Guardian writer George Francis Lee says he stopped routinely shampooing his thick hair after a barber suggested it, endured about two uncomfortable weeks and, more than a year later, preferred its appearance and feel, with his own hair, memory and preference supplying the evidence. [1]

His shampoo bottle remained on the shelf, but the abstinence was not absolute: Lee says he still received a shampoo wash at his roughly quarterly haircuts, complicating the simple claim that he quit entirely and making the result a personal routine rather than a controlled elimination experiment. [1]

This is an n=1 essay based on self-observation, not a test of hair or scalp health, with no comparison group, scalp examination, standardized measure or independent assessment of whether texture, oil, irritation or appearance changed because of shampoo use, time, haircutting or another factor.

The barber's explanation that shampoo had stripped useful natural oils is not verified clinical evidence in the source, while Lee himself notes that fine or oily hair may behave differently; neither a preferred cosmetic result nor an unpleasant first fortnight establishes detoxification or damage from commercial shampoo.

The article works best at its actual scale: one person with one hair type likes one low-shampoo routine, which is enough for an essay about preference but not dermatology guidance, a universal hygiene rule or proof that the same change would help another scalp.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York