Soaps

Bothered by the No Soap experiment guy. Glad it worked out for him, like those who go non-shampoo on their hair. Some can, obviously. And I feel defensive about refusing to even try it. I don't use make-up, perfume, lotion only in the dry of winter - all products the vast majority of women won't even go out of the house without. And now I'm being out-naturaled by no-soapers.

Ain't gonna happen. I like soap. I like shampoo. I remember as a kid only washing my hair once a week. I have a school photo of my lank, greasy hair hanging like limp string. That was the year I started pushing for more frequent washing. I remember how common dandruff was. I remember how itchy my scalp was. I do skip washing my hair two days at a time when I'm at work, because I'm wearing a hat. Remember when everyone always wore a hat? It was on it's way to dying out when I was a kid, as the shampoos boasted of being "gentle enough to use everyday!" Oh, glory, I could have a clean head every day.

Yeah, we evolved without soap. We evolved with specific species of head and body lice. We evolved in small roaming bands of hominids. We didn't evolve to live in enclosed buildings with a lot of other people, we just made up most of our environment for the last couple of thousand years. We evolved without hats.

I keep thinking of the wedding some of our unit were invited to in Saudi. A tribal woman sat behind me with her little girl. Spiffed up for the wedding, in an elaborately embroidered dress, her hair braided and coiled. Clean, certainly, brushed and styled, but also flat against her head, dull, oily. Her best, and her hair looked like mine when I was a child and hadn't washed it. Not a criticism of her, just evidence that not all of us have the kind of hair or skin that thrives on our own body oils.

Seen the same in the Shorpy photos, a class of girls, a shop of women, and some have lush, curling hair, some have thin, uncooperative stuff, like mine. I suspect some hair, some skin, does do better with just water.

Should we all use less soap, get into the dirt more? Maybe. Some of us. Fewer chemicals, surely. Stop with all soap? Not me.


Also read an article in a waiting room, about older women who "do it right" by staying stylish - but classic, letting their hair be it's real color etc. i.e. Judi Dench, Jamie Lee Curtis, Well, cool. Then ruined it for me by declaring that for an older woman with grey hair to be appropriate, she must keep it short. Well, there you go. I should be myself, but not if I want my hair long. Loved long hair all my life, and always berated for it, never right. Buzzed it very short for a few years, that was wrong as well. Expected to get a cut and perm to be an adult, right along with stockings and skirts. All these artificial requirements having nothing to do with my own preferences and life.

I don't know why it irritates me so much sometimes. Hearing my parents' voices in my head, probably. They never go away, do they?