Non-standard hygiene
In this big world I’m hardly unique in anything I do, but my personal hygiene habits differ from most others' in two big ways: hair and skin care.
About two years ago I met a woman who told me she didn’t use shampoo. She had long and perfectly fine hair, so I thought I might as well try. Since I have fairly short hair (about standard for a man), I don’t have to care that much; I shower daily, rinse my hair with water, and use soap for armpits and nether regions. This works well day-to-day, but swimming in a lake or a pool makes my hair really “rough”. If I want it smooth again, I’ll need to either use shampoo, or else wait for two or three days. This way I’ve managed to only use shampoo a handful of times since I started.
Secondly, I take care of my skin differently from most. It started with me not using any moisturizer, and my girlfriend complaining about dry skin. So I bought a facial cream. The problem is that if you use moisturizer frequently, you’ll need to buy more cream, and it’s expensive (of course, nothing is expensive if you have a well-paying job, but still). I also noticed that my girlfriend uses baby oil for her feet, and reading the ingredients list was a big relevation to me: it was basically just canola oil. With this in mind, I thought I might try to use the cheap canola oil that we use for cooking, on my skin. It works, but you have to be careful not to put too much on, or else you’ll have an oily face. For the last couple of years, I’ve used canola oil on and off, but I see no reason to stop.
During all of this time, I haven’t told my girlfriend of my new habits, and it doesn’t seem like she’s noticed either, at least not enough that she’d say anything, so I fully intend to continue this simpler, cheaper hygiene routine.