My No-Soap, No-Shampoo, Bacteria-Rich Hygiene Experiment

New York Times ^ | MAY 22, 2014 | Julia Scott

[nickcarraway]

For most of my life, if I’ve thought at all about the bacteria living on my skin, it has been while trying to scrub them away. But recently I spent four weeks rubbing them in. I was Subject 26 in testing a living bacterial skin tonic, developed by AOBiome, a biotech start-up in Cambridge, Mass. The tonic looks, feels and tastes like water, but each spray bottle of AO+ Refreshing Cosmetic Mist contains billions of cultivated Nitrosomonas eutropha, an ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) that is most commonly found in dirt and untreated water. AOBiome scientists hypothesize that it once lived happily on us too — before we started washing it away with soap and shampoo — acting as a built-in cleanser, deodorant, anti-inflammatory and immune booster by feeding on the ammonia in our sweat and converting it into nitrite and nitric oxide.

The 6th Floor Blog: Scott After 28 Soapless Days In the conference room of the cramped offices that the four-person AOBiome team rents at a start-up incubator, Spiros Jamas, the chief executive, handed me a chilled bottle of the solution from the refrigerator. “These are AOB,” he said. “They’re very innocuous.” Because the N. eutropha are alive, he said, they would need to be kept cold to remain stable. I would be required to mist my face, scalp and body with bacteria twice a day. I would be swabbed every week at a lab, and the samples would be analyzed to detect changes in my invisible microbial community.

The M.I.T.-trained chemical engineer who invented AO+ has not showered for the past 12 years.

In the last few years, the microbiome (sometimes referred to as “the second genome”) has become a focus for the health conscious and for scientists alike. Studies like the Human Microbiome Project,

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I remember seeing pictures of Nick Nolte when he tried that.

[Farmer Dean]

What's that smell??Haven't showered for 12 years,that's socially unacceptable.

[minnesota_bound]

I bet he still doesn’t smell as bad as Steve Jobs did.

[SatinDoll]

Soaping down and washing away - everyday! - is the simplest method for avoiding leprosy.

[Yardstick]

Napoleon approves.

[Oratam]

My late father, born in 1932, showered once a week. He "bathed" daily by taking a damp washcloth to his body, paying particular attention to those areas which most often "give offense." He shampooed less frequently. He would head down to the basement and give his his wiry locks a once over with a rubber nozzle attachment in the great soapstone sink. The man never smelled. He was truly the cleanest person I ever knew.

Also, I recall reading something by the late, great Ivan T. Sanderson on the subject of the civilized, Western men in the jungle. He said after a time without bathing, the body produces a natural insect repellent which the soap & water crowd will never know.

All things in moderation.

[SeaHawkFan]

I’d never get laid if I did that.

[bigbob]

Carries the Homeless Hygine seal of approval

[null and void]

Wellll, not by anyone you’d want to get laid by, anyway...

[SeaHawkFan]

I only want to get laid by my wife.

[Fungi]

Pure nonsense. Try doing this at home! They forgot about Candida albicans, Aspergillus species, just to name a couple—never mind bacteria such as Listeria, Staphylococcus, and that is just the start. This is where stupidity meets “science.” They are really not advocating a no shower livelihood unless I missed something; otherwise people are gullible to the ninth degree. Wait—those are the rat buffoons; sorry, I forgot.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

When we were kids on the arid high plains, our parents made us bathe once a week. As we grew older, and moved to the HUMID South, we realized we were rank, so began to bathe twice a week then four times a week, then every day when we joined the work force.

I think once a week was standard back then, on Saturday night.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***great Ivan T. Sanderson ***

So why do the Yeti and Bigfoot stink!

[UnwashedPeasant]

My No-Soap, No-Shampoo, Bacteria-Rich Hygiene Experiment"

Add No Toilet Paper, and you have yourself an Arab country.

[Organic Panic]

Trials to be had in Zucotti Park.

[trebb]

My late father, born in 1932, showered once a week. He "bathed" daily by taking a damp washcloth to his body, paying particular attention to those areas which most often "give offense." He shampooed less frequently. He would head down to the basement and give his his wiry locks a once over with a rubber nozzle attachment in the great soapstone sink. The man never smelled. He was truly the cleanest person I ever knew.

I spent a few years in Italy - the practice is to shower once a day with cool/cold water and no soap unless needed to remove some set in grime. They say keeping the pores closed and not destroying the natural protections on the skin keeps one healthier. Never ran into a smelly Italian.

[9YearLurker]

I would think Fungi would favor this trend.

[Gay State Conservative]

Sandra Fluke?

[Explorer89]

Never ran into a smelly Italian? I lived there for two years, too. A trip on the un-air conditioned Milan subway in August was an epic experience. Deodorant doesn’t exist. I had to import my Secret.