Hair experiment interview - part four

Forget expensive products and use your natural scalp oils for hair dressing! (Photo by eightball)

Here's the final part of the interview:

Reflection

How has not washing your hair changed ideas around

- Your hair?
- Hair care products?
- Doing things with your hair?
- Yourself?

It has confirmed my hypothesis that the after some time, the hair will start to clean itself. I’m not against hair care products, though – using them does make the hair look different, so I completely understand people who choose to use them. I’m just not one of those people. Confirming the hypothesis was the main point behind the experiment anyway, so not much else has changed, really.

Could you tell me about the “built-in cleaning system”?

I don’t really know the science behind all this, but my reasoning goes as follows: hair care products are a new invention, and since people most likely had clean hair before they were invented, it must be possible to keep it clean using only water. Since, after stopping using hair care products, the hair gets dirty during the first month or so and then slowly begins to look cleaner, it seems to me that it takes some time before the scalp gets used to its new condition.

The “built-in cleaning system” might be a misleading term, since it may have more to do with the scalp not producing excess oils to protect hair stripped of them than actually producing something that cleans the hair. The explanation that seems logical to me is that using shampoo (and thus stripping the scalp/hair of oils that are naturally present in them) is an unnatural condition that the scalp tries to adapt to by producing more oils than is normally necessary. For example, when you wash your hair every day with shampoo for a while, your hair gets used to it, and going for three days without shampoo seems impossible. But after washing it only once a week for a while, your hair gets used to that as well, and then three days without washing is nothing usual.

This is all just a theory, of course, and I know far too little about how the scalp and hair work to claim this is what actually happens. The idea of shampoo “stripping the hair of natural oils” might be completely wrong. I should – and probably will – educate myself on the subject, but I was anxious to try the experiment and see the results for myself.

Could you tell me about your hair care the before you started not use hair care products?

I used the cheap market stuff as well as the more expensive products. Shampoo and conditioner, nothing else.

Could you tell me about your hair care now?

I don’t use any products, just water. I might try the vinegar rinse again, though.

Could you give me a detailed description of own hair?

Blonde, thin/normal thickness, about 40 cm long, straight but tends to curl a little.