Shampoo is a Lie (for me...and maybe for you too??)

A man with a beard and short brown hair, wearing an orange puffer jacket over a rust-colored shirt and light gray jeans, walks into a home office. He removes his jacket, revealing a light gray button-up shirt over the rust-colored shirt. He then picks up a large, black, photography softbox on a stand and moves it to the left side of the frame. He looks directly at the camera with a serious expression, then smiles slightly.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay. This is going to piss some people off. Some of you are going to turn your backs on me forever. Sorry to see you go."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and slightly conspiratorial tone. He gestures with his hands to emphasize points, occasionally touching his hair. He maintains eye contact with the viewer.

"I have to tell you this reality. I have not shampooed my hair for five years. And yet, those five years have been some of the best five years of my hair's life. No more itching, no more oily hair, no more dandruff flakes, just normal hair that does weird stuff sometimes, but is generally happy."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left

The man leans in closer to the camera, his expression becoming more intense and focused. The shot quickly cuts to a closer view of his face, then to an extreme close-up, and then to an outdoor shot where he is wearing a blue and red patterned headband and it appears to be snowing. He then returns to the original medium close-up, running his hand through his hair with a slightly self-conscious expression.

"Let me explain."

Setting: home office, outdoors — bright, even, natural light from left; dark with artificial lights (outdoor)

The man runs his hand through his hair, then sits back, looking directly at the camera with a slight smile. The screen transitions to a white background with a textured pattern. A black oval appears, with the man's head visible in the center. The text "I WAS IN A CYCLE" appears in black letters, partially obscuring his face. Four white circles rotate around the oval.

"Go ahead, take a good look. I know everyone's already doing it anyway. Look at my hair. I've never felt so conscious about my hair because I'm talking about it. Okay. So, five years ago, I realized that I was in a cycle."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left

Text: "I WAS IN A CYCLE"

The man's head, with a yellow outline, is shown against a white textured background. The scene transitions to a man in a shower, with shampoo lathering his hair. Text overlays appear, explaining the function of shampoo. The man in the shower closes his eyes as water and shampoo run down his face. The text continues to appear, detailing what shampoo removes from hair.

"The cycle looked like this. My head, which produces natural protective oils, would be washed with shampoo. Shampoo is just a chemical that attaches to these oils on your scalp. And then when you wash that shampoo out, the oils are attached to them and they leave, ridding your head of oils. The shampoo also cleans off any pollen or dust that's caught in your hair. So, my hair was now clean, very clean."

Setting: outdoors — bright, natural sunlight

Text: "1. SHAMPOO", "CHEMICAL", "ATTACHES TO OILS", "TAKES OILS AWAY", "NO MORE POLLEN", "NO MORE DUST"

The man in the shower continues to wash his hair, with shampoo and water running down his face. The scene then cuts to a different man in a bathroom, drying his hair with a hairdryer. Text overlays explain the function of conditioner.

"Oh, yeah, and this guy isn't me. This is just a stock footage representation of me five years ago. Anyway, then goes in the conditioner, which coats your hair with silicone material that makes it shine and restores all of that shine that was lost from stripping away all of those oils."

Setting: outdoors, bathroom — bright, natural sunlight; bright, artificial light

Text: "2. CONDITIONER", "COATS WITH SILICONE", "MAKES HAIR SHINE"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a thoughtful expression, occasionally touching his chin. The scene transitions to a white textured background. Two circular insets appear: one showing the man in the shower with shampoo, and the other showing the man drying his hair. A third circular inset appears, showing hands applying hair product to wet hair. Text overlays explain the use of product.

"Man, I haven't used conditioner in a very long time, but I do remember that it makes your hair feel like silky butter. Mm, silky butter. Is that even a thing? Okay, so you strip away the oils, you coat it with this shiny, silky conditioner. And then my hair would end up just being sort of like a fluffball. In order to style it, I would put in some product, like some fancy pomade I bought at some fancy barber in Chicago."

Setting: home office, outdoors, bathroom — bright, even, natural light from left

Text: "3. PRODUCT"

The circular inset showing hands applying hair product remains. The word "OIL!!!" appears in large, bold, black letters over the inset, then disappears. The text "DUDE! YOU JUST STRIPPED AWAY ALL THIS PROTECTIVE OIL THAT WE MAKE TO PROTECT YOUR SCALP. WTFFFFF?!?" appears around the inset, with "WHOA" repeating. The scene transitions to an animation of oil derricks pumping oil, with oil barrels in the background. The scene then splits into two frames, showing more oil barrels, with the words "DOUBLE OIL", "POMADE", and "NATURAL OIL" appearing.

"This pomade is made of, wait for it, oil. It is oil, an oil-based product. So, I'm putting oil back in my hair after I just stripped it all out. Meanwhile, my scalp is like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, dude! You just stripped away all this protective oil that we make to protect your scalp. WTFFFFF?!?" And so, it fires up its natural oil-making machine to produce more oil for your hair. So, now you have double oil. You've got the pomade and the natural oils."

Setting: oil field — golden sunset, dark and industrial

Text: "3. PRODUCT", "OIL!!!", "DUDE! YOU JUST STRIPPED AWAY ALL THIS PROTECTIVE OIL THAT WE MAKE TO PROTECT YOUR SCALP. WTFFFFF?!?", "DOUBLE OIL", "POMADE", "NATURAL OIL"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a concerned expression. The scene transitions to a man sitting on the floor in a dimly lit room, holding his head in his hands, looking distressed. A bottle and two glasses are on the floor next to him.

"So, now, by the end of the day, you start to feel like your hair is super oily and greasy, and you have all these messages about dirty hair being greasy and oily."

Setting: indoor — dim, directional light from right

A young man with curly brown hair sits in a barber's chair, looking in a mirror. Another man, the barber, stands behind him, touching his shoulder. The young man runs his hand through his hair, looking annoyed. The barber holds up a bottle of Head & Shoulders shampoo. The scene cuts back to the man speaking directly to the camera.

"Hey, you have got greasy hair, though, bro. Oh, come on, man. So, what's the cure for this oily, greasy, dirty hair? Shampoo!"

Setting: barbershop — bright, even, artificial light

The barber holds up the Head & Shoulders shampoo bottle, pointing to the label. The young man looks at the bottle. The barber then gestures towards the young man's head. The scene cuts to a white textured background with a black oval, showing the distressed man. Four circular insets appear around the oval, depicting the cycle of shampooing, conditioning, using pomade, and feeling greasy.

"Deep cleansing shampoo. It helps take away the excess dirt and oils that can be inside your hair. Right. I reckon we should give it a go and get you washed up. Let's do it. And the whole cycle starts over again."

Setting: barbershop — bright, even, artificial light

Text: "FEEL GREASY", "SHAMPOO", "CONDITIONER", "POMADE"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a concerned expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a black and white vintage advertisement. Silhouettes of people's heads are in the background, and the text "The Problem of Dandruff Solved!" appears in the foreground.

"In my mid-20s, I also started to realize that my scalp was starting to become like itchy and flaky, which is like so embarrassing, so uncomfortable. And yet, luckily, out there in the world, there is a cure for this."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left; dark and dramatic (vintage ad)

Text: "The Problem of Dandruff Solved!"

The vintage advertisement shows a box of Head & Shoulders shampoo. The man then returns to the screen, looking directly at the camera, speaking with a serious expression. The scene transitions to the white textured background with the black oval and four circular insets, depicting the cycle of shampooing, conditioning, using pomade, and feeling greasy. The man's face is shown in various insets, representing different stages of the cycle.

"With just regular use of Procter & Gamble's new wonder shampoo, Head & Shoulders. Okay, listen, just a quick moment to make it clear that this cycle is my hair experience, which is based on not only my physiology and genetics, but also on my standards and relationship to society and what society tells me to do with my hair."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left; dark and dramatic (vintage ad)

Text: "Head & Shoulders shampoo", "Procter & Gamble", "FEEL GREASY", "SHAMPOO", "CONDITIONER", "POMADE"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and earnest expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a series of meme-like images related to the "no-poo" movement, including Dr. Phil wearing a "SHAMPOO STOLE MY OILS AND MADE ME BALD" t-shirt, a banner reading "SHAMPOO IS A CONSPIRACY" on a house, and an infographic linking shampoo to oil production and military use.

"So, just to get this out of the way, I'm not here to preach what's right for your scalp. I'm simply telling you what's right for my scalp. In fact, there's this whole movement, sort of a political movement around shampoo and not shampooing. It's called "no-poo", which is a very unfortunate name for this movement. I'm not a part of that movement. I'm not pushing that. This isn't political for me. I just want to tell you a story about the journey of my hair using a little bit of history and data and research. And again, most importantly, my own experience of five years of not shampooing my hair."

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left

Text: "T-shirt time", "SHAMPOO STOLE MY OILS AND MADE ME BALD", "SHAMPOO IS A CONSPIRACY", "When America finds out sebaceous glands produce oil", "LET ME SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU:"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and engaging expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a series of vintage shampoo commercials from the 1970s, featuring women with big, voluminous hair. The commercials show women flipping their hair and looking happy, implying that daily shampooing is the key to healthy, bouncy hair.

"Okay, so let's dive in. Let's get some context here. Human beings used to not wash their hair very much at all. It was only by the 1970s, when ads targeted mainly towards white women, would come out saying that you need to wash your hair every single day. And that the dirt in your hair was like weighing it down. And that in order to prevent this weighing down and to get body, you would have to use this product."

Setting: home office, various studios — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, artificial light (vintage ads)

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a critical and slightly disgusted expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a man washing his hair with shampoo in a shower, then to a woman boxing a punching bag, her hair flying around. The scene cuts to a woman from behind, her long blonde hair flowing as if in a commercial. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"This also started a whole new set of messaging around greasy hair, dirty hair, which even saying it is like repulsive. So, demonizing the idea of greasy hair and pushing this daily shampoo regimen was seen as the only way to fight back against this greasy hair epidemic. Today, Americans wash their hair around five of the seven days of the week. By the way, that's about double how much they wash their hair on average in Spain and Italy. And it's way more than the once a month Americans used to wash their hair in the '30s."

Setting: home office, gym — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, artificial light (gym)

Text: "SOURCE: PROCTER & GAMBLE"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and slightly self-deprecating expression. He gestures with his hands. The scene transitions to a close-up of a laptop screen showing a younger man in a forest, then to a close-up of the younger man's face. The scene then cuts to a black and white vintage commercial featuring a man happily washing his hair with shampoo. The scene transitions to a close-up of a Dove Men+Care shampoo bottle, with water splashing around it.

"So, let me tell you the story of how this all went down, because I'm I didn't like grow up as a non-shampooer. Five years ago, I had bought this really expensive, fancy tea tree oil-based dandruff shampoo, because I had so much itchiness and flakiness everywhere. I was so tired of that and I was so embarrassed by it. So, I was diligent. I would wash my hair with this tea tree oil shampoo every day. The marketing on this told me that I shouldn't use any other shampoos, that all the other shampoos were the devil, and that this was the only thing I could use to treat my dandruff."

Setting: home office, outdoors, studio — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, natural light (outdoors); bright, artificial light (vintage ad)

Text: "Dove Men+Care Fortifying Shampoo", "STRENGTHENING", "WITH CAFFEINE + TRICHAZOLE ACTIVES", "FORTIFIES HAIR TO HELP PREVENT HAIR FALL"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a thoughtful expression, occasionally touching his face. The scene transitions to a man sitting at a wooden picnic table in a snowy forest, wearing a winter hat and orange jacket. He gestures with his hands. The man then returns to the screen, continuing to speak. The scene cuts to a close-up of a barber's chair, then to a display of barber tools, and then to a close-up of a barber using clippers on a client's head.

"I ran out of this shampoo at while we were on like a trip. So, I couldn't order it. And I was just like, "Okay, when I get back, I'll order the shampoo and I'll get back onto it." And it like took a while, we were on some long trip. I get back, I forget to order the shampoo. I was getting worried about this. But soon, after like three weeks of this sort of fear of using other shampoos, I noticed that the itching started going away. And that the greasy hair feel started to actually level out. It was actually okay. And I was secretly like, "Ooh, I'm probably, it's probably just got used to it or something." But the key moment happened when I went in to get a haircut, having not washed my hair with shampoo for like a month."

Setting: home office, forest, barbershop — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, natural light (forest); bright, artificial light (barbershop)

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a surprised and relieved expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene cuts to a barber giving a client a haircut in a modern barbershop. The barber is focused on his work, and the client is relaxed. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"I was actually really nervous and conscious of what the barber was going to say to me. And he didn't say anything. So, I asked him. I was like, "Hey, how does my hair and scalp look to you?" And he was like, "Looks good. It's a little dry, but overall, pretty healthy." And that was the moment for me. I was like, "Wait, what?" This guy who sees like dozens of scalps every day, dozens of scalps. That's actually a really gross like dozens of scalps. I'm just never going to say that again. This guy sees a lot of scalps every day, and he had like blessed my un-shampooed scalp and was like, "You're actually okay.""

Setting: home office, barbershop — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, artificial light (barbershop)

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and earnest expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a close-up of wheat swaying in the wind, then to a close-up of curly brown hair. The scene cuts to a young man in a barbershop, smiling, with the text "REGULAR WASHING IS THE ONLY WAY" appearing. The scene shows a barber cutting hair, then a woman with long dark hair flipping her hair, with the text "NO GREASE". The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"Now, let me just remind you that I've told some of my close friends this story before, and they have tried it and it hasn't worked for them. I'm not saying that this exact thing is going to work for you. The reason I am making this video, because I want us to have reasons to be skeptical of all the messages that we get fed around this topic."

Setting: home office, outdoors, barbershop, studio — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, natural light (outdoors); bright, artificial light (barbershop)

Text: "REGULAR WASHING IS THE ONLY WAY", "NO GREASE"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a critical and slightly exasperated expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a black and white vintage advertisement for Pepsodent toothpaste, highlighting the phrase "A Dangerous Coating That robs teeth of their whiteness." The scene then cuts to a close-up of a person biting into a green apple, showing the teeth.

"A few years ago, I read this kind of obnoxious business book that said that the best way to market a product is to create a psychological trigger that makes people need your product. The example used in the book was this toothpaste in like the '50s or '60s, where the ad for this toothpaste called attention to this quote "dangerous coating" that robs the teeth of their whiteness. Like this film coating that's like on your teeth every time you eat and it's like dangerous and bad and socially unacceptable. Turns out that this dangerous film on your teeth is a harmless residue from food consumption, and toothpaste doesn't remove it any better than eating an apple."

Setting: home office, studio, outdoors — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, artificial light (vintage ad); bright, natural sunlight (outdoors)

Text: "FILM A Dangerous Coating That robs teeth of their whiteness", "A Dangerous Coating"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a critical and slightly frustrated expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a man in a shower with shampoo, then to a man with a dirty face in a garage, holding a tool. The scene cuts to a man showering with Nivea Men shampoo, then to a close-up of Alpecin Caffeine Shampoo with the text "USE DAILY". The scene shows a father playing with his child, then a woman boxing, then a woman with flowing hair. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"So, yes, you should totally brush your teeth, but not because there's this dangerous residue. And now, I can't un-feel it. The psychological trigger is baked in. I can't not feel it, and I feel judged because I maybe have this dangerous coating. This same dynamic happens today with the hundred-billion-dollar hair care industry. They push all sorts of scary ideas about dirty things lurking in your hair that only their product can fix. And they get very rich because of it. Telling you that you have grease in your hair makes you feel dirty, psychologically. And what it does is it turns these naturally occurring lipids or fats in your hair, which are totally protective and naturally occurring, into this gross-feeling, dangerous thing."

Setting: home office, various studios — bright, even, natural light from left; various commercial lighting

Text: "USE DAILY", "NEW ACTIVE CLEAN SHAMPOO"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a critical and slightly exasperated expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a 3D animation of hair follicles with dandruff, showing a blue glowing cube representing an active ingredient. A woman in a lab coat, identified as "DR. JENI THOMAS SCALP & HAIR SCIENTIST", holds a Head & Shoulders shampoo bottle. The animation of hair follicles with dandruff reappears, showing flakes disappearing. The scene shows two Head & Shoulders shampoo bottles with the text "100% DANDRUFF-FREE KATI-FREE". The woman in the lab coat is now outdoors, holding a laptop and a shampoo bottle. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"And more and more, these commercials have these like fancy 3D diagrams to make it feel totally legit and medical. There are medical things here, like dandruff is a real skin disorder. That's something that has real symptoms and should be treated in a real medical way by a professional, not by a commercial with a fake doctor showing you 3D diagrams to sell a product. And no, this lady is not a legit doctor, she's an actor. While we're on the point of dandruff and itchy scalps, let it be known that dry scalp, which is not a skin disorder, literally means that you're you don't have enough hydration in your scalp, is not dangerous. And yet, they share effectively the same symptoms, itchy, flaky. But dry scalp, unlike dandruff, is caused in part by, wait for it, shampooing too much, drying out your scalp by stripping it of its natural hydrating oils."

Setting: home office, lab, outdoors — bright, even, natural light from left; bright, artificial light (lab); bright, natural sunlight (outdoors)

Text: "Head & Shoulders contains Zinc Pyrithione", "DR. JENI THOMAS SCALP & HAIR SCIENTIST", "FLAKE UP TO 100% FREE", "DANDRUFF", "100% DANDRUFF-FREE KATI-FREE", "HAIR & SCALP EXPERT", "DID YOU SAY OIL?"

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a critical and slightly exasperated expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a grainy video of a young man scratching his head on a street, then to a young man in a forest looking around. The scene cuts to a series of shampoo commercials, including L'Oréal Elvive, Pantene, Nivea Men, and Head & Shoulders, all promoting products for various hair concerns. The commercials feature attractive people with perfect hair, often in glamorous settings, and use scientific-sounding language and 3D animations to explain product benefits. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"This was my problem in my 20s. I didn't have dandruff. I thought I had dandruff because I was shampooing my hair too much and it was drying out my scalp and making it dry and flaky. All of this gets conflated when corporations present their advertisements as legit science that's meant to help you feel better. But let's just quickly say it like it is. The only thing they're doing is trying to sell you a product, to make sure that you feel like you need it as much as possible, which helps you build the nearly hundred-billion-dollar hair care industry, a huge portion of which is owned by just three companies: L'Oréal, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, which find a million ways to feel like you are dirty, you are undesirable, and if you don't use their product, you will be ostracized from society. Just look at these commercials."

Setting: home office, various studios — bright, even, natural light from left; various commercial lighting

Text: "L'ORÉAL", "P&G", "UNILEVER"

A woman approaches a man wearing a winter hat and scarf, taking off his hat. He looks embarrassed. The woman holds up a Head & Shoulders shampoo bottle. The man returns to the screen, speaking with a serious and concerned expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene transitions to a locker room where men are applying face masks and cucumbers to their eyes. The scene cuts to a man in a bathroom looking in a mirror, then to a man showering with a bulldog watching him. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak.

"What's wrong? Take off your hat! No, it's it's dry. Try Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp Care. These companies have cracked the code on what drives us, and it's fear and a desire to be accepted. And this is just with hair. This is with a million of these products that tell us that we're inferior. And if I'm saying this as a man in this society, it is a thousand times worse for women."

Setting: home, locker room, bathroom, shower — bright, artificial light; dim, dramatic light (locker room); bright, artificial light (bathroom); bright, artificial light (shower)

Text: "What's wrong? Take off your hat!", "It's - it's dry.", "Try Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp Care."

The man looks directly at the camera, speaking with a serious and encouraging expression. He gestures with his hands to emphasize his points. The scene cuts to the BetterHelp logo, then to a phone screen showing the BetterHelp website with various options. The phone screen then shows a list of counselors and a message from a counselor. The man returns to the screen, continuing to speak. A text overlay appears with the BetterHelp website address. The man smiles and waves goodbye.

"So, am I here telling you not to shampoo your hair? No. Do whatever you want. You have a totally different hair experience than I do. I'm sure stopping cold turkey like I did probably isn't the right choice for you. All I'm asking you is to scrutinize your standards. And who is in control of the narrative of what clean even means. Okay. That's that. Speaking of the psychology of self-esteem in the 21st century, I want to tell you about the sponsor of today's video, which is BetterHelp. It's an online tool that allows you to connect with a professional trained counselors so that you can have therapy but do it remotely. I've been in therapy for the past year and a half, and for the majority of that, it's been remote. I haven't been sitting in the therapist's office. And I can't stress enough how important it has been for me, my understanding of myself, and my well-being as a person and as a husband and as a father and as a brother and as all the roles that I play in my life, therapy has been amazing. BetterHelp is not a crisis line. It is not a self-help scheme. It is a platform for finding a counselor and starting therapy so that you can start to make strides in your mental health. My favorite part about BetterHelp is that it makes it free and easy to change your counselors. It often takes a while to find the right therapist for your life. And with BetterHelp, you have a ton of options, as well as the ability to, if you don't find a good fit at first or second or third, you can keep trying until you find the right counselor for you. BetterHelp is more affordable than traditional counseling, which can be fairly expensive, and there is financial aid available. BetterHelp wants you to start living a happier life today. And I am a major proponent of therapy as a an ongoing practice. I wish it was more accessible. BetterHelp is making it so. So, go to betterhelp.com/johnnyharris. That's better H E L P.com/johnnyharris and join the over 1 million people who are taking charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. Clicking that link helps support this channel, but it also gives you 10% off your first month of therapy. Thank you, BetterHelp, for sponsoring this video. Thank you all for watching. Thank you, patrons, for your ongoing support. I hope some of you stick around even though I don't wash my hair all the time. Okay? See ya. "

Setting: home office — bright, even, natural light from left

Text: "IT IS A PLATFORM FOR FINDING A COUNSELOR AND STARTING THERAPY", "WWW.BETTERHELP.COM/JOHNNYHARRIS"