Hair is Today’s news... Humphrys shuns shampoo
HE’S the formidable presenter of Radio 4’s Today who, with his rottweiler-like interviewing style, never goes easy on politicians.
And John Humphrys is just as ruthless with his own hair, disdaining shampoo for a far more spartan regime of soap and water.
The presenter, 74, spoke about his austere routine yesterday during a discussion on the Today programme. Fellow broadcaster Sonali Shah said ‘John, you should reveal the secrets of that barnet’, prompting Humphrys to admit: ‘I don’t use shampoo.’
An amused Shaun Keaveny chipped in ‘Health and beauty tips from John…’ before Humphrys added: ‘Unlikely as that may seem!’
Humphrys later told the MoS: ‘I stopped using shampoo about 15 years ago when someone with a lustrous head of hair told me he’d given up. It’s true that the first couple of weeks are pretty horrible – more grease than a chip shop fryer – but then the good bugs go to work and the grease gradually vanishes.
‘The fact is shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils – and there are some pretty nasty chemicals in some brands that do positive harm.
‘Ever seen a greasy-haired cat or polar bear? Precisely! And they don’t use shampoo. So why do we?’
Take That star Gary Barlow said last year he was washing his hair for the first time in 14 years.
BBC presenter Andrew Marr said in 2006 he was giving up washing his because of its ‘vast cost to my wallet and the environment’.
And broadcaster and ex-Tory MP Matthew Parris once went 20 years without washing his hair.