During our lifetime we spend 2 years whole to wash ourselves.
That's 12,167 hours of our existence!
Yes, yes, I promise you. I did the math...
By taking 20 minutes every day to wash your body and hair (in the far-fetched hypothesis where you live to be 100 years old...), that's more than 12,000 hours devoted to this activity.
We can therefore legitimately ask ourselves the following question:
"How much time, money and water do we waste in our lifetime?"
Besides the waste of time, I can't help but think of all that wasted water every shower...
And I'm not even talking about those who take baths!
We must also add to this, the price of all the cosmetic products we buy...
Because in the pubs, we are told that we have to remove the film of oil that we have on our skin with soap...
...and then rehydrate it with cream!
And other ads also tell us that we have to remove the film of oil from our hair...
...and then rehydrate them with conditioner!
That's already 4 products sold by manufacturers , plus a lot of water and time spent...
...and meanwhile, no one wonders if all this has any use.
It's not all the fault of advertisers and manufacturers of course...
Indeed, we all know this from experience. If we don't take a shower for a few days, or even just 1 day, we become a stinky creature with greasy hair.
But what if we tried to live with our natural body odors and oily skin and hair?!
Just for a few weeks to see what happens?
Out of curiosity (and not laziness...), I therefore tried the experiment.
So I decided to stop taking showers.
And it's true that at the very beginning I became this stinky creature with oily skin :-)
But there is a simple explanation for this transformation.
You should know that human skin is a film of oil in which hundreds of billions of bacteria proliferate.
When you wash, you use a detergent that removes all this oil and the bacteria will have to recolonize this territory, which is huge for them.
Of course, there are good and bad bacteria – and when the latter take over, bad odors appear.
In other words, when you shower too frequently, you upset the natural "ecosystem" that lives on your skin.
The good news is that this ecosystem is rapidly redeveloping.
But the bad news , is that the bacteria living on your skin are totally out of balance from years of soap use...
As a result, the first bacteria to reappear when you stop washing are those that produce unpleasant odors!
But rest assured... After a short adaptation period, your skin regains its natural balance and you no longer smell bad .
Obviously, your smell won't be that of the latest AX deodorant, but you won't smell bad either.
You'll just feel like a human being is supposed to smell in its normal state.
Yes, why would Mother Nature make us so filthy that we had to wash constantly ?
What's more, why want to constantly dehydrate our skin to better rehydrate it in the process...
If not to sell us cosmetics (full of toxic products by the way)?
The principle is quite simple.
If we give our sebaceous glands and skin bacteria time to do their job, our skin won't be too oily or too dry!
Our skin will simply have regained its natural balance .
You will have understood:the real problem is the way in which we consider our bodily cleanliness.
We spend 2 years of our life in the shower, when taking too much is actually bad for skin balance!
Here's how I tried the "Zero Shower" experience.
I started by using less shower gel, less shampoo, less deodorant and above all taking fewer showers .
At first, I took a shower every other day, instead of daily.
Afterwards, it was a shower every 3 days. Today, I barely take a shower at all.
Of course, I continue to wash my hands, because it is the best way to protect yourself from contagious diseases.
And rest assured, I have not forgotten the rules of propriety in society. I'm still not a savage :-)
As a result, I rinse myself again with clear water in the places where I am visibly dirty. But without using soap.
Yes, no shower does not mean without water!
For example, I take care to rub my legs and face with a little water if I have mud stuck to my skin after jogging in the forest.
And in the morning, I tame my messy hair by quickly dipping my head under water.
But in any case, I don't use a drop of shampoo and not a drop of shower gel.
It's simple, I hardly go in the shower anymore!
At the very beginning of the experience, if I didn't smell very good, it was mainly because I was no longer using deodorant.
Moreover, concerning the deodorant, know that I did not stop using it overnight.
At first, I simply replaced my store-bought deodorant (toxic because it's aluminum-based...) for a deodorant balm based on essential oils and starch, like this one.
Aluminum has antibiotic properties and that is why it is the most widely used active ingredient in commercial deodorants.
My new deodorant works well and it really is 100% natural, aluminum free, alum stone free and preservative free.
But you know what ? Recently, I also stopped using it.
The result ? I reassure you right away, everything is fine :-)
In the morning I wake up and in just a few minutes I am already ready to go to work.
What a time saver!
What's crazy is that I used to smell bad at the end of a long day at work or after playing sports.
But now, even after strenuous activity, I don't have bad body odor anymore!
Or at least not that I know of…
To get to the bottom of it, I actually asked my best friends to tell me if I smelled bad.
Good news ! They assured me that I didn't smell bad.
But maybe they hatched a plot to completely end my social life, who knows;-)
Obviously, not taking a shower is trickier if you work in a small space with people with a sensitive sense of smell.
If so, it is better to go green for the first few days. The time that your skin regains its natural balance...
By the way, why not buy yourself a little house in the woods like this one that only costs €3,500?
You could easily afford it, now that you're not wasting money on all those shower gels, shampoos, moisturizers, etc.
And then, you don't necessarily need to go as far as me...
Without completely stopping the showers, already try to drastically reduce their frequency and your consumption of cosmetic products of all kinds.
I think what is important here is to challenge the aggressive marketing that we have been victims of for decades and this so-called "necessity" of a shower a day.
If one day you manage not to take a shower, your biggest dilemma will surely be what to do with all that extra time you have saved?!"
Yes, you will have to find a new occupation to fill 2 more years of life :-)
