The Archives: The Merged NW/SO/WO Thread

[88Marisa]

Just thought I would update. I'm thinking that jojoba oil does not work with my hair so well. last time I WO washed then very lightly jojoba-ed the length, air dried for 2-3 hours and slept with it still damp. woke up with it damp and the curls looked great. but they went frizzy quickly and dropped dramatically once I went outside. Also, by the end of the day my hair felt and looked really waxy/oily. Like I have too much sebum. And it's itchy again. And tanglier than ever!

I am feeling that strict WO won't work for me long term unless I find a solution to this frizz problem. I want low maintenance. -That is, wash and leave and it will actually look good if I go outside the house and do things almost straight away, or wash and leave for a bit and sleep damp and wake and not have to do anything and it will look great for the whole day. I rarely have 1 or 2 spare hours in which to dry my hair, I either have to go to work or go to sleep within maximum 3 hours from washing time during the week. I used to always put it up wet after S&C and just go to work. But I've found putting it up wet on WO will mean when I take it out and want to wear it down the next day it looks super oily and clumpy. I know I wanted to increase clumpability, but I want the waves/curls to be defined and smooth without looking dirty/waxy/oily and gross. Is this possible? Is WO low maintenance? Is it possible for my fine, dark, sometimes curly, sometimes only a little wavy, BSL, layered hair to look good out without much time to tend to it, and without it turning into a frizzy fluff ball?

Sorry for the whinge. I'm in a bit of hair despair at the moment. I'm determined to go one more week, next week will be week 8 of WO. And then I WILL do the ACV+honey mixture rinse. I'm scared about it. But I know I need to try something else.

Hi Soniqui, sorry to hear you're having problems right now. I resigned myself to having wavy hair for awhile when I first went water only because it just wasn't looking very good curly. I'd rather have nice looking hair than trying to force a certain texture. If I brushed often, I could get rid of frizz, but I didn't have good curl definition (just nice wavy hair). I really do think it takes awhile (months!) for the hair to get the full benefit of this method, and you get enough experience to have consistent hair. In the meantime, I recommend brushing with a BBB often to help with the frizz and to cut down on the itchy scalp. I personally never tried ACV when I transitioned (I hate the smell), but a lot of people have had good results with that too, so maybe it's worth a shot. I hope you figure something out!

Lately, I have had good results with aloe vera gel in wet hair but when I first transitioned it seemed to make my hair frizz. It's very good for enhancing my curl pattern so that it dries nicely, so all I have to do in the morning is brush my hair with a BBB (for shine and getting hair to lay in the same direction), then scrunch in some water from the bottom and it'll dry quickly and look great. I actually had hair closer to 3b curls today (thanks to humidity too) with this routine and it's been 3 days since my last wash and I haven't put in any extra aloe vera gel since day 1. I've been doing some variation on this for a couple months now and I'm pretty happy with how consistent my hair is on this routine. The gel seems to make my hair look less oily for longer too. At this point, I've tested it a few times by not using any gel for a full wash cycle and the curls don't hold nearly as well when I don't use gel. It also results in better looking hair on the day I wash. I think the gel is slightly drying, but at this point, I don't really have any issues with dry ends that can't be solved with a good brushing or preening, so I'm not concerned.

[88Marisa]

Yesterday I shampooed after a deep conditioning with oil... When it was still wet, I did something I normally avoid - I brushed my wet hair. Specifically, I used a tangle teezer, though many combs and brushes would probably work for this. As I brushed my scalp, I noticed white sebum on each tip. So I bushed once on my scalp and then brushed through my ends, then repeated until I wasn't picking up so much sebum anymore.

My hair today is the best it's been in a while, though of course I also did that deep conditioning so it's hard to tell how much effect this brushing had. I do think my hair is less curly than it otherwise would have been. I'm definitely going to try it again on its own.

Hi earthnut! I actually will do a few quick gentle strokes with my brush in wet hair, just on the top of my hair so that it will lay in the direction I like as it dries. Otherwise it will clump in weird ways and not look so hot when I comb it later. I finger comb/scrunch everything else though.

I do all sorts of things with my hair that curlies aren't supposed to do (brushing several times a day being number 1), but honestly, I really like my hair so much better now overall, plus I stopped getting split ends, so I'm not about to quit.

[Kamir0]

GrowingGlory, you're very welcome.

Very nice motivational poem, Bedhead!

Be patient, proo.
In the archived thread, and earlier in this thread, Frizzinator suggested using the super stiff Mason Pearson BBB to remove powdery flakes.
I don't have a BBB, but I have used my MP nylon brush with a piece of muslin fabric over the bristles, with some success. A longer scritching session followed by a deep fingertip massage also seems to help.

Now, as promised, I have added the pictures taken yesterday in my garden in my NW album.
As you can see, the hair closest to the scalp is still quite piecy. This was not a particularly good hair day. I have been sleep-deprived and under some stress with work over the past few days...
I'm liking the length, though, and it doesn't look [too] bad in an updo. Whenever I need to go out and my hair looks like this, I usually French-braid it...

[shirohane]

So I scritched yesterday and I'm sure my cat thought that it was snowing inside the house. It felt like my scalp was finally able to breathe.

It's still a bit itchy in certain spots so I'll try to do a longer scritching session today.

Though I massaged after scritching, I only got around to preening this morning. I'll try to do all of it in one go today. (My roots are quite oily so I definitely need more preening.)

[plurabelle]

Hi everyone!

At the moment, I wash (no sulphates or cones) once a week, heavy-oiling the scalp on the days I wash and light-oiling the ends on the days I don't. I'm really interested in stretching my washes even further, though. Going through this thread has made me really keen on going NW and mostly SO. (I love coconut oil too much to stop oiling the ends.)

The biggest problem is dandruff, though... or even dry scalp, I'm not sure which one I have. Washing really bums me out because my scalp feels clean for a day if I'm lucky and then instantly becomes itchy and flaky again. I'm hoping the scritching and massaging will take care of that, though.

Anyway, I don't really have any social events or outings planned for the next few months, as I'm a writer, so maybe having not-perfect-looking hair might even encourage me to stay in and write!

I guess I'll wash tomorrow because I heavy-oiled today, but I think I'll try this out for the next few months. Looking forward to the journey!

[earthnut]

Washing really bums me out because my scalp feels clean for a day if I'm lucky and then instantly becomes itchy and flaky again.

Sounds like me. I founds ditching the products really helped the itchiness and flakes. My scalp is much calmer now. Even though my scalp felt relatively "normal" with frequent(ish) washing, I can now see that the products were causing a slight irritation to my scalp.

[proo]

Well, the whole situation is much better today -
after an intensive (yet gentle) scritch session yesterday, which I thoroughly enjoyed,
I spritzed with distilled water, not alot but some, and wiped through it with a soft bandana.
The flakes are gone, and it really feels much cleaner;
applied a couple of drops MO to the ends, up in the crown braid.
Again - thanks for all the support y'all!

[soniqui]

Hi Soniqui, sorry to hear you're having problems right now. I resigned myself to having wavy hair for awhile when I first went water only because it just wasn't looking very good curly. I'd rather have nice looking hair than trying to force a certain texture. If I brushed often, I could get rid of frizz, but I didn't have good curl definition (just nice wavy hair). I really do think it takes awhile (months!) for the hair to get the full benefit of this method, and you get enough experience to have consistent hair. In the meantime, I recommend brushing with a BBB often to help with the frizz and to cut down on the itchy scalp. I personally never tried ACV when I transitioned (I hate the smell), but a lot of people have had good results with that too, so maybe it's worth a shot. I hope you figure something out!

Lately, I have had good results with aloe vera gel in wet hair but when I first transitioned it seemed to make my hair frizz. It's very good for enhancing my curl pattern so that it dries nicely, so all I have to do in the morning is brush my hair with a BBB (for shine and getting hair to lay in the same direction), then scrunch in some water from the bottom and it'll dry quickly and look great. I actually had hair closer to 3b curls today (thanks to humidity too) with this routine and it's been 3 days since my last wash and I haven't put in any extra aloe vera gel since day 1. I've been doing some variation on this for a couple months now and I'm pretty happy with how consistent my hair is on this routine. The gel seems to make my hair look less oily for longer too. At this point, I've tested it a few times by not using any gel for a full wash cycle and the curls don't hold nearly as well when I don't use gel. It also results in better looking hair on the day I wash. I think the gel is slightly drying, but at this point, I don't really have any issues with dry ends that can't be solved with a good brushing or preening, so I'm not concerned.

Thanks 88Marisa, I have some Aloe Vera gel and was planning to try it. I'd read recently about it in a few other threads on here too, so I'm really keen to give it a shot. I will definitely try brushing more regularly, as I'm only doing it once a day at night before I go to bed. It's interesting that it reduced frizz for you as I always thought brushing was a frizz increasing thing. But I'm starting to not think that way anymore because my hair just feels so nice after a good BBB. Smooth and silky and coated. mmm.... soft hair. Anyways I will def try Aloe gel. probably next wash. And thanks for the tip about scrunching in water on non-wash days. I used to do this when I used leave-in gel-ish curl-defining products before going WO, but it usually ended up frizzing anyway.

[Bedhead]

shirohane, keep us updated on how things go for you. And yes, it's important to do all three. eventually you'll become more efficient, but it's more important to be thorough rather than fast.

plurabelle, welcome to the thread!

Proo Good stuff, I'm glad it all worked out for you!

[proo]

It's day 2 now since the bandana preening -
I highly recommend this!
I spritz my oily zone which for me is nape and underneath sides
With distilled water, then preened from scalp down, hair forward.
It's nice and clean feeling and looking
But not stripped.
Really spruced it up - its spot cleaning.