Why I choose simple soaps and question our dependence on industrial detergents
I often repeat one principle when I speak about soaps and personal-care products: what we put on our skin deserves almost as much attention as what we put into our mouths.
This does not mean that everything applied to the skin enters the bloodstream exactly as though we had eaten it. The skin is an effective protective barrier, and different substances penetrate it to very different degrees.
But the skin is not completely impermeable either. Transdermal medicines are an obvious example: certain substances, when appropriately formulated, can pass through the skin and act elsewhere in the body.
For me, that is reason enough to ask a very simple question about the products I use every day:
What am I repeatedly putting in contact with my body?
Soaps, shampoos, conditioners, creams and cosmetics may contain long lists of synthetic substances, fragrances, preservatives, silicones, polymers and petroleum-derived ingredients.
My own position is clear: I believe that our habitual and excessive exposure to industrial detergents and complex cosmetic formulations is harmful, and that we have normalised their use to the point where we rarely question whether we need them at all.
Would you eat your shampoo?
Or your face cream?
No — I am certainly not inviting you to try.
I am inviting you to look at that bottle differently.
If you would hesitate to put its contents anywhere near your food, perhaps it is worth knowing what you are applying repeatedly to your skin and hair.
This is why, when I make or choose soap, I prefer very simple formulations based on recognisable raw materials and, wherever possible, food-grade oils and fats.
Soap itself is created through saponification, a chemical reaction that transforms fats or oils together with an alkali into soap and glycerine. The finished soap is therefore a new substance and is not something to eat. My principle concerns the quality and simplicity of the raw materials from which it begins.
The fewer unnecessary ingredients I expose myself to, the better.
A first introduction
In this short video I introduce the idea behind this approach and why I believe it is worth reconsidering something as ordinary as the products we use to wash ourselves.
Watch the introduction on YouTube →
What actually happens when we wash?
To understand why I question conventional shampoos and conditioners, it helps to look at the basic relationship between water, oils and the substances designed to interact with them.
Some substances are hydrophilic — they interact readily with water.
Others are lipophilic — they have an affinity with oils and fats.
Cleansing products are formulated to help remove substances that water alone cannot easily carry away. But modern cosmetics often go much further than simple cleansing. We remove oils, replace softness, coat the hair, perfume it, condition it and then use additional products to manage the effects created by the previous ones.
Silicones and other polymers add another level of complexity. Different silicones behave differently: many are water-resistant, while others have been chemically modified to become more dispersible or easier to remove.
What interests me is the cycle this can create.
We cleanse, strip, coat, condition, cleanse again — and gradually a complex industrial routine can begin to seem indispensable.
I question whether it really is.
Turn the bottle around
You do not need to become a cosmetic chemist overnight.
Start with something much easier:
Read the label.
Turn over your shampoo bottle, shower gel or conditioner and look at the ingredient list.
You may not recognise most of it at first. That is precisely the point.
Start learning gradually.
Find out which ingredients are cleansing agents, fragrances, preservatives, conditioners, oils, silicones or polymers. Look up substances you use repeatedly. Ask yourself why they are there and what purpose they serve.
Then decide whether you still want them.
For me, conscious choice begins with knowing what we are choosing.
And I do not accept the idea that something should automatically be considered desirable simply because it is legal, commercially widespread or used by millions of people.
Industrial products are designed primarily to perform a function, remain stable, look appealing, smell pleasant, survive transport and storage and satisfy a market.
My body has different priorities.
Did nature really make us dependent on shampoo?
Our species has existed for an extraordinarily long time compared with the very recent history of bottled commercial shampoo.
Human beings obviously washed themselves and their hair long before modern cosmetics existed. Different cultures used water, oils, plants, clays, alkaline preparations and many other locally available materials.
What is new is the assumption that the human scalp needs a specialised industrial detergent — sometimes every single day — in order to remain acceptable.
I find that assumption difficult to reconcile with the way the human body developed.
Our scalp produces sebum for a reason. Our skin has its own protective structures and microbial ecosystem. Yet we have created routines in which natural oils may be repeatedly removed and then compensated for with conditioners, serums, masks and styling products.
My question is deliberately provocative:
Did nature really create a human being who cannot maintain healthy hair without a bottle of industrial shampoo?
I do not believe so.
Individual people and scalps are different, and some conditions genuinely require specific care. But that does not prevent us from questioning the routine dependence that modern culture has built around cleansing products.
Less shampoo. Sometimes no shampoo.
For years, during the warmer months, we have explored a gradual transition towards less shampoo — and, where possible, no shampoo at all.
Summer is particularly suitable because life tends to be simpler, hair dries more easily and it becomes less inconvenient to experiment with a different routine.
The aim is to give the scalp time to respond while reducing the continuous cycle of stripping and replacing.
This is not a competition and there is no prize for abandoning shampoo completely.
The important change happens earlier:
you stop assuming that the bottle dictates what your body needs.
You observe.
You experiment carefully.
You learn how your own hair and scalp behave.
And perhaps you discover that you need far less than you thought.
We periodically organise a guided transition for those who want to explore this approach together.
Follow the Fellowship events for the next less-shampoo / no-shampoo transition.
Simpler choices
Changing our relationship with personal-care products does not mean that everyone has to start making soap at home.
There are excellent artisan soap-makers producing simple soaps from high-quality oils and carefully selected raw materials. These are the kinds of products I prefer to seek out and recommend.
The same principle applies to the tools we use for cleansing.
A natural hemp washing glove, for example, provides gentle mechanical cleansing and exfoliation using a renewable, biodegradable material. It is simple, durable and eventually recyclable or compostable depending on its construction.
Sometimes the most useful innovation is simply removing what we never needed in the first place.
Start asking questions
If these videos have made you question your shampoo, conditioner, shower gel or creams, that is already a useful beginning.
You do not need to throw everything away tomorrow.
Begin by becoming curious.
Read the ingredients.
Look up what you do not recognise.
Notice how often you use each product.
Observe what happens when you use less.
Ask whether one product exists partly to compensate for the effects of another.
And above all, stop assuming that because something has become normal, it must also be necessary.
My position is clear: I believe that the routine overuse of industrial detergents is harmful, and that reducing our dependence on them is one of the simplest ways in which we can begin taking responsibility for what we put on our bodies.
The first step costs nothing.
Turn the bottle around and read.
