Fluffy hair from no shampoo

A former Tory (Conservative) MP claims to have not let any shampoo or soap touch his head for 10 years. In his words :

Returning from an expedition where we could hardly wash for weeks, I reported that my hair had become progressively greasier, and then — to my surprise — begun to get less greasy again. I recorded my hunch that it might not be necessary to wash your hair with shampoo, soap or any kind of de-greasant. Pointing out that cats and monkeys never use shampoo yet do not seem to suffer from oily fur, I suggested that if humans, too, stopped stripping our hair of natural oils, our scalps might stop pumping them out. I promised readers I would try this. Maybe they thought I was joking.

Today, after ten years of washing my hair with fresh, warm water alone — ten years during which no kind of de-greasant has touched my scalp — I can report back. Readers, if only you could all run your fingers through my hair: as light and fluffy as a kitten’s coat. And (to answer your unspoken question) not at all smelly — snuffle your noses in it, do — because I rinse my hair daily under the shower. Do you soap up your kneecaps every day? No. Are they oily or smelly? I doubt it. Exposed to light and air, human skin and hair find their own balance, the oil-glands secreting just enough to protect. It is our habit of stripping this viciously from our scalps that panics the glands into overproduction — that is why your first few weeks will be an uncomfortably greasy time. But persist, and you’ll come out the other side with less dandruff than when you were shampooing, and less greasy hair than the second day after you quit.

Think of the money, think of the pollution, our nation could save. No wonder everyone’s going bald. One day I shall be hailed as a lonely prophet of the nonsense of shampoo.