The Archives: The Merged NW/SO/WO Thread

[piratejenny]

Oh wow guys, I wish I had dry hair. I'm not even sure I really know what that is supposed to feel like. The only variable I have with my hair is the time it takes to become unbearably greasy...

I'm officially not WO any more... I did my second egg wash last Friday and my hair is so good that I'm having a hard time finding a reason not to continue down the egg path. After all my goal is healthy, nice looking hair and not WO itself.

WO has been a constant struggle and headache for me and having nice hair for several days without having to do much about it is such a relieve. The first three days I can wear my hair down, then it is still good in an updo for two more. This is way more time between washes than I was ever able to go and I'm happy that my sebum production is not quite as out of control any more as on S/C. I hope I'll be able to stretch washes even more in the coming months. Slowly. No more cold turkey for me. Who knows I might even come back to WO eventually.

If anybody is interested, I've summed up my WO experiences in my one and only blog post. Good luck everybody! I know WO works given good water and enough commitment to transition...

[proo]

Despite the fact that I occasionally wash with a couple drops of prell in a big pitcher of water, I still consider myself WO since my method revolves around my distilled water washes; it's my overriding philosophy but the experimentation and tweaking are constant so that when I do wash with distilled water my hair is at that perfect point of sebum and I can get a good week out of it.

[DoubleCrowned]

I have an oily scalp, so don't know if this will work for those who are having trouble with dry hair. However, my oil production increases if I use very warm water to wash, even if it is to wash my face. I wonder if those needing more sebum could devise a way to wash the scalp in very warm water while protecting the ends, that is, use warm water to stimulate the scalp into action. It would be important to protect the length, though, or it would end up even drier because the warm water removes oils.

So far as using egg, oil, or other treatments with WO, I don't think it is such a bad thing. Even people who use shampoo also use treatments in addition to it--deep conditioning treatments, for example. I don't think anyone here has WOed beginning with a bald head. We all have a certain length of hair that was previously cleaned by other methods, and most of us have imperfect water. Maybe some of that hair will never be in the condition necessary to look great with WO unless it is oiled or given some extra protein, or unless the water pH is altered with vinegar.

[Audrey Horne]

DoubleCrowned, thank you so much for your detailed reply! tips from others can help me a lot at this point.


I WOed today. Strictly, so nothing else, not even a conditioner on my length because I want to see how my hair reacts, so I can adjust my WO routine better the next time. I started with very warm water and as soon as I began to massage my head it gave me this funky smell I had a typical feeling of touching waxy "sticks". IDK how long I massaged. It is very challenging with our shower. At the end I rinsed my hair with cold water.
To my surprise I've noticed dry ends quite soon, something that so many people have talked about. I braided my hair and applied oil on my ends (I hope it will help).
It's been 3-4h since I washed and I notice that some of my hair is already dry. I'm really curious to see how it has worked out.

[holothuroidea]

My commitment to WO is strictly anti-consumerist. I don't want to buy anything!

I honestly don't think that WO is going to work for my hair, though. It's too dry to keep under water for so long with nothing to condition it. I've tried home made castille soap and that is the worst. Just the absolute worst. I don't even want to think about baking soda. I'm seriously considering aritha or soapwort. Because in the end, I really do want nice hair.

I'm going to try washing in standing water first. I'm waiting for some sebum to come though because my hair really fried the last time I tried to wash it. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[Audrey Horne]

My commitment to WO is strictly anti-consumerist. I don't want to buy anything!

I honestly don't think that WO is going to work for my hair, though. It's too dry to keep under water for so long with nothing to condition it. I've tried home made castille soap and that is the worst. Just the absolute worst. I don't even want to think about baking soda. I'm seriously considering aritha or soapwort. Because in the end, I really do want nice hair.

I'm going to try washing in standing water first. I'm waiting for some sebum to come though because my hair really fried the last time I tried to wash it. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

what about oil as a leave-in? (some) oil is food after all, so not just for hair just an idea.

[holothuroidea]

piratejenny, if you want to know what it's like to have dry hair I will tell you. It's balls. It is just the worst. You can't run your fingers through it, you can't detangle without breaking it. You can't even look at it without breaking it. There is no "slip" or lubrication. It is impossible to grow long if you let it stay dry and don't take care of it. I tried! It was ugly.

My husband, by contrast, has the oiliest hair I've ever seen. He washes it with prell twice a day (no conditioner, folks). He's got these glossy corkscrew curls that are completely impervious to damage. Some days I just live vicariously through his hair. I guess the grass is always greener but dry hair just isn't good if you want any kind of length or if you don't want to use conditioner all the time.

[holothuroidea]

Thanks Audrey. I've tried oil. I can't do it, I think it's because my hair is too short, I can't get it on the ends without getting it on the roots. My hair doesn't absorb any of it and it ends up looking stringy. Also, the amount of hot water I need to use to wash it out completely undoes any benefits.

And it still feels dry! It's like putting oil on overcooked chicken, it's still dry but now it's greasy too! Completely unpalatable. Maybe it was the oil, I used avocado because that's what I use on my nails.

[piratejenny]

Well, I think I can safely state that dry hair is not something I have much of a problem with . I always had to be very careful with the amount if conditioner I used, otherwise my hair would be limp right after a wash...

I also very much like the anti-consumerist aspect of WO. I'm quite fascinated by how things were done before there was mass production and mass marketing. They didn't all smell and have dirty hair before shampoo was invented, right? I'm a marketing person myself (don't throw rocks at me, I have nothing to do with consumer products ) and so I am very aware of the mechanisms used to create needs and to influence people. IMHO modern cosmetics and body care products are a rather good example of a market artificially created and inflated.

Since starting my new egg routine a very close vegan friend is mad at me. Impossible to get it right for everyone at all times I guess .

[SheaLynne]

holothuroidea, I can relate to that description since my hair was so dry and already splitting everywhere, so when I put oil, it didn't seem to help. But it kept drinking up the oil (mostly coconut) as fast as I put it on (morning and evening), so I didn't have any problems with looking oily from the additional oil I was putting. You might try different oils. Coconut usually works well for me, and now that I used conditioner once, it does seem to be helping it maintain the moisture and hasn't dried out again, but olive oil works wonders on dd6's curly hair.

moor_tu_lyfe, I hate to spoil your DH's very excellent theory, but I also live in a very hot and humid climate near the coast. When we moved here, the "locals" told us not to store clothing or holiday decorations etc in the garage because they would mildew in the boxes...ewww! Have to keep it all in a climate-controlled part of the house. I hate to think how much worse my hair would be in a dry climate!!

But for the record, my hair was not overly dry before WO, though I've never had a big problem with being oily even through the teen years. I usually didn't use conditioner at all before LHC, but my hair was nice on CO, just my scalp didn't like it. I think mine is more likely related to being slightly over 40 now or just the slow transition for my length to be coated in sebum. I do look oily at the scalp if I do not s/m/p regularly, it's just the length that has the extreme dryness. I'm going to keep trying with WO, but using tiny amounts of conditioner when necessary to keep the splits away. I just can't afford to lose anything else at the ends.