A Question On 'Shampoo'ing'...

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is a rather silly question I suppose, but I wonder and worry about the little things in Life sometimes. And I swore that if I could ever post on the Dope, I’d ask this Question/Poll the Dopers:

At What Phase of your Shower do you Shampoo? (Heh, it’s fun to say Shampoo a lot. Verbing weirds words!-Calvin :slight_smile: )

I ask this, because I always tend to shower in 2 Phases: Soap Phase, then Rinse off, and then the Shampoo Phase followed by a Rinse, and that’s that. First Body, then Hair. All fine and dandy, as this is how I’ve done it pretty much all my life. However, a few months ago, I told this to my Aunt and my Mother, and both were stunned.

Apparently, they exclaimed as they laughed, I was doing it wrong! Once should always Shampoo first, and THEN clean the Body with soap (their rational being that my method of Shampoo’ing 2nd would drip the “dirt” from my hair onto my already cleaned body, thus negating my first cleansing).
And since I’m a compulsive worrier, I started to wonder about this habit of mine. The only solution: I’ll ask the Straight Dopers! So here I am, a good 9-10 months later with my question.

Am I really shampooing wrong? Do most of you Shampoo first and THEN use the Soap? If so, do you recall WHY/ when did you start doing this?
Am I the only one doing this wrong all my life? Am I really that clueless about showering? The worries continually irk me, because even though I have heard that I’m doing it wrong, I still want to Soap first, Shampoo second- as I feel my way is just as good.

So help me out, Dopers: What way do you shampoo and Why?

(We can’t all have really cool questions to ask…)

2

Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap, Rinse

I can’t say I recall having any particular reason for this order, but it works for me.

3

This is my routine, too. Not out of any sense of cleaning myself in some correct order, but to make the shower more efficient. Since I like to let conditioner soak in for a bit, it makes sense to do some non-hair-related cleaning instead of just standing there, wasting water. If I shaved in the shower, I could see switching to soap, shampoo, conditioner, shave, rinse.

4

I don’t shampoo every day, because I have dry hair, but when I do, I rinse off the facial wash first, then shampoo. Rinse out the shampoo, use conditioner. Let the conditioner sit while I wash my body, then rinse everything. That way the conditioner gets a chace to soak in a bit; I’m not hoping for miracles, mind you, just something to keep the frizziness down to a dull roar.

I rinse the facial wash off first only because that tingly feeling gets annoying after a minute or so :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Ditto.

6

I wash my body first, then shampoo. Just feels right that way. However, I can understand the logic of reversing the order.

7

I use a dandruff shampoo so I shampoo first, let it sit and then soap my body. Then I rinse everything.

8

I tend to work from the top down, just because that’s my routine. Shampoo, rinse, wash face, rinse, lather up scrubby and wash the rest of me, rinse. At my age, if I vary the routine, I’m apt to forget something, so I try to remain a constant creature of habit.

But even if I worked from the feet up, I don’t think rinsing soapy wash water deposits any crud on clean areas. Doesn’t the lather encapsulate the dirt particles to make them wash away easily? Or am I just remembering an old cartoon commercial that has embedded itself in my brain as fact…??

As long as you don’t stink when you get out of the shower, you did it right. :smiley:

9

Ditto this for me. I figure if the top-down method is good enough for painting, it’s good enough for washing. Also, I often shower fully clothed, so the body washing helps get the shampoo out of my clothes.

10

Shampoo, rinse, wash face, rinse, conditioner, wash body, rinse body then hair. On days when I don’t wash my hair, I wash my face, rinse, then wash my body and rinse. As seems to be the case here, YMMV! :slight_smile:

ETA: I tend to lean over forward and rinse the conditioner out that way, so I don’t get dirty conditioner crud over my clean body! Again, YMMV!

11

Okay, first of all, your aunt and mother should know that shampoo is just glorified soap, and soapy water running down your body from your hair isn’t going to make your body dirty again–presumably you rinse your body thoroughly before getting out of the shower? :wink:

As for my routine, I’ve put a surprising amount of thought into this. See, my hair is really, really long. I mean, absurdly and unnecessarily long. It’s not that this makes things excessively complicated in the shower department, except I only wash it a couple times a week, so I tend to coordinate the hair wash with the other things I do a couple times a week, like shave my legs.
So, here’s my routine: get wet, first (normal) shampoo, let it sit while I shave one leg, rinse shampoo, second (dandruff) shampoo, let sit/shave other leg, rinse shampoo, conditioner, let sit/scrub body and shave various other bits and pieces, rinse everything and done. It doesn’t really matter which order the shaving and washing fit in with the shampoos; occasionally I’ll do it the other way around if I want to exfoliate first, but I like the all-over soap-up from head to toe feeling and complete rinse at the end.

12

I shampoo, condition, then wash my body. If I wash my body first, i feel like the conditioner leaves a residue on my body.

13

I don’t care about what you or anyone else does in the shower, but I’m curious why you spell it: ‘shampoo’ing’. What’s with the apostrophes?

14

I work top to bottom, but leave the conditioner in for a minute or so while I wash my face.

Shampoo and rinse
conditioner
wash and rinse my face
rinse out conditioner
lather body
shave whatever needs shaving that day
rinse off soap
step out of shower
apply body cream and facial moisturiser

Once or twice a week I’ll add in a body scrub or face scrub, but that’s about it.

15

Face, hair, body.

16

Shampoo, let shampoo sit while wash I face, rinse face and hair, conditioner, let conditioner sit while wash I body, rinse everything from the top down.

17

For some reason, I shampoo, then wash everything else (after shaving if necessary) and then condition.

18

I shampoo, rinse, put in conditioner, soap, then rinse everything. I need to conditioner to help untangle my hair, and by washing with it still in it has time to sit and take affect.

19

Shampoo, Shave, Rinse, Wash Bod, Rinse

Wow NajaNivea I didn’t expect to get a twinge while reading this thread, but you did it. Feel free, in the name of fighting ignorance, to repeat your post with greater detail and more adjectives.

20

Shampoo, rinse hair, conditioner, body wash, shave, rinse everything, facial wash, rinse.

I wash my face last because after I rinse off the conditioner my face tends to feel slippery with traces of it.