Has anyone heard of or tried the no shampoo or soap In the shower thing? Apparently it’s a thing people are doing so I decided to try it and so far it’s going great! I wanted to reduce my shower time and soap is the real problem so now that I read we really don’t need it I’ve cut my shower down from 1-2 hrs to 20-30 min! I’m so happy! I still feel clean even tho I have contamination ocd I just don’t get dirty right before I shower like I used to it’s not too hard either I found. :) I’m almost 3 weeks in now!

I just asked a similar question! I don’t know if I can do this. My issue now is the need to shampoo daily. How did you manage to make this change happen?

I always shampooed daily too.. every time I took a shower I shampooed. My therapist gave me a packet a while back when I first realized that my ocd was actually called contamination ocd. It stated that In relatively recent history we began rubbing soap on our bodies and while this probably solved a few problems, In the case of ocd it’s a source of a lot of suffering for the compulsive washer. Every time i wash my hands with soap it takes so much longer than with just using water. So most of the time I just rinse my hands and I do do that a lot and I still feel clean but I just wear gloves when doing things such as disinfecting surfaces taking out trash and doing dirty dishes or laundry. So having that in mind I googled 3 weeks ago if we really need to use soap.. I’ve always known it to be a necessary thing according to those without ocd but I wanted to be told otherwise lol and that’s when I found the posts of people trying this experiment! They made it sound as if water was just fine to use. I really want to cut down my shower time and stop spending so much money on products cuz I do go thru them fast so as long as I dont feel dirty before starting shower other than normal things like oily skin i should be fine and so far so good! I just stay away from some of the things that made me feel like a need to wash right away. What kinds of things make you want to shampoo your hair? Just the general oily ness or some other contaminant?

Shana007 I do the same! I don’t bring my own tp though. But ocd takes over and makes me so paranoid that whatever yucky stuff I seen has actually touched me esp if it’s pads in the trash bin. This is awful as I have to use a public toilet at work daily.

Sorry I like sharing my compulsions with others that have similar and hearing theirs I recently found this app and never before thought there was anything like it much less ever met someone with real ocd.. :)

I know the Lysol wipes! I’ve had times where I used 2 containers of 75 wipes each and a whole can of Lysol in the matter of a couple or few hours when I’m in an ocd trance Although the Lysol spray is actually a fabric disinfectant which has much less harsh smelling fumes I would’ve probably died with a can of Lysol its so bad! lol

Shana0007 this is super helpful. It’s hard to get therapy where I’m located and still waitlisted so I’ve been managing on my own. I actually don’t have oily skin or hair but my issue is being exposed to what I consider contaminants which is public bathrooms. If I see any smudge of brown or even a pad or tampon in the trash it’s enough to make me want to shower for 1 hour.

I also go through bottles of soap and Lysol wipes really fast :(

I always use a paper towel to open a public bathroom stall door and then squat and bring my own tissues to use as tp as long as I don’t touch anything and I remember not touching anything then I’m usually good

I usually have to do mental checking to make sure I didn’t touch anything but usually it doesn’t take too long and I’m happy with it but at home tho is a different story I usually spend a lot more time making sure I’m still clean or cleaning myself.. it doesn’t require a shower tho just a few things to do. My bf is not a fan of my ocd and would tell me how he’s an analyst and how wasteful of toilet paper paper towels and Water. i got a bidet tho so I’ll be reducing toilet paper quite a bit an I love it feel so much cleaner and now that I got my shower time down I’m getting excited to be a bit better! Gotta do the mental stuff now I spend most of my thoughts on if Im still clean it’s exhausting!