I'm officially a dirty, smelly hippy. Well, not really - and that's why it's so interesting.
For years I've endured almost constant courses of antibiotics (kidney disease and heart disease), autoimmune problems, and had to use an antiseptic body wash (Hibiscrub). It got to a point where I developed a 'sore' of sorts on my thigh/groin. It was like a raw patch of skin that weeped, never healed, and got rather nasty at times. I went around in circles with antibiotics and anti-fungals, but nothing touched it and it just kept getting worse. My hair was always greasy, my skin was painfully dry and sore with bits flaking off in places and patches of eczema.
Then I had a bit of a thought. I take antibiotic resistant gut probiotics because of all my drug intake, but what is showering in Hibiscrub doing to my skin? After all, it's basically a skin biome nuclear weapon - it's what surgeons scrub with before surgery. Maybe less bacteria (i.e. repeated antibiotics and antifungals) isn't the solution - maybe I needed more bacteria to replace what I'd damaged and killed off? Probiotics for my skin?
After a week of research (in journals, not new age sites or shops), the science is actually fairly supportive of my idea. I read about the modern skin biome, and how modern soaps, shampoos and cleaners (basically everything) strip away not only our natural acid mantle, but also all the good bacteria. That squeaky clean feeling after a soapy/lathery shower has been reinforced to mean 'clean' to us. Actually you've just wiped out your natural oils, your acid mantle, destroyed the pH of your skin and killed all the good bugs that help look after your skin, regulate your sweat output and feed/nourish your epidermis.
Among others, including various universities, a company named Mother Dirt in the US (where else?) did some research concerning ammonia oxidising bacteria (specifically Nitrosomonas eutropha) and its effect on cycling nitric oxide and ammonia from sweat. Basically humans have historically always carried this bacteria. It lives in healthy soil, in rivers, and so on. When modern soaps, shampoos and body washes came along, they generally are based on things like sodium lauryl sulfate or derivatives thereof. Even where the product isn't alkaline (your skin is acidic) and doesn't destroy your natural bacteria outright, the SLS will. It literally strips your skin of all the oil and its inhabitants, not just the surface dirt. Not to mention showering in liquid chlorine.
So we become somewhat sterile, except for whatever bugs we catch through the air and from day to day contact. Sweat and its products build up, strip and burn the skin, and there's nothing there to deal with it. You get BO from 'bad' bacteria and there's no good guy to help out.
I was skeptical, but I paid for a bottle of Nitrosomonas bacteria to 'seed' my skin, and swore off soaps and shampoos... and especially Hibiscrub. I sprayed my face, pits and bits with bacteria twice a day, and showered in water (with a chlorine remover in the shower head) when I felt like it. I did use Mother Dirt natural shampoo and skin cleanser every few days - especially at first - as they have no ingredients that destroy or remove your natural bacteria, and are totally plant based. I honestly expected to turn into a smelly, greasy mess and to abandon the little project inside a week. Especially in summer!
It's been almost a month. One hell of a hot month at that. My hair was a little greasy for a few days at first, but now it's naturally soft and bouncy and rinses clean in just water. My skin is amazing. The patch on my leg that the doctor couldn't shift has finally disappeared, and I have a natural oil all over. I'm certainly not greasy, it's just supple and pliant feeling skin vs the cracked, dry flaky red sore skin I had before. Crucially - really crucially - I don't stink. At all. My wife thinks this whole thing is barking, and swore I'd be on the couch the second I had BO... I'm still waiting. In fact she reckons I've never smelt better. I sweat of course, especially in this heat - but it's less than I used to, it has no smell at all (versus the BO I had before on hot days), and a quick two minute rinse under the shower leaves me seriously fresh and smelling neutral again.
Like I said, I was seriously skeptical. But it really does work. Some of the scientists working on this stuff at various universities say they haven't showered in years. Assuming they mean 'with soap' rather than 'at all', I can believe them. I look younger, my skin is finally fixed, and I never smell or get greasy any more. It's a huge transformation and was worth the initial expense. I use a 5p sized drop of their 'shampoo' once or twice a week just to stop anything building up, and wash my face, pits and bits in their cleanser once or twice a week. A bottle will last me almost forever. I genuinely feel like a new person, and not one person has commented negatively (I've not told anyone about this so far), but I've had a few people asking why I look so good lately. My acne has gone (I'm nearly 40!), my pores are invisible, my skin is mega clear and has plumped out - I literally look younger.
The bacteria was hella expensive (about £60 for the bottle) but I honestly can't see the need to buy a new one now this has run out. As long as I don't use soaps the existing colony should survive. Time will tell.
Has anyone else tried this or come across the idea before? I'm a total convert. Please note that the Mother Dirt stuff was just what I happened to come across first. I'm not advertising the damn stuff and I'm sure there are tons of alternatives. It just happens to be what was convenient for me personally. I'm posting about the concept and the practice, not the product I happened to choose to do it with.
In before 'stinky hippy', 'BO Barry', and 'you stink but nobody will tell you' (I have very young kids who are brutally honest, and a city bred wife who thinks anything not sterile is dirty - trust me they'd tell me!).
Edit: it's Mother Dirt not Mother Earth. Sorry.
For years I've endured almost constant courses of antibiotics (kidney disease and heart disease), autoimmune problems, and had to use an antiseptic body wash (Hibiscrub). It got to a point where I developed a 'sore' of sorts on my thigh/groin. It was like a raw patch of skin that weeped, never healed, and got rather nasty at times. I went around in circles with antibiotics and anti-fungals, but nothing touched it and it just kept getting worse. My hair was always greasy, my skin was painfully dry and sore with bits flaking off in places and patches of eczema.
Then I had a bit of a thought. I take antibiotic resistant gut probiotics because of all my drug intake, but what is showering in Hibiscrub doing to my skin? After all, it's basically a skin biome nuclear weapon - it's what surgeons scrub with before surgery. Maybe less bacteria (i.e. repeated antibiotics and antifungals) isn't the solution - maybe I needed more bacteria to replace what I'd damaged and killed off? Probiotics for my skin?
After a week of research (in journals, not new age sites or shops), the science is actually fairly supportive of my idea. I read about the modern skin biome, and how modern soaps, shampoos and cleaners (basically everything) strip away not only our natural acid mantle, but also all the good bacteria. That squeaky clean feeling after a soapy/lathery shower has been reinforced to mean 'clean' to us. Actually you've just wiped out your natural oils, your acid mantle, destroyed the pH of your skin and killed all the good bugs that help look after your skin, regulate your sweat output and feed/nourish your epidermis.
Among others, including various universities, a company named Mother Dirt in the US (where else?) did some research concerning ammonia oxidising bacteria (specifically Nitrosomonas eutropha) and its effect on cycling nitric oxide and ammonia from sweat. Basically humans have historically always carried this bacteria. It lives in healthy soil, in rivers, and so on. When modern soaps, shampoos and body washes came along, they generally are based on things like sodium lauryl sulfate or derivatives thereof. Even where the product isn't alkaline (your skin is acidic) and doesn't destroy your natural bacteria outright, the SLS will. It literally strips your skin of all the oil and its inhabitants, not just the surface dirt. Not to mention showering in liquid chlorine.
So we become somewhat sterile, except for whatever bugs we catch through the air and from day to day contact. Sweat and its products build up, strip and burn the skin, and there's nothing there to deal with it. You get BO from 'bad' bacteria and there's no good guy to help out.
I was skeptical, but I paid for a bottle of Nitrosomonas bacteria to 'seed' my skin, and swore off soaps and shampoos... and especially Hibiscrub. I sprayed my face, pits and bits with bacteria twice a day, and showered in water (with a chlorine remover in the shower head) when I felt like it. I did use Mother Dirt natural shampoo and skin cleanser every few days - especially at first - as they have no ingredients that destroy or remove your natural bacteria, and are totally plant based. I honestly expected to turn into a smelly, greasy mess and to abandon the little project inside a week. Especially in summer!
It's been almost a month. One hell of a hot month at that. My hair was a little greasy for a few days at first, but now it's naturally soft and bouncy and rinses clean in just water. My skin is amazing. The patch on my leg that the doctor couldn't shift has finally disappeared, and I have a natural oil all over. I'm certainly not greasy, it's just supple and pliant feeling skin vs the cracked, dry flaky red sore skin I had before. Crucially - really crucially - I don't stink. At all. My wife thinks this whole thing is barking, and swore I'd be on the couch the second I had BO... I'm still waiting. In fact she reckons I've never smelt better. I sweat of course, especially in this heat - but it's less than I used to, it has no smell at all (versus the BO I had before on hot days), and a quick two minute rinse under the shower leaves me seriously fresh and smelling neutral again.
Like I said, I was seriously skeptical. But it really does work. Some of the scientists working on this stuff at various universities say they haven't showered in years. Assuming they mean 'with soap' rather than 'at all', I can believe them. I look younger, my skin is finally fixed, and I never smell or get greasy any more. It's a huge transformation and was worth the initial expense. I use a 5p sized drop of their 'shampoo' once or twice a week just to stop anything building up, and wash my face, pits and bits in their cleanser once or twice a week. A bottle will last me almost forever. I genuinely feel like a new person, and not one person has commented negatively (I've not told anyone about this so far), but I've had a few people asking why I look so good lately. My acne has gone (I'm nearly 40!), my pores are invisible, my skin is mega clear and has plumped out - I literally look younger.
The bacteria was hella expensive (about £60 for the bottle) but I honestly can't see the need to buy a new one now this has run out. As long as I don't use soaps the existing colony should survive. Time will tell.
Has anyone else tried this or come across the idea before? I'm a total convert. Please note that the Mother Dirt stuff was just what I happened to come across first. I'm not advertising the damn stuff and I'm sure there are tons of alternatives. It just happens to be what was convenient for me personally. I'm posting about the concept and the practice, not the product I happened to choose to do it with.
In before 'stinky hippy', 'BO Barry', and 'you stink but nobody will tell you' (I have very young kids who are brutally honest, and a city bred wife who thinks anything not sterile is dirty - trust me they'd tell me!).
Edit: it's Mother Dirt not Mother Earth. Sorry.
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