“It’s fine,” he says to nobody. “It’s basically the same.”
The Early Days
Sources confirm the process began innocently. The bottle was about a quarter full, the man was between paychecks, and a small, reasonable voice in his head suggested adding “just a little water, to stretch it.”
This is how all great empires begin.
The first dilution was a tiny splash. A rounding error. Then the bottle got lighter, and so did his standards. Soon he was adding water every time he washed his hair, a practice historians would later call “the Great Stretch.”
“I told myself it was a temporary measure,” the man explained. “That was about five weeks and eleven refills of tap water ago.”
The Science of It
Experts say there is a precise, delicate point at which shampoo becomes “shampoo-flavored water,” and this man has been living comfortably beyond it for some time.
He has learned many things on this journey:
