The Archives: The Merged NW/SO/WO Thread

[ratgirldjh]

Ugh, now that doesn't sound too good. Thanks for the warning! What exactly happened when you did the yoghurt treatment? My hair is clearly completely covered in sebum - an advantage of it not being so long I guess - do you think yoghurt would still cause problems? Would the fat content make a difference maybe? Someone in another thread recommended to use non fat yoghurt.

It made my hair look clean and I even tried mixing it with calcium bentonite too - both times it felt weird and coated and stiff though - not clean and when I did yogurt only it stank for days!!! I couldn't get the smell out with water and had to use soap. ick... never again!

However once I did a yogurt pack (full fat greek yogurt is what I always used) and washed it out with besan and water mix. This actually took it out but was too much protein for my hair. It didn't smell so much though - more like the besan which has it's own smell. But I have a sensitive nose!!!

This might be TMI - but I have in the past had very good results from washing hair with FRESH urine. It cleans even oily hair very well and doesn't leave a smell as long as you rinse it out really well. I also tried adding a drop of peppermint oil to it and this worked well too. Patchouli or even lavender would work as well. It is surprising how good it works. Aged urine is supposed to work better - but I find the idea too gross. My fresh urine smells almost exactly like aloe vera juice for some reason and no I don't drink aloe vera juice!!! lol The main reason I don't do this all the time is that I fear my bf might find out!!! And it makes me feel guilty to have to hide it and to not be able to tell people because of the ick factor!!! lol

But really I get the best results from oiling my scalp and preening and combing, brushing through with BBB, and leaving overnight and then rinsing with water a few times. This seems to leave my hair clean, and moisturized provided I don't rinse it too many times then it gets dry.

[piratejenny]

This might be TMI - but I have in the past had very good results from washing hair with FRESH urine.

Oh well, I'm not sure I'm quite ready to try this one . Interestingly enough just today one of those friends of mine who is so royally entertained by my hair experiments asked whether I had considered urine yet.

So you guys are really trying to scare me away from my little adventurous yoghurt plans, huh? ... I actually didn't make it all up, I read about it here http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ead.php?t=9851 and I must say I'm probably still curious enough to just go for it (the no-fat way).

My hair doesn't look all that great anyway at this point... It's been feeling REALLY nice, though, for the past couple of weeks. I really hope that the looks will eventually come along eventually

[ratgirldjh]

So you guys are really trying to scare me away from my little adventurous yoghurt plans, huh? ... I actually didn't make it all up, I read about it here http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ead.php?t=9851 and I must say I'm probably still curious enough to just go for it (the no-fat way).

Who knows? You may have better luck with it. My hair likes to hold on to bad smells evidently. Egg yolks made my hair smell too. But it is better in the winter - the hot weather seems to make these things smell more. You could try some EO's in the yogurt or after if you need them. I know how it is to have an idea and just 'have' to try it...

[ratgirldjh]

Oh just had to write this here:

Once at our Hindu Temple here I met a woman from India who had a braid as thick as my arm and which reached her calves!

Of course I had to ask her what she did for her hair. She told me that she oiled it every day with a home-made herbal oil and rinsed it with water!

This was how I got the idea of the oiling and rinsing it with water. She had the most beautiful hair I have ever seen!

[DoubleCrowned]

This might be TMI - but I have in the past had very good results from washing hair with FRESH urine. It cleans even oily hair very well and doesn't leave a smell as long as you rinse it out really well. I also tried adding a drop of peppermint oil to it and this worked well too. Patchouli or even lavender would work as well. It is surprising how good it works. Aged urine is supposed to work better - but I find the idea too gross. My fresh urine smells almost exactly like aloe vera juice for some reason and no I don't drink aloe vera juice!!! lol The main reason I don't do this all the time is that I fear my bf might find out!!! And it makes me feel guilty to have to hide it and to not be able to tell people because of the ick factor!!! lol

Ahhh, here's a little experiment I can try some day if I'm bored!!! How much does it take per washing?

So you guys are really trying to scare me away from my little adventurous yoghurt plans, huh? ... I actually didn't make it all up, I read about it here http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ead.php?t=9851 and I must say I'm probably still curious enough to just go for it (the no-fat way).

The yogurt smell might remain if the water is too hot. Just a guess.

[ratgirldjh]

Ahhh, here's a little experiment I can try some day if I'm bored!!! How much does it take per washing?

Enough to get your hair throughly wet. I apply it to dry hair and brush it through with my tangle teezer (it has good slip lol) and then rinse it out throughly. You can try this and see if it leaves a smell or not. My urine really doesn't smell much (I use fresh urine on my skin) (well it smells a lot like AVJ) unless I eat a lot of meat or don't drink enough water. If it smells I wouldn't use it.

Also I have had good luck with edible aloe vera gel used the same way but on damp hair otherwise it takes too much to get it wet!!! But with the aloe vera gel I let it sit for a while before rinsing.

Another thing that worked good for me when I was WO was putting one packet of Emergen-C drink mix in a liter of water and shake it well then pour over damp hair. Then rinse. This is lightly cleansing too!

So many things to experiment with! It seems that almost everything has hair uses lol

[ratgirldjh]

The yogurt smell might remain if the water is too hot. Just a guess.

I pretty much always use only cold water on my hair and it still smelled But like I said my hair smelled with eggs too... some people's hair doesn't. so..... YMMV (hopefully!)

[DoubleCrowned]

Enough to get your hair throughly wet. I apply it to dry hair and brush it through with my tangle teezer (it has good slip lol) and then rinse it out throughly. You can try this and see if it leaves a smell or not. My urine really doesn't smell much (I use fresh urine on my skin) (well it smells a lot like AVJ) unless I eat a lot of meat or don't drink enough water. If it smells I wouldn't use it.

So many things to experiment with! It seems that almost everything has hair uses lol

When I first read about your use of urine, I thought, "Wow" A source of free purified water!" Plus, I have a friend who uses urine as medicine who would be very interested in its use. But now I wonder about using it on my hair: Is it cleansing enough that it would disrupt the sebum/oil balance that I have worked so hard to achieve with WO?

I am really pleased with WO. My hair is getting more and more dependable as I learn its needs. (Like not so much brushing) My objection to WO is that I love experimenting, but don't want to ruin my progress. I'd like to indulge in some hair-pampering fun that won't cause an imbalance.

[piratejenny]

Reporting back in after my first henna/cassia/yoghurt gloss on WO . Of course once I had decided on my plan no word of warning could have kept me from going ahead. So last night once the kids were in bed and my DH out with his squash buddies I went ahead.

Here's what I did
I mixed up 2 tea spoons each of cassia and henna and a cup of no-fat plain yoghurt. I didn't wait for any dye release and just slopped the goop onto my dry hair. It was super easy, spread very well and I also quite enjoyed the feeling of the cool yoghurt on my scalp. Seran wrap seemed like a big mess and so I just put a plastic bag over my head, attached it with sticky tape and wrapped an old towel around it. The whole thing took me 5 minutes, tops.

Then I waited for 45 minutes. Very quickly the yoghurt started running and I had all these green streaks running accross my face. I just sausage wrapped another towel around my neck and kept wiping my face. After 45 minutes I jumped into the shower and rinsed the whole thing off. Again super easy. It was a deviation from my normal routine as I stood under a warm shower. Usually I wash my hair bent over the tub.

First results after rinse
In the shower my hair felt great. Super soft, not much change to what it has been like the past few weeks. Once I got out and started detangeling though it felt very strawy and was much harder to de-tangle than usual. It also dried extremely slowly. By the time I went to bed it was still essentially wet.

Results this morning
When I touched my hair in bed this morning it felt shockingly awful. Extremely strawy and greasy at the same time. I barely dared enter the bathroom. But then, once I had it combed it actually looked a lot better than for many weeks. Certainly one of the best days since I started WO. As opposed to the previous weeks it now looks way better than it feels... It feels strawy, but the stringyness and pieceyness has completely disappeared.

I'm extremely pleased with the colour. Actually I'm quite shocked at how well that worked. I have this weird strain (about as thick as a finger) of grey on my temple, which makes my hair look way greyer than it actually is when I wear it up. This strain is the main reason for me dying and it now looks honey colored. The rest of my hair is not so ashy any more but just got a warm golden accent. Very nice...

As for the smell. There is very little and the little there is is clearly henna not sour dairy or vomit. Maybe it's because of the no-fat yoghurt? I am a full fat dairy person and I found that no-fat stuff pretty gross. The "yoghurt" I used had a rather thin, almost slimey consistency. Yikes! External use only in my book

To sum it up
The colour effect is great and pretty much what I was hoping for. I'll make my final judgement about the interference with WO in a few days. I hope the strawy feeling will go away after a few washes while the non-stringy look will stay. I will try a few more washes at night to see if the stringy look has something to do with the fact that my hair is damp most of the time when I wash it in the morning...

[Moor_tu_lyfe]

piratejenny- how is the WO going for you?

Just wanted to let those still trying to go hardcore WO know that I was divulging my (not so) dirty little secret to new friend today and she told that she used to do WO a few years ago! She did it for about a year successfully, then changed jobs and hairstyles, and used hairspray. This led to small amounts of shampoo with in turn became regular shampooing every day or two. Her Mum did it as well, but with her snow white hair, she found she had dramas with it yellowing, so returned to shampoo.

It was great to find someone who (as far as I know) isn't on LHC and used to do this!! (and someone who doesn't look at you funny for not "washing" your hair!)

Are their any renegrays out there on WO that have tips/tricks to keeping their sparklies....well...sparkly? I'm far from snow white yet, but have decided to grow in my sparklies and would like to keep them shiny- not yellow. I've heard that white vinegar rinses work, but would like some first hand information.

Good luck girls (and any boys) on going WO!!