Going Paleolithic (the RwN way) - Part 2

By: Haricot Vert

"Week 2 - someone notices something is amiss!"

Click here if you missed Week 1.

Day 8: January 18, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 9.

I got lazy and did not take a picture since I got preoccupied with making an offer on a condo. Still played basketball at lunch and showered in the locker room. Further laziness prevented me from taking a shower later on in the evening. Yeah, I know, gross.

Day 9: January 19, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 10. Post-Wednesday Night Hop again.

Despite the gradually increasing oily-ness of my hair (dare I say greasy?), the hair itself is doing a good job of maintaining shape and form, and overall looking more like an emo kid than usual. Still no comments from bystanders on smell, appearance, or anything else for that matter.

Day 10: January 20, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 11 going on 12. This is what happens if I deliberately fluff my hair.
Spike Spiegel, anyone?

Another Thursday means another shower at midday and one in the evening.

I suppose it'll come up at some point or another, so I may as well address it here - the obvious concern of cleanliness in and around the nether regions. Like most agreeable and kosher human beings, I really would rather not share this, but in the name of science I see little gained from omitting it.

As has been pointed out previously, my hygiene prior to attempting this was already decent. I don't smoke, I wear different clothes every day, do a full load of laundry once a week, and shower at least once a day. I also don't wear deoderant, cologne, and have only used hair gel/wax on extremely rare occasions (Halloween, for instance).

With that in mind, my crotchal area has fared just fine. I'm not sure there's a perceivable difference, at any rate. There's definitely no grime/oil/grease buildup, thank goodness.

I guess I should elaborate that bathing without soap or shampoo does not mean one just stands under the shower for 10 minutes doing nothing. There still is a lot of scrubbing and vigorous rinsing. Water may be the most "universal solvent" mankind knows of, but you still gotta work it into your epidermis and filamentous keratin biomaterial.

Day 11: January 21, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 12 going on 13. Was called upon as an emergency
platelet donor due to a shortage at the Stanford Blood Center. Also representin' Videosift.com.

Nothing worth noting, just another soapless day. The picture above is me tooting my own horn about saving a life (well, at the very least, contributing to the saving of a life) and getting cookies and juice to boot. And yes, you should be nice to me.

They had the "I'm a Donorsaurus" sticker that reminded me of my high school's annual blood drive in which we all changed the D to a B and it becomes... well, you get the idea.

Day 12: January 22, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 13 going on 14. Received voluntary comments on my hair! Yay results!
Threadless shirt #2.

I went up to San Francisco to spend some time with my girlfriend in Golden Gate Park. Aw. How cute. As we were walking there, completely unprompted by me, she remarked that my hair looked good (YESSSSSSS SCORE ONE FOR DANIEL)... except the next words out of her mouth were to ask if I had showered because there was a noticeable greasy patch on the front left of my hair. Uh-oh. "Yes, I showered," I replied, which was the truth.

"Did you use shampoo?"
"Uhh... yes" I lied.
"Well you missed a pretty big spot... you should be more thorough."
"But you still think it looks good, right?"
"Yes, you look very much like a Beatle."

The lesson here is that I am very bad (nay, terrible) at noticing things related to my own appearance. Or maybe I just have no idea how to tell when someone has greasy hair or not (without touching it, that is). Since I now regularly wake up with pretty crazy bedhead, I end up rinsing my hair in the mornings before I go out. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for in the mirror that gives away the greasy hair, but whatever it is I can't see it. Phooey.

More importantly: what do I count this as? Does this count as 1 positive feedback and 1 negative feedback? Just positive (since the greasiness wasn't repulsive)? Just negative? I was not expecting mixed reactions.

Day 13: January 23, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 14 going on 15. Yet another Threadless shirt.

Typical lazy sunday. Did laundry, went for the usual 4 mile run with the stop at the pull-up bars. Submitted my final counter-offer to the sellers of the condo I'm looking at. Will know if I got it by Tuesday... scary big-person adult stuff. Why can't I just be a kid (like Rob) forever?!

Day 14: January 24, 2011

Consecutive soapless showers: 15 going on 16. Made it two weeks!

Well ladies and gents, here it is. Week 2 complete. Allegedly, the worst is over. I don't know what that means yet since hair quality seems to not be getting any worse. I fit in a 3 mile run + pull-ups before dinner for a little bit of extra sweat. As far as body odor goes, still no complaints. I broke down and let my girlfriend in on the experiment since she had more or less already cast her opinion, and I suppose she is impartial enough in the sense that if I start to get too nasty, it is in her best interests to get me to use cleansing products in any way she can. I'll continue to gather her running commentary for future updates.

There's still more to come, but I won't bother with detailed daily updates and such. Hopefully more people will notice between now and the 1 month mark, so I'll at least have some content to share by then.

Thanks again for reading, next step is one full month!

-Haricot Vert

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