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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the read-this-while-having-a-nice,-hot-cup-of-tea dept.

Phys.org:

When you hear about businesses with a high environmental impact or activities with a high carbon footprint, you are probably more likely to imagine heavy machinery, engines and oil rather than hairdressing. Yet hairdressing, both as a sector and as an individual activity, can have a massive carbon footprint.

Hairdressing uses high levels of hot water, energy and chemicals. Similarly, in our homes, heating hot water is typically the most energy intensive activity. For the cost of a ten-minute shower that uses an electric immersion heater, you could leave a typical television on for 20 hours.

So while it helps to turn lights and appliances off, the real gains in terms of reducing energy usage are in slashing our use of hot water. A quarter of UK emissions are residential and, of those, the vast majority come from running hot water. The longer it runs and the hotter it is, the more energy intensive (and costly) it is.

Mostly the hot water used carries a high carbon footprint, but the chemicals in shampoo don't help either.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by meustrus on Tuesday February 12 2019, @04:01PM (4 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @04:01PM (#800137)

    Washing hair daily isn't particularly good for hair anyway. I've heard from hairdressers that they only wash their hair once a week. In part that's because they do all kinds of other labor-intensive styling that you would not want to do every day. But it's also because they know that the chemicals in shampoo actually damage hair over time, and it's best to avoid overexposure.

    I've also heard from older men that hair loss can be exacerbated by frequent washing. Some people I've known have switched from daily to weekly hair washing and actually reversed the beginnings of a receding hair line.

    Caveat emptor; I have no sources to cite for these claims.

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:48PM (2 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:48PM (#800350) Journal

    You can get away with that with very long hair maybe. I haven't cut mine for almost 25 years, aside from getting it cleaned up now and then, and usually wash it, all of it, twice a week. The hair more than an inch out from your scalp or so doesn't get as sweaty and ick as the hair closer in.

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    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:03AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:03AM (#800415) Homepage Journal

      And yes: I am bald. But that patch of bare skin on top? It still produces as much hair oil as it did in the days of my misspent youth when my hair went halfway down my back.

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      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:41AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:41AM (#803901) Homepage

      Instead of shampoo, try cornstarch on the scalp. (Basically what 'dry shampoo' is.) Wet-brush it out, or rinse as needed, and voila, clean scalp without drying it out (which is what makes it produce excess oil in the first place).

      Or rinse out with rainwater (needs to be soft water) and you may find you can give up other cleaners altogether.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:41AM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:41AM (#800558)

    I've also heard from older men that hair loss can be exacerbated by frequent washing. Some people I've known have switched from daily to weekly hair washing and actually reversed the beginnings of a receding hair line.

    Even better... instead of fighting hair loss, help it along. When you are bald, you do not need to wash you hair at all. And a bald head is far simpler to dry as well when you get out of the shower.

    And yes, I know... I've been doing this for roughly 10 years now.

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