It starts with shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, includes mouthwash, cleanser and a moisturiser, and ends with an array of age-reversing serums, make-up, hair gel, deodorant, toothpaste and perfume.
Exfoliating scrubs, nail varnishes and cellulite-busting creams are often thrown into the mix, too. It is a ritual that not only sets Nicky up for the day but one she has always believed was essential to keeping her looking good and feeling well.
But over the past six weeks, Nicky, 42, has cut this daily routine, and all the products associated with it, out of her life altogether. Yes, for 40 days and 40 nights, there has been no showering, no hair washing, no teeth cleaning and no deodorant.
She has ditched her make-up and hair styling products, and allowed herself access to just three outfits (her running kit, a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and one summer dress).
So what has been behind this bizarre behaviour? A bout of madness? A desire to lose all her friends? Nicky, a mother-of-three who lives in Kidderminster and works as a television documentary maker, claims it's the first scientific experiment of its kind, designed to find out how she will look and feel without the aid of the avalanche of expensive modern beauty products.
She was, in effect, seeking to find out whether we are all simply wasting our money in the name of vanity. Are all the lotions and potions that women — and millions of men — use religiously every morning merely a form of social and psychological armour, or do they have a practical physical use?
"I'd reached a point where I was looking in my bathroom cabinet and feeling disgusted with myself," says Nicky.
"As a nation, we spend £10.5 billion on grooming and I personally spend around £2,000 each year on beauty products. I'm a sucker for any advert that claims a new cream or body wash will make me look younger or banish lines and wrinkles, and I think nothing of handing over £50 for the latest must-have product.
"Every night I was slathering on layer after layer of so-called miracle creams from a range of bottles and pots, and I had so much in my bathroom cabinet that something fell out and hit me on the head whenever I opened the door. I was guilty of beauty product gluttony.
"Then, one evening earlier this year, I sat down and read the labels of everything I used and worked out I was applying more than 200 different chemicals to my body each day. These are said to be safe, but what is not known is the effect that the 'cocktail' of chemicals is having on our bodies."
She adds: "With the incidence of diseases such as Breast Cancer on the rise, it's difficult not to wonder if these products could partly be to blame. Health campaigners are particularly worried about a group of chemicals called parabens, which are added to cosmetics to prevent them from degrading."
Nicky's approach was extreme, to say the least: surely having a good old clear-out would have sufficed? But no. She says that once the seed of the idea was sown, she thought she might as well push herself to the limit.
"I always think I look absolutely terrible if I haven't washed my hair that morning, when the reality is that other people don't really notice at all," she says. "The idea that we need all these products and that we have to be clean at all times is endemic in society, and I wanted to see what happened when I stopped washing altogether. Would I lose all my friends? Would I stink to high heaven? Or would life just carry on as normal?"
Before starting her experiment, Nicky called in scientists from the Skin Research Centre at the University of Leeds.
They took swabs from her armpits, mouth and groin to test levels of bacteria and yeasts, the results of which would be compared with identical swabs taken at the end of the six weeks.
To protect her children through the experiment, Nicky committed to wearing latex surgical gloves when preparing their food. She then emptied her bathroom of products — which filled two black bin liners — and the experiment began.
"Usually, I start my morning with a run, then a shower and breakfast," says Nicky, who is divorced. "But once I started the experiment, the half hour I'd usually spend in the bathroom became a lie-in, which initially I thought was great.
"Then I went for my run as usual and started battling with urges to shower as soon as I got back home. It just didn't feel right to get dressed after exercising without washing."
However, it wasn't until the fourth day of not washing that Nicky began to notice a certain odour emanating from her person.
"My hair quickly became pretty unpleasant," says Nicky. "Normally, I'd wash my hair every day, use a thickening conditioner, then I'd style it with mousse and hairspray.
"Within a few days it turned into a bird's nest and instead of allowing it to fall flatteringly around my face, I'd taken to pulling it all back into a ponytail.
"I'd heard that hair begins to clean itself after a few weeks, using oils which are naturally secreted by the body, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to wait that long. I was only four days in and I felt so unpleasant all over that I wanted to quit."
By the second week, Nicky's experiment and the subsequent haze of body odour accompanying her was beginning to affect her children, who refused to cuddle her. Nicky also had her first social engagement of the experiment — a work event at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
"Until that point, I'd been working from my house in Kidderminster, so I hadn't really had to see many people," she says. "Now, I had to show my face at an occasion where everyone else would be dolled up to the nines.
"I spent about 30 seconds pulling on my summer dress and slicking back my hair — which is the fastest I've ever got ready for a party. But I felt incredibly nervous as I got on the train.
I psyched myself up to expect people to move to the other end of the carriage, but that didn't happen. No one seemed to blink an eye.
"The same thing happened at the party. I thought everyone would turn and point and stare, but they didn't. I'm sure people thought I looked scruffy and wondered why I didn't have so much as a scrap of make-up on my face, but no one said anything or talked to me with any less respect.
"I was worried everyone would be edging away from me but that didn't happen. It made me wonder whether my children were over-reacting."
By week three, however, Nicky was beginning to see the signs of being socially ostracised, particularly by other mothers at the school gate.
"Things really were getting to a stage that I thought was utterly grim," says Nicky. "My hair was stuck together with grease. My toenails were turning a strange colour and I'd developed dry, peeling skin on my hands.
"But again, other people didn't seem to notice, not unless I told them. I wondered if I thought I looked far worse than I actually did, and it made me consider just how obsessed we all are about the way we look and how much we agonise over little things when most of the time other people simply don't notice.
"It was only when I made the mistake of telling the other mothers at my children's school, who hadn't seemed to mind my scruffy appearance at all until then, that things changed. When they realised I hadn't washed for three weeks, they turned up their noses and acted as though I was the most disgusting thing on the planet, even pulling their children away from me.
"It's as though we have been so brainwashed by advertisers to think that we must use these products every day that the thought of using none at all was too much for them to bear. After all, until that point they'd been merrily standing next to me every day as though there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Once all the other mums knew, I felt very embarrassed and took to walking away from the school gate instead of stopping to chat. They all looked so glamorous and I felt like a scruff in their midst.
"I also developed bath envy — whenever I heard one of the children turn the shower on, I was filled with jealousy."
But by the end of the fourth week, something extraordinary happened. Nicky noticed that not only was she physically feeling better than she had done in a long time, her skin had begun to glow.
For years, she has experienced Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which bizarrely seemed to improve the longer she went without washing. Although there is no medical explanation for this, Nicky is convinced it is to do with a sudden break from the chemicals seeping into her body.
At the same time, a persistent cyst on her eye disappeared — Nicky believes because she stopped irritating it with mascara and eyeliner on a daily basis.
"I went to see Dr Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene to seek her opinion," says Nicky. "She told me that while I would eventually lose my teeth if I carried on not cleaning them indefinitely, not wearing make-up could well have helped my cyst.
"She said there was no known link between the use of beauty products and the prevalence of conditions such as IBS. But it is such a modern-day complaint and I believe it's possible that it is somehow linked to the chemicals in all the products we use.
"Aside from that, the most extraordinary thing was that without a doubt — and despite not having washed my face for a month — my skin looked fresher and brighter than it had for a decade.
"I also felt really healthy and good about myself, at least until I came into contact with other people, at which point I felt self-conscious and embarrassed."
However, as the experiment drew to a close, all Nicky could think about was rediscovering her old self.
"I was sick of wearing the same few items of clothing for six weeks. My hair was so greasy that it stayed in its ponytail position even when the hair band wasn't there. And my teeth were horribly discoloured and covered in a build-up of plaque.
"By the end, I'd virtually become a hermit because I couldn't face letting anyone see me like that. The stigma of being unwashed was just too strong for me to ignore, and overrode any sense I had of feeling healthy or looking fresh-faced.
"I cancelled going to a friend's wedding because I couldn't endure seeing anyone in the state I was in. It would have felt like a mark of disrespect to go to a wedding without making an effort."
But before stepping under the shower, Nicky had a second set of tests done by the team of scientists from the University of Leeds.
The results showed that although there were up to 5,000 times more bacteria in each of the areas tested, levels were surprisingly still within what are deemed to be 'normal' parameters for a human being.
More importantly, there were no signs of any sinister bacteria such as E.coli or streptococcus, meaning Nicky's health was not being put at risk by not washing.
The most serious outcome from her experience came when Nicky went to the dentist to have her teeth cleaned and was told she needed a filling. It was the first she'd ever had and came as a direct result of not brushing her teeth for six weeks.
Now enjoying long, luxurious showers every day, Nicky is reflecting on what she learned from her experience.
"I'd never want to do anything like that again because not washing affects your friendships, family relationships and self-confidence," she says. "Thank goodness I work from home, otherwise it would most likely have had a detrimental effect on my career.
"But the experiment worked in that I proved to myself there is no need for all these beauty products on which I've been frittering away so much money. My desire for them was all in my mind, not an actual physical need.
"It showed me that for years I've been using excessive amounts, and, at the same time, potentially putting my health at risk because of all the chemicals they contain.
"I was amazed to find that the point when my skin looked its best was after a month of not using anything at all. As a result, I've become far more moderate in what products I use and what I am prepared to spend money on.
"A bar of soap, organic shampoo and conditioner, and a basic moisturiser are all I need now. I no longer wash my hair every day and I no longer feel self-conscious if I'm not done up to the nines.
"If people didn't notice when they had me standing next to them during the experiment, I'm sure they won't be aware of small things that would once have got me down, such as a bad hair day or a minor skin outbreak.
"While I wouldn't suggest anyone else takes things to the extreme that I did, they can rest assured that when it comes to their beauty routines, less is more."
what a cool article! thanks for posting that. Sounds like she got really comfortable with herself(except when around others, that is). Sounds like it did loads for her self-esteem:)
I think make up is sexist, it demeans women to have to look 'like that'.
I did hear the idea that 'not-pretty' women get a more level playing field because of make up, and it is too bad looks help in this superficial world, but its still not worth it.
Make-up can be used as an excuse too:
To wear make up while overweight, in hopes of being attractive, is kinda sick - the time spent in front of a mirror could be used to walk the block 5 times and be truly attractive [to themselves].
I hope women can get off this ride and decide that life is amazing and all of us are too, with so much to offer how can we be fixated on what we look like? Stop comparing, stop competing, and just look at your wonderous self!!
That is what I believe happened to Tammy Faye Messner
6/3/2007
Tammy Faye is very ill and has been in the media a great deal lately due to her cancer battle. She is a true gift to mankind, so join me in prayer and wish her the best. A Tribute to Tammy Faye Messner: We love you, Tammy:
Makeup lesson: Video Clip from the movie "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
Yes, she did look horrible, very sad. This is my tribute to her. That previous post has a video about halfway down that has her giving make up lessons.
♥Tammy Faye♥ In Loving Memory, A Legacy Remembered
I like taking my showers. There are very nice organic soaps like Dr.Bronners,etc. Skinbrushing, etc. I don't really blowdry my hair but I do have to use detangler and conditioner and blowdry once every two months or so. If I don't brush my hair or clean it, it'll get tangled, kinky and matted like my poodle when he doesn't see a groomer. Who doesn't brush their teeth for six weeks anyway? There's Bronner soap and other good organic toothpastes,etc. I guess she needed to do this to figure it out.
BTW, I said I'd never use Oil of Olay and Ponds Cream but guess what? I use it because it's cheaper than the latest organic face cream and my fine face lines are going away. Some commercial face creams aren't so bad after all. I'll never use Avon though. The odor is too overpowering.
Dibutyl phthalate is a common ingredient found in many over the counter hair sprays, cosmetics and personal care products. This in depth health report by the EWG looks at the considerable risks ... Sorry, we had to truncate this message! ... Click here to read it
I bought expensive organic, all natural face products and they didn't work. My acne has all but disappeared with the Oil of Olay and Ponds Cream. I'm not saying I'll use it forever but I'm conducting my own experiment as to what is best for MY face. Everyone is different. When I lived in New York, I met a lot of unattractive, old looking health nuts. I want to be healthy AND beautiful. Right now, I use commercial stuff on my face but everything else is Dr.Bronner soap and rose soap and dry skin brush with almond oil.
There are natural products out there that work. Murad makes a whole (expensive) line of them. I use their Night Reform Treatment, and it is marvelous. Backed my skin up 10 years.
E Derma makes a very low cost cream with Ester C, Lipoic acid,
DMAE (or something like that) that can do wonders..and no chemicals. $23 a jar, and it lasts for months, as a little goes a long way. Those are the ingrediants you want to look for...
I'll check out the personal care aisle at Whole Foods when I go to New York. If I could find a substitute for Oil of Olay cleansing cloths and pond's cream that'll be great. Hopefully, the organic stuff I find this time will work as well as the conventional stuff.
FWIW, I make my own sugar scrubs using castor oil, almond oil, sugar and salt.
You have to get Murad on the internet, I think. Some salons sell it. E Derma sells in HF stores, but can be hard to find. I get it from the Vitamn Shoppe on the internet.
i have heard good things about this company. it is an MLM, though. i don't know about it other than i have heard they use healthy products and i knew a gal who worked for them. http://neways.com/Product/Personal.aspx
i know what you mean about the old looking health nuts, because that is one thing that discouraged my mom's friend from eating healthy, she saw what it did to her relatives, they got illnesses and died young. i believe that health nits often do not really know what is healthy sometimes. for instance, health nuts who eat lots of grains think they are eating right and most grains (not rice) are bad for you. dr mercola even wrote the book, the no grain diet. i don't agree with everything in it because it was based on the glycemic index and not the glycemic load (he gets very restrictive on fruits and vegetables), but still it has a good message. and many health nuts are vegetarians and mercola and some others say that will make you ill. so, i think you have to really look at the individual and what they are eating and using to see if they are in fact doing things truly healthy.
I love Dr. Bronner's peppermint castile soap on a soap brush in the shower.
For baths, I love soaking in Sea Salt with herbs, or baking soda and Epsom Salts ! And then for a sauna, I drape a towel over my head and steam my face over a bowl of Swiss Kriss Senna herb while im soaking in the tub. What an awesome home Spa experience! and your body soaks up all those minerals from the salts!
I wash my hair with Aubrey shampoos and conditioners. There are so many versions of shampoos that Aubrey makes, that any one of any hair type can find one to suit them.
For skin moisturizer I use just grapeseed oil on my face-- and the fine lines are really barely noticable now. the grapeseed oil must boost the collagan. I also use a face brush on my face in the morning as well with a Burt's Bees facial cleanser- so that helps! A woman where I work told me my face glows, and wanted to know what I was doing different :-)
I loved reading that article. Boy did it make me cringe. It was an interesting experiment.
But I also like what Ren was saying. There is no reason to go to those extremes. We can do what she did, only use our products that keep us somewhat hygenic. I guess we could go back to being animals, but why would you want to do that?
There are many things you can do with the same effect. Like Ren said, there are certain organic and edible soaps. There is certainly OP (wish the woman knew about that, since it's just food), or baking soda to brush your teeth. There is oil to use on your face, or herbs or veggies and fruits. There is coconut oil to put in your pits and herbs to wash your hair with like the ayurvedic variety that so many women in India use (soapless shampoo).
We can have the same effect, but we can also not have to be on the fringe of society.
I think this is a real eye opener in terms of buying all those supposed beauty products, but it should be a warning as well for cleaning products, detergents, chemicals in foods, etc. Even if she had stopped using products on her skin, there is still our environment. So the key is to keep cleansing like we all do here on CZ, keep chleating all the crap out of our systems that soak in there from many sources.
Great article, but here at CZ we know so much it's an unnecessary experiment.
you say they would rather die than remove make up, and i know what you are saying, but i think it is more a mentality of, if it is being sold at stores, it must not be bad. i think we get through to a few people by putting the word out there, but i think to really change things, we would have to put our energies in targeting companies that produce the toxic products. as long as they keep putting the products out there, many are going to buy them and many are going to die because of it.
1. Methyl, Propyl, Butyl and Ethyl Paraben — Used as inhibitors of microbial growth and to extend shelf life of products. Have caused many allergic reactions and skin rashes. Studies have shown that they are weakly estrogenic and can be absorbed by the body through the skin. Widely used even though they are known to be toxic.
2. Diethanolamine (DEA), Triethanolamine (TEA) — Often used in cosmetics as emulsifiers and/or foaming agents. They can cause allergic reactions, eye irritation and dryness of hair and skin. DEA and TEA are "amines" (ammonia compounds) and can form cancer-causing nitrosamines when they come in contact with nitrates. Toxic if absorbed into the body over a long period of time.
3. Diazolidinyl Urea, Imidazolidinyl Urea — These are widely used preservatives. The American Academy of Dermatology has found them to be a primary cause of contact dermatitis. Two trade names for these chemicals are Germall II and Germall 115. Neither of the Germall chemicals contains a good antifungal agent, and they must be combined with other preservatives. Both these chemicals release formaldehyde, which can be toxic.
4. Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate — A cheap, harsh detergent used in shampoos for its cleansing and foam-building properties. Often derived from petroleum, it is frequently disguised in pseudo-natural cosmetics with the phrase "comes from coconuts." It causes eye irritation, scalp scurf similar to dandruff, skin rashes and other allergic reactions.
5. Petrolatum — Also known as petroleum jelly, this mineral oil derivative is used for its emollient properties in cosmetics. It has no nutrient value for the skin and can interfere with the body's own natural moisturizing mechanism, leading to dryness and chapping. It often creates the very conditions it claims to alleviate. Manufacturers use petrolatum because it is unbelievably cheap.
6. Propylene Glycol — Ideally this is a vegetable glycerin mixed with grain alcohol, both of which are natural. Usually it is a synthetic petrochemical mix used as a humectant. It has been known to cause allergic reactions, hives and eczema. When you see PEG (polyethylene glycol) or PPG (polypropylene glycol) on labels, beware—these are related synthetics.
7. PVP/VA Copolymer — A petroleum-derived chemical used in hairsprays, styling aids and other cosmetics. It can be considered toxic, since inhaled particles can damage the lungs of sensitive persons.
8. Stearalkonium Chloride — A quaternary ammonium compound used in hair conditioners and creams. Developed by the fabric industry as a fabric softener, it is a lot cheaper and easier to use in hair conditioning formulas than proteins or herbals, which are beneficial to the hair. Causes allergic reactions. Toxic.
9. Synthetic Colors — Used to make cosmetics "pretty," synthetic colors, along with synthetic hair dyes, should be avoided at all costs. They will be labeled as FD&C or D&C, followed by a color and a number. Example: FD&C Red No. 6 / D&C Green No. 6. Many synthetic colors can be carcinogenic. If a cosmetic contains them, don't use it.
10. Synthetic Fragrances — The synthetic fragrances used in cosmetics can have as many as 200 ingredients. There is no way to know what the chemicals are, since on the label it will simply read "fragrance." Some problems caused by these chemicals include headaches, dizziness, rash, hyperpigmentation, violent coughing, vomiting, skin irritation—the list goes on. Advice: Don't buy a cosmetic that has the word "fragrance" on the ingredients label.
I wouldn't go to the level this woman had though-- I found the same good skin and health results she experienced by just washing my hair once a week with all natural version shampoos and conditioners and brushing with non-flouride herbal or Waleda salt toothpaste and tooth flossing.
I scrape my tongue before brushing my teeth and swish grapeseed oil in my mouth every morning, and after washing (with totally natural non-solvent soap) I use grapeseed oil as a skin moisturizer.
My skin has never looked healthier and my teeth have never looked whiter.
My hair has always been on the dry side, so washing it only once a week is not a big deal, and actually my hair is very healthy and bouncy looking. In hot humid weather, I wash it twice a week. If I washed it every day it would look like straw.
The trick is to only use totally natural, bio-degradable shampoos. Nothing over the counter from the typical chain store.
Even my deoderant and perfumes are total herbal or natural essential oils ,where at one time they were the typical petroleum based stuff in all the commercials.
\
Point is that it isn't necessary to go to the extreem this woman did by not washing. Just substitute the cleaning supplies and cosmetics, perfumes, deoderants with totally all natural organic and avoid anything man-made and chemical, and you will get the same health results , minus the teeth cavities and bad breath and body odor and greasy hair.
it's referal marketing--
so, i look at it this way,
teaching others how to use the right thing,
helps them to clean up, and, get results
these types of results
help people to
have something viable to talk about...
and, running viable home based businesses,
on the internet from home can be a gr8 business
it's free to join -- and,
you get a full ecommerce website
for free too
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Woman Goes 6 Weeks Without Beauty Products & Health Improves 
Re: Woman Goes 6 Weeks Without Beauty Products & Health Improves by Aharleygyrl
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