Evil Shampoo

I am clearly the last person to learn that shampoo is bad for your hair.  So counter-intuitive, right?  This wonderful product that I've been using DAILY for-ever is responsible for my oily scalp, hair loss, and costly styling products.  But, you KNEW that already because it seems that I am very late to this party.  Well, it's probably because what I "look like" for the past 10 years has been focused on not leaving the house with smears of something undesirable on my shirt or something green between my teeth.  High standards, high standards.

What happened in the meantime has been tragic.  First off, my hair went grey!  Like - ah crap I actually have to start coloring it for begin looking 10 years older than I actually am - grey.  Or, it may be that the grey hair is just more tenacious and the brown hair fell out.  This is entirely plausible since I've experienced a total volume reduction of 90%.  Thank God it's still curly because no one can really tell this - but trust me - it's true.

The last three hair stylists I've had (there has been great turnover at the salon - or it may be that I only go twice a year) have told me about the evils of shampooing every day.  I consistently blew this off (much like I do when the doctor suggests losing some weight - seriously - what to THEY know?).  I did, on their advice, switch to a shampoo with less of something in it.  But now I don't remember what.

But then one day I had to run in to work with yesterday's hair in a ponytail (I also believe there is an age when it's less appropriate to wear a ponytail in public and I am quickly approaching that age) and my friend said something about dry shampoo.  Wait, what?  Then the following day there was an article on yahoo about Jennifer Aniston's hair routine or some such thing, and this every other day shampoo issue came up again.  So I started polling women I know and - overwhelmingly! - they all say they shower daily but suds up much less frequently.  ???  This can - apparently - help me retain my ever-diminishing hair, lower frizz, and cut down on the amount of shampoo I have to buy!

So, I've been tentatively trying this and I'm not sure I'm sold on it yet.  Perhaps it's because I can't really brush my hair - so on a non-shampoo day I have about 3 inches of oily greasy gross-out hair plastered down to my scalp, followed by the remaining inches of crazy frizz spazz hair. I've been assured that once I adopt this routine for a while, my scalp will quit producing so much oil to overcompensate for the fact that I have been stripping it away every morning with evil shampoo.  I am still unconvinced.