I am not a morning person. So when I first get up, I tend to do flaky things. But recently I set a new low.
I got in the shower, still half-asleep, and reached for the shampoo. After rubbing some in my hair, I realized it didn’t smell like my shampoo. Turned out I had grabbed the bottle on my left instead of the usual bottle of shampoo on my right. So I found myself trying to wash my hair with Oil of Olay body wash.
The body wash had come free with my purchase of Oil of Olay (around here we call it Oil of Ol’ Lady) facial moisturizer. I had tried the body wash a few times, but didn’t like how it made my washcloth so slimy that I couldn’t rinse it out, so the body wash had been sitting there untouched for weeks because I couldn’t make myself throw out a practically full bottle.
Anyway, once I realized my mistake, I rinsed my hair (only the top of my head had body wash on it) and then shampooed as usual. But when I used the hair dryer on my hair, I couldn’t get the top of my head dry.
Weird. But I had things to do, so I left my hair the way it was. However, after a few hours of feeling like my hair was extremely greasy (and it looked it), I decided to do something about it. I remembered that my grandmother always rinsed her hair with vinegar water “to cut the soap,” as she explained. So I filled the bathroom sink with vinegar water, soaked the top of my head in it, then used my husband’s strong shampoo (Head and Shoulders) to rewash my hair.
When I dried it, it was just as greasy on top as it had been before.
Now I began to get frustrated. How could I get this greasy mess out of my hair? I looked at the body wash bottle label to see what exactly was in this stuff, and discovered that the second ingredient is petroleum jelly. No wonder I couldn’t get my hair to come clean!
I remembered that we had a bottle of Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Oil shampoo in the cupboard. That’s strong stuff, so I figured it was worth a try. After two washes with it, my hair finally began to feel like normal, and I was relieved to be able to go out in public without look like I hadn’t had a shower in a week.
So, the moral of this story is….never use body wash as shampoo, and keep tea tree oil shampoo on hand for people who have a hard time waking up, like me!
Petroleum jelly? Even if somebody didn’t get it in her hair, but used it as it was intended to be used, that STILL means washing yourself with petroleum jelly? ICK.
(Barbara, have you put the nearly-full bottle in the garbage NOW?)
Wow! I hope you threw that stuff away. Since when does petroleum jelly WASH anything? I often give my hair and scalp an olive oil treatment and one washing after that soaking overnight is always sufficient.
Yes, Susan, I did pitch it after this incident because I was afraid that I’d make the same mistake again, LOL!
Carol, they advertise this stuff as moisturizing body wash so I suppose that’s why they put petroleum jelly in it, but it’s still gross.
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Enjoyed the post and a good laugh!
Here’s another body wash story: I helped out as kitchen staff a few summers ago at a week-long camp and forgot to bring shampoo with me. I decided that my body wash (a no-name brand) should do the trick. How wrong I was! The stuff would not wash out of my hair and did not leave it oily, as in your situation, but more like straw! My hair was absolutely disgusting that week, but I comforted myself with the thought that we were supposed to look grimy at a summer camp in 100 degree heat! I can laugh now, but it wasn’t so funny at the time!
Well, I’m glad to know I’m not alone, Sara. Thanks for sharing that! 🙂
But just think how young and unwrinkled your scalp was after the body wash. 😀
You did all of the things I would have suggested to get it out. I am surprised that the vinegar didn’t do the trick. Maybe you should have used Dawn dish soap, like they do for wildlife that gets caught in oil spills. If I were you, I would make sure that the body wash is in a completely different shaped bottle than the shampoo. 😉
Peace and Laughter!
Well, Cristina, I was too freaked out about my greasy mop to worry about the youthfulness of my scalp 🙂
I wish I would have thought of Dawn. I didn’t know it was used on wildlife but that makes sense. Thanks for the tip, but this shouldn’t happen again because I threw the body wash away!
Hmmm… I wonder what I would have to do to get body wash out of my hair? I’m allergic to tea tree oil! LOL Also, I think you may have just explained an issue I’ve been having with my 11yob. 😉
Hope that’s your solution, Kristin 🙂
Also, being allergic to tea tree oil, you’d probably have to try Dawn as Cristina suggested. Hope it doesn’t become necessary! Thanks for stopping by.