Are soap and shampoo really necessary?
That might seem like a stupid question, but believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there saying that they are cleaner, healthier and odor free after NOT using soap and shampoo for a few months. They claim that soap and shampoo take away your body's natural oils, forcing your body to work harder to replenish these oils to protect your skin, which is not natural to your body. If you stop using them for a few months, using only hot water to wash yourself, your body will adjust its oil secretions back to normal levels, leaving you cleaner, healthier and odor free. They say that you only need soap for your hands and private parts. The rest of your body doesn't really need it, and in fact it interferes with your body's oil production.
Here are testimonials from many people claiming this.
http://boingboing.net/2011/01/04/i-have ... oap-i.html
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com ... soap-.html
http://www.ethericwarriors.com/ip/viewtopic.php?p=8846
What do you think? Could they be right? Are soap and shampoo really unnecessary? Would this work for everyone?
One person even said that washing your clothes without detergent produces the same result as with detergent, and that its the agitation in the washing machine that gets the clothes clean, not the detergent.
What do you think? Are our assumptions about soap and shampoo all wrong? Have we been duped and misled by their manufacturers? Most people would probably never have the gall to try something like this though.