Re swarthiness, basically, I can't imagine wanting my skin to be any oilier, and I'm worried that will be the result. My hope is that oil production is my skin's response to being soaped, and that it will reach a better equilibrium within a few soapless weeks. If that doesn't happen, this will be a failure.
Although my skin isn't actually even remotely swarthy. But it doesn't get dry or rashy or otherwise experience problems from soap, that I know of.
I do feel a little oily today, but that might be psychological, together with the fact that our AC is off at the moment.
Animals are kind of dirty and gross, if left to their own devices
This was basically my first comment on this topic in yesterday's thread. That's why I'm skeptical. But, I do think I may be having trouble disentangling not bathing from not using soap, and attributing the grossness of the former to the latter. Maybe water is all you need. That's part of the reason I'm experimenting.
The packing benefit seems as trivial as the cost-savings benefit. Trivial.
The fear of heights thing didn't hit me until after I had a child either.
So are you in it to try to cut down on your skin's oiliness?
I used soap this morning because I was getting a physical this morning and because I have no intention of not using soap regardless of what the internet people say.
You think the height thing is about Hawaiian Punch? I never had a problem with heights, but taking Sally as a preschooler to Yankee Stadium, which is really steeply raked in the upper deck, terrified me. And even though it was about being afraid of her getting loose and falling somehow, it felt like me, personally, being afraid of the dropoff.
And you had that scary falling off a roadside into a ditch thing with her last year.
I'm also very curious to know what will happen to my genitals. This post makes it sounds magical.
Private parts. Have to address this, of course. This is the biggest benefit of all. Surprised? You'll just have to try it, because I'm not going to elaborate.... I can't explain further. You'll just have to try.
Stop using soap and your balls turn into gold.
I was completely fearless about heights through my early teens, and then I got scared and have been ever since. My parents say that they got rather freaked out when seven year old me decided that free climbing some of the cliffs in Acadia would be a good idea.
I was completely fearless about heights until I got cast in the Spiderman musical.
Pre-kids, I had a really intense height fear when we were at the Grand Canyon a few years ago. But seriously: it would be really easy to die at the Grand Canyon. Especially the areas to explore near the Skywalk on the southwest side: Go walk up to the edge of this sheer, Wiley Coyote style cliff face! Have fun with your no guard rails whatsoever.
12: After two weeks, your junk smells like the bottom of the pool.
My fear of heights disappears if there's a guard rail or if I'm roped up and being properly belayed.
Some guy fell to his death down an outdoor stairway that I use every now and then. I wish they'd have come out with a news story that gave some kind of detail about how he fell so that I could create a delusion about how it couldn't happen to me. Instead, all they said was that foul play wasn't involved.
Stop using soap and your balls turn into gold.
Which you can monetise by forming an investment trust... Anyone else read Kai Lung?
You know, urple, you could just not soap up your balls. Come to think of it, you should leave parts of you as controls.
You think the height thing is about Hawaiian Punch?
Possibly? I'm not sure. I certainly have intense reactions about the HPs and ledges, but I don't know which came first.
Excepting very new construction, the ledge came before HP.
21 isn't a terrible idea. I wonder how using soap only on the right half of my body would work.
You want to use masking tape to be sure you get a clear separation.
It would be safer to shower twice, each time standing half-in, half-out of the tub. For science.
I'm roped up and being properly belayed.
That's what she... ah, never mind. It's not worth it.
I'm also very curious to know what will happen to my genitals.
This should be used in every conversation at least once.
Since I cut my hair short, I'm supposed to wash it a lot less. I did today for the first time since Sunday because I don't like the pomade buildup, which, as the hair gets increasingly fluffy at the end of the day, makes me look like the guy in Eraserhead. I'm not used to having stickiness.
Oh man, I've had some crazy Eraserhead hair over the past six months. It turns out that even when my hair is four inches long, it can stand straight up as a unified wall, with no product.
I'm not used to having stickiness.
After a couple of weeks of not soaping your genitals, you'll get accustomed to it.
The opposite problem was part of why a pixie cut was so bad on me. While my hair is thick, it's so fine that it doesn't matter how short it gets, it just lays down flat. (Come to think, that was true when I was a teenager. My hair's coarser now. I wonder if I could pull off a really short cut now. Probably not, and Buck would hate it if I tried.)
Having short hair was weird for me. I really liked it up in Austin, but I was kind of self-conscious in conservative areas. Which meant that I felt like I wasn't catering to my internal sense of style, which bothered me.
I'm so scared of heights that an unbroken horizon, a plain or a beach, makes me tremble because it is an edge.
28: As usual, essear writes what I slowly start to think.
Re fear of heights, never had any trouble with roped rock climbing on some fairly big walls, but get queasy on bridges, sometimes even while in a car. Getting belayed across a bridge - usually not an option.
Since I cut my hair short, I'm supposed to wash it a lot less.
Really? I hadn't heard that and was generally under the impression that short hair got washed more often because it was just plain easier.
34: I take an unbroken horizon as a comforting view, perhaps because it was a very common view when I was growing up.
34: Do you also worry about the singularities at the North and South Poles?
38:There are singularities at the Poles? Is that what is melting the icecaps? Will no one care for Penguins? Can Kate Beckinsale and 7 brave huskies save us?
What I find interesting/annoying about my fear of heights is when it is illogical. Sure, it makes a certain amount of sense to be scared if you're edging along a wall or going up an icy ridge unbelayed, but why am I so much more likely to be scared walking along a narrow but good quality heavily exposed path than biking on the side of a heavily trafficked road? And even in the 'rational' fear of heights situations I feel like my anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger and can detract from an otherwise incredibly enjoyable activity.
There are singularities at the Poles?
We're all black holes.
40: I think this gets veldty -- scary things that were present in the pre-human evolutionary environment are just scary in a different way than modern things. Why do snakes scare people who've never been near a poisonous one?
Why do snakes scare people who've never been near a poisonous one?
Because snakes are evil and should be killed on sight.
why am I so much more likely to be scared walking along a narrow but good quality heavily exposed path than biking on the side of a heavily trafficked road?
Cars are my other phobia!
My son keeps saying things like, "I know all about cars" or "I can run faster than a car." He does this in parking lots when I tell him to stay by me. It's getting better, but I wanted to get a leash for so long.
There are singularities at the Poles?
There are Poles at singularities. This is because there is literally no barrier that cannot be crossed, no obstacle that cannot be beaten, no journey that cannot be made, by someone who is sufficiently drunk. Orbiting gently around Cygnus X-1 is a quietly sleeping bloke called Karol who will, soon, awake in some pain and wonder how the hell he got there when the last thing he can remember was trying to find a taxi in central Lodz at about 2.30 the previous morning.
There are singularities at the Poles?
Yes: coordinate singularities.
I generally use olive oil soap or something similarly simple in the shower. When I end up showering at my parents' house for some reason and use Dial (the house brand ever since I was a wee lad), I definitely notice that I suddenly have body odor again.
Dial is a deodorant soap, so maybe whatever disinfectant it contains wipes out all the bacteria on the fascinating ecosystem that is my skin, including the non-smelly ones that keep the smelly ones in check?
Because snakes are evil and should be killed on sight.
Moby!
Had a meltdown on some heights while traveling, and then climbed some rocks right after fairly calmly. I decided the difference between terror and calm was whether I could hold onto anything with my hands. I wasn't actually safer climbing than I was on the exposed heights, but touching the rock face with my hands kept me from feeling afraid.
I hadn't heard that and was generally under the impression that short hair got washed more often because it was just plain easier.
Actually my experience is that I have to wash my hair more often the shorter it gets, because it gets greasy more quickly. I think it actually gets greasy at the same rate, but when its long the grease isn't apparent for a day or two because it takes time to work out.
From which I conclude that my hair behaves quite differently from AWB's and LB's, and that it takes all sorts and so on.
48: It's also possible that the smell of a different soap makes you notice your odor more.
FEAR [of heights] CAUSES HESITATION, AND HESITATION WILL CAUSE YOUR WORST FEARS TO COME TRUE.
51: No, that's not it. Dial itself smells medicinal, like disinfectant. And the olive oil soap I use is unscented. And the body odor that arises smells like I smelled when I was a sweaty teenager.
53: Alternate theory! It has nothing to do with soap. Being around your parents causes you to relive your teen years, making you sweat like you did as a teen.
I generally use olive oil soap or something similarly simple in the shower.
I've been using this recently (until yesterday). Can't tell any difference: swarthy skin, cavewoman's sense of tactile aesthetics, etc.
I cannot be the only one who loves Point Break. Don't let me down, people.
You got what you wanted, Bodie, now let Skyler go!
Keanu Reeves, young, dumb and full of come? What's not to love? I wanted to make my kids watch it but it's an 18!
We made the kids watch Highlander. They thought it was silly and not very good. We told them that was the point.
My son keeps saying things like, "I know all about cars" or "I can run faster than a car." He does this in parking lots when I tell him to stay by me.
Heh, I had the following exchange with a guy on a ride along a few weeks back. We're arriving on a call where an anonymous person called in saying a couple gang members hanging out in the parking lot of an apartment complex were drinking and one of them had flashed a gun. We're parking around the corner and I'm going to approach on foot.
Me: "Wait here and if for some reason this goes to hell and you start hearing shots your best bet is to stay behind the engine block."
Aspiring cop: "Don't worry, I've had a lot of martial arts training".
Was he wearing sunglasses and an ankle-length black coat?
50: I think the idea is that slightly greasy short hair keeps it tame, but long hair can smell bad rather quickly. That said, I have a friend with short hair who never, ever washes his hair and it just stinks to high hell. People have tried to intervene.
That said, I have a friend with short hair who never, ever washes his hair and it just stinks to high hell.
Back to the OP: does "never, ever washes his hair" mean "never showers it off with water" or "never uses shampoo"? Because the latter would be a bad sign for this experiment.
I feel like "swarthy" means something different to Heebie than it does to me.
50: I think the idea is that slightly greasy short hair keeps it tame, but long hair can smell bad rather quickly.
The flip side of this notion is that long hair has more space to distribute the oils over, and more risk of getting all dried out at the ends from over-washing.
Huh; I don't associate fear of heights with anxiety, exactly, but with something like vertigo. I developed this, inexplicably, sometime in my late 20s, though I'd never had a problem before, and I was miffed, I tell you.
Wikipedia tells me that acrophobia is not to be confused with vertigo, and it sounds as though the latter is what I have (when close to the edge of a cliff or building's roof, not particularly on floor 29 of a skyscraper, or even on a theater balcony). The experience is visceral: I feel like I'm about to fall, and if I get too close, that I'm actually losing my balance. All it takes is to step back a foot or two, and the sensation disappears.
I had the impression that vertigo, so described (distinct from the kind of fear of heights people can have just when climbing a ladder, which I seem to link just to nervousness), can develop in adulthood, just as allergies can, but I don't know where I got that idea.
65 I feel like "swarthy" means something different to Heebie than it does to me. all other speakers of the English language.
Heebie is the daughter of Greek immigrants. Her parents were little people -- little, swarthy people. So she understands the American Dream.
Was he wearing sunglasses and an ankle-length black coat?
No, but I suppose it's possible I'm severely underestimating the training from his current gig at the Jiffy Lube.
Heebie might mean that she has olive skin.
I think I'd not want to stop using what I use for face-washing (Noxzema and a washcloth/facecloth) because I want the exfoliating benefits. Not washing my face with anything but water is pretty much a non-starter: I'd get zits, I'd get dry skin patches, I'd constantly be rubbing my face.
64: We're not close enough for me to ask. I just knew there was a profound odor, and not just a pleasant body-type smell, when he was around, and a mutual friend informed me that there is a refusal to wash the hair. I am not sure if this means he doesn't wet it.
Archive link on fear of heights in skyscrapers.
I thought swarthy meant skin that is thick and hearty and rugged, and probably olive or darker. Peasant skin or something.
As far as I know, "swarthy" only covers the darkness feature.
What if most of my vocabulary is off by 10% but it's only exposed one word every few weeks, starting in my 30s? There could be all sorts of miscommunication going on.
I understand "swarthy" in Heebie's sense - indeed I think it's the only way it can be used these days without irony.
I understand "swarthy" in Heebie's sense - indeed I think it's the only way it can be used these days without irony.
And yet there is something not-right about claiming that your skin doesn't react to things because it is especially swarthy.
My face is like the chapped hide of an elephant, only not that swarthy.
The price on my face skyrocketed after corn began to be harvested for ethanol, thus causing my face shortages in cash-strapped countries all over the globe.
My face does feel a tad oily. But I half think that's just power of suggestion.
I've always understood the term the way redfoxtailshrub describes it. And not the way Ben Franklin used it.
Day 2 of this experiment seems to be markedly worse than day 1, in terms of overall greasiness and general funk. I also think there's a fatal flaw in my experimental design, namely that I'm not sure there's anyone I trust to tell me honestly if I stink like a pig, other than my spouse and possibly kids, who by virtue of living with me may become desensitized to my odor. Unless I can come up with some solution to this design flaw, I think I'm going to have to abort the experiment.
Swab your pits, hair, feet, and crotch. Mail the swabs to a selected sample of the commetariate. And I call "not me."
I thought swarthy meant skin that is thick and hearty and rugged, and probably olive or darker.
Charles II, when on the run from Cromwell's troops, was described in his wanted poster as "a swarthy man two yards high".
Mind you in those days "black" and "swarthy" often meant nothing more than "black-haired"; see the very splendid and dauntless Black Agnes of Dunbar, about whom more people should know, but who (like Charles II) was certainly not even a bit tan, what with being Scottish.
I was actually hoping for advice on 90. (Better advice than 91, I mean.)
Access Denied! Pornography/Adult Content!
Day 2 of this experiment seems to be markedly worse than day 1, in terms of overall greasiness and general funk.
My Day 2 is not too bad. My hair feels maybe a little...gummy. My skin feels normal.
97: I can see why that was tagged as adult content... look at the smile on that second lady. She's enjoying that a little too much.
I'm frankly stunned that 101 isn't a musician.
Or, not the guy in that link, but some other guy with that name, if you see what I mean.
It makes me tremendously happy to think that, at some point in his early career, this man was addressed by everyone as "Captain Kirk" and no one thought it was funny at all.
102: Youtube tells me there's an Italian band called General Funk.
I almost never use shampoo, but I vigorously scrub my scalp with my fingers, and then use conditioner. If I don't use conditioner my hair feels maybe a little...gummy.
One of these guys, if he sticks with it, will become Sergeant Pepper. He looks like he's dreading it already.
I used to dream of growing up to be a general and controlling all the cereal depots.
107: I can already see the ceremony where they glue the handlebar moustache on him.
If someone had asked me how likely I thought it was that there was an African-American musician active in the late 1970s who went by the stage name of "General Funk", I'd have said better than 95%. I'd have guessed it more likely than not that I'd heard his music.
It seems like an obvious hole in the musical canon.
I'm a little surprised as well. There was a funk band called General Caine, and General Johnson led The Chairmen of the Board.
