Showers

I was reading the Frugal Girl today.  If you are into trying to live more frugally I highly recommend her!  Her slogan is "cheerfully living on less" and she comes up with simple ways to live more simply, and even though we don't have children yet, I have catalogued some ideas that she has given (such as buying items like roller blades that get looking not new quickly used to save money for other toys) for the future.  

Today she was writing about how to use shampoo as a body wash (since for the most part soap is soap....my Paul Mitchell even says you can use the awapuhi shampoo as a body wash on the bottle).  One thing she mentioned was not washing every body part every day during the winter, and she mentioned that it might gross people out, but she keeps the house so cold and she is so covered she really doesn't get very dirty.

I was going to leave a comment about how surprised I was that she would be worried people would see it as gross, but instead decided to explain further here.  Right now, living in the U.K. I have had to fight extremely dry skin and scalp.  Literally to the point my skin at times cracks and bleeds.  The water here is very hard and the air is very dry.  Although the crazy Brits have a hard time understanding why the Americans say the air is dry.  Their response is "but it's so wet."  Yes, congratulations, you managed to be the one place I know that is sodding wet all the time and yet dry as a desert.  Go figure.  But most Americans here love their humidifiers.

Because of the uber dryness here I have taken to only showering every 3-4 days.  Yes, it might gross some of you out, but I have naturally dry skin and add that to the conditions here, and really, my hair doesn't even begin to show any sign or oiliness until 3-4 days.  I freshen up when I get dressed, but getting in, lathering up and shampooing/conditioning my hair happens infrequently.  If I happen to feel concerned and decide to shower for an even before I really need to I pay big time.  My skin gets dry and itchy and my face will suck up any lotion I put on it like I didn't even bother.  So I have learned to take cooler showers, more quickly, and less frequently.  And honestly, it's more frugal that way.  If I lived in a house that we paid a water bill on, I would rock that water bill's face off!  And I use less products because I don't use them as often.  

Lotion is a big thing for me, and I have gotten lazy with applying it as often as I should.  But literally I can shower even every other day in the summertime if I get sweaty (which doesn't happen often) and still apply lotion several times a day and never look greasy.  When my skin gets very dry I have been known to apply olive oil and still manage to look dry a few hours later.

Does anyone else have this problem?  I know most big time hair stylists say to not wash your hair except every few days to keep it healthy.  I just do it to survive.