No 'Poo, For Your Face

This post is not about removing poop from your face but I will state for the record that I am 100% in favor of not having poop on my face or anyone else's face.

No, this post is about a skin care regimen (if you can call it that) that I discovered and thought I would share with you all.

I'm sure by now you've all heard of the No Poo movement. If not it means 'no shampoo' and it advocates removing shampoo and conditioner from you beauty routine and replacing it with natural, less abrasive cleaners. If your hair type is right, you can eventually just rinse it with water and forgo cleansers all together. It doesn't mean you stop washing your hair and it doesn't (necessarily) mean you're a dirty hippy. It just means you want to stop spending so much darn money on hair products. I won't talk anymore about it because I'm no expert, but if you want to learn more about it there's gobs of info out there on the internet.

Anyway, one thing I took from all the No 'Poo research I've done is that shampoo removes the oil from your hair and scalp, but it removes too much so you have to add conditioner to compensate. It occurred to me that I've probably been doing the exact same thing to my face. And guess what - I was right.

Back story: my face is notoriously oily. I had terrible acne in my teen years, make-up slides off my face, and I use those oil blotting sheets like crazy. I tended to favor facial cleansers geared toward oily/acne prone skin (i.e. high acid content) and then follow it up with a light, non-greasy moisturizer. Even with all that I would end up with an oily nose and chin AND a dry forehead and cheeks. Not a good look.

Around the time I was pregnant (and therefore paranoid about all the chemicals everywhere) I decided to test my theory and see what happened if I stopped using products on my face. Results: my skin feels balanced without oily and dry patches, the color and tone of my skin has improved, I don't get breakouts anymore, and I save so much money. Bonus: my skin tone improved so much I stopped wearing foundation all together, saving me even more money and keeping even more junk out of my pores. Confession: I've never been much of a cosmetics girl, so that wasn't that big of a sacrifice. I will occasionally put on foundation if I know I'll be photographed or I'm going somewhere important but that happens maybe 4 times a year. I lead a glamorous life.

Don't think I don't wash my face though. Here's my shower routine:
- Splash my face with water.
- Shower, shave, suds as usual.
- Scrub my face with a wet washcloth (no soap, just hot water) scrubbing hard enough to remove dead skin, oils, sunscreen, etc. I like to wait until the end of my shower to allow the steam to open my pores and soften my skin.

That's it.

I keep my trusty lightweight moisturizer around in case of dry patches but I only need it in the winter, and even then I use it sparingly. Confession #2: I don't really care about warding off wrinkles and other signs of aging so I'm not using any other products like eye cream or toner. My beauty routine begins and ends with lip balm and mascara. Tinted lip balm if I'm feeling fancy. Like I said, glamorous life.

My skin looks the best it's ever looked since I hit puberty. And did I mention I started this when I was pregnant? That means I've been doing this for over two years - no mere experiment - and I'm never going back. If it works with oily skin I'm confidant it will work for those of you with normal skin. I have no idea about dry skin because that's a different animal.

If any of you try it, let me know how it goes!