I stopped using soap a year ago and it was easily one of the best moves I've ever made in my entire flippin' life.
About this time last year I saw an article (which Mark mentioned here as well) extolling the virtues of a soap free bathing experience. TL;DR version: Your body is designed to regulate itself and smearing chemicals all over it wrecks it's own built in processes and screws with naturally balanced pH levels. This actually made a bunch of sense to me and I thought I'd give it a shot for a month.
At the beginning of February I blogged about the results I'd seen so far - I didn't stink at all (confirmed by friends, family and random people I ended up sitting next to on various forms of public transit), my skin felt better, oily and dry patches had all but disappeared and the light dandruff I'd had my entire life was almost gone. I was pleased with the results of my month experiment and decided I'd run with it for a while longer. As of January 1st it's been a year and I can't imagine ever going back.
More on the results I've seen: As I just mentioned my skin feels incredibly better than it ever did. Not that it ever felt bad really, but it feels awesome now. Still no stink at all, I swear even when I'm really active and sweating I don't notice any BO - and I used to be über self conscious about this and would think I was stinking if I walked up a flight of stairs too quickly. So this is a huge improvement for sure. And with the exception of changing climates drastically the dandruff is also history. And my previously wavy and mostly unmanageable hair now seems much more willing to bend to my will, a dream of mine since I first looked in a mirror, brush in hand and tried, and failed to make any sense of that monster. So I approve for sure.
And speaking of hair, that was actually was actually a perfect test. Sometime mid summer I stopped by a barber and before I'd realized it he'd squirted a glob of shampoo onto my head. It was too late then so I just sat through the scrubbing, but for the following 2 weeks my hair was a mess - full of dandruff and totally uncontrollable. Once things balanced back out to previous no soap levels all was good again.
Unexpected bonus - Travel is much easier. Now that I'm not lugging shampoo and conditioner with me on the road I have nothing for TSA to hassle me about and more room in my luggage (which I quickly filled with coffee stuff, natch). Not that I always carried that stuff with me before either, but now I don't even have to think about what the hotel I'm going to might provide or worry about having to borrow something from a friend until I can get to a store and buy my own stuff. The whole thing is just gone from my head and I love it.
The Future? I will definitely be sticking with this, and I'm still annoyed it took me 35 years to learn what I clearly already knew as a baby kicking and screaming when my parents tried to wash my hair. At least that's what I want to assume I knew back then. Regardless I know now, but I'd still rather not think about how much I spent on soap and shampoo and related products over the years when they were likely causing all the problems I was trying to protect against.
If you don't believe me, you can totally smell me when you see me in public. Really. Just ask. It won't be weird at all. (ok maybe a little bit)
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