The pain!

[andrewducker]

One of the things I had on my nwe to-do list was "sort hair". The problem with my hair is that it tangles incredibly easily. This, combined with a scalp that gets sore very easily, means that if I get a knot in my hair it's very painful to get out. Which tends to lead to postponement of the disentanglement. Which means that it'll knot further, making it more painful, so I leave it for longer.

So I spent two hours getting most of it out on Saturday, before going out. This got it down to an invisible level. Then an hour yesterday. And today, it's taken about 3 hours of intermittent untangling, tugging and pulling to get the last of it out.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Mustn't do that again.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Water.

Shampoo strips all of the oils off of your hair, meaning that you then have to put fake oils back onto it (with conditioner). If you do this a lot, your scalp starts producing much more oil than it would do 'in the wild', meaning that your hair gets greasy and has to be washed even more often.

It takes 3-6 months for your scalp to adjust back, during which time short hair is suggested. After that the balance comes back again.

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

it takesa a shorter time for me, i think. in the summer holidays i'd not wash my hair with shampoo etc and after about two weeks it didn't look greasy or mank, it was actually just nice..

but my hair has been dyed to buggery (on one side of my head, anyway ;) so i need to slap conditioner on, which means i need to shampoo it too...)

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

Interesting. My hair is short anyway, because if I grow it I tend to end up with an unmanageable afro, but I never tried not washing it.

hmmm ...

[darkoshi]

in regards to your original post, it reminded me of our dog and his long fluffy hair which had been all tangled and matted together when we found him.

in regards to not using shampoo, that's an interesting idea which i might try. i never use conditioner anyway, but whenever i don't wash my hair, after 3 days or so, it starts feeling greasy, plus my scalp starts itching badly. If using water instead of shampoo still keeps the itchiness away, that might work... otherwise I couldn't stand it.

I've often wondered how people in other parts of the world like nepal or tibet manage to have such unwashed-looking hair without it seeming to make them itch.
Or have I just got some weird skin condition?

[andrewducker]

You will need to wash your hair fairly frequently at first, but you'll find that it adjusts after a few weeks/a month.