After seeing them on Closet Confections for the past few weeks I’ve been toying with participating in ModlyChic’s Friend Friday. And today I discovered that I actually read the article that inspired this week’s Friend Friday/it is not already Saturday and I can actually post on time!
1. The move to do away with soap, shampoo and deodorant has been growing in popularity in the last year. What are your thoughts on this trend? I can go without shampoo for more than a day and try to at least once/week. As I get older my skin has been becoming drier and drier… and so has my hair. If I don’t get my hair cut at least every 3-4 months the ends become… rather crispy. Not sure that I could go without soap/body wash, I really like my Mario Badescu AHA. And I couldn’t go without deodorant. I lived in Japan where antiperspirant doesn’t exist (actually it does, it’s just not common and no one uses it) and when I ran out I bought deodorant… which I used only for about three days. Think 85+ temperatures and 100% humidity every day… I went back and very carefully read all the labels on the products and found one with antiperspirant. Going without is not comfortable.
2. Be honest how often do you wash your own hair? Surprise! I have mentioned it before but everyone tends to forget that my hair is actually curly (just too short now to really hold a curl/not look more like a lion mane). And if you don’t already know, shampooing curly hair everyday is extremely bad for it. But I do it anyway. I try to skip a wash when I can but my primary form of exercise is yoga… ashtanga and bikram. And I like my clean hair. When I don’t wash it I use Oscar Blandi’s dry shampoo (the powder, and I’ve heard Bumble and Bumble is better for darker hair — comes in colors) and T3/Orlando Pita dry shampoo (spray) and I always use my hairdryer to style.
3. Have you tried to go the more natural route by forgoing shampoo? What happened? Or would you be tempted to try it? In college I used to go every other day with washing my hair and that was especially important because my hair was chemically straightened at the time. And it was colored red/brown — two very bad things. But I don’t think I could give up shampoo. I’ve heard the bar shampoos by Lush are really good, but that’s just more of a delivery system change. I think I could use a traditional shampoo alternative but I really couldn’t go without something that doesn’t have a surfactant.
4. What products do you use and have you ever gone with more organic alternatives? Lately I’ve been using Suave’s rosemary mint shampoo and conditioner… and it’s very decent, not as good as Aveda (which I used in high school) but for -$2/bottle… count me in. I used to use a lot of really high-end shampoos but I’ve become too cheap in my old age. The shampoo I ever had was Frederic Fekkai and something like $30/bottle… ouch. I tried at least six different organic/natural/sulfate-free shampoos (Cristophe, Burt’s Bees, Kiss My Face, Organix, Alba Botanica… I’m missing one, I can’t remember) over the past two years but I was unsatisfied with all of them… they left my hair still visibly oily right out of the shower. So back to sulfates it was. I use all Ojon styling products from Sephora except for my dry shampoos. Tried argan oil but found it weighed down my hair too much.
I use Mario Badescu’s AHA Botanical Body Soap and Johnson’s shea and cocoa butter baby wash. I also use the Johnson’s natural baby lotion with allergen-free frangrance. I have bad season allergies and anything with a strong scent (especially floral) bothers me a lot. Almost all my skincare is Mario Badescu and REN/Ole Henrikson/DDF — I have more success with rotating products every 3-4 months because my skin becomes immune to things really quickly. And Fresh Soy Face Cleanser is maybe possibly the best face wash ever made.
5. What about that daily shower? Would you forgo that opting to shower three times a week instead? No. I’ll only go a day without a shower if I showered the night before. And most times I’ll shower the next day anyway and just not wash my hair. I couldn’t do only three times/week. Unless I was lost in a desert and there was actually no water.
