Going no-poo (stopping using shampoo) has been advocated on this board often. Many people report that once they weaned their hair off shampoo and hair care products, and used just water to wash their hair, their hair looked better then before. In fact, I have gone no-poo my baby son, where I wash his hair rarely and always with water, no shampoo. His hair feels nice and he often gets compliments on it. Going no-poo makes sense when you think about the siny fur of animals, who dont use hair products, and the lovely hair of kids in third world countries who have access to water but not to shampoo.
I have been wondering if the same thing could apply to stop using facial cream. My husband, like most men, doesn’t use cosmetics for his face and his skin doesn’t look worse then mine. In fact, I ran out of facial cream and got bored with it, so I didn’t use cream for over a month. I noticed not much difference. Then I bought another brand of facial cream and that caused a mild allergic reaction. So I type this with red, flaking, irritated cheeks and that made me wonder iwhat would happen if I just stopped using facial skin all together.
My skin is normal and in the summer months I generally only use sunscreen during the day and nothing during the evening. In the winter it gets very arid around here so I use a moisturizer just for comfort.
If you have very dry skin, or very oily skin using a product can help balance things out, but if your skin is normal the only thing required is sun screen.
Guy here who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of female facial rituals, so correct me if I’m wrong.
But, my impression is that a “facial cream” would basically be a moisturizer? So removing them from your routine would be more akin to not conditioning your hair, as opposed to not shampooing it? In that case, I suppose your face might be slightly drier than normal for a while, but I’d be surprised if there was an actual noticeable difference in how beautiful your skin is. I suspect that the various cremes, masks, and potions that are marketed for women to improve their hideously cracked, splotchy, wrinkly faces don’t actually do nearly as much as the advertisements would like you to believe.
I have not put lotion on my face (or lip balm on my lips) for years. I am often mistaken for a younger woman, too, so my skin is in good shape. On the other hand, my husband tried to go cold turkey on lip balm, and it didn’t work for him at all.
My boss is in her 50’s. Her facial skin is very nice looking but her neck is all wrinkled. I think…and I could be very wrong…that she used moisturizers like she does her makeup. Nothing below the chin.
There is a very noticable difference. She inspires me to be sure that I remember the back of my neck.
No, you’re right – the facial equivalent of “no-poo” would be “no cleanser”, not “no moisturizer”. However, not everyone needs a moisturizer (although I would assert that everyone needs either sunscreen or a big hat/parasol, so that they’re not exposed to the sun, which will cause skin damage). You don’t need a moisturizer to get your sunscreen – some brands like Neutrogena make a sunscreen-only liquid, some make up primers and liquid foundations come with sunscreen, there are mineral powder sunscreens, etc.
If you don’t wear makeup and don’t have dirt on your face and your skin does all right with just a water-only wash, go for it.
Lipbalm has often been mentioned as an addictive substance on the web, so that doesn’t surprise me.
From the Wiki on Lip balm:
Still, I do wear make-up, so I clean my face every night with a creamy cleanser. I wipe away the rest of the cleanser, but I don’t clean it off with something soapish. Otherwise, I wash my face in the morning under the shower with water only. I guess I will return to that routine and see how it goes.
Sunscreen is hardly necessary here in the grey and cloudy Netherlands. The vampires from Twilight would do very well here.
Men naturally have thicker facial skin (partially to helps support the beard, IIRC) and women have thinner skin, which makes it more prone to things like getting dried out and wrinkled.
As another data point, I didn’t use any kind of facial moisturizing product until I was in my late 20s. Once I did, it made such a huge difference in the quality of my skin that I never went back. I tried Burt’s Bees stuff for a while, but for the last few years I just use a few drops of almond oil. Works great, and my skin is much better / more supple than without.
I’ve tried a few kinds of facial cleansers, but always end up going back to just warm water. I rarely use cleansers/soap/body wash in the shower, for any of my skin. Occasionally (maybe once a month, if that) I use an exfoliating scrub on my face, but no soap. Oil is itself a really great cleanser, so if I’ve worn makeup (which is also rare, maybe a few times a year), I use the almond oil on a cotton ball to clean it off. Works a treat, and moisturizes too.
He uses Vaseline lip balm, not Carmex - no weird addictive chemicals. His lips just got unbearably dry, and didn’t get better for a couple of weeks. He went back to it when they were cracked and starting to bleed.
All of which is not really relevant to the OP, except to say that different skin can react differently. I use lip balm a couple of times a year, and hand lotion at about the same frequency. I can’t remember the last time I put something on my face, and I don’t wash it with anything but water. I don’t wear makeup, though.
So what is it you think is bad about not shampooing?
I’m not motivated to mess my hair up with detergent once a month, it’s going fine with Wen. (Which is billed as “cleansing conditioner”, total bullshit. It’s just extremely thick, rich conditioner. Which is great. And between that & water, I’m very happy with my hair. It had become incredibly dry and funky with age.)
I would be more inclined to think that she had a mini-lift done on her face resulting in the smooth skin - I pretty well never moisturize my neck or use treatment products on it and the skin on it looks just about identical to my facial skin - less sun damage, actually, because of course it is shaded by my chin/face/etc.
That’s one of the biggest complaints about face lifts and mini-lifts - they can do a beautiful, very natural looking job on the face and just about nothing on the neck.
