Over the last several years I’ve been told multiple times that skin care products are toxic. I knew the safety of the ingredients was questionable, but I always dismissed it as being negligible. I mean, how can the application of a product on such a small part of your body cause any problems.
In continuing a journey of trying to achieve optimal health I came across this book “Super Gut” by William Davis, MD. Oh my, my poor microbiome. I’ll post some other changes/experiments from that book at some point, but back to the beard story for now. The book made me think a bit more about how chemicals can be disrupting to our microbiome.
I was pondering the book while taking a shower which seems to be when I get my most intelligent random thoughts. Something about doing something so monotonous that your brain doesn’t need much energy and so shuts off part of it and allows you to have the occasional very bright idea.
I had the crazy thought of “you know, when I prescribe topical testosterone to men, I always make sure to tell them they absolutely need to make sure that children and women should not get in contact with it because it could cause significant changes in their bodies.” There’s even a black box warning about this. So I thought to myself, “Self, is it possible for a small amount of shaving gel to have effects on me?” I couldn’t find a great study showing me the answer. So I’d rather be safe than be sorry. I suspect it is part of the reason for the decline in health in modern societies.
And since I’ve previously tried every type of shaving device I could find that doesn’t require some lotion/gel/cream and they all grunt and groan too much and hurt in trying to get rid of my facial hair. I decided that since I would no longer use shaving gel that I would just let my beard grow.
Then I found out about the toxic masculinity ad that Gillette had done at some point. I apparently had been hidden under a rock the last several years reading a medical paper or taking care of my children as I hadn’t seen it before. So I went and watched the ad which left me all kinds of confused. Things that make me confused tend to have an agenda which is not always clear so I was just glad that I can boycott Gillette without even missing them. My, I would have missed that Gillette Fusion Proglide.
And so, in the pursuit of health, the beard is growing. Maybe with one of my next experiments (from the book Super Gut), I’ll see if I have more empathy for Gillette.