Rice water + clove/green tea water as a shampoo alternative

I am experimenting with clove and green tea water as an alternative to commercial shampoo. I’ve used them both separately before as after-shampoo rinses and I love them, so I decided to give it a try. Am a big fan of rice water too and used that as a wash before that. I rely on oils daily and especially on detangling days, so I’m hoping that this will at least clean my scalp enough for it to not get irritated or itchy. Ideally? I would only have to shampoo my hair once a month and that would be with a shampoo bar. Once I get my hands on some flax seeds, I would like to use the gel as my conditioner/leave in. That would cut down on the products I rely on so much. I just need to figure out what alternative shampoo keeps my scalp happy.

Update: so far there isn’t really itchiness on my scalp. I used the two rinses to wash my hair again yesterday since I accidentally got some oil meant for my ends on my scalp. This time, though, I did the rice water treatment last. After keeping it in my hair for 20 mins, i rinsed my hair with cool water. Another thing I did different this time was I used a conditioner in the shower and then again as a leave in since my ends were starting to feel kind of dry. My hair just looks a bit weighed down, however! My curls are curling more thanks to the rice water. I wonder why rice water is used as a cleanser for hair, though. I wonder if it has something to do with the starch? It seemed to work okay. The next wash will mark the start of week 2 without shampoo.

I've used fermented rice water with herbs to wash my hair some years ago. It worked, but after a few washes my hair got a waxy layer and I needed to do a CO-wash to remove it. The hair got a bit dry and static in the ends too. I experimented some more with it and added some ayurveda powders and more herbs later. I did eventually found a recepie that worked without getting my hair waxy or dry. But as I went back to CO-washing as it's a lot easier.

Today I still use the rice water and lots of herbs in my homemade hair masks.

I don't know how often you was your hair, but I know that rice water can become too much for the hair, if you use it too often.