Look What Happen To My Hair When I gave Up Shampoo For A Week

Hi, I'm Deanna, and I love to shampoo my hair.

It's partly out of necessity. I sweat a lot—like, a lot—when I work out, even (or maybe especially) from my scalp. And I just really enjoy washing my hair. Even when I lost my hair to chemotherapy, I continued to slap shampoo on my bare head and rub it around. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

Lately, shampooing has fallen out of fashion. Dry shampoo hit the scene, allowing people to go days and even weeks between washes. Factor in blow-dry bars—and a newfound desire to stretch out blow-outs—and you've got yourself an incidental shampoo backlash. It's even more taboo if, like me, you have curly hair. When I told my shampoo habit to Etienne Sekola, a stylist at Paris' David Mallett salon who was visiting New York, he gasped. Audibly. I think he only stopped short of clapping a hand over his mouth because he was holding a glass of rosé. "Non, non, non," he said. "It dries out your hair." He told me, to just double down on conditioner instead. "Leaving in a little conditioner once in a while has the added benefit of hydrating your hair," he explained. Sekola actually has a pretty awesome curls himself, so I trusted him.

Taking his advice, I'm quitting shampoo for a week. I'll still shower, of course, but instead of shampooing, I'll just condition my hair well and not fully rinse it out, so my hair doesn't get dry. I'm kind of hoping that I don't notice a difference. Here goes nothing.

Day One:

I feel like I didn't really shower today since I didn't wash my hair. I spend the whole day hating myself for volunteering myself as tribute for this story (which I came up with myself, so...). I try to remember that my hair will look better for it. "Hair is like a fragile fabric and does not need to be roughed up with shampoo," says Shai Amiel, hairstylist and owner of L.A.'s Capella Salon. "Over-washing your hair will cause it to feel brittle and lead to excess frizz and breakage." This is basically my mantra for the next week.

Day Two:

My scalp is rebelling. It feels itchy, a little flaky, and clearly desires some affection—and I'm dying to give in. I want to use my scalp brush or scalp toner or scalp scrub or any combination of the scalp-related things that take up space in my cabinet. The worst part of all of this: I don't even notice a difference in my hair. Instead, I'm actually having a full-blown bad hair day. My curls are doing whatever TF they want. I feel powerless.

Day Three:

Today, I finally notice a difference in the texture of my hair—it's softer, smoother, and my curls are more defined. My scalp is still all sorts of pissed, but I compromise and douse it with some scalp toner (scalp toner essentially exfoliates your scalp). I subscribe to the dermatologist-approved belief that your scalp is merely an extension of your face. Could you imagine not washing or exfoliating your face for a week? It makes me feel grimy. But it's not like I can't ever touch it again. "I recommend using a sulfate-free cleanser that's intended for scalps," says Amiel. "Rub the shampoo into your scalp with your fingertips, scrubbing it to remove any of the leftover product or buildup—but try not to scrub your hair with it."

Day Four:

I give in (sort of) and shampoo my hair, doing as Amiel said. He recommends cleansing your scalp once a week so I count this as my one cleanse. So I'm not really cheating. I'm just skirting the rules on a technicality, like Russia during any sort of international sporting competition. (Kidding.) I leave in a little more conditioner than usual to make up for it.

Day Five:

Psych! This is not an accident. I don't shampoo, my scalp continues to let flakes fly, and my hair shows no difference. So instead of forcing you to analyze three different photos that show the same thing, I'm going to illustrate it in a way that's more honest and, frankly, much easier on the eyes—with the same picture. The bright side: My hair doesn't necessarily look bad today. Just the same.

Day Six:

Snore. No shampoo, no change.

Day Seven:

OK, so I ran out of scalp toner. But my hair is so soft and so obedient, and the curls themselves, tighter and less frizzy. On one hand, I'm a little disappointed that everyone was right about not shampooing. And on the other, I'm just so glad that I no longer resemble Gene Wilder (the OG Willy Wonka, if you're wondering). The verdict: Consider me a curl-carrying member of the No Shampoo club. Happy to be here.