this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Soap and conditioner have opposite and incompatible roles. Soap strips away dirt and oils. Conditioner replaces the oils stripped away by soap that your hair needs, to maintain health.
You don't really need separate shampoo and body wash, you could wash your hair with standard bar soap. You do need separate conditioner.
Shampoo+conditioner combined together can either clean or apply oils to the hair, but chemically, it cannot do both, despite marketing.
Soap (although of course some soaps are actually detergents in disguise) can't necessarily replace shampoo. Soaps can react with hardness in the water and leave the residue on your hair. Detergents like shampoo do not react in that way. On the other hand, replacing your soap with a detergent like shampoo or body wash would be fine.
So basically shampoo/soap + conditioner is used to first chemically strip off natural oils and then replace them with chemicals.
Being a short haired dude I struggle to understand how hair, which is basically dead tissue would benefit from moisturizing, though I guess adding oils and silicone will probably make it look more glossy. And obviously give soap more stuff that needs to be removed on cleansing.
I dunno, this seems like a situation that is engineered purely for marketing purposes.
As a woman with long, curly hair, if I don't condition, I go from having nice curly waves to a ball of unmanageable frizz. I've also had to experiment with different shampoos to get the results I want, to clean my hair without damaging it. It definitely isn't engineered for marketing purposes. Ask anyone with long, curly, or kinky hair and they'll tell you how important their hair routine is. If you have short, straight hair, it probably doesn't matter nearly as much. Your hair is fully replaced in a few weeks. I need to keep my hair healthy for years. My hair is down to my sternum, and it took years to get this long. If I didn't take very good care of it with the right soaps and conditioner, it would not be able to be this long or this nice.
Reducing it to just chemicals and chemicals is well, reductive. Basically everything is a chemical. Your natural oils are chemicals. Sweat is a chemical. Dirt is chemicals. We need to wash out some chemicals, but we don't want dry scalps or damaged hair, so we need to use the right soaps and the right conditioner to remove those bad chemicals and replace them with chemicals to mimic our natural oils until they build back up. Most people probably don't need to wash their hair as often as they do, but conditioning is definitely not a marketing scam.
as a guy who often has shoulder length straight hair, if I don't condition, I go from having nice flowing waves to a frizzy dry mess that won't stay in place and just sticks out every which way
most recently I am trying the whole no shampoo thing, so we'll see how that goes
The struggle is real. I'm curious how that will go. My hair gets way too oily.
What about leather, could it benefit from applying a layer of oil? Or wood? Or rubber? Or cast iron? Living tissue is not the only thing physically affected by moisture levels.
Oil seals in moisture to prevent hair from drying out, which, obviously, will change it's texture and elasticity. The skin on your head naturally produces grease to keep your hair moisturized, but when you wash with soap, it strips that grease out. If you shower regularly, you need to replace it.
I used the word "health" because it is commonly used to describe hair texture. You won't be medically unhealthy if you don't use conditioner, but your hair will probably be dry as shit and frizzy.
It's not about glossiness. I'm guessing you don't have frizzy hair, but it removes that, and allows hair to clump into locks, instead of a big cloud. If you have straight hair, then yes, the main benefit is being shinier.
I've seen pictures of people from the past with my hair type, from the time before conditioner. I will buy conditioner. Styling goops too. Do you mean everyone should cut their hair so short it doesn't matter? I like having styled hair - will agree it's culture/marketing but so what?
Could use shampoo as body wash, sure, not so different. I don't use natural soaps because in hard water they do more harm than good. Conditioner is a non negotiable. Sometimes I just rinse and condition, but never wash without conditioner-ing.
My husband keeps his hair very short but that involves haircut every two weeks, it's not cheaper overall.
I don't know, if you consider it as dead tissue, it makes sense it would break down over time, and certain oils could slow that process down.