How to Look Fifteen Years Older in Six Weeks
Manolo says, Ayyyyyy! Here from the Daily Mail is news of the social experiment gone horribly awry.
But over the past six weeks, Nicky, 42, has cut this daily routine, and all the products associated with it, out of her life altogether. Yes, for 40 days and 40 nights, there has been no showering, no hair washing, no teeth cleaning and no deodorant.
She has ditched her make-up and hair styling products, and allowed herself access to just three outfits (her running kit, a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and one summer dress).
So what has been behind this bizarre behaviour? A bout of madness? A desire to lose all her friends? Nicky, a mother-of-three who lives in Kidderminster and works as a television documentary maker, claims it’s the first scientific experiment of its kind, designed to find out how she will look and feel without the aid of the avalanche of expensive modern beauty products.
And what was the predictable result?
Cavities, stench, greasy hair, and social ostracism.
However, it wasn’t until the fourth day of not washing that Nicky began to notice a certain odour emanating from her person.
“My hair quickly became pretty unpleasant,” says Nicky. “Normally, I’d wash my hair every day, use a thickening conditioner, then I’d style it with mousse and hairspray.
“Within a few days it turned into a bird’s nest and instead of allowing it to fall flatteringly around my face, I’d taken to pulling it all back into a ponytail.
“I’d heard that hair begins to clean itself after a few weeks, using oils which are naturally secreted by the body, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to wait that long. I was only four days in and I felt so unpleasant all over that I wanted to quit.”
By the second week, Nicky’s experiment and the subsequent haze of body odour accompanying her was beginning to affect her children, who refused to cuddle her.
This is why the Manolo never goes camping.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Ew.
Just ew.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
My dear Manolo,
I was sorry to see you connect aging with being unwashed. How sad! Older does not mean uglier! It certainly does not mean abandoning person hygiene!
We will all be 15 years older one day (God willing!!) — I plan on being just as superfantastic then as I am now. Yes, I can look older, and still look superfantastic.
The poor lady in your blog post today looks tired, and a bit dirty, and very sad (as I would be if my children stopped hugging me). But old? No.
Old looks confident. Proud. Wise. Amused with the world. In a word, superfantastic. Old bathes. Old deodorizes. Old brushes her teeth!
This lady is just droopy and puffy and worried looking.
That being said, I heartily endorse your words on camping. God invented indoor plumbing for a reason.
;-)
August 24th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
The fact that she considered toothpaste a “beauty product” explains alot about the condition of many Brits teeth.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Some of those are not “beauty products.” They are hygiene products. That is disgusting! I’d be curious to see someone try this “experiment” for real–i.e., keep up with hygiene, but ditch the things that are purely cosmetic. Then we’d see for real whether all of the lotions and potions help….
August 24th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
She’s a documentary film-maker, and this was a stunt, a gimmick like Morgan Spurlock’s “SuperSize Me” — pushing an idea to an extreme level to try and make a buck off of it.
As noted in the comments at the article, if she really wanted to test the effects of not using “all those chemicals”, she could’ve showered without using any soaps or body washes, and rinsed her hair with just water. She could have brushed her teeth with just water, also. (The thought of not cleaning her teeth for 6 weeks is really horrifying.)
It is pretty amazing that she lasted 6 weeks, but did the “experiment” actually “prove” anything? Yes, that some people will do anything to attract attention to themselves, and that other people will pay good money to watch someone self-destruct in slow motion. (see also Spurlock, as above.)
August 24th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
To the Joan: I thought the same thing — she could easily have showered daily under nice, warm water and at least rinsed herself off. She could have flossed, brushed with water only, or at least used toothpicks, for heaven’s sake. Or, as the wildflower pointed out, she could have continued to use *hygiene* products, which are not the same thing as *beauty* products.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
That made my teeth hurt just reading it.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Yikes poor Nicki! I’m only 25 but if I went 40 days without the same things I’d probably look worse! I don’t know though if I’d ever participate in an experiment like this. LOL I can’t give up my luxury handbags and my Prada shoes! She looks like she’s been hit by a truck but after what she’s been through I think she has a right to look bombed out!
I might do something like this for a good sum of money however. That way when it was all over I could go spend some of the cash on Prada Mens Shoes for my boyfriend. I’m far to fashionable to do something like this!
August 24th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Maybe it’s a guy thing, but I don’t equate using “an avalanche of beauty products” with simple personal hygiene. I thought that first you clean up, then use the products, and if you don’t have time you just clean up. Hell, I do better than she does when I’m backpacking. As an equally important scientific experiment, I will observe my wife and daughter more closely.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Also, nice way to stack the photos by using a professional, smiling head shot for the before, and a .. shiny web-cam shot taken at a horrible, unflattering angle while talking for the after? Oh, yes, this is a fair comparison.
August 24th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
The very thought of not showering, washing my hair or brushing my teeth for 6 weeks makes me shudder.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
First, this “documentarian” went a little too extreme in that toothpaste, soap, deoderant, shampoo, and washing powder are NOT beauty products…their hygiene products.
Second, her before pic is just a tad bit more flattering than the after pic…but not by much.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Why on earth would one not brush one’s teeth? That damage cannot be undone, unlike body odor or greasy hair.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Roxy’s take…
Wildflower, Ryno, Joan and Cat beat me to it. Anything I would say is the dead horse beating. Hygiene products are necessities. Beauty products are not.
Joan, love, you also performed the hitting of the nail head regarding Morgan Spurlock and his attention-deprived individual antics. If one ate nought but the Big Mac for any extended period of time and did NOT wreak some form of havoc upon one’s person, then I would be shocked. But then a nitnoid such as Spurlock must escape the concept of having a real job by any means possible…
August 24th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
The contestants on “Surivor” don’t even look this bad!
August 24th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Umm…yeah…
I think it was a valid experiment, but would have been more aptly titled “Effects of Stopping All Hygienic Rituals.” What she did had little to do with premature aging. If she wanted to see how much older she looks by not applying the beauty products, she needed only one day. Get out of the shower, comb your hair, and be done with it. No make up, no lotions, no hair products. What she did achieve was finding out what it takes to alienate the rest of society. Sadly, you all know there are people out there who “perform” this experiment by choice all the time.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Camping??Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My idea of roughing it is the Best Western instead of the Ritz Carlton.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
There is room for a toothpaste, soap, and a even a razor when camping! Personal hygiene rituals take on a new wonder when performed in pristine lakes set against backdrops of stunning natural beauty. Hiking boots, while they may not be super-fantastic, are much more interesting than they used to be (http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/16723777/c/85571.html).
August 25th, 2007 at 8:17 am
What an idiotic stunt. The things people will do to themselves to get attention. And what did this prove? I think we all appreciated the importance of basic cleanliness already.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:23 am
As has been pointed out, few people leave their toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and soap behind when going camping. The crucial aspect to remember is that when camping, the people you’re with have also not performed their full set of typical hygienic/beauty rituals for roughly the same amount of time you have, and you’re all outdoors, rather than inside in close quarters. It’s really not an issue, then. Of course, as soon as you go to town, you become vividly aware of this difference, but towns also tend to feature showers.
Her experiment went too far, of course, but I found this to be the most significant part of the article:
“I was amazed to find that the point when my skin looked its best was after a month of not using anything at all. As a result, I’ve become far more moderate in what products I use and what I am prepared to spend money on.
“A bar of soap, organic shampoo and conditioner, and a basic moisturiser are all I need now. I no longer wash my hair every day and I no longer feel self-conscious if I’m not done up to the nines.”
August 25th, 2007 at 11:53 am
And still, she doesn’t mention toothpaste!
As I read the Manolo’s commentary and before I read the comments, my thoughts were of mental illness and/or depression. Hygiene — which is what we’re really talking about, her confusion on the topic notwithstanding — can suffer when a person is in emotional pain. But this was apparently a publicity stunt. A disgusting publicity stunt.
As to the age comment, I didn’t think she looked that good to begin with, but I don’t think she looked older, I think she looked like someone who was having a breakdown. Let’s not equate age with looking bad, dear Manolo, or my 75-year-old mother will come and straighten you out!