Thinking in the Shower with Head & Shoulders

Today’s post is in partnership with Head & Shoulders. It’s been my shampoo of choice for years. (Now that I think about it, I’m definitely in my second decade of using it!) I have pretty sensitive skin, my scalp included. On top of that, I have very, very dark hair. Even the slightest of flakiness will show on my hair so I don’t like to take chances. I’ve tried other shampoos throughout the years, but I always end up going back to Head & Shoulders.

Also, kind of like the foundation of a house, a healthy scalp will help with overall hair health. I think people forget about how the scalp is skin too. I try to take care of my scalp just as I would with my face!

Head & Shoulders is my top pick for shampoo because I know my scalp will be healthy and flake-free and my hair will look great. They have a big selection of options right now for all different kinds of hair types. I love the smell of Head & Shoulder Dry Scalp Care Shampoo with Almond Oil shampoo and conditioner, and it leaves my hair feeling incredibly soft because it locks in moisture 75% better than a regular moisturizing shampoo.

Now for the conditioner, while going through this partnership I learned something and thought I’d pass along the information to you… If you use Head & Shoulders Shampoo and then follow it up with a cosmetic conditioner, that conditioner can actually wash away up to 70% of the dandruff-fighting ingredients. I had no idea, but now that I do it does make a lot of sense. The Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp Care Conditioner is specifically formulated to work with the shampoo to add hydration to your scalp and hair.

Because I’m partnering with Head & Shoulders, I thought this could be a fun post to discuss how I do my best thinking in the shower. It sounds absolutely insane, but I legitimately do almost all of my “writing” while I’m washing my hair.

The first time I realized this was a possibility was when I was a junior in high school and under pressure to get a college essay done. My high school made us draft the essays as an assignment so they’d be ready to go when it came time for applying. I could NOT for the life of me come up with what to write about. I wasn’t much of a procrastinator because I had school and crew to worry about, but I kept putting the essay off until the last minute because I could not think of what to write. One night I was washing my hair and the essay basically started writing itself. I came up with the whole idea and walked out of the shower soaking wet to get to a piece of paper to jot down my thoughts while they were still fresh.

(And I only applied to Georgetown and got in early, so needless to say, I think it was a great essay!)

Ever since that moment of clarity, I’ve honed in on my thinking and writing in the shower. That first night when it happened, I thought I had some kind of superpower, haha, but it turns out that a lot of people get their best thoughts while washing their hair. There’s legit science behind why that happens and even an entire subreddit about “shower thoughts.” Psychologists believe it’s likely because you’re relaxed in a completely judgment-free zone with the slightest amount of distraction– like hair washing. I mean, when you think about it, you’re in the shower uninhibited so your brain can drop any walls that might usually be there.

One of the hardest parts about blogging for so long is constantly coming up with new ideas. I eventually implemented a strategy for breaking up content into a structure to take some of the guesswork out. But every week, I still have to come up with about four new ideas. When I know I am in a creative rut or when I need to focus on one idea, I wait until my next shower. I kind of “plant” the seed before I hop in (whether that’s to brainstorm new ideas or start “writing” out the details of one I already have). Because I got the ball rolling, I’m generally in a good state of mind to creatively think.

I’d say I do about 30% of my content generation (from broad ideas to specific sentences) just living my life and 50% while I’m in the shower, with the remaining 20% happening when I actually sit down at a computer.

I’ll come up with ideas for the blog, write a post (especially the long ones like my blogging tips), compose speeches that I have coming up, come up with scripts for my Youtube channel. Anything I need to think about has the potential to be completed in the shower! Talk about multi-tasking.

Anyone else a shower thinker or writer?!

Thank you Head & Shoulders for sponsoring this post.