Why you might go "pooless"

Excerpt from the blog post below:
Shampoo manufacturers have been telling us to "lather, rinse, and repeat" for decades, and with dreams of healthy, shiny, flowy, bouncy perfection, we have complied. But what happens? The first day after a wash, your hair is kind of frizzy and dried out. On the second day, it's looking pretty good. By the third day, it's a greasy mess, and we are back to the shampoo cycle. Many people don't realize that this cycle only happens as the scalp desperately tries to rebalance. Most shampoo strips our hair of sebum—the natural oil produced by sebaceous glands to help condition and protect each strand. When we wash sebum away, our glands sound the alarm and make even more sebum to compensate for the sudden loss of protection. Using gentle cleansers and washing less often allows the body to function how it was meant to.

https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/diy-herbal-hair-rinses

How many others here have gone "pooless" and seen good results?

I've been mostly pooless for about 3 years now. I work as an auto mechanic, though, so sometimes I really don't have a choice. Sometimes I have to use some shampoo to wash all the filth out of my hair after work. Sometimes if happen to take an accidental oil shower, I've just used the gritty hand wash at work to wash my hair. Granted, my hair is only like 1/4" long, so I don't know how big of a deal it is.

If anyone has any suggestions to wash really nasty stuff, including the occasional petroleum products, out of hair, without commercial shampoo I'm all ears.

I'm not really concerned about smell, as I think it's perfectly fine for a human to smell like a human.

James Bridger wrote:If anyone has any suggestions to wash really nasty stuff, including the occasional petroleum products, out of hair, without commercial shampoo I'm all ears.

I've used vinegar to "float" oil off kitchen surfaces, but I've never tried it on hair as I thought it would "float" out my natural oil. I would be tempted to try applying a 7% Pickling vinegar, and then use a dry clean rag to 'wipe' the oily mess out. I wouldn't use water, because that would mess up the effect I'm trying to get. After I've cleaned the surface with vinegar and the dry rag, then I go back with a bit of soap and water if the counter still needs it. I'm using the cooking principle that "oil floats on water", but counters aren't hair!

If you do try it, please report back!

Stopped the shampoo, conditioner, detangler routine over a decade ago when it kept being itchy, sticky dandruf mess that was also dry and tangled badly. Grabbed a good (well rounded pins) fleacomb and a bowl of soapy water to clean the comb and used that 2x daily to clean my hair. Other option was medicinal agressive shampoo and that i liked even less. Now everything is stable and other than the occasionnal rinse with warm/hot water and regular brush/combing it is shiny, easy to brush/comb and pretty much scentless.
The combing to clean method is an old one from before showers and safe water for washing/drinking and such being easily available. Penny combs where very common in many big(ger) cities for instance, no water doesn't mean no hygiene possible. You just transfer that dirt to something you can wash safely like clothes (change often like at least for sunday church or more) and scrub cloths (used without water on skin, often lightly sweaty to help remove body odors). Clothes you can wash in not safe to drink water and many fabrics like towels and scrub cloths can be boiled in soapy water to clean.
Only body parts that would be washed with soap and water would be hands, faces and really dirty parts if needed when clothes couldn't cover.

I personally don't object to a little bit of soap on my scalp, but I don't use it every day. My biggest beef is that people have been conditioned (ha) to use massive amounts of it when a tiny dab will do the job.

I also chafe at the mountains of barely recyclable plastic waste from liquid shampoo bottles, conditioner, etc.

Our water is fairly "soft" so it strips out excess oil when it's hot. The hot water also opens up the pores/follicles so it feels refreshing. In between official showers, a hot water rinse does a pretty good job.

The primary "shampoo/conditioner" I use now comes in a bar form from the bulk bin store. It does a good job and is much easier on my hair. Given how much I actually use, I think one bar will last me for years.

Lately I've stopped using almost everything that comes in a single-use plastic container. My oldest son and I have been hooked on Duke Cannon BABOS (big-ass bricks of soap) for awhile now, but my use of them has been mixed in with other bottled liquid soap and shampoo. There are companies that make solid shampoo and conditioner bars and they don't have all of the icky chemicals that the liquid stuff does. But that being said, I keep my hair short, so who really GAF, right? I don't need shampoo or conditioner for my 1/4 inch long hair.  So, for now I'm using up the rest of my Duke products. After that, I'll probably skip the middleman and start making my own soaps again. I prefer French milled soaps, but they take a lot longer to make at home.

I see myself pooless for the foreseeable future.

j

I wish to explore the validity of whether or not a "good sweat" is helpful to cleanliness of the body.

Sweating seems beneficial for so many reasons besides body temperature.  It's part of the natural cleaning process for the pores... skin... hair... and while a salty residue is to be expected, I think it should be expected that other unknown-to-me benefits come as well.

I was surprised to learn that going "pooless" and sweating through my clothes nearly every day were compatible.  I suppose it is not much of a surprise that the sweat is not itself odor-promoting and in fact might even reduce it...

Why you ask? Cause of pure water :)