# Parents, possible to forego shampooing baby's hair entirely ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 14, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335 "2009-01-14T22:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/1 "2009-01-14T22:04:27Z")
Recently, there have been a couple of threads of Dopers describing how they “weaned” their hair of shampoo, to wash it only with water. After a few weeks of limp and greasy hair, the hair follicles adjusted to the lack of soapy abuse they had withstood for years, and lowered their level of producing grease to normal levels. These people said their shampoo-free hair got them compliments from strangers and hairdressers alike. I also know that it is quite a challenge to wash a baby’s hair without getting shampoo in their eyes. Even with babyshampoo, which uses a different detergent then the old sodium laureth sulfate, getting shampoo in their eyes is no fun. So I wondered, what if I skipped shampooing my baby’s hair alltogether? What if from now on (he’s eight months old) I only washed my baby’s hair with water? I also don’t use bath oils, bath salts, or bath foam in his bath, so nothing but warm water would touch his scalp. (I would still use a limited amount of soap for real dirty baby skin, foodspills /diaper area). Any parents have experience with this? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/2 "2009-01-14T22:26:23Z")
I’ve never shampooed my son’s hair - he’s 15 months now. Occasionally I would give it a rubdown with a soapy facecloth. This does mean that some of his cradlecap is still hanging about, but I’m fine with that (it helps protect his little fuzzy head from the sun). We do wash the bigger kids hair with shampoo about once a week though. And it does look appreciably better after doing so. I’m not sure I would want to do it less than that for Big Kids Who Play In Mud - and I’m by no means a shampoo addict myself (I tend to use shampoo about once a month) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/3 "2009-01-15T01:20:53Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > This does mean that some of his cradlecap is still hanging about, but I’m fine with that (it helps protect his little fuzzy head from the sun). Vegetable oil (especially Wesson oil) helps with cradle cap. My doctor recommended it 40+ years ago, for my first baby. It worked great. Doc was old school – had 12 kids of his own. I wish I could remember some of his other remedies. Oh – one was a tablespoon of Karo syrup in the formula if baby gets constipated. I used just a soapy washcloth too, until the kids’ hair started to grow and get thicker. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/4 "2009-01-15T01:35:48Z")
I wish I could forgo shampoo but my chronic dandruff makes that impossible. As far as the baby goes, is the only reason you want to do this is because you don’t like getting soap in the baby’s eyes? There’s things you can buy to help prevent that. ---
**Author:** ![goransmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@goransmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goransmom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/5 "2009-01-15T02:50:05Z")
I wash my two boys’ hair about once a week with shampoo, sometimes less often. Been doing that since they were born. Seems to work alright for us. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/6 "2009-01-15T06:38:42Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > I wish I could forgo shampoo but my chronic dandruff makes that impossible. > > As far as the baby goes, is the only reason you want to do this is because you don’t like getting soap in the baby’s eyes? There’s things you can buy to help prevent that. I know, like those rings around his head. But the main reason is that it seems that I have to buy a secondary unnecessary product, (ring) only because I started using another unnecessary product (shampoo) in the first place. Seems like an commercial ploy to me. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/7 "2009-01-15T06:42:35Z")
> [@goransmom](#): > > I wash my two boys’ hair about once a week with shampoo, sometimes less often. Been doing that since they were born. Seems to work alright for us. I’m doing that now. But I was wondering if it was possible to cut back further. Not on washing with warm water; just on using shampoo. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-possible-to-forego-shampooing-babys-hair-entirely/481335/8 "2009-01-15T07:43:57Z")
We never used shampoo with babies, and very rarely with them when they were older. They definitely both need it now though and neither of them want to play around with baking soda or vinegar.