screw the shampoo: conclusion

Well, I planned to go 6 weeks without washing the hair - in fact, I only went 5.5 weeks. That is because I let it grow longer than I normally do, and all of the sudden I really needed to get it cut. It seemed kind of limp the morning of my haircut, so I shampooed it (with Pantene) to make sure I got a good cut, and the day after as well (always irrationally worried it's not "clean" after being clipped by the same shears 1,000 other heads are being clipped by). That was about a week and a half ago. Since then, no shampoo.

I think for the indefinite future, I'll shampoo at each haircut time, once before and once after. I do believe that overall my hair is in much better condition than when I was shampooing/conditioning three times per week, and I'm saving a lot of time in the shower. Plus, it looks consistently good - no more of that puffy, less puffy, flat cycle that I had before. I do have a bit of flaking, but it's very minor. Barring any drastic changes, that's all I'll be posting about this topic. If you have any doubts about the necessity of regular shampooing, I encourage you to give shampoo abstinence a try. I'm glad I did.