Dare you stop using washing powder?

blueberrypie

geordie_joe wrote: »

Back in the 70's or 80's there was a science series on TV with Dr Miriam Stoppard and Magnus Pike among others. One of the "experiments" they did was to get a woman, who had long hair down to her waist, not wash it for 10 weeks. When she "revealed" it after 10 weeks it was perfectly clean. They then went on to exlain that after a couple of weeks your hair cleans it's self, all you have to do is comb out the bits of grit etc. Your body will get rid of the grease for you.

I was never convinced as I was taught at school that years ago people wore wigs and powdered them heavily to disguise the smell of their unwashed hair.

I suspect the smell came more from their bodies than their hair - hair, after all, doesn't produce smells of its own; like fabric, all it would do is hold odours from the environment around it.

WRT "self-cleaning hair" - I know quite a few people, including me, who have gone shampoo-free - but anyone I know who has done this has washed with water, rather than just comb their hair. I can confirm that after a few weeks of washing with water only, hair is perfectly clean and feels and looks (and smells) just fine.

There must be cultures where people don't wash their hair with water either though - there are enough places in the world where water is scarce - I don't know how "clean" people's hair would be, but I would think it's probably not nearly as much of an issue as keeping skin clean (to prevent infection from scratches and wounds etc).

Penelope_Penguin

blueberrypie wrote: »

It's true - but "chemicals" is one of those words that has an everyday, commonplace meaning and a "professional" meaning, if you see what I mean - I suspect most people, when they use "chemical-free", are using it in the everyday way.

I agree with you, but the soapnuts ad quoted earlier says they're "chemical free" when in fact they contain surfactants. Just because they're "natural" doesn't mean that they'll necessarily be better for you or be hypoallergenic.

Penny. x

HariboJunkie

geordie_joe wrote: »

It should be pointed out that man(kind) is the only animal on earth to use soap to clean it's self.

Well I've been trying all morning to be more animal like and do away with soap but I simply cannot reach my bottom to lick it.

Rowan9

re the hot wash - the vet suggested 60oC or higher for my dog's bedding as she suffers from allergies and he said anything less would not kill the dust mites. Now she is tablet-free and her rashes have cleared up. I also have to use non-bio for her stuff. I just don't get how the low temps (eg Persil)can work on our bedding

Penelope_Penguin

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Well I've been trying all morning to be more animal like and do away with soap but I simply cannot reach my bottom to lick it.

You need to assume this sort of position - try yoga first

HariboJunkie

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

You need to assume this sort of position - try yoga first

I'm quite good at yoga but even my accomplished "downward facing dog" didn't cut the mustard.

blueberrypie

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I agree with you, but the soapnuts ad quoted earlier says they're "chemical free" when in fact they contain surfactants. Just because they're "natural" doesn't mean that they'll necessarily be better for you or be hypoallergenic.

Oh yeah, definitely. I used to work with a doctor who, when a patient said they preferred natural things to chemicals/drugs, would look disparagingly over his half-moon glasses at them and say, "What, like earthquakes?"

I do think he was perhaps too dismissive of anything that was not "modern medicine", but he had a point LOL

I do tend to stick to more natural stuff where I can - but there are a lot of fairly iffy things said about "natural" products. Then again, the same goes for "chemical" products too.

geordie_joe

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I know that. But my original question to the Op was "are you going to stop using soap on everything?" To which you gave the example of self cleaning hair. When I asked if the same could be said of your bottom you replied that you don't see why not.

Actually, what I said was

Don't see why not, you only asked if the op was going to stop using soap on their body, I'll assume they will still attempt to get clean.

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I took that to mean that you thought cleaning with water alone was sufficient. :cool:

Sorry, but it actually meant what it said, that I assumed they would still attempt to get clean.

Zeusiblue

HI just reading through the posts with interest. Has anybody tried the Eco Wash Balls?
Eco wash balls are orb like objects made out of plastic that you put into your washing machine where they help to clean you clothes during washing. Wash balls are meant to be used as a replacement for washing detergent or at least as a way to reduce using the detergent for as far as 80%.
Inside of the plastic shell of the eco wash ball are lots of smaller pellets usually made out of ceramic. The general idea behind this is that these pellets interact with water molecules to help clean the dirt of your clothes.

Newer eco wash balls can be used 1000 or even more times, so if you wash your clothes every day you could use them for almost three years. Off course, if you wash your clothes once or twice a week this period is greatly extended.

They are also very easy to use - you just put them into your washing machine together with your dirty clothes and you are done.

Here are a few pictures so you can see for yourself how they look:














Has anyone else tried these. I use these and quite like them.My partner however prefers detergents as he likes the fragrance. So it's a mixed bag really.What do you think?:rolleyes:

A._Badger

Just for the record, a temperature of 60 degrees C is required to kill the sort of bacteria that is likely to present a problem in the home. The point made earlier about washing babies' nappies at lower temperatures is potentially misleading: wash them at anything lower than 60 and you are running risks.

The same is true for towels, by the way.

There is another consideration to bear in mind about detergents and soaps. Washing machines are designed to use them and the chap who runs the white goods blog http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/ has quite a lot to say about the potential problems caused to machines by the use of low temperatures and ineffective detergents.

What he says makes a lot of sense to me.