The Water-Mostly/Hybrid WO Washing Thread

**- Lizzy -** · March 26th, 2017, 03:30 PM

Update: So after my hair dried, the oil still remained (Mostly through the ends) and made it look really bad. I know it was the doing of the olive oil so I just washed it again with diluted castile soap. To me it sounds like im doing more of a "No poo" than a water only thing but I hope as I try for the next few weeks I can find if just water would work for me or not (So far it hasn't)

**Chant** · March 26th, 2017, 03:41 PM

In my experience with WO, the scalp needs a chance to balance itself and adjust to the fact that it's not having oil stripped away. This adjustment period can last anywhere from 2-6 weeks, from what I've read, depending on how active your glands are. Even just with WO, it's best to stretch the time between washes as much as you can. You can also do cooler rinses that don't mess with the oil distribution but take out dust or any sweat. Also in my experience, baking soda is incredibly drying and caustic on the scalp, even well diluted. It could be driving your oil production into overdrive. And how is your water quality? Hard water makes any no-poo, WO, or mostly WO routine less successful.

**Ophidian** · March 26th, 2017, 09:22 PM

Agree with Chant--any low-poo/no-poo routine that I've ever heard of tends to have an adjustment period while your scalp figures out what's up.

Also, I know that the term "no-poo" is often associated with baking soda+vinegar, but I think it's a pretty huge umbrella term that also covers things like herb washing of various kinds, rye flour washing, clay washing, etc. If you are wanting to try out a no-poo routine these things might offer more cleaning than WO but not be quite as harsh as baking soda. They all take some tweaking to get right in my experience, but if you like that sort of thing it can be fun. There is also low-poo, which I am led to believe can mean switching to sulfate-free shampoo if you are currently using sulfates, or could also mean diluting your shampoo down a bit to make it more mild. You may have specific reasons for wanting to try baking soda+vinegar specifically, but thought I'd throw out there that there are many ways to try no-poo!

I did WO for months, then decided to go back to occasional sulfate-free shampooing, which felt great the first few times and then my scalp freaked out. So I started using the mildest fragrance-free shampoo I could find diluted down, which worked pretty well, but I was still having scalp problems (flakes around hairline). The last time I used shampoo was early March. Since then I've been using herbs or WO exclusively to wash (mostly Indian herbs, some Western). I also tried rye and liked it.

I guess terminology is only helpful here to the extent that it helps us get on the same page with what we're doing though, and I am not an expert by any means. I started the thread under the title water-mostly/hybrid WO because I had been WO for months and wanted to branch out into other no-poo/low-poo options interspersed with water-only. I noticed that there were threads for WO and SO/NW and CO etc etc but nothing current for people to discuss no/low-poo routines other than a few pretty quiet threads in recipes and herbal haircare. Writing this, I realize that maybe I could have just called this something like the no poo thread and kept it simple

**pili** · March 26th, 2017, 10:31 PM

Yeah, I'm using shampoo bars right now, and I love it! However, I'm also looking to branch out into herbal rinses, maybe even stretching washes or shampooing past a week. I think this a great thread idea. The shampoo bar thread is gigantic, and my interest are a bit more diverse than just shampoo bars.

**vpatt** · March 27th, 2017, 10:17 AM

Heading into week 3. Not much change from my post 4 days ago. Except maybe it feels and looks a tiny bit better. Not quite as greasy looking, but not good enough to wear down. I do like the soft feel and I'm not really noticing the smell as much....maybe I'm getting more used to it. I have sprayed it a couple of times with my spray. Water, lavender, peppermint, sandalwood and a tiny bit of conditioner. This is only on the length and ends to help dampen it to encourage waves and because I like the smell. I am water rinsing twice a week right now and a couple of times I've put olive oil on the tips. The ends still look a tiny bit dry, I guess the scalp oil has not reached the ends yet.

I'm still watching the shed to see if I need to deal with that. I'm really hoping I can make it to my goal date of April 1 so I have a better picture of what I think of water only.

**- Lizzy -** · March 27th, 2017, 12:29 PM

Even after washing with mostly water and some diluted castile soap, I have this olive oil in my hair. Definitely think it was to heavy of an oil for just water/diluted only (At least for me). I don't really know what to do in terms of the next few days. I would prefer not to have oily ends since it is just day one after washing, but I will leave it for as long as I can. I am going to try to not do baking soda anymore because my ends can get frizzy from old damage and I don't think it needs to dry out any more. Until I do this for a few weeks I don't know how my hair is going to react with it. Each wash im kind of just going by how it feels not really a routine. Hopefully I can fall into a routine sometime.

**Ophidian** · March 27th, 2017, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by vpatt

Heading into week 3. Not much change from my post 4 days ago. Except maybe it feels and looks a tiny bit better. Not quite as greasy looking, but not good enough to wear down. I do like the soft feel and I'm not really noticing the smell as much....maybe I'm getting more used to it. I have sprayed it a couple of times with my spray. Water, lavender, peppermint, sandalwood and a tiny bit of conditioner. This is only on the length and ends to help dampen it to encourage waves and because I like the smell. I am water rinsing twice a week right now and a couple of times I've put olive oil on the tips. The ends still look a tiny bit dry, I guess the scalp oil has not reached the ends yet.

I'm still watching the shed to see if I need to deal with that. I'm really hoping I can make it to my goal date of April 1 so I have a better picture of what I think of water only.

Sounds great vpatt! After ages of washing (various methods) once a week, I switched to twice a week and my scalp is doing great. That seems to be my happy medium too.

**Ophidian** · March 27th, 2017, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by - Lizzy -

Even after washing with mostly water and some diluted castile soap, I have this olive oil in my hair. Definitely think it was to heavy of an oil for just water/diluted only (At least for me). I don't really know what to do in terms of the next few days. I would prefer not to have oily ends since it is just day one after washing, but I will leave it for as long as I can. I am going to try to not do baking soda anymore because my ends can get frizzy from old damage and I don't think it needs to dry out any more. Until I do this for a few weeks I don't know how my hair is going to react with it. Each wash im kind of just going by how it feels not really a routine. Hopefully I can fall into a routine sometime.

Sometimes it takes some experimenting to find a routine that really suits you

. Since the oil is on your ends instead of your scalp, my thinking it that if you are able to put your hair up and let the oil soak in for a few days the problem will likely resolve itself and your ends might even benefit from it if you have some damage. If you can't stand it, maybe try conditioner to wash it out? Many people seem to have great luck removing heavy oilings with conditioner and that would be pretty mild. I do find that olive is on the heavier side, but different oils do seem to behave differently for different people so some trial and error is inevitable. Good luck!

**vpatt** · March 27th, 2017, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by Ophidian

Sounds great vpatt! After ages of washing (various methods) once a week, I switched to twice a week and my scalp is doing great. That seems to be my happy medium too.

I may be premature, but I don't seem to have shed as much today. So I'm hoping it's about over. But I know not to count my chickens. So we will see. I did maybe put a bit too much olive oil on the ends of my hair this evening. But I'm hoping that will soak in. The ends of my hair have a dry look a lot of the time no matter the washing method. I think it may be a combination of dryness, taper from the pixie and I do have a few splits. Also, my hair is odd.....it has a bit of wave and when combed or brushed the ends always tend to look dry. But if I don't comb or brush my hair just looks so messy that I feel compelled to get the TT out.

As to the shedding.....I've had one major shed since starting to grow my hair and then one that was less but lasted four months. So I'm going to use the hair growth shampoo if I think it is shedding more than average. But that just gives me the chance to experiment more, lol.