Karen Nyberg Shows How To Wash Your Hair In Space

Astronaut Karen Nyberg is a brilliant, all-American shero. She has worked for NASA for 15 years and has spent 180 days at the International Space Station over the course of two missions. (Meanwhile, I'm pretty proud of myself when I remember to eat breakfast.) In all that time, she had a lot of practice learning the ins and outs of living in a zero gravity environment. One question she apparently gets a lot is "how do you wash your hair in space?"

I'd imagine it's sort of irritating to be a badass astronaut and be asked a lot about your hair when your male colleagues probably don't (or at least not as much), but it is a logistically interesting question. If you've seen pictures of Dr. Nyberg floating around on the ISS (and I have, because she was on an episode of Curious George and my son is obsessed), you'll notice her long blonde hair conspicuously levitating above her. So... how does she do it?

The answer, in a nutshell: a squirt bottle, a towel, and no rinse shampoo. So... sort of like that time you went camping, but for months and months and in space. The whole process makes for some fun gifs...

The video and explanation is pretty neat, but what I'm mostly left with is how incredibly awesome Nyberg is. In addition to her space missions, she has been a part of one of the research teams that will make manned (and hopefully womanned) missions to Mars possible. But it's not all science and saving humanity through her genius for the good doctor. She is, magnificently, on Pinterest, where describes herself as an "Astronaut by day. Aspiring quilter, crafter, artist, runner by night. Wife and Mommy 24/7." Where the hell does she find time to craft and run?! Stop being so damn inspiring, lady!

Check out the video below, you know, for the next time you're in space and need to know how to wash your hair...

Images: YouTube(2)