Why is it you're not supposed to shampoo?

The detergent strips the natural oils from your scalp, and your skin reacts by producing even more oil, making your scalp feel greasy and so you wash it more. It's worse for people with curly hair because it has a rougher (drier) texture, and the detergent makes for frizz and breakage. People with fine hair get the worst of the greasy feeling. If you just rinse it and massage conditioner through it, your skin/scalp is moisturized and will stop trying to overlubricate you. Same thing for acne creams, they make the problem worse by overdrying your skin.

Kat, if your skin feels super dry, try St Ives Apricot Scrub, and Eucerine non-comedigenic moisturizer in the bottle that has the SPF 30. You'll be sloughing off the dead skin, and the Eucerine is good on sensitive skin. They're both cheap and effective, I've found. It makes my skin feel soft/non-greasy all day.

The skin on my face doesn't feel dry at all -- but the wrinkles and the sun damage are bad. I really want some sort of medical intervention with injections and plumpers to make my face look less awful.

Oh good and the gray hair? FORGET IT.

On my feet and legs, I have been vaseline and that works like woah.

I think I spent the first half of my life thinking I had oily skin, when really I've had dry skin.

Also helpful? Running the humidifiers!

Forty is a lot harder on the body than I expected.

Cosign.

If it's any comfort, fifty hasn't been as bad a physical hit as forty. But, fuck, typing "fifty" and knowing it applies to me is still a massive kick in the psyche. I am not coping well with that one.

The panic is awful. I regret the years of smoking. I regret the years of being overweight. I fear it's too late to enjoy my face/body. And then I calm the fuck down. And then it starts again.

I wonder if my singledom makes it feel worse. I was chatting with a dude at work and the subject of age came up and I told him I'm 38. He said he wouldn't have guessed I was over 32. I said it's the purple hair. He said I have good skin. I think I probably do, rationally. It's hard to overcome the brainwashing.

Forty is a lot harder on the body than I expected.

Forty's okay for me so far, but I only have a few months under my belt.

Well, there was the months-long hip pain, but that seems to be gone. I think buying new running shoes went a long way towards fixing the conditions that caused the hip problem.

But I could live without the noises my knees make. It's like goddamn popcorn in there.

My grey is really starting to be noticeable. And I was looking at my nails today and I realized how old my hands look. My skin is still pretty good, I think because of the no makeup thing. The SO is down to his college weight and totally looks younger than me right now, although he doesn't think so. But he's going to have the forties and fifties good aging thing that guys do sometimes, and I'm...not.

I regret the years of being overweight.

You know, I don't regret it as much as I just think it would be easier to not be overweight, in terms of clothes shopping (thrift stores, for instance, are not a friend to the fatties) and such.

And then sometimes I think how I really do objectify the hell out of Tim (no 45-year-old non-actor should have a body like that) and feel guilty, like if I'm going to leer at his fine, fine ass, then maybe I owe it to him to be closer to a standard weight so that he can leer at a smaller ass. (*He* never EVER indicates any such feelings that perhaps my big butt should be smaller, to be clear. *I* am the one getting all quid pro quo about our asses.)

For ita (if I'm remembering correctly): Lake sharks!

Earlier this year I switched over to using oils (either olive or coconut mixed with some castor oil and a few drops of tea tree oil) as a makeup remover/facial cleanser, and my skin is totes healthier and less dry. Now I just need to force myself to shampoo less.