sham poo

For most of my life I cut the hair growing out of my head before how I treated it could have much effect. I have not cut the hairs growing from the top of my head for four years now. I had to learn a few things about head hair as it grew longer.

While you may not know why you have little toes, earlobes, eyelashes or other body parts, few of us cut them off. Yet most men today assume their head hair has no purpose other than serving as clay to be molded into shapes and styles that amuse them.

Late 2013, I joined the small minority of men who quit cutting their hair off. We are not quite as alone as you might think at first blush. Men in many cultures found their long hair important well beyond outward appearance.

Somewhere around then my wife and I began using a tablespoon of baking soda dissolved in a cup of water as shampoo and a tablespoon of vinegar in a cup of water as hair rinse. We found that to work as well as any commercial shampoo we had tried.

However, as my hair began growing out I found significant amounts in the shower drain and my hair brush. Studying up, I began adding a small bit of oil to my hair after I washed it. There was a slight improvement with a fancy brand of hair oil.

I kept up the diluted vinegar rinse, but cut out the baking soda wash without noticing any difference at all … other than cutting down the elapsed time of my showers.

Then one day a little light bulb went on. I am stripping away my natural oils, then trying to replenish them with “natural oils”. Hmmm … what if I skip the vinegar in my shower?

No more hairy drain. Much less hair in my brush. No negative consequences to my hair or the appearance thereof. It does seem less brittle; softer.

Not too much later, I stopped using the replenishing oil. I have noticed no difference.

WhoDaThunk? Nature even figured all that out.

In the shower the other day I noticed the spelling of the stuff Mom uses to wash her head hair.

SHAM…POO

Wow. Who came up with that word?
Doesn’t seem like something necessary.
Doesn’t seem like something good.