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Like the grammar problem, diction is also sometimes merely sloppy. A medicated facial scrub advertises that it cleans “without over-irritating” and “special comforters soothe” skin. Other products invent new words entirely, touting their ability to “bodify” and “volumize,” or create non sequiturs with words such as “melting gel.”

There's some good old-fashioned redundancy: The term “clean rinsing,” sometimes with a hyphen and sometimes without, is extremely pervasive. The phrase, “Long-lasting protection protects women for hours” once made me laugh out loud in a drugstore.

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My hair is now healthier than it has ever been, and it neither smells nor appears in any way offensive.

I never believed it before, but a friend of mine in university said he never shampooed. His hair was very healthy, not smelly or greasy at all.

However will you maintain ph balance?

Your hair's protein levels will drop to critical levels! You will have neither full body nor a lustrous shine!

Isn't the medicare system in enough difficulty already without crazy people thumbing their noses at personal hygiene?

Actually, come to think of it, There are times when my son goes for days without shampooing his hair, and it never looks greasy. Maybe I should try it, although I would be horrified at the first couple of weeks of grease.

[ 23 July 2004: Message edited by: Michelle ]

The entry under “Dandruff” includes the following (please forgive me John, for the copyright liberty I am taking!)

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The ANSWER is usually vinegar. To some problems there are solutions. What we call dandruff is often the result of PH imbalance on the skin, which shampoo exacerbates. Wash your hair with a simple non-detergent shampoo, soap, olive oil, beer, almost anything. Rinse. Then close your eyes and pour on some vinegar. The extremely cheap but natural sort – apple cider, for example – is probably the best. The smell will stimulate interesting conversation in changing-room showers and your explanations will win you friends. Wait thirty to sixty seconds. Rinse it off. The smell will go away. So will your dandruff.

All dermatologists, pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies know this simple secret. They don’t tell you, because they make money by converting dandruff into a complex medical and social problem. By most professional standards this would amount to legally defined incompetence or misrepresentation.

Dandruff shampoos that promise to keep your shoulders and even your head clean are harsh detergents and may promote baldness, which ought to constitute malpractice

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[ July 10, 2002: Message edited by: Zatamon ]

This probably sounds really gross, but I have found that by bathing every day (immersing myself in a bathtub of water), I get clean, no soap at all. Even if I shower that way, it works. The skin on my body (my face is another matter) is perfectly healthy. If I notice dead skin has built up a lot, then I just use a facecloth to rub it away.

Also, deodorant is a scam. I don't use it. I smell a little sweaty sometimes at the end of the day, but big whoop. Get over it or get out of my way. Anyway, lots of people actually like smelling other people, as opposed to some horrid cheap perfumed deodorant. The main thing is to make sure that the soap is fully, fully rinsed out of your armpits. Otherwise, in my experience, you will have bad BO. Don't know the chemistry of that.

[ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: rasmus_raven ]

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Well, deodorant is something I can't do without.

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I wanted to mention something I discovered a few weeks ago but it slipped my mind. And no it doesn't really have anything to do with Michelle's personal grooming habits other than I am using that as a segway.

My wife asked me to pick up so deoderant for her while I was out an about. What's the big deal right?

Sometimes I get stuck on words. Like deoderant. Not something else like anti-persperant but deoderant.
so I'm looking and looking and finding lots of antipersperant but nothing for womens deoderant.

Huh??? So I get caught up on finding deoderant made for women. Look at the mens deoderant section. Tons to choose from. Womens section, lots of anti-persperant but where is the deoderant?

Finaly I find a stick of degree deoderant those it looks kinda generic gender wise and so I get that.
After the total lack of outrage from my wife, I guess I kinda let the wind get taken outta my sails over it.

Me, I've never sweated much, so I gave up using antiperspirant in my early 20s. I'm fairly certain I don't stink, I have friends, loved ones and colleagues who would quite honestly tell me so if I did.

*makes mental note to research the chemistry of underarm sweat*

I try a lot of different stuff, like sometimes I just use plain dial soap instead of the "special cleansers" or whatnot. But nothing really seems to work really well. I do notice a slight improvement though if I jump from the "special cleansers" to the regular soap and vice versa. But it's only when I switch- it's not consistant. I think that's wierd. Anyway, I'm gonna try just rinsing for a while, and see if that makes any difference.

As for hair, it didn't really occur to me until I read though this, but this thread made me realise that I don't notice that much of a difference with regard to how much or how little shampoo I use (I always forget to buy more shampoo, so often I'm stuck in the shower shaking the bottle like crazy to try and get that last drop out so I can at least work up a lather). Anyway, just before a shower, my hair usually looks a bit like this so it's not too bad, but my hair and my face feel terribly greasy and overall icky, and if I wait any longer to have a shower, I look totally greasy and it's not pleasant- so I just can't go more than 40 hours without a shower. On a regular day, though, my hair is straight, but kind of wiry. It's sort of all over the place, but without being a total mess.

As for deodorant/anti-perspirant, I find that "old spice" is really bad. I mean, it smells nice-ish, as far as cheap anti-perspirant is concerned, but it leaves your pits feeling all gooey. And when it starts to break down, you stink even worse than before you put it on, and you actually sweat more. Because it's summer now, though, I only put on deodorant or anti-perspirant if I'm about to go out or if I really stink, and just want something to mask the odour. Otherwise, I use it everyday. Yes, I am a bit superficial, I'll admit it.

I know what you mean about deodorants going bad. I remember I used some Old Spice roll-on that was well past its prime and towards midday I wondered why there was this odd smell of... well, something. So I skipped the next day and sure enough no smell. So I junked the deodorant.

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but I'll be damned if it doesn't feel like you've just taken a layer of crap
right off your teeth.

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Edited: because I can't bloody well type today!

[ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: Rebecca West ]

I find soap leaves my skin way too dry, event the glycerine stuff. Whether I use a cleanser or not, I always have to moisturize. It's really hard to find moisturizer for face that isn't really badly scented, which gives me a rash. The Body Shop carries one that is pretty good.

Alas, we have no Lush store here. We like to stock up when we're in Banff or Vancouver, though.

(Edited because I can't type today, either... Must be the weather...)

[ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]

As for Zoot's dilemma:

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It's really hard to find moisturizer for face that isn't really badly scented, which gives me a rash.

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Although I hate the way sunscreen feels on my skin, I often use factor 30 and up... Usually use the kind they make for kids to avoid irritation. I figure I've had more than my quota of sunburns so far, and don't want to tempt the fates. Melanoma is definitely not the way I want to go.

I won't launch into a great screed about the trials and tribulations of Lush's labor practices because I prefer not to go into details.

I worked at Lush Manufacturing in Vancouver, so my information is somewhat specific to that place.

However, a quick summary of what got Lush unionized in 2001, in my opinion (I worked there from 1997 to 2000):

- The lack of consistency in allotting raises and bonuses, as well as inconsistent starting wages.

- The lack of concrete action to improve the lot of employees even though several promises were made by management; one glaring example is that proper benefits (i.e. medical and dental) were only grudgingly provided after the IWA successfully got a contract negotiated.

- Management simply cheaped out on everything possible. It got to the stage where penny wise and pound foolish was the operative motto.

Now, I don't know how much things have improved, but the management certainly didn't take the unionization very well, so there's still quite a bit of conflict. However, the one big benefit I think it did allow was it forced the use of internal hiring first then going outside for people. Nothing is so irritating as watching someone get parachuted in and get paid way more than you ever will be, even if he or she is a crackerjack.

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Addendum: I would still recommend the use of Lush products as the flip side of my experience there is that I got to see how actual products got made. And I can tell you that the people who do the work do very good work these days, and the smells are heavenly!

My car used to always smell really nice because I'd carry the smell on my clothes after working there 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: DrConway ]

They have a big advertising campaign about being against violence against women. Except that if their female employees needed to get away from an abusive partner, making an unlivable wage would probably not allow them to do it too easily. On the flip side, though, they do encourage their employees to volunteer in shelters for women, and have programs where they support local shelters with fundraising, and do things like bringing their stuff to shelters and giving makeovers and facials as "confidence boosters" for the women there. I tried not to be too cynical about billing women's cosmetics as confidence boosters. I figured this was also female bonding time, and I can appreciate the value of that.

They advertise that women should feel confident about themselves the way they are instead of reaching for an unattainable beauty ideal. Except that they have an aggressive sales policy where staff push products on the customers that they don't need or want in order to increase each sale (sales staff have to maintain a minimum average sale and conversion rate, while receiving no financial incentive to do so - no commissions). So they're pushed like commissioned sales staff without the benefit of commissions. And women have make-up and other beauty products (that they didn't come into the store to buy) pushed on them despite women being fine just the way they are. Oh, and the employees have to wear Body Shop make-up for every shift - they have to wear a minimum number of items of make-up on their faces. Even if you don't normally wear make-up. Also, although their posters have encouraging messages, most of them feature drop-dead gorgeous models.

They advertise that they are against environmental destruction. But they seem to have forgotten the first two R's of Recycling. As I said above, they don't encourage Reducing at all - if anything, they advocate more and more consumerism, more and more stuff people don't need, and it all comes in bottles and packaging. The idea is to sell as much as possible and to encourage as much impulse buying as you possibly can. As for Reusing - there has been a move away from encouraging customers to bring in their empties for refilling. They'll still do it for people who ask, but they don't go out of their way to advertise or encourage it anymore - it's too much of a hassle because a) the bottles have to be perfectly clean, and b) exactly the same product has to go into the bottle - so if you bought one type of bubble bath, you couldn't refill with another type. The excuse is, "Well, the bottles are recyclable anyhow." So that leaves the third R, Recycling, and at least everything they sell comes in recyclable packaging. But then again, most body products do these days, so that's not really all that distinctive for The Body Shop.

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It's easier to go without shampoo when your hair is buzzed off

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Does anybody know of any shampoo that is just like Prairie Naturals' Indian Summer but without the coconut oil?

PS. I don't want short hair and if I use Nature Clean I'll end up having to have a crew cut because it is so damaging. There has to be something good out there.

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Secondly, why are school supply lists for grades 4 and 5 including deoderant? Boys at that age don't even want to take baths. Making one take a bath 2 or 3 times a week is hell because they fight you every inch of the way AND THEN the kid still has the mistaken belief that now it is summer and you don't have to wash the school off them anymore that they don't have to bathe.

I may be old fashion but a boy should not start using deoderant until ONE he wants to bathe regularly without you pressuring him and TWO he has atleast gone through puberty.

[ July 13, 2002: Message edited by: vaudree ]

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Why wash out all the natual oil just to put in some sort of 'mud' or 'taffy'?

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'Cause natural oils don't make it stand up like beeswax does... Silly questions!!

I was young and in my prime in the '80s... There is nothing anybody can teach me about hair products and altitude....

[ July 17, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]

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Originally posted by meades:
Also, when it comes to longer hair, maybe your head gets hotter, which makes your head sweat more, as opposed to when you have shorter hair, in which case it's much easier for any perspiration to just evaporate. I have no idea, actually, I'm just guessing.

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Incidentally, this is true. I mentioned above I liked haircuts in summer; what would happen is when my hair would get a tad long for comfort, I'd be walking down to the library or whatever, and my head would feel unbearably hot, especially if I'd had a warm shower that morning. So what I started taking to doing was after a shower, I'd blast my head with cold water to see if that improved things any.

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Originally posted by Mandos:
I'm told that if your hair is excessively greasy then it will also promote baldness. Is this true?

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Which demon afflicts your hair? My hair was possesed by the terminally dry and limp genie. Avoiding shampoo has suffused my hair with the spirit of Tom Waits.

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The big one, Beelzebub himself. I'm convinced.

I have constantly awry cowlicks which can create bedhead of titanic proportions. I have just enough natural curl to make it unruly, but not enough to make unruly an actual fashion statement. It will mold to the most unfortunate shape possible, should I attempt to wear a hat for more than 5 minutes. It knows frizz like nobody's business, especially after having been slept on.

I think it would be easier to have this kind of hair for a woman. Well-- it would be easier for me if I didn't associate short hair with small and capital "C" politics.

So, no short Republican hair for me.

My daughter and Rebecca both came to the conclusion, independantly, that I should stop "fighting the curl" and I have. Except the last time I got it cut, I left it too long on top, fearing they'd cut too short and leave no curl. So now I've got this 50's thing with the curls coming down on my forehead.

I'm also told that I might do better if I spent more than ten bucks on a hair cut. Probably good advice.

My hair is a visual representation of my self depricating sense of humour. I go on about not knowing what to do with it, but in reality, at my age, it's what I call a "happy problem", and most of my angst is affected mellodrama.

I, too, have a ringlet that goes right in front of my face.

I don't exactly "fight" the curl... That leaves me with even greater grief. And oddly, in spite of the peculiarities, I would not change it, which may be part of learning to be comfortable with myself just as I am as middle age approaches. But in order to have the occasional good hair day, I've had to accept that a certain level of chaos is going to have to be allowed for my hair.

(This has me thinking of the Robert Munch story, "Aaron's Hair", where the little boy says he hates his hair, the hair runs away from home, and he spends the rest of the story trying to get it back...)

I also have to add that Rebecca is absolutely right -- it takes a talented cutter to do something with a cowlicky, curly head of hair. Invest in a good stylist, you'll not regret it!

[ 29 April 2003: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]

And to clarify, attempting to go a day without thouroughly rinsing my hair is usually a disaster, for bedhead reasons. Plus I'm addicted to showering, need a daily fix. Skipping the shampoo doesn't really have much to do with taming the bedhead, for me. Just enough water so I can run a comb through if there's a wedding that day, or run the fingers through on any other day.

I buy whatever shampoo's on sale, I don't use conditioner, I wash it two or three times a week (but run damp fingers through it every morning to 'tame' it), I keep it very short and messy, bleached an unnatural shade of blond-ish. I've tried every kind of hair product on the market, and the only thing I've stuck with is a bit of hair spray to keep the spiky mess ... well ... a spiky mess. Occasionally, I'll add a bit of purple. But only a bit.

Two babblers in particular may recall my failed experiment with purple hair.