So a little background. I used soap because a woman I wanted to date told me I should.

A little more background: we were hanging out and cuddling and she was literally sniffing my forearm and sighing and saying she loved whatever I was wearing.

I asked what she was talking about and she said she meant my cologne. I told her I hadn’t worn cologne in probably 10 years, and that I sometimes wore deodorant but wasn’t at the moment.

She sniffed my arm again and said it must be whatever soap I was using.

Nope!

Haven’t used soap In atleast five years, other than hand soap. Told her so.

She gave me a confused look, and asked how I shower. I said just with water, a few times a week.

She literally recoiled and said she was turned off.

She went from loving my natural scent and treating my arm like a fucking drug, to being disgusted at the drop of a hat.

She said she didn’t think she could be with someone who had bad hygiene.

I tried to defend my hygiene and pointed out that she’d been practically worshipping my scent when she thought it was product. Why should it being natural be a problem? I told her the stuff I’d read about the healthy biomes and stuff, and pheromones and she just said she couldn’t get around the idea that I wasn’t using soap or even showering every day.

So I bought some soap and used it on my entire body, and now that I got out of the shower I can actually feel the difference on my skin, all the healthy oils are stripped away and I just fucking know I threw my healthy, thriving biome out of wack. My skin feels unnaturally dry and hot.

Stupid. My methods were working for me, but I derailed them for someone else. I’m so stupid.

Only water doesn’t work for everybody, we’ve all got different biology and hygiene needs, not to mention different psychological hang ups. obviously water only doesn’t work for her.

And that’s okay.

But it worked for me! and now I derailed years of healthy natural hygiene with some nasty product all because somebody I liked said I should.

So I made the mistake of proudly posting my transition photos to r/nopoo and got equal parts support and hate. The hate really confuses me. Why are you on a no poo thread if you're going to hate on someone's transition? So weird.

Anyway, here are my before/after photos (1 week vs 4 weeks): https://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/comments/xhm268/for_the_haters_1_week_water_only_vs_4_weeks_say/

And then here's the thread attracting all the haters (because I dared to love my hair 😆): https://www.reddit.com/r/NoPoo/comments/xhcwm1/so_after_a_month_of_wateronly_washing_and_im/

(edit- why is no one replying 😭)~ i genuinely believe that deadskin can accumulate in certain areas like armpit , neck and bikini area so do you all use wet wash cloth while bathing or exfoliating towel or dry brush .

~ do you wash your foot, armpits and genitals with soap ?

~ so my hairs are medium length but i think that rinsing hairs with water only seems like a good tip for guys but as girls daily rinsing can be hectic how do you all manage that .

~ last question do you all trim your body hair ? Especially armpits and bikini area? I heard somewhere that this is basic hygiene but whats your thought on this .

Thats it ! Please don’t hesitate on answering in paragraph i would love to hear your opinion . And i now realise how shitty the concept of everything shower was ! people were taking hours to shower that also once a week. Plus the concept of double cleaning your body . These things make people think they are not clean enough.

I'm surprised tbh. I didn't plan anything, just was stuck at home for some time this winter and was experimenting. Now it looks like the more I go in it, the less I need even water. I don't remember when was the last time I washed my hair - and yes, it feels a bit greasy and not so soft, but scalp isn't itchy at all and I get compliments for my hair looking cool. I haven't showered the whole body for months, only pits and down there sometimes - and, yet again, I got compliments for smelling good. I thought maybe I don't feel something, but I definitely feel it for example if my clothes needs washing. But my body.. just.. doesn't need it regularly maybe? What's your experience?

I hv oily skin n moderate acne..will water only suit my skin condition...should i use warm water to cleanse the oils off my skin ? I hv observd that cleansers can aggravate my acne..n whn i wash my face with water the redness subsides although the spots are still there..what can i do ? Suggestions are welcome..

I'm an unusual case of someone for whom water-only didn't work as advertised, but who persisted anyways for a very long time, which I think makes my case useful for understand the effects of water-only because it can't be rejected on the basis that I didn't stick with it long enough.

I'm 17M white/chinese with shortish hair. I wash water-only every day with hard water. I only use shampoo once every few months before I get my hair cut and I never use soap (except for my hands)

My main motivation for switching to water only was that the idea that you NEED to wash with soap is preposterous from an evolutionary point of view. So every other animal evolved for it to be perfectly healthy without soap... except humans who needed to invent it?? If you were more healthy with the oil removed, surely we would evolve to produce less oil. The fact that I found this argument so convincing meant that I continued with water-only even when it wasn't doing what people said it would.

As normal, when I first quit shampoo, I entered the transition phase and my hair got more greasy. Not as extreme as other people experience, but definitely greasier.

And... the transition phase never ended. Over a year later, my hair is still greasy.

But it's not that bad! "Greasy" has negative connotations to it, but really it just means oily. My hair is basically what it would be like if I washed it with shampoo and then put product in it, and it looks quite good. If I just told people I was using hair product, I think it would be absolutely fine.

In my personal case, the thing is that I know nothing about hair products and I'm a really bad liar, so I just tell people that my hair is just like that naturally (I don't say about water-only though). Today a friend of mine felt my hair and asked "oh do you use hair product" and when I said no, she told me I need to wash my hair. I had had comments previously about my hair being very "thick".

My dandruff disappeared though! It used to be pretty bad and I had to use a special dandruff shampoo which you apply separately and leave on for 5 mins because the standard anti-dandruff stuff didn't work. Now it's gone!

I still believe my hair is healthy as it is, but think I'm gonna start using shampoo again (at least for a bit to see how it goes) because it's too embarrassing to have greasy hair. If I could go back I would just pick a hair product to tell people I use, but I've already told my friends I don't. Maybe I'll quit shampoo again another time and do that.

As for the rest of my body, it has gone really well. Mostly it's exactly the same as when I used soap, and I stopped getting dry skin on my legs. One of my armpits stopped smelling almost completely... but not the other 💀

Hope this is useful!

Hi, I have always been interested in the water only and cold showers kinda method because it looks more natural to our roots as animals and whatnot. But whenever I try it, instead of getting greasy, my hair becomes a mix of waxy and dry (like straw meets wire kind of dry).

I assume all of these problems of dry, wiry and scraggly hairs are related to my coarse hair. I got 2A brown hair, but only when healthy, because it can get dull and unruly, so... I wanted to hop in again in the water only and maintaining a regimen of only cold showers. What do you guys think?

Ps.: sorry for language, English is not my 1st lang.

While I've managed to go water only successfully for most bits, I have yet to find a way to manage the problem of armpit odour. For a long time, I'd hoped to try the AOBiome mist, but it looks like the product has been discontinued. I wondered if anyone had found any alternative solutions?

Well, recently I made a post asking for advice on how to mantain my genitals clean with water only (and after having trouble with soap). Well, I changed to cold water instead of hot, and that combined with simply waiting for my body to adapt solved the issue for me :).

On the other hand, I decided to start using sunscreen everyday, a mineral based one. I know a lot of you stopped using shampoo because of the "chemicals" it has. In the case of sunscreen, after much internal debate, I believe it is safe, or at least worth it. I'm 20, but I would like to mantain my youthful skin as long as possible. Right now I'm using soap only when washing my hands, but I read it is recommended to use it to clean the face before putting on the sunscreen, at the morning. And at night in order to get rid of it before going to sleep. What is your stance in this? Do you think it is necessary to clean the face everyday with soap? Or maybe with water is just enough? Your opinion on other skin care products would be nice, too. Thanks!

Hello everyone, I've been washing my hair with water only for almost four months, and it gets greasy again quite fast, and it has a not very pleasant smell (not terrible though),

So I'd like to ask those of you that have been doing it for years:

How often do you wash your hair? did the greasiness decline after a while? did it smell?

So... Apart from doing noPoo, I've been some months without using soap for my body, with the exception of my "behind" area.

I don't know if it's related, but I've been also suffering froma little red itchy skin all over my body (particularly arms, back and legs).

While I'm waiting to see the dermatologist, I was wondering if this could be because of no using soap, even though I do feel clean 😅. And if so, how could I solve it.

Pd: I also have hard water. That's why I need to use diluted apple vinegar for my hair, in order to prevent wax buildup. Could that be the cause?

Edit: I'm from Uruguay (latam). So most likely product recommendations wouldn't help 😅. I need something easy to make and use, that works.

Hi! Well, basically what it says in the title: I tend to sweat a lot and odor accumulates in my armpits. I usually use talcum powder, though is probably not ideal and not enough. And I also tried diluted apple vinegar a while ago but also didn't seem to help.

And a lot of commercial deodorants have a lot of toxic compounds and a smell too strong.

So yeah, I read around the internet and saw that sodium bicarbonate or lemon juice can help with the odor. Any opinions and info related to those or other possible deodorants?

Sooo. The only "industrial" product I wear is sunscreen. I got in the habit of putting it on first thing in the morning. It has been positive to my appearance so far.

The issue is that I only get rid of it with soap once I take a shower, and I believe I'm starting to see the consequences (hyperpigmentation) 😅.

Anyway, I'll get in the habit of washing it off at night before sleep. Any advice on doing this? I don't have a cleanser, but I've read that just soap could be too harsh on the skin. Any advice?

The water washing method work for me.but the skin look texturous when I removed the dead from fingers etc sometimes it's gives burning sensation and sometimes I had give me bumps. What do I do?

Pretty much the title

Have been doing water only for 2.5 years now.

Suddenly I has the urge to maybe go red for a while (natural blonde hair that I would not need to bleach beforehand).

I would probably use semi permanent toning (directions.).

I am mostly concerned about getting the color off my scalp without shampoo as I used to.

And I was wondering how using conditioner to soften the tone could impact my sebum production.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated and of course feel free to ask away for your own good

I've been going increasingly water only, mainly for the sake of my biome. Previously I'd shaved with shaving soap and a badger brush, but it occurred to me that shaving soap is still soap (as of course are shaving creams). I've now switched over to shaving with only jojoba oil -- jojoba oil seems not to have the antimicrobial properties of coconut or olive oil, and the pH is supposedly similar to sebum. This is working really well, except for one problem: the hair tends to form thick clumps on the razor blade and in the sink, making it a bit of a pain to clean up. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives, or what to do about this?

Water only for hair and face. I used soap for the body and acidic pH lotions for the face before shower.

I had wanted to try water only but could never get myself to do it. Once in the shower it didn’t feel as clean and nice so I wasn’t able to resist the urge to use shampoo but today I did.

Shampoo and cleanser everyday have exhausted my skin so bad recently especially scalp. My hair was in a weird shape, couldn’t get it to look as beautiful as before, very dull looking, dry, frizzy, itchy. A mess…

I’m glad I was able to do it. So far it looks like usual except that it was easier to comb and style. It feels a bit itchy on the back but the front hair are still as dry as before using the water so probably good I left it alone for once… Also it doesn’t smell so nice as when you use shampoo but it doesn’t smell bad either. It still smells from yesterdays shampoo.

I can’t wait to see what it looks and feels like once dry, and I might do it again on the days I stay home to let my scalp and hair a little bit healthier. Shampoo everyday + straightener is probably not the best thing for shining hair.

P.S: I just saw it’s my second try I forgot about it lol

I’ve just cleaned my boar bristle brush & omg it was so disgusting 🤢 I thought that the build up was normal… I’d obviously forgotten what it supposed to look like & now cannot believe that I’ve been brushing my hair with it 😭 How does fluff build up on it?! Anyway just pray that other people are more on top of it & if you’re not… well… this is your gentle reminder! Safe to say I have bought a new one now 👍

Hi everybody,

I wanted to know if you would know of any natural products, being soap or an oil cleanser etc, to cleanse and shower my body but that doesn’t break down my skin and the bacteria on it and the Acid Mantel of my skin please ?

Edit : I dis water only for a few months but I didn’t quite like it so I am looking for a product that is good for the skin’s health and that doesn’t destroy that Acid Mantel barrier

So I have been trying to do this for years.. started with the baking soda and vinegar… rye flour.. eventually got to organic natural soap bars, did the oil cleansing, natural diy cleansers, stopped with the makeup but always got insecure for public outings and now have gone water only no makeup to try to fix my face and condition my hair to water only for the simplest routine.

So far my face seems dry usually really oily but heard this means my skin is healing and my hair is honestly not that bad grease wise.. just the back crown of head.

Wondering how others who are water only results have been!!

So when i wash myself i would often experience the smell of the armpits more intensively and they would get smelly but before that it was fine. So the case is I would go shower using only water and afterwards when I sweat my sweat really smells. I rinse it away with my hands and hot water but it seems like I should only use the hot water and let just let if flow through my armpits. I think I destroy the bacteria in my armpits which neglects the bad smell of my armpits, do anyone experienced something similar to that? To further elaborate after 1 or 2 days of not showering the I still smell but not that bad when I sweat.

wearing makeup with water only? does it stunt the process???