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curlyninjagirl There are natural shampoos that don't have weird preservatives if that is your concern.
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silenttullip, I scrunched up my nose when I read the post because I have smelled dirty hair after it's been rained on. It's an awful, musky sweaty smell. I think hair can be OK if not washed for a while but get it wet and then not use something that cleans it and it'll have this weird smell. (LOL why am I still making a face?
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I do not use products so you could say sebum is my only moisturizer. But I MUST use shampoo, and I use it twice a week. I don't wait for my hair to smell; I just do it because that's also when I get my moisture. But I love the properties I get from conditioning so I do that too. Baggying nightly ensures that my hair gets bathed in plenty of sebum, and the conditioning moisture seems to be recycled. Sebum doesn't have a smell but bacteria can break it down and produce a smell so I doubt you can go long w/o washing your hair with something other than just water. Also sebum contains dead fat-producing cells so I don't know if I could believe that water alone can remove that mixture of wax, oil and dead cells. (Ever tried to clean dirty armpits with just water?)
I actually think oil cleansing as my friend who washed her hair once (or twice) a year did is better than just using plain water. Oil cleans oil so I feel more certain that it'd removed old, dirty sebum better than plain water would.
I do think a dirty scalp will cause you more problems than shampoo will.