I take my hair pretty seriously. Because I’m also an obsessed hot Vinyasa student and runner, I sweat—and consequently shampoo and shower—all the time. But I never back away from a dare or challenge (see: my Soylent Diaries). So when my editor told me to stop using shampoo and to "live my best life,” I went on a hair-raising diet of dry shampoo and scalp treatments instead.

As a beauty writer, I know my daily sudsing is no good because too much shampoo can dry out hair. But because my hair is fine and quickly gets limp and dirty looking after workouts or a regular steamy summer day in NYC, I do it anyway. Lately, though, there's been a bright light in the beauty aisle. There are more shampoo alternatives to help lazy girls stretch the days between cleansing. To test the trend, I embarked on a week-without-washing experiment. The goal: to stop washing my hair and keep it looking clean and fresh with everything but shampoo.

After a bit of back and forth on my daily regimen, my editor, Jessica, and I picked a different product for each day for eight days—a really, really, really long week. The treatments were a mix of liquid scalp tonics and powder-based sprays, with a few odd textured products throughout. In lieu of shampoo, these sprays, spritzes, and powders would have to do the job of absorbing oil and embuing life into my shoulder-length, color-treated hair. Here's how it went.