The Water-Mostly/Hybrid WO Washing Thread

**Wreckinbelle** · June 24th, 2017, 04:06 PM

I did 4 solid months of (mostly) water only, I did some tea rinses and on the full moons a baking soda wash...I do sometimes wish I had kept up with it, but although my hair was super soft it was almost always tangled and would snap easily. I loved the way my hair looked though and I discovered waves I had no idea that I had! I usually do 6 weeks each summer of wo.

**vpatt** · June 24th, 2017, 07:18 PM

I'm not sure if my grays are that different ...a few may be closer to medium than fine. I wonder if it might just be the sebum. My hair seemed much softer with shampoo. I have a friend who checks out my hair frequently and she always commented on how soft it was...until I started water only. Lol. I thought for a while it was softer with WO, but now I would say no. I'm not terribly unhappy with water only. Just wondering about things. You know I did get a wooden comb, but it's not a wide tooth like I use in the shower. I guess it's medium. I keep saying I'm going to try shampoo and see the difference....It was not grabby before with shampoo. Even tho I just did the dilute shampoo it was not enough to strip the sebum completely.

Ophidian, Nymphe and likelikepenny....thank you all for your comments and for listening to my rambling. I do tend to go on, lol.

**Ophidian** · June 24th, 2017, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Wreckinbelle

I did 4 solid months of (mostly) water only, I did some tea rinses and on the full moons a baking soda wash...I do sometimes wish I had kept up with it, but although my hair was super soft it was almost always tangled and would snap easily. I loved the way my hair looked though and I discovered waves I had no idea that I had! I usually do 6 weeks each summer of wo.

I do wonder how my alternative washing will work out when my hair gets longer. I was just reading the knee-length thread (one day

...) and noticing that with very few exceptions most seem to stick to S&C and benign neglect otherwise. I've certainly enjoyed all my experimenting because it keeps me busy with something other than measuring my hair which would drive me crazy, but I wonder if there are reasons such as tangling that have anything to do with this...

Originally Posted by vpatt

I'm not sure if my grays are that different ...a few may be closer to medium than fine. I wonder if it might just be the sebum. My hair seemed much softer with shampoo. I have a friend who checks out my hair frequently and she always commented on how soft it was...until I started water only. Lol. I thought for a while it was softer with WO, but now I would say no. I'm not terribly unhappy with water only. Just wondering about things. You know I did get a wooden comb, but it's not a wide tooth like I use in the shower. I guess it's medium. I keep saying I'm going to try shampoo and see the difference....It was not grabby before with shampoo. Even tho I just did the dilute shampoo it was not enough to strip the sebum completely.

Ophidian, Nymphe and likelikepenny....thank you all for your comments and for listening to my rambling. I do tend to go on, lol.

Awww I'm just very happy to have found people that enjoy rambling about things that I like rambling about

**Reyn127** · June 28th, 2017, 12:39 PM

Hi guys, I'm back again after finally having (somewhat) settled in at my new place. I have been doing more WO washes about every 5 days. I've been finishing off my washes with a very thorough cool water rinse where I get all my hair saturated with the cool water. That seems to be doing something to help fend off the feeling of "grabbiness" that you all have been talking about.... I guess it is probably the precursor to that major waxy feeling I was getting before. But with the cool water rinses, that feeling is not getting worse at all, but it maybe feels to be getting a tiny bit better with each wash. It might be a fluke, so I will keep an eye on that as I keep doing it. I really think I will also give vinegar rinses a go again (and yes, I know I've mentioned this a bunch before but just haven't done it yet).

Ophidian, I was somewhat worried about length gain and alternative washing methods as well. My hair is between hip and BCL right now, takes a minimum of 5 hours to fully air dry, and is literally a chore to get all the rye flakes out of. That's one of the reasons I've mostly been doing WO lately, because it's often a half day long process to wash and remove the flour.
BUT, I have done a few scalp-only washes with the rye flour, with a lot of success. I just braid my hair into two pigtails with the braids beginning at about CBL. I then tie those ends together and hook them behind the shower head so the majority of my hair is held hoisted above my head. It's a bit of a chore to get it up, but I know it will only get easier as my hair gets longer. And the rye tends to rinse out MUCH easier for me. It just rinses off my scalp and falls past my shoulders instead of getting caught up in the rest of my length like it does when my hair is all loose. You could probably adopt something similar with most other ways to wash, if you want to go through all the effort. (Which is honestly something I think I will have to debate as time goes on, but for now.... this is working for me.)

**Ophidian** · June 28th, 2017, 01:43 PM

Thanks for sharing your experiences Reyn! I'm only around APL so it will be a while before it's practically a concern for me but nice to hear what others are doing with more length. My hair did really well with WO, but my scalp tended to get a lot of build up. The scalp-only washes could be a good thing to try in the future.

Also, hope settling into your new place is going well! I just moved too. It's a lot.

**vpatt** · June 28th, 2017, 07:53 PM

I did another wash today with diluted shampoo. I'm wondering if it stripped oil this time cause it didn't last time. But it feels "cleaner" or less sebumy this time. I used a bit of leave in conditioner on the ends that seems to really help the dryness. I will be trying ACV for this, too.
I'm leaving in about ten days to visit family and I'm not going to worry about shampoo because I know I can use WO for the couple weeks I'm away. That is so freeing, lol. I know at least one person I'm staying with has well water so I'm really curious how that will work. If it's a big mess I'm sure they will have a half teaspoon of shampoo they can spare. And I will be able to ask my aunt how she cared for her hair when she was growing up. I know I'm a weirdo, lol.

**vpatt** · June 29th, 2017, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by vpatt

I did another wash today with diluted shampoo. I'm wondering if it stripped oil this time cause it didn't last time. But it feels "cleaner" or less sebumy this time. I used a bit of leave in conditioner on the ends that seems to really help the dryness. I will be trying ACV for this, too.
I'm leaving in about ten days to visit family and I'm not going to worry about shampoo because I know I can use WO for the couple weeks I'm away. That is so freeing, lol. I know at least one person I'm staying with has well water so I'm really curious how that will work. If it's a big mess I'm sure they will have a half teaspoon of shampoo they can spare. And I will be able to ask my aunt how she cared for her hair when she was growing up. I know I'm a weirdo, lol.

The next day:
Well, my hair feels softer, cleaner, less scalp smell and I can comb through it easier. But....it seems a bit limp or lank and I wonder if it is going to get oily. Odd, because I diluted so much that in the bottle I only got a few suds and I didn't see any suds on my scalp. So I will see how long I can go without washing.

Friday:
So it seemed ok until I took my braid out and brushed it. It got oily quickly. But I braided it again and I'll just see how I feel in the morning. If it is more oily than I can stand before my knit and spin meeting then I may wash it. But I hope to braid it a few more days. How can my scalp just suddenly spurt oil while I am brushing it? So the first diluted shampoo did not do this so maybe I will try that once a month and see how it goes. I like the conditioner because it keeps the ends nicer. Every time I use oil it is hard to rinse out with water only...maybe I can add a couple drops to my conditioner.

**Ophidian** · June 30th, 2017, 04:38 PM

Post CWC, my hair felt soooo weirrrrrd. It was extremely floaty and the ends ended up a bit dry. For my weekend wash a few days later I just used a rinse I made with hibiscus and honey, steeped for a while so the hibiscus released some mucilage for more moisture and slip. I applied it to dry hair and let it sit for a while before rinsing. This made my hair very soft and shiny.

For my mid-week wash this week, I soaked 3 Tbsp rye flour in 1/2 cup hot water for about an hour, then strained it into an applicator bottle and whisked in 1/4 tsp slippery elm powder. Once this had thickened, I added some honey plus a drop each of rosemary, lavender, and cedarwood essential oils and shook it up well. I also mixed more slippery elm powder with some water in a small bowl until it thickened to a gel-like consistency. I added a few drops of oil and some honey to this and experimented by using it like I would a store-bought conditioner after washing with the rye. I finished with a very dilute ACV rinse and a final rinse in cool water. Results: This really brought out the texture of my hair and it dried into nice clumped waves. My hair felt soft and strong. It rinsed out fairly well, but I might strain the gel next time to see if that smooths it out even more.

Next time I do a rye wash I think I'll follow it with a marshmallow conditioning rinse and see if this has a similar effect. Might even try it as a leave in. I've heard the best way to extract the mucilage from marshmallow root is to soak it in cold water so I will try to plan ahead.

**melikai** · July 2nd, 2017, 05:29 PM

Moving over here from the WO thread - although I think what I'm doing now is some sort of WO/SO/hybrid random thingies mix.

I was doing WO for about 6 months.

I did a honey and ACV rinse at the end of my water rinse yesterday, and it really helped my ends. They seemed like no moisture could penetrate. Actually, my husband suggested it lol! It's much softer now, and I put a tiny bit of coconut oil in and it seems to have soaked in just fine.

I might do a more diluted honey and ACV rinse or soak (on my length only) every time I wash. If it ends up being too much, I'll just do it whenever I feel like the mineral buildup from our water is getting to be too much.
As it is, I'm not going to wash my hair very often. Hoping to get by with SO with a very seldom rinse, since my scalp and hair are very dry and our water seems to damage it.

**vpatt** · July 3rd, 2017, 05:32 PM

I washed today....water only for my scalp. For the ends....first I wet them and then put hemp oil on them and then conditioner. I washed my scalp and rinsed the ends. Scrubbed my scalp again and put more conditioner on the ends and rinsed with cold water. Now it's drying. I won't really know what I think until morning, but I'm sure it will be fine...famous last words, lol. It seems WO is the only thing that keeps my scalp from being so oily. Maybe a diluted shampoo wash once in a blue moon. Not sure exactly how often that is....... So far I do some scritching and use my wooden hairbrush and comb and finger combing. Maybe the BBB before washing as it causes so much oiliness. If all is well tomorrow this is what I will stick with for a while at least. I need to pamper these dry ends until I begin regular micro trimming.