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Man shows the health of his hair and scalp after not using any shampoo for 7 years
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this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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I'm not a doctor, but something just hit me.
We use soap when washing to remove debris and microbes from our skin, largely to prevent infection and illness.
Presumably, the same idea is applied to hair. However, a single strand of hair has an absolute crap load of nooks and crannies for microbes to live in.
Sebum, the waxy substance that makes our hair and skin "oily" is a defense mechanism against microbes by creating a sealed surface (though some types break it down and create odors). Soaps denaturize this substance, and then rinsing it off removes this protection.
This sort of says to me that this guy also highlighted a question of mine I've wondered. Without a specific need to disinfect hair, or remove the built up odor, why the fuck would we want to destroy that wax we evolved to protect our hair?
That's how it works. There's another layer to it though. We have symbiotic relationships with microbes and bacteria that live on our skin and in our pores. They swim around in the oil and they eat our dead skin and they manage all the stuff on our skin. When a foreign pathogen or microbe shows up not only do they have to make their way through all the protective oily waxing stuff but they also have to fight our little army on our skin before it ever even gets to us. By using soap you're killing everyone on your skin and removing everything leaving your bare skin with zero defense. We evolved to have the oils and the bugs on our skin and it's a great system. I'm pretty sure soap salesman just started making up lies in the Victorian era and beyond and everyone believed it an internalized it.
Jesus Christ the uninformed comments in this thread. Are you seriously saying soap is bad?
You do understand the benefit of removing viruses from your hands, right?
I can only hope you were only trying to reference scalp care rather than the benefits of soap as a whole.
But either way you're wrong.
This is how people get started on the anti-science train. Next thing you know they'll be talking about how bad vaccines are for the body.
Yeah in this age of misinformation I think it's really important to not just share the truth, but also avoid saying something that could be interpreted in an anti-science way. No the commenter doesn't explicitly say "never use soap" but, as written, that's what's implied.
Since you want to get hostile: if you could read, you'd already know that no one is saying don't wash your hands with soap. All the people who poses reading comprehension skills in this thread understand that we're talking about the excessive use of soap when not needed; for example everyday on your hair or perhaps even all over your body.
Since you want to get hostile: if you could read, you'd already know that no one is saying don't wash your hands with soap. All the people who possess reading comprehension skills in this thread understand that we're talking about the excessive use of soap when not needed; for example everyday on your hair or perhaps even all over your body.
Lol yep tell me more about your reading comprehension skills
We're interpreting this comment very differently. The way I read it, they're saying that the oils and microbes that occur naturally on our skin are largely beneficial to good health, which means that there are downsides to removing it.
That shouldn't be controversial. It's not saying "never wash", but rather pointing out that excessive cleaning with soap can negatively impact your health. There's plenty of evidence that that's the case.
Of course, you should be washing your hands properly, there's also plenty of evidence that not doing so causes disease. I think the major point here is that it's not black and white. Excessively washing your whole body with soap can very well lead to dry/cracked skin and skin infections.
You are correct about how our skin has these natural defenses that are much more sophisticated than most people are aware of, but semi-regular hygiene is still important to clear off the debris left behind by this ecosystem, as has been known for some thousands of years. Once every couple days to a week is ideal for most people depending on factors such as humidity and personal biology.
Exposure to "everyday contagions" can greatly strengthen the immune system without making us sick as well, but not always, and the behavior of primates and young children eating their little green nose warriors is actually believed to have evolved for this benefit. Exposure has become more of an issue as civilization has grown in size though, and contagious diseases are being spread simultaneously from multiple points in the global population with more opportunities to find their way into that circle.
If you have a lifestyle that involves regular contact with other people, you may want to be washing your hands frequently.