For those who aren’t familiar with the term, it means believing something that probably shouldn’t be believed, or being influenced to believe something that’s not necessarily in your best interests.
For those who aren’t familiar with the term, it means believing something that probably shouldn’t be believed, or being influenced to believe something that’s not necessarily in your best interests.
In college I fell pretty deep into the nopoo conspiracy, that shampoo manufacturers get you addicted to the cycle of stripping off your hair’s natural sebum and replacing it with conditioner that attracts dirt… literally rinse, repeat.
I think I was frustrated that I couldn’t figure out how to take care of my scalp and hair, and here was this social group with an explanation and a scapegoat.
I still think that shampooing every day is probably too much for me, and embraced mechanical cleaning, but I’ve relaxed the conspiracy thinking.
Wait, what the f…
…oh, thank goodness.
I don’t know about the conspiracy, and every body is different, so I don’t believe there’s a best solution for everyone.
But no shampoo works very well for me. Only wash my hair thoroughly with water and brush it afterwards.
It’s never looked and felt better. I used to have horrible dandruff which is now completely gone.
And if it smelled bad, there are enough people in my life who I know wouldn’t be too polite to tell me.
Same here, also mostly cured my scalp psoriasis idk whatever it is. Water wash only. BUT I have a dry skin disease called ichthyosis vulgaris and another called episcleritis. My skin isn’t the norm. The immune system overreacts.
My roommate is super oily not just his hair, so no way that’d work for him. He"s in the bathtub every day.
My daughter has this too.
How do you manage it?
My advice can’t be one sized fits all since this hereditary disease doesn’t have the same symptoms person to person or with different sex. I’m male so some of this probably won’t apply. Actually from what Dermatologists have told me, it’s much less common that women have symptoms at all, usually skips them. Then again, they also told me I’d grow out of it and that it was a youth disease that faded in adulthood. Never did for me.
I find water itself is a skin irritant especially if it’s hot. Cold showers are ideal but it’s unpleasant so I compromise with luke warm showers to avoid opening skin pores as much as reasonably possible… Pat dry, no rubbing skin with a towel. Want to keep what little natural oil we make in place. I’m of the opinion that people with our condition shouldn’t shower as often as is socially pressured. Certainly not daily. I do every three days. Of course, spot clean where you sweat or excrete more often. No romantic partner of mine has ever complained, quite the opposite in fact. Obviously take nuance into account. Working a dirty/sweaty job changes things. Where you live changes things. It does for me, I’ll get into that when it comes to lotion/cream.
For laundry, no fabric softener. No scented detergents. Maybe try to wear less moisture wicking fabrics during winter…keep in mind I live in an arid frigid climate during the winter, but hot humid in the summer.
So onto the daily skin care routine then.
Year round I swear by Ammonium Lactate Lotion 12% especially for the tender/thinner skin on our faces/heads/ears. Personally I get a lot of skin flaking in my eyebrows and glabella (the stretch of skin between the eyebrows) and this lotion will do a good job of dissolving dead skin flakes and also keep my face from drying out all day while also letting skin breathe enough not to cause profuse facial sweating or any discomfort. It does sting a little or used to when I was a child at least. I don’t feel it anymore unless I accidentally get it in my eyes or something.
I apply in the morning and again in the evening. Have to after any bathing too of course.
Currently I use this brand, but I buy whatever is cheap with enough Ammonium Lactate in it. The prices change quite often. Sometimes they get unreasonable, so no brand loyalty: https://media.piefed.social/posts/HA/0Y/HA0YPXJeVhRqHzA.jpg
For my feet I use an Electronic Foot File and then use Vaseline before putting my socks on. Every morning.
For full body, it depends on the season here. Winter I use: https://dierbe.ca/collections/eczema-care/products/super-dry-patch-body-butter
Super Dry Patch Body Butter is intense. It’s far too much moisture capture for summer heat/humidity. You can’t use it on your face, you’ll rain sweat. This one is for cold and dry air in the winter months of Edmonton, Canada for example. Lasts all day though when it’s appropriate. Very very good at what it does.
For the summer months I use 20% Urea lotion, this brand currently: https://media.piefed.social/posts/Mk/yJ/MkyJ0UOAaExGaEV.jpg with the same caveat regarding price fluctuation. This one burns when putting it on, much stronger acid of course. Again, lasts all day and is comfortable to wear.
I don’t have a solution for “strawberry skin” patches on the back of my arms or calves. Basically, a bunch of body hair that can’t quite break through the skin and leaves tiny red bumps on some hair follicles. I just live with it.
One WARNING is regarding the use of Ammonium Lactate lotion. It’s the opposite of sunscreen and you’ll absorb more UV radiation in direct sunlight. Please keep that in mind.
I’m more prone to a scalp outbreak in spring/fall temperature swings. I keep my hair very short in those months sometimes, and I use Ammonium Lactate lotion on my scalp only if I’m having problems. Otherwise I’d be spending 15 minutes scraping my damned head every morning knocking all the flakes out. Doesn’t happen every year, but if it happens I buzz cut myself and use the lotion on my scalp until I’m good again.
Hopefully some of this helps!
TYVM!
Yours sounds way more aggressive, so good luck managing it!
She uses a urea lotion nowhere near as high as 20% though. She did try ammonium lactate, but i think that was just for her face. We’re in new Zealand, right under the ozone hole, so UV is ridiculously strong here, so we didn’t continue with it.
One thing our dermatologist said was to avoid abrasive skin cleaning entirely.
Best of luck my dude.
Luck to her as well, glad to hear it’s less aggressive. Your local climate certainlly helps at least a little with that.
Yeah I’ve come to accept that everyone is different, but it makes it so hard to learn the right way to care for long hair lol.
What works for me now is I brush close to every day, and I clean the brushes. I sometimes wash with just water but my hair will start getting greasy if I don’t shampoo once in a while. I try to use a minimally bad shampoo just on the scalp/roots and conditioner just on the ends.
And once in a while I get seboritic dermatitis / dandruff, and I use a medicated anti fungal shampoo that clears it up.
Lucky. If I dont use specialized shampoo, I end up with some of the thickest dandruff you’ve ever seen, as well as the irritated, itchy skin that comes with it. That and my hair is way too thick to brush without product…or at all really, once it grows past a certain length. It is a practice in futility to even ideate, in my case.
Glad you found what works for you, but trying these things would be hellish for one of my needs lol
Almost sounds not like dandruff, but psoriasis. I have it on my scalp only. Tea Tree shampoos work for mine (head and shoulders type stuff is overly harsh). Sometimes it flares up badly and a medicated shampoo will clear it up.
Psoriasis does seem likely, though my last gp insisted that wasn’t the case. Haven’t asked the new one about it yet, but this is a good enough reminder ig.
And, while tea tree is most definitely where its at, head and shoulders does work fine for me. I dont really get flareups unless I skip a day or two of thoroughly washing. Not really an issue lately though since I’ve opted to just start keeping it shorter. It looks better long (imo at least), but life is just so much simpler this way.
scalp psoriasis is pretty silvery flakey skin on the scalp with redness surrounding it, my bro had it. if its excessively itchy it could be atopic dermatitis on the scalp rather than sebboric/
Well most manufacturers are definitely using the kinds of chemicals you would use to strip floors in industry. Not exactly the best stuff to put on your skin.
Not really. But that is the kind of conspiracy thinking that exists in the nopoo spaces.
Every conspiracy theory has truth to it. The truth is the chemicals they use to clean floors in industrial plants are the same that are in major shampoos.
Industrial floor cleaners and shampoos share key cleaning agents with personal care products, primarily surfactants like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or its ethoxylated cousins for foaming and lifting dirt, along with alkaline builders (like Sodium Hydroxide) for tough degreasing, and solvents/alcohols (like ethanol) for dissolving oils, all mixed with water and other specialty additives for different surfaces.
You could argue they are perfectly safe of course.
Yes, and it is also incredibly misleading to say that with no context. I often use the same chemical I use to clean tables and counters in my soups.
Acetic Acid 5% w/v.
Aka distilled white vinegar.
The truth is that shampoo companies are generally not using unsafe chemicals in unsafe amounts, because of the laws and legal processes that people in my country (USA) have fought so hard for over the years. There is no big conspiracy here, just normal capitalism and marketing BS.
Everyone is different though and IMO people generally do not need to shampoo as often as they do.
Actually it is not. If you understand history and the way these chemical were used in personal care you would learn some disturbing truths.
For instance, in the US the government uses an innocent until proven guilty approach whereas most of Europe uses a guilty until proven innocent to the use of chemicals when they come into contact with human beings.
This means a lot of these harsh industrial chemicals have actually not been tested safe for human use. This results in a lot of chemicals used in food and personal care products that will never be allowed in Europe.
We have some consumer safety laws from the era where companies literally put poisons in food, but today most of our protection comes from the threat of lawsuits.
It is not perfect, for instance Monsanto’s round-up was on the market for 25 years, presumably scientifically “safe” before a plaintiff was able to win a case proving they were harmed. This is why the culture-wars “litigious society” bullshit is so dangerous. The justice system is our last resort for protection.
There are problems in every system, but when people hear about problems in the USian system, for some reason they think the whole system is worthless vs. the very real protections we have, and the people who died before we got them.
I would love it if ingredients had to be proven safe before they were used. It would make us so much healthier. But like with Monsanto it is not the end-all-be-all, and we need lawsuits as well.
Everything you say is sane and accurate. The devil is always in the details. When when you dig down into these conspiracy theories you find surprising truths but also a lot of nonsense.
True that
I’m still in that cycle of thought with these influencers selling skincare routines. They’ll all just shill the latest thing theyre paid to, and tell you “its an essential part of their daily routine and they never go without it because its that good honestly guys” and before you know it you’ve got way more products than you need, that are likely interacting with eachother in negative ways making your skin worse. So you turn to your influencer of choice who has perfect skin and they have over a million followers so they must know what theyre talking about, and wouldn’t you know it they’ve got another essential cream to recommend you.