Background: I once worked for an ad agency that had among its clients Vidal Sassoon, and from them I learned all the secrets of the trade. Below is just a sample.
At its most basic level, shampoo is just a detergent. Like all detergents, it takes away oils and greases. Unlike your average kitchen dishwashing detergent, however, it’s very “gentle” — which means it has been severely diluted and therefore, on a cost per fluid ounce / milliliter basis, it outpaces Biden-priced gasoline. This is particularly true if you buy the “premium” brands (e.g. with French names).
Technically, you could use simple bodywash (also expensive) or even a bar soap like Zest to wash your hair, although it’s a little harsh if your hair is normally thin and fragile. However (and this leads into our sub-topic), what really counts, if you care for your hair at all, is not the detergent you use but the conditioner.
This is way more important than your shampoo, and a good conditioner will make your hair healthier than will some VO5-type budget conditioner — although, as with all things, budget conditioners work extremely well for some people because their hair responds to it better than to others, even expensive ones.
The more aggressive / cheaper your shampoo, the more money you’ll have to spend on conditioner.
So what do I use? The cheapest shampoo (generally to be found on the bottom shelf at Kroger, with the lowest cost per ounce) and a mid-range conditioner like Pantene Pro-V. But I have thick, healthy and wavy (not curly) hair, and I never use a blowdryer. Also, I wash my hair about every other day, and use conditioner once a week only.
YMMV.
Addendum: if you’re bald or wear your hair in a don’t-care buzz cut, you are obviously disqualified from commenting on this section, in that your opinions are like those of a cave-dwelling hermit about TV shows, or John Kerry about guns.
Because I am not qualified to comment, I will not comment by not saying F@ckU.
And I won’t not kick your sarcastic ass.
Not not quits then?
Never not not quitting.
10 years ago I stopped giving a fuk.
Since then I buy Ivory bar soaps in bulk and that’s all you’ll see on my end of the shower.
Yes, I scrub my skall and nadz with the same thing and DGAF.
On the other end of the shower you’ll see my wife’s dual bottles of “stuff” and a bar of Irish Spring.
I am blessed by genetics and got the “good” genes from my father’s side of the family (grandpa, grandma, and great grandpa all died at ripe old ages with full heads of hair), so I expect to take my unruly mop to the grave with me (mostly). That being said a few years back I was an avid swimmer, as in a mile or two a day or an hour to an hour and a half doing laps in a pool. A hair cutter noticed that my hair was getting brittle and damaged from all that pool chemical exposure and admonished me to for God’s sake start using appropriate conditioner in the shower after swimming.
While the water we get out of the tap here in northern Virginia is probably the cleanest in the country, the intake for the water is downstream from DC. You can imagine what kind of treatment it takes to get Biden piss clean enough to drink, even after its been diluted by millions of gallons of water. Thus, even here the water you shower in has a lot of chemicals that require a conditioner – any conditioner! YMMV in other parts of the country. Cavemen BTW use natural spring water to shower and should be good to go.
Who cares if hair
Is long or short
Or thick or thin or fat?
‘Cause everybody knows, baby,
Hair ain’t where it’s at.
….fvz
.
I only wash my (thinning, but still there) hair about once a week and rarely, if ever, use conditioner.
But you’re right. It’s all detergent and what matters is how well it emulsifies oily stuff and lets the water take it away.
For doing dishes by hand you can’t beat Dawn. Of course, it dries your hands out thoroughly.
I don’t do long hair, ’cause mine gets uncontrollably curly, a sort of perpetual Bad Hair Day. The occasional skin cancer and attendant removal has made me an intermittent Buzz Cut guy, and hey! it ain’t bad. In between, I favor a sort of commando cut and do a two-day wash and condition cycle. With what? God only knows; my wife and I travel just enough that she has accumulated a lifetime supply of dinky hotel shampoos and conditioners, all of which seem to work just fine. She’ll probably leave that collection in her will.
I heard that from a dermatologist that was on the radio. You could use dish soap. It’s all about the same thing. I generally do the same thing, pick the bargain stuff, usually Suave. I have to worry about the scalp drying out.
“if you’re bald or wear your hair in a don’t-care buzz cut, you are obviously disqualified from commenting on this section” – Oh yeah? What about my face? Little hair on the noggin, but I have a full beard. That needs care.
I’ve been blessed/cursed by having both oily skin and hair. I’ve been using Suave “Daily Cleansing” brand shampoo, generally known as “rip it outta me” (for the way it utterly destroys oil) for decades. No conditioner since none is needed; by the next morning my hair’s already greasy.
‘Way back in the long-ago before I needed a real (professional) job I had hair down to the middle of my back. At that point the oils from my scalp never made it all the way down the hair and so I was forced to use a conditioner, but I haven’t used any since starting actual work.
Soap is the same thing and I’ve been using Dial bar soap forever. I buy it cheap and on sale in 8-packs, and put the still-sealed packs into zip lock bags out in the garage. It takes the oil off the skin quite nicely, but I’d never recommend it for anybody whose skin is even remotely dry.
Both of those work even better out here in the NW Wyoming desert. Ah, the complete lack of humidity…
Point of order.
Your bar of Zest is in fact not soap but detergent.
I believe Ivory is the only brand name soap, made from natural animal or vegetable ingredients.
Detergents are made from synthesized chemicals.
See I did pay attention in chemistry class Dr. Simmons!
I’ve been using the Redken “Men’s Bar” soap for years for body and hair. A Ph neutral soap which doesn’t leave my skin feeling dry after a shower. O’course the current prob is finding the damn stuff locally as on line what used to be a $5.00 bar is now $12.00 – OUCH!!!