The Six Week Challenge
A couple of months ago I heard about something called the Six Week Challenge, the challenge being on the premise that the Shampoo and Conditioner Industry is a sham, that Shampoo probably does more harm to your hair than good and the idea that you need to ‘wash’ your hair is simply untrue, it’s just a marketing ploy to get you to buy something you don’t really need. If your looking to save money then the simplest way to do so is to cut out items you usually buy that you don’t need, so is shampoo one of those items? Well like most people I know I’ve been groomed to believe so, up until a few months ago I had never gone more than a few days without shampooing my head, ever, since childhood I’ve assumed you have to wash your hair with Shampoo and possibly Conditioner was I just another victim of consumerism?
So I started the challenge because I had just conveniently run out of my usual shampoo anyway. As a rule my hair before the challenge had been quite dry, I had constant bad hair days because of it’s tendency to “fluff”, I also have a receding hairline which becomes more apparent the longer my hair gets which means I have to get it cut fairly regularly. The Challenge promised that by six weeks or possibly earlier my hair’s natural oils would naturally balance making it look better, easier to manage and save me the expense of Shampoo and like products forever, all I had to do was wash it with nothing but water during my daily shower for six weeks.
The first few days weren’t as bad as I was expecting my hair got oily but not quite as bad as it usually gets form not washing it for a few days, it seemed to get better in the following weeks to the point where it felt to me as it was actually quite balanced, sort of like it would feel after using Conditioner but you can tell it’s natural and doesn’t feel like that because of the chemicals you’ve just washed through, ok I’ll put it a little more bluntly, it feels oily but not on a bad level, I assume it was the naturally balanced level but it’s impossible to know when the only thing you can compare it to was artificial. My hair was no longer fluffy, it sat where I wanted it to sit (for the most part), somehow it made it easier to hide my receding hairline a little and I didn’t feel I urgently needed a haircut when I normally would have. Could it be that this is how my hair is supposed to be? At about seven weeks in I washed my hair with nothing but water a little more vigorously than I had been and found that for the first time the amount of hair that fell out wash about equal to what fell out daily when using Shampoo, was my hair not falling out as much either?
Being that this is a gradual process over six weeks it’s hard to notice any change from day to day of course you could tell over the long run there was but how much of a difference remained a question. I decided that reversing the process you probably highlight the results much faster, thats right a few days ago I decided I would wash my hair with Shampoo again and see what happens. Well after washing again after all that hard work the results were instant, my hair definitely felt clean, squeaky clean actually as if life all in it had been washed out, after drying it it quickly returned to it’s annoying fluffy pre-challenge state. I had my answer, I preferred my hair in it’s natural state than stripped of all it should be by chemicals with names which now logically could only be the work of the devil.
My hairs recovery from that fateful wash seems a bit more violent than the first time around, it is at yuck oily, but it is already getting better. It seems that the challenge is too much for some many have given up, maybe they needed more than six weeks or maybe they just couldn’t handle the worst of their “eeewwwww” stage, maybe others even do actually have better hair when they use Shampoo. I know my case and I’m not going back to Ammonium lauryl sulfate, Guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride or Dimethicone anytime soon. Especially now that I don’t have to fork out for my average of 3 bottles of $3 Shampoo each year. I’ll be rich from the savings in no time.
Tell me what you think about the Challenge. Will you be taking it up?
[tags]Counter Culture, Shampoo, Conditioner, Consumerism[/tags]
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Haha, love that challange. I haven’t bought a bottle of shampoo in years I think, let alone conditioner. But then I haven’t had hair longer than a few mm or cm in years either. I found normal shower gel does the job just fine.
On Gili Trawangan I had to wash myself with salt water for a whole year and it didn’t really matter if you used shampoo, shower gel or nothing. All the girls hated that and I doubt most girls will attempt that challenge.
What are you gonna spend all those savings on?
But what about the smell? Sure if you have short hair it’s kind of difficult for you to smell it, but for others? I am a professional hairdresser and let me tell you that when you stand there with your nose a few inches above someone’s head, running your fingers through their greasy hair that smells like dog poo, you wish that they’d wash it more often…
At the same time I’m intrigued by your result. I’m all for natural treatments and remedies, and don’t really like the thought of unnecessary chemicals in/on my body.
Could you provide photos of your hair with/without shampoo?
[...] was intrigued when I read about The Six Week Challenge on The Lost Globe. Living without shampoo, and nevertheless having great-looking hair? I just [...]
[...] Sick of the tired monotony of having to wash your hair day-in and day-out? All that rinsing and repeating? The No-Shampoo Challenge may be the answer. Brit Tony Perry “believes the whole shampoo industry is an expensive hoax. If you stop using shampoo, your hair will become increasingly lank, lifeless and greasy for about six weeks, after which it will fight back and achieve its own natural balance. Or so he claims.” (Hat tip: The Lost Globe) [...]
I seem to recall arguing with someone once that pig weren’t clean, neither for that matter are cats.
Animals (or things, or people) who don’t clean themselves are not clean. That kind of makes sense.
So if you don’t clean your your hair then it is not clean - however much it might appear to be.
As an example - cats lick themselves and that is used by some as an argument that they are clean. But if they licked your plate clean would you eat off it?
Only one way to be clean and that is to clean with clean stuff.
I think.
Annika - I think short hair is easier to keep cleaner, my girlfriend hasn’t noticed any smell, neither have I, I think the only difference is it doesn’t smell like shampoo anymore.
Ourman - Clean is relative then isn’t it. I’m sure the cat considers himself clean. I consider water clean and it does remove most “dirt” from the hair, so that can count as cleaning with something clean. Of course though if I were to find a hair in my soup at a restaurant it wouldn’t matter if it was clean or or not, the soup would still be sent back.
The challenge, I think, achieves an acceptable level of cleanliness, the tradeoff for the slightly lowered cleanliness is far healthier and better looking hair. I think that’s a fair trade especially considering all I’ve seen is improvements. How much of the world uses shampoo anyway? Are all those who don’t unclean?
Annika is a hairdresser, check out her thoughts… http://expatsinitaly.com/annika/?p=487