Drought May Prompt Californians to Let Personal Hygiene Slide
Two women dry their hair after taking showers at the portable showers available to use for free at the Iglesia Emmanuel Church in Porterville, Calif., on April 13, 2015. In a handful of drought-plagued communities, including Cambria, East Porterville and Santa Cruz, scarcity has forced changes. The communities face especially strict limits because they aren't part of the State Water Project, a system of canals and reservoirs that delivers mountain runoff to urban areas in the Bay Area and Southern California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergForget the brown lawns. California’s historic drought may make the state’s residents less keen on washing their bodies and their homes.
The water woes in the Western U.S. may cut sales of traditional cleaning products sold by the likes of Procter & Gamble Co., Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Deborah Aitken and Gregory Elders wrote in a report Friday. But it could boost sales of dry shampoos, which customers spray on and comb through their hair in lieu of washing in the shower, they said.