am the kind of person who enjoys just standing in a hot shower, but a little.
Overall, the experiment is going well. I wasn’t sure that I would make my minimum goal of six weeks when I started, but now that I’ve got more than four under my hat, so to speak, I think I’ll make it just fine. When I feel the need to wash the hair, I’ll use my husband’s shampoo, but I don’t think that will be happening all that often.
And on the plus side, I’ve been waking up with some awfully cute bed head.