Our Ancestors Were Smarter: Why We Don't Need Shampoo
I’ve always been inspired by watching animals. In particular, wild ones, since they are pure - not tampered from the state in which they evolved in. Whether it’s a wolf or a mouse or a deer, they each play their role and do it well.
Naturally, as a child, I started to realize we don’t do things the way animals do. Perhaps angry at things I had to put up with, one of the first observations was that animals don’t have a ‘bathtime’ - unlike I did.
“Why do wolves not need to shower? (Or do they shower?) Or cats or deer or lions? Why don’t any animals?” Well, it turns out most animals do perform ‘acts’ of hygiene, but it doesn’t look the same as ours. A wolf, or even a dog, rids itself from ticks and fleas by rolling in mud. Cats lick themselves. Monkeys pick at fleas and bugs.
“Why don’t I just do that then? Why do WE need to shower?”
With questions like these, and knowing that in modern society we live differently than humans have (for the past several hundred thousand years) I looked to answers in indigenous cultures.
“Did Native American’s bathe? Did they brush their teeth?”
As it turns out, yes, people have been cleaning themselves with water for millennia. Next question.
“What did Native Americans use for soap and Shampoo”
Well it appears as if some of them used oils, and fragrant scents. But by in large, it was simply just brushing and rinsing with water. No shampoo, no soap.
As it turns out, there are people out there today who advocate not using shampoo and soap. As soap reduces the viscosity of water, it emulsifies lipids and oils from our skin that our body naturally produces. So while soap/shampoo is good for a real deep cleaning, it really isn’t that necessary to shampoo your head every single day of your life. In fact, there’s a ‘No-poo’ movement against shampoo usage. Turns out that yes, your head gets greasy after the first couple weeks, but that after that, your body realizes that you aren’t obliterating all of the natural oils every day, and stops producing them at overdrive speeds. Your scalp settles back down, your hair returns to a more normal, not-greasy state.
I was intrigued. To think that the entire shampoo industry is almost a sham, that we have been tricked into thinking that we need to use it every day! What a revelation.
And so began a journey to discover other parts of our lives that we have changed that go against our own biology or nature. Some call this process ‘re-wilding,’ which is simple enough. You try to return to your natural roots, your wildness by getting rid of modern inventions that are unnecessary and or harmful. Obviously, this is not to say I think soap is harmful, it has saved millions of lives since we realized it helps stop the transmission of pathogens.
This is the lens I view my world through, placing our own actions in the context of the entire human race (or what I know of it). Comparing our own sets of behaviors to the behaviors that came before us, evaluating them, and discerning a more proper way of action. I like to call this the “Anthropological Lens” as I normally compare myself to “wild” tribes of indigenous people, and “anthropology” is the study of people. The cool part of looking through this lens at the world, to try to re-wild is that at least you are asking the questions. Not simply taking things as they are.
I hope this concept may help open up your world to start asking more questions!