I found a really interesting article in the UK Daily Mail about how often you need to wash your hair. The article claimed that you don’t need to wash your hair with shampoo at all. Ever. The theory is we screw up our hair’s natural oil balance by washing it with shampoo way too often.
This is the article I read:
Could you survive without shampoo?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=
394226&in_page_id=1879
The no shampoo challenge
My hair is long, fine and oily and usually needs washing every two days. I’ve thought about taking the no shampoo challenge but by day three I always chicken out. I have red hair that gets even redder when it’s oily, and people really start noticing. I’ve even had work colleagues ask if I’d coloured my hair because it was looking a lot ‘brighter’ or ‘redder’. Eww.
I showed the article to two girlfriends of mine who were brave enough to take the challenge. Ideally you want to try for a whole six weeks but both girls only lasted a week (still more than I could handle).
My theory is the no shampoo thing only works with dry hair. I think my hair is so oily that it needs a little assistance. I encourage anyone with dry hair to take the challenge to see if it works. I love the idea of no longer having to buy shampoo!
Frances Kerr
A friend of mine, who’s a very successful beauty therapist, once told me that using antiperspirant deodorants are really bad for you. She explained how our bodies release a lot of toxins through the pores under our arms and how you don’t really want to be messing around with that.
From that day on I stopped using antiperspirant deodorants and haven’t again since. Instead I’ve been using a deodorant made out of crystal and spring water which actually works incredibly well.
Where the nasty smell comes from and how to stop it
What you can smell when you sweat under your arms is actually bacteria. When moisture (sweat) comes in contact with the bacteria on your skin it creates a bad smell.
The crystal deodorant works so well because it’s a natural anti-bacterial. The deodorant leaves a layer of mineral salts on the skin which prevent the bacteria from forming under the arm. The crystal deodorant is not antiperspirant so you still sweat but the sweat doesn’t smell, well it doesn’t in my case anyway. Sweating is your bodies natural process and a way of cooling down so it’s something you don’t really want to be preventing anyway.
Now and again when it’s hot or I play sport and I sweat a lot it does get a little bit embarrassing. But I’d rather be slightly embarrassed and let my body do its natural thing than clog up my pores and prevent my body sweating like its supposed to.
My theory on why boys smell more
Obviously when you have hair under your arms it’s a lot harder to create an even layer with the mineral salts. When you spray the deodorant under your arms or use a roll on the hair just gets in the way. The bacteria then clings onto the hairs and when a boy sweats, the moisture gets in contact with this bacteria and the smell is produced. Most girls remove the hair under their arms so they don’t have this problem. My ex boyfriend would actually clip the hair under his arms quite short (I guess shaving or waxing was too girly) and found this made the deodorant work a lot better.
To me it makes a lot of sense to keep our bodies doing as much of its natural thing as possible. I’ve found using the crystal deoderant is a great way of preventing the smell without preventing my body from doing what it’s supposed to.
Frances Kerr
