NO Soap Challenge

Its official, I survived facing the world with no soap for not 1 not 2 not 3 but 6 days.  Yes folks no soap 6 days, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.  So if you have no idea what I am talking about with this no soap challenge nonsense, let me fill you in.  Our clean product gurus and authors of the book 'No More Dirty Looks' issued a challenge to not use soap for at least 5 days, for the sake of research of course.  In return they will take submissions of how you held up with no soap, and they want details good or bad... they will pick winners to give $100 to NuboNau to shop away with.  I have to admit the pull of $100 to spend on clean products was my main motivation for this, second do that was pure curiosity.  There have been more and more stories about how people can go without soap and not smell and have better skin as a result of it (example Sean Bonner).   Meg was not convinced of the benefits and not wiling to try, but was recruited to me my smell checker, I'm sure it was just the job she wanted! My first day of no soap was encouraging, my shower was really really fast leaving me with extra time to get ready and I felt clean.  Day two wasn't too much different, quick shower felt clean, didn't stink, I was thinking people were on to this no soap thing.  Day three, was harder I felt dirty I wanted to pick up that body wash I love so much and that smelled so good and scrub away, I left the shower feeling unsatisfied.  Meg assured me I didn't stink and I couldn't smell any stench but I still felt gross.  That being said, I was not looking forward to day four.  The only positive thing about day four was that day five was next and I only had to last five days for this challenge.  Funny thing happened on day four, I showered looked longingly at my body wash got out of the shower and felt clean.  Definitely was not expecting to have a positive experience after day three and I had fought so much.  Day 5 rolled around and I looked at my body wash and said I'll see you tomorrow, double checked with Meg for a stench level, confirmed it was still at zero and went on with my day.  The next morning I got in the shower and thought to myself, why not push it to day six, what the hell!  When I woke up on day 7 and got in the shower, my first thought was not OHMYGOSH I NEED MY BODY WASH NOW! Instead I said, I made it 6 days, I deserve a reward! In all honestly I probably could have lasted a few more days before I reached for the body wash.  So the results, I think its pretty clear that I passed the smell test, which was my biggest fear with no soap.   I think its also clear that while I felt clean on most days I still missed the process of washing, the clean smell, the bubbles, the knowing I wouldn't stink.  But you maybe wondering how my skins appearance held up during the challenge.  Well it was pretty much the same as before, no big changes good or bad.  I didn't break out from not using soap and my skin was actually pretty darn clear.  I have eczema on my arms and was very interested on if avoiding soap would help or hurt me, well it did neither.  My skin reacted pretty much the same to no soap as it did to soap.  I did notice my skin was a little bit more moisturized, nothing drastic, but I did not have the urge to slather on lotion as often.  So my conclusion from this challenge is that I'm going to cut back on my soap usage, because it doesn't seem to be doing great things for me, not hurting me, but why keep using a product everyday if it does nothing?  By no means am I saying good by to my body wash, and in most cases I will probably use it almost everyday on at least my pits, because of the clean feeling it gives me.  What I do not see myself doing is lathering up from head to toe anymore, just seems like a waste of product at this point!  So thats it my results are in, did anybody out there try the challenge out?  If so I am super interested to see what other peoples experiences have been.  If you want to try it out for the prize No More Dirty Looks is offering its not too late Click here to read about it.  Entires have to be in by January 26th, and I encourage you all to give it a try!