Something interesting happened, and I wanted to share :)

**Upside Down** · August 2nd, 2010, 02:25 PM

Normally I wash my hair once a week.
Well, two weeks ago my boyfriend and I went to a lake that is pretty far from polluted big cities to swim and camp. We got caught in a storm and since our car was already next to the lake which meant that we would have to go through a dirt (at that point MUD) road to the mainroad, we decided to make the most of our day, and went swimming in the rain the whole afternoon... it was great, a real fairy tale day.

But another great thing that came out of it is that I did not wash my hair when we came back as it felt clean, didn't wash it the next weekend, and only remembered that maybe I shoud somewhere between wednesday and thursday last week. I finally washed yesterday, and well, it was greacy, but not any more greacy than it would normally be after a week - and it has been two weaks.

I know we have very hard water here, but I am still a bit puzzled because washing with destilled water never really did anything for my hair. I guess rain is a bit acidic as well. Ah, can't wait to go on another camping trip to the lake and not wash my hair for weeks after

**jera** · August 2nd, 2010, 02:35 PM

Actually rain water is supposed to be good for hair. Maybe that caused the results you saw.

**~~mali~~** · August 2nd, 2010, 02:44 PM

It would be a fairy tale to find out that no one has greasy hair,it was the just water that was hard and was stripping hair from it's natural oils!

Sigh,we can't all go to the lake and sink our hair in it.Even though I wish...The only thing we are bound to do is suffer...Okay,I'm beeing too poetic,haha!

I heard this thing about hair beeing a lot nicer after beeing washed with rain water.And I heard it works and if it worked for you,i'm happy!

**Upside Down** · August 3rd, 2010, 07:15 AM

Yeap, it would be a fairy tale if we could wash hair once in a couple of weeks and look nice

The rainwater seems to be great, boyfriends hair was amazingly soft after and he didn't wash for two weeks after either (forgot to mention that).

Unfortunatly we live in the capital, a bih and polluted city, and I would not want to wash my hair with rainwater collected on my balcony here

**melikai** · August 3rd, 2010, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by Upside Down

Yeap, it would be a fairy tale if we could wash hair once in a couple of weeks and look nice

The rainwater seems to be great, boyfriends hair was amazingly soft after and he didn't wash for two weeks after either (forgot to mention that).

Unfortunatly we live in the capital, a bih and polluted city, and I would not want to wash my hair with rainwater collected on my balcony here

Ah damn, that's what I was going to suggest!

I've started doing WO every second wash (I also normally wash every week), but maybe I'll start using my collected rainwater for that!

**Jenn of Pence** · August 3rd, 2010, 09:53 AM

We just set up a rain barrel at our house, but I don't think I'll be sticking my head in! Although I will definitely be looking for a cool mountain stream the next time I go hiking!

**Upside Down** · August 3rd, 2010, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by melikai

Ah damn, that's what I was going to suggest!

I've started doing WO every second wash (I also normally wash every week), but maybe I'll start using my collected rainwater for that!

Well, if I remember correctly, you live in Niš, your rainwater is waaay better than mine in Belgrade

**melikai** · August 4th, 2010, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by Upside Down

Well, if I remember correctly, you live in Niš, your rainwater is waaay better than mine in Belgrade

Kragujevac, so...debateable.

However, I just remembered a great and easy way to purify water - just add a few chunks of wood charcoal! You add it directly to the water, leave it for 30 minutes or more if you want, and it gets rid of all the toxins and bacteria. I'm doing this with mine!

**bumblebums** · August 4th, 2010, 06:31 AM

Rain water is softer than your municipal tap water, so it would be better for that reason alone. Hard water leaves salt deposits on pretty much everything, including hair.

But, I suspect that another factor is pH. Rain water can be more acidic than regular water. So you might have inadvertently chelated the salt deposits out of your hair that day.

If you want to re-create the effect with city water, you could try boiling and cooling off some water for the final rinse--boiling softens water. And add a tablespoon of vinegar to it--vinegar can remove some of the salt crystals that make your hair manky.

**Upside Down** · August 4th, 2010, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by melikai

Kragujevac, so...debateable.

However, I just remembered a great and easy way to purify water - just add a few chunks of wood charcoal! You add it directly to the water, leave it for 30 minutes or more if you want, and it gets rid of all the toxins and bacteria. I'm doing this with mine!

Oh, my mistake

Really? Charcoal? I was thinking about experimenting with zeolite, but I'll try this first instead

thanks!

Originally Posted by bumblebums

Rain water is softer than your municipal tap water, so it would be better for that reason alone. Hard water leaves salt deposits on pretty much everything, including hair.

But, I suspect that another factor is pH. Rain water can be more acidic than regular water. So you might have inadvertently chelated the salt deposits out of your hair that day.

If you want to re-create the effect with city water, you could try boiling and cooling off some water for the final rinse--boiling softens water. And add a tablespoon of vinegar to it--vinegar can remove some of the salt crystals that make your hair manky.

Oh, I've tried vinegar rinses, though they make my hair softer, I could never streatch washes to two weeks... I guess rainwater has more to it than I was taking into account.