It was also about this time last year, that I started my year-long experiment to see how manky my hair would get if I stopped using shampoo and washed it solely in water.

In truth, I had never intended it to last a whole year: but just long enough to prove the point one way or the other.

As it was, it took several months for the action to take effect and then, for some reason, I decided to drag it out to a year.

So, what were the results of this Nobel Award nominated experiment?

Nothing much really! Certainly, at first, the hair did develop a level of mankiness and felt kinda - if I may lapse into scientific terminology - yuk. But after a month, it started to get better and after about three months it was back to normal. There was no greasiness. There was no smell. There was no small swarm of flies buzzing round my head as I walked along - well, no more than usual, anyway. And I didn’t develop dandruff.
The hair’s natural oils had returned and my hair had become “self-cleaning”. If anything, it actually felt thicker and fuller than usual (jeez, I sound like Nicky Clarke, now!).

So why - a couple of weeks ago - did I start using shampoo again? I don’t know really. My year-long experiment over, it just seemed right to go back to using it. The bottle of Head & Shoulders that lay languishing in the bathroom cabinet for the last 52 weeks, started it’s siren song, calling my name… and after years of conditioning (pun intended) by TV advertising, it just felt right that I splash a big dollop of it on my barnet.

And it felt soooo good.