2011-03-29, 06:20 PM
Article that you should read.
Follow-up Article, one year later.
Website where I stumbled across this.
TL;DR Apparently, the chemicals in soap and shampoo really dry out your skin and in order to compensate, your body tends to excrete more oils than it normally would. Once you eliminate soap and shampoo from the equation though, your body normalizes and only produces a small amount of oil. Of course, there's a period of 2-4 weeks where you'll be a bit more oily than usual because it takes some time for your body to adjust, but after that period, everything's great. Oh, and you still continue showering. You just don't use soap/shampoo. This may also apply to acne medicines.
Quite frankly, I've never really used soap my adolescent years. I've been too lazy to. I never smelled, though, and my skin has always been in great condition (my sister, on the other hand, has extremely dry skin). I think I'll stop shampooing a month and see how that goes. I would do the same for the acne medicine, but my parents would probably find out if I didn't use any acne medicine for a month and they'll get mad at me even if I do show them this article.
Follow-up Article, one year later.
Website where I stumbled across this.
TL;DR Apparently, the chemicals in soap and shampoo really dry out your skin and in order to compensate, your body tends to excrete more oils than it normally would. Once you eliminate soap and shampoo from the equation though, your body normalizes and only produces a small amount of oil. Of course, there's a period of 2-4 weeks where you'll be a bit more oily than usual because it takes some time for your body to adjust, but after that period, everything's great. Oh, and you still continue showering. You just don't use soap/shampoo. This may also apply to acne medicines.
Quite frankly, I've never really used soap my adolescent years. I've been too lazy to. I never smelled, though, and my skin has always been in great condition (my sister, on the other hand, has extremely dry skin). I think I'll stop shampooing a month and see how that goes. I would do the same for the acne medicine, but my parents would probably find out if I didn't use any acne medicine for a month and they'll get mad at me even if I do show them this article.