The tea tree does help with the smell and it’s also – I believe – anti-microbial. I’ve also used oil of lavender, orange or peppermint. My favorite combination is the tea tree with just a few drops of lavender in the mixture. It will still smell of vinegar when it’s wet, but I find that dissipates once it’s dried.
Boy this thread makes me feel better! Ds9 hates showers. And the underwear…had to laugh:) He has been known to have just one or two pairs in the dirty wash after a week…gross:( I remember in college hearing about my friend’s boyfriend’s roommate. He’d wear his underwear inside out to get another wear out of them. Is clean really so difficult?! Gina
Sorry don’t have any advice. But had to join in the story telling. My son has thick hair. Not to long ago, I made him take a bath-bad mom- and wash his hair. He came out with just the top surface of his hair wet. He said, I washed it…and of course he did but didn’t get down to the layers underneath or the scalp! Dad cuts his hair somewhat short…not like a crew cut though..but it grows out pretty fast and when it does it is very thick! Anyways, I told him he would have to do more that just wet the surface! LOL!
Had both boys wet hair before w/ no shampoo. And when I do tell them it is time to bathe they both moan..and try to make the other one go first! They stopped bathing together a little more than a yr ago. So I suppose bathtime is not as fun!?
I also get..We just took a bath two days ago!! Do we have to take one again?
In the winter months, we actually don’t make them take baths but every 2-3 days. They do have to wash off though. LOL
And oh, don’t get me started on the bathroom floor!! YUCK!
I don’t know if it would help and I don’t have any boys, but when my girls were younger we lived off the grid and our only hot water source was what was warmed in the wood stove. Needless to say, in the summer months, hot water was scarce. So, we would spend some time in the afternoon playing the in the pool and then before we got out I’d bring out the shampoo and soap. We’d just wash up right there in the pool. I know you can get biodegradable stuff but I don’t know if it would mess up any pool filters. I don’t know how it would react with chlorine either. We just had a kiddie pool. Sometimes I just set 5 gallon buckets out in the sun to warm up and at the end of the day they’d climb in the buckets and get scrubbed off.
Maybe you could hose them down, have them put soap and shampoo on, then let them have a water fight to get it off. Maybe it would then be fun. I can just it . . . a bunch of soapy, bubbly, frothy boys running around the yard throwing water at eachother!!! lol Or get a slip n slide and cover it with soap, every time they slide they will be soaping up!!