Anyone who knows me at all knows I don’t like combing my hair. In fact, I hate combing my hair. On most days I would spend maybe 30 to 45 seconds on it and that’s if I decide to put something in it. Like a gel of some sort or of late a pomade-like substance. Other times I just push it down with my fingers so it’s not looking all crazy looking. And then there are the times when I don’t even do that much and it IS all crazy looking. Especially after towel drying.
So one morning last month, I realized that my hair seemed to be naturally greasy every morning and that all this time I’ve been washing it out and replacing it with fake grease! Most ironical! So what would happen if I stopped washing my hair? Could it really be so bad? Did my hair really get that dirty on a daily basis that I needed to wash it constantly?
I decided to find out. Any good experiment begins with research so I googled it. I couldn’t find any conclusive evidence but there were plenty of comments on blogs testifying to the fact that it would be alright. A few days of weirdness and then it’ll just work itself out.
I’ve always said that your body can take care of itself. Heck, it’s brought us this far, right? It was settled. I would wash my hair one last time and stop putting product in it. Just towel dry it as usual and then some rudimentary “styling” with my fingers to avoid the crazy hair.
I kicked it off with a final wash on Monday, November 27th and didn’t wash it again until December 11th, two weeks later. Oddly enough, there’s a 2 day gap in my archive at the start of the experiment! Coincidence? Maybe. The first few days were definitely rough (see crazy hair, above) and every day I hoped it would get a little easier.
It didn’t.
From day 1.. er, 2, really.. my hair was pretty gross. I still rinsed it with water every morning because I’m not a total animal, but it didn’t really have much affect as far as I could tell. Running my hand through it in the shower was not a pleasant experience. Every morning I felt like I was washing peanut butter (or marshmallows!) out of my hair.
Worse than that, though, was how long it took to dry. Cripes! My hair got thicker than ever and after only a few days I was on the verge of giving it up. Instead, I purchased a hairdryer. Sure, I saved time by not putting crap in my hair, but now I was suddenly spending a good two to three minutes just drying my hair! Aarrgh!
In the end, there was little to no change after two weeks. Two day or ten, it didn’t make a difference. It was still a thick, disgusting mess. And all that blow drying totally destroyed my hair:
Notice the change after just one wash! And frankly, it doesn’t look any different with my “natural grease” compared to nothing at all. The funny thing was that when I finally washed it again on the 12th, I realized that I had completely forgotten what it felt like when it was clean. Now that all the funk is gone and it’s clean and smooth again, I have no idea how I lasted as long as I did.
Conclusion? Wash your hair! Saving a few bucks on shampoo just isn’t worth it. As for not cutting it? TOTALLY WORTH IT.