I made homemade lip gloss, listened to emo music, and collected a few silly bands (okay, it was only one silly band and I got it as a prize at my National Honor Society induction). But the only fad from my childhood that I still stick to is zone shampooing.
Naming zone shampooing as a fad I lived through is a bit of a stretch, because it didn’t actually exist in my childhood but in a series of books I read that impacted my childhood. In Am I the Princess or the Frog, the third book of the Dear Dumb Diary series my Jim Benson, the series protagonist Jamie Kelly suspects that her arch rival Angeline has invented something called zone shampooing . This is a phenomenon in which one with luscious locks washes various sections of their hair with different shampoos, thus creating a collage of scents throughout the hair. Thus, one’s hair can be used as a weapon in situations in which they would like to seduce their crush. By shaking their head the right way, any character who zone shampoos can create an alluring combination of scents to surround and woo their crush. (Keep in mind, these book characters are middle schoolers).
I did attempt zone shampooing after I read Am I the Princess or the Frog, but it didn’t turn out for me quite like it did for Angeline. I wasn’t able to win the love of someone named Hudson Rivers because he didn’t exist outside of the book. Yet I wasn’t trying to win anyone’s love (I was 11, after all). I was only trying to see if it would really work. The kit and caboodle of scents on Angeline’s head shown in a diagram in the book was bit too hard to follow, so I just parted my hair down the middle and washed the two sections with a different shampoo.
My experiment didn’t yield an arsenal of scents, but it did show the effect of washing with Physique shampoo versus Herbal Essences shampoo. If a team at Proctor and Gamble wanted to see which of the shampoo brands the conglomerate owned performed the best, they could have totally used my head as a test subject (of course, they’d have to pay Angeline and I some royalties if they used this research method).
I think I proved that zone shampooing is a bit too complicated, or fictional, to use in the art of seduction. Yet it is great if different sections of your hair have different needs. For example, the lower half of my hair is what’s left of my hair that was dyed bleach blonde, while the top portion of my hair is what has grown out naturally after I stopped dying it. I like to put semi-permanent pink dye in the lower portion. So if the pink lasts longer if I use color safe shampoo on the lower half, but I’d like a little shine up top, why not use a shine enhancing shampoo and conditioner up there?
I’ve been zone shampooing and conditioning for a few months now and really enjoy the results. It’s a good way to give every bit of your hair some TLC, especially if you’re growing out a dye job or rocking an ombre look. (Let’s be honest, isn’t the latter example just a fancy term for the former example?)
Unlike the plot of Am I the Princess or the Frog demanded, there isn’t really any way to you could go wrong with zone shampooing. Just be careful not to squirt too much conditioner in your hands before you apply it to the roots of your hair, as they tend to look more oily if you use too much of it. If you don’t already have an arsenal of various shampoos and conditioners in your bathroom cabinet, you could buy a few travel-size bottles to try it out.
I’m able to frequently switch out my shampoo and conditioner combo because I have myriad free samples on hand, thanks to heyitsfree.net. I’ve been visiting the blog since I was 15 and have ordered free samples from practically every shampoo company since. This is also a great way to build up your zone shampooing inventory, though it generally takes about 4-6 weeks for your free samples to arrive in your mailbox after you order them. Don’t worry—the site’s curator does his research to ensure every sample listed on the site is real and comes from a trusted source. Free samples I found through Hey It’s Free also helped me through my first menstrual cycle, but that’s a story for another installment of Offbeat Chic. How I’ll loosely tie free samples of feminine hygiene products to the fashion/beauty theme, I don’t know. Until then, why not give zone shampooing or conditioning a try? Let me know how it turns out in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment