Heh, right now it's 10F and my hands are bloody and busted open from getting extremely dry and chapped after a few hours in the cold. Lotion would absolutely help right now...if I happened to own any! Alas, I am a tech nerd!

Likewise, this time of year I'm reminded by nature to buy a bottle of really good quality moisturizing shampoo. My experience has also suggested any conditioner you can buy at Walmart is a scam, but for certain heads and certain climates, spending more on the good stuff makes the difference between your hair being anemic or healthy. I switch to nice shampoo every winter and year after year the difference is night and day within a week or two.

Fabric softener on the other hand...what a waste!

Olive oil works well as a lotion as long as your skin isn't naturally super greasy.

A bottle of the most expensive olive oil is still cheaper per fluid oz. than a bottle of lotion.

Ill give the edge to coco butter derivatives over olive oil.

https://www.amazon.com/Palmers-Cocoa-Butter-Soothing-Itchy/d... https://www.amazon.com/Palmers-Cocoa-Butter-Formula-Therapy/... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A4D5YM/

Yeah, the tricky part is the "naturally greasy". Also I want to keep objects I touch clean

There are mosturizing creams that are much less greasy

Aveeno is your friend, if you can get it where you live.

Not only is antibacterial soap a scam (you don't need it), it also causes antibiotic resistance.

If I use the "wrong" brand or no shampoo and conditioner, I'll get terrible dandruff that can even lead to it mixed with dried blood.

If I use Aveeno brand shampoo and conditioner, this never happens, ever. Not a single white flake. Nothing else has done it. Totally brand loyal and that stuff isn't cheap, nor is it advertised as a dandruff product

> Shampoo is a scam. Conditioner is a scam.

That's why I don't use those either (in shower). Usually I wash with water only, sometimes with some bar soap.

For killing bacteries in my armpits (which causes the bad smell of sweat, thus "deodorant") I use coconut oil. Works superbly, but makes stains in shirts as a downside.

Really? That works? Im interested in learning more. Mind sharing?

Coconut oil will most likely feed the bacteria than kill it

That's what I thought too, but my empirical testing shows it more effective to reduce smell of sweat than commercial deodorants (e.g. AXE) or no deodorant at all. Haven't found any scientifical studies on the exact subject.

My guess would be that feeding them with something different probably makes its byproducts smell different as well

(Or they actually die because they don't like it, but bacteria is famous for processing whatever it can get)

There are many type of bacteries on human skin, but body odor seems to be caused by E. Coli[1].

I found at least one study showing that coconut oil _extract_ has negative effect on E. Coli growth[2]. Of course, this is not same as using virgin coconut oil.

There's also a study[3] showing that Coconut Oil may boost the growth for some other bacteria.

Anyway, personally I've found it to work, whatever the mechanism is.

[1] http://www.medicaldaily.com/what-causes-body-odor-small-amou...

[2] http://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijpps/article...

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24328700

Nice! Thanks for the sources

There are lots of products I consume that are not necessary or are even a luxury, yet I would not consider any of them a scam.

I think what's being suggested here is that these products provide no utility (or even negative utility in the case of antibiotic-resistance-generating antibacterial soaps) and so you're being tricked into buying them for no valid reason.

There may be some products you actually do consume for no good reason, but note that even if a product serves no real purpose, it can still have value to you, even if just by making you feel good about owning or using it.

You could say that all of fashion is a "scam", because cheap, plain-looking clothes can protect you from the elements just as well as expensive, extravagant clothes. But nevertheless the latter can serve a purpose, such as (for example) social signaling that can enhance your reproductive success -- so it has evolutionary utility. Same with fancy cars, more or less.

If they also don't do what they claim, they are a scam.

A $10.000 pair of shoes doesn't claim to do anything more than a $100 pair of shoes, except maybe being more luxurious and lasting.

You must not have dry skin. 3-5x daily application of Aquaphor keeps my hands mildly dry rather than cracked and bleeding. And it works great on your face to help prevent wind burn while skiing.

Aquaphor is habit forming. You may want to switch T plain Vaseline, which does not apparently cause your body to reduce its own natural oil production. Source: friend is an RN.