Washing With Rain Water

[herdaughter77]

My sister has started washing with rain water since she discovered it makes her hair an amazing silky texture.
We collect rain water in tanks from our house roof and hoop house roof, so it makes collecting for washing easier. :)

I'm just curious, has anyone done this before or thought of it?

[TheHowlingWolf]

Hmmm....I haven't ever tried that but it has been raining here a lot lol....Now I want to try it! But it doesn't always rain here year round so do you just put out a big tub or something to collect it? What's the difference between rain water and filtered water? I just got a shower filter because we have hard water here.

[jeanniet]

Rainwater can be great to wash with. Just be sure you live in an area where the air is relatively clean!

[lunalocks]

When I lived in an area with hard water, I would rinse with rain water and this made my hair very soft.

[ghost]

I love the idea of washing with rain water, but in real life I don't think it would work for me. I live near an industrial area, so the rainwater could be pretty foul. If I ever live someplace with cleaner air I think I'd at least try it.

[Seeshami]

Only when I am out in it and getting all sorts of wet.

[Wildcat Diva]

I have put out buckets in an open area to do this last summer. However, I can't get past the thought of bird poop from my roof, plus that water is straight up brown, so I don't use roof water for my hair. I've totally done a bucket from a downpour before. Doesn't rain here much though.

[goldloli]

I haven't washed with it but have noticed i get super slippy soft hair that curls tighter from getting hair wet in the rain... maybe it's acid rain that's smoothing down the cuticle, since i live in a city.

[DoubleCrowned]

I use rainwater when I have it. Let it rain a little while before you put the buckets out so that the roof and the air are washed clean first.

[Tea Lady]

I love washing and rinsing with rain water. I always collect it in large bowls rather than from the gutters. (Years ago there was a discussion on LHC about the possibility of microbial contamination from gutter-collected rainwater. But I think there are perhaps devices that would filter it?) Anyway, I love to soak my hair in it. Tonight it was raining a lot, but I was out and about and did not set out bowls. But I was walking in it, so I hope I reaped some benefit!

Tea Lady

[anitacs9101]

I want to try this but have no idea how I would manage to collect it o.O

[jacqueline101]

If I was going to use rain water I'd probably gather it in a clean bucket the roof top might not be too clean. I've never washed my hair with rain water.

[WaitingSoLong]

I have never tried this because it is dirty to me. Even in a clean basin, there will be bugs and visible debris on top. Not really worth the effort to find out.

[door72067]

I've never done it, but there's something romantic about the notion

[dwell_in_safety]

I've never even thought to do this before. Hmmm. I do have an apartment that opens to the outside with a small yard, so it wouldn't be out of the question for me to try.

[faellen]

Not done this even though I live in a rainy country :p

Is the effect on hair similar to soft water? I live in a hard water area and whenever I stay somewhere with soft water my hair HATES it!

[BambooBeauty]

Im going to try it. I heard that it makes your hair really soft. Im just going to put buckets outside to collect the rain and see how much i get.

[Angelica]

Do you wash with cold water or warm the rainwater up first? If you are washing with cold rainwater that would be far too cold for me to try.

[Vrindi]

I used to take shampoo and go outside in the rain with my bathing suit to wash my hair. :) Don't get much of that here in the desert, and the rain seems to be mud drops from all the dust in the air anyway. :-/

[Naiadryade]

Hmm. All the rain in this part of the country is acidic from being downwind of, well, pretty much the rest of the country. On the one hand, this might be great because of the pH smoothing the cuticle, etc--like maybe it would act like an ACV/citric acid/etc rinse. But on the other hand, it's acidic because of pollution. I'm not sure which would outweigh the other! I've never tried it, but I also can't say I've noticed much of a difference in my hair after it gets wet in the rain. I guess I'll start paying better attention to that.

[sarah112786]

sounds interesting! I have heard of people doing this and having good results

[herdaughter77]

The rain was collected from the hoop house, so it wasn't full of everything on the asphalt roof...so relatively clean.
One could put a screen or cloth over the top of the "collecting vessel" to eliminate debris and such from the water.
My sister is also rather adventurous. When looking at collected rain water, romantic isn't my first thought! :smile:

We live in a city, but it's not terribly industrial. I doubt the rain is very acidic....although I've never tested it. We are in the northeastern part of the States.
She heats it up on the stove so it's not cold.
Also, she only washes her hair with soap made from scratch (ie, lye, olive oil, tallow, lard, glycerin).

[Naiadryade]

Your sister sounds pretty cool.

The rain pretty much throughout the Northeast US is acidic. It doesn't matter if you live in a city, or an industrial city... Your own town is generally not where the clouds formed that end up raining on you. My understanding (I recall learning this in elementary school, so I could be slightly off here) is that the Northeast US is an area that generally gets a relatively high amount of precipitation because all the water that evaporates out of the dryer middle of the country ends up raining on us, due to the usual large-scale weather patterns/high-altitude wind patterns. For the same reason, much of the nation's industrial spewings end up in those clouds too, making the rain in the northeast acidic.

A quick google search will show you some colorful maps of how acidic the rain in your area tends to be.

[californiagirl]

I really love the idea of using rainwater to wash with. Unfortunately, the rainy season where I am in California has pretty much ended, so I will have to wait until about November. In the meantime, I enjoy what my hair looks/feels like after I go swimming up at Yosemite during the summer.

[Tea Lady]

Collecting: Any large bowl or bowls will do. I use this giant green Tupperware bowl.
Regarding any debris: I filter the water before using by running it through a paper coffee filter.
Cold vs. warm: I boil a small amount of water from our drinking water filter and add it to the rainwater right before using. That warms it up a bit without diluting the rainwater too much with regular water. One could also heat on stove (as mentioned above) or microwave. But I don't like the idea of zapping it with the microwave!

Tea Lady

[ibleedlipstick]

It sounds nice, but I live relatively near a road well-traveled by log trucks during the rainy season and I can't imagine it would be that sanitary. I might try it if I ever find myself in a place with clean, fresh rain water!

[anitacs9101]

I used to take shampoo and go outside in the rain with my bathing suit to wash my hair. :) Don't get much of that here in the desert, and the rain seems to be mud drops from all the dust in the air anyway. :-/

I need to add that to my bucket list! :)

[DragonFlyPie]

Where I grew up we did EVERYTHING with rain water - we had a cistern in the basement that collected the rainwater off the roof - and that is what we used for laundry, showers, etc. That is what came out of the shower head & all the faucets. We had one separate faucet for well water for drinking. Honestly, even today my family that still lives in that area uses rain water for everything. It's really nothing new, that's just how a lot of people live. I think quite a few people use rain water for daily use. I suppose it's better since it's not loaded with chlorine like city water is. but it's been about a year since I've been up to visit family, so I can't really remember how my skin/hair react. You can actually buy huge plastic cisterns these days to collect your rainwater for daily use. I still get creeped out by the cistern in the family farm house. It's just a giant cement thing filled with water. The walls are probably 6-7 feet tall. So you need to stand on a little stool to see into it. I just always HATED having to look into it to check the water level. Here's a picture of it from one of my trips back home :) (hope it works)

You can see how low the water is, usually its quite high - much closer to the top. We were filling it with well water that day because it was so low.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5063/5859988968_82b672a238_z.jpg

[herdaughter77]

Yeah, according to the DEC our rain is about 30% higher acidity than 'normal'. So we're acidic.
We also live a few blocks from a highway and our street gets a lot of traffic.
About not-so-clean rain water, my sister says she's not worried about it. Of course you pick out floaties, but even then, it's way better than jumping in a lake or pond.
Personally, I would trust the rain water to be safer than the city water with all its chemicals.

[gossamer]

I learned recently that my city's rainwater is acidic, so I'm going to try even more to prevent it from getting on my head!

[Naiadryade]

Gossamer, why? Do you try to prevent diluted ACV/citric acid/lemon juice from getting on your head? I think the acidity of rain might actually have a lot to do with why people experience it making their hair shiny and nice. It does the same thing as the acidic rinses so many of us sing the praises of.

[Topaz]

I live in San Antonio, Texas. Can one of you explain what this rain stuff is you guys are talking about? :lol:

[Ocelan]

I actually just thought of starting a thread on this a few weeks ago but didn't. Now it's here. :) Actually I found an old discussion from the archive which raised a couple of the same points discussed here, about pollution and hard water/soft water issues. We have soft water anyway so that's not a problem for me.

Once we get past the cold season (it has only just been above freezing a few days now) I think I might have a try. I think we used to wash our hair with rainwater when I was little but I can't remember it properly. My hair does get nice and soft and wavy whenever I do get caught in the rain so it might have a point to it. Though I do live in the least rainiest country in Europe so I might not be able to do this very often...

[Tea Lady]

Today by me, (north of Chicago), it is raining a lot, with more to come late evening. So I set out my green bowl, and its orange (smaller) companion! I am not worried too much about acid content. I think the pH of rain in my area is close to that of hair/scalp. I am just thinking of it as an apple cider vinegar rinse from the skies!

Tea Lady

[gossamer]

Gossamer, why? Do you try to prevent diluted ACV/citric acid/lemon juice from getting on your head? I think the acidity of rain might actually have a lot to do with why people experience it making their hair shiny and nice. It does the same thing as the acidic rinses so many of us sing the praises of.

When I put diluted vinegar on my head, it's in a controlled setting and I rinse it out afterwards. Since I wash my hair only once a week and it rains here almost every day, I'm not going to rinse out the acid rain after every time my hair might get wet, so there it would sit, potentially altering the pH of my scalp.

[Naiadryade]

If the pH of the rain in your area is between 4.5 and 5.5 (which it is in most of the US--there is a map about this here (http://www.epa.gov/region1/eco/acidrain/intro.html)) I'd think that would be a great thing since that's the pH your scalp wants to be, and the pH of sebum. Actually, I'd think that that would be better for your hair and scalp than neutral pH water!

But to each their own. :)

[gossamer]

If the pH of the rain in your area is between 4.5 and 5.5 (which it is in most of the US--there is a map about this here (http://www.epa.gov/region1/eco/acidrain/intro.html)) I'd think that would be a great thing since that's the pH your scalp wants to be, and the pH of sebum. Actually, I'd think that that would be better for your hair and scalp than neutral pH water!

But to each their own. :)

Thanks, this is the info I'm going off of because I'm not in the US: http://cwb.gov.tw/V7/observe/phRain/

The rain is regularly below 4.5 and it's polluted air that it's falling through.

But you're right, to each their own!

[Naiadryade]

Oh, I see! Fair enough. :flower:

[TheHowlingWolf]

HERE'S A PICTURE OF THE RAIN WATER I COLLECTED:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2w56byt.jpg
As you can see, there's a lot of dirt in it :( I have two big trees in my small yard (front and back) so it was hard to find a spot in my yard that the trees weren't covering, so I think the dirt is from the tree. Is it gross? Should I not use it?

[herdaughter77]

Howling Wolf, personally, I would filter the dirt out and use it. It looks very clear! But, it's totally your choice.

[spidermom]

I definitely wouldn't wash my hair in water collected from my roof; it would probably be all kinds of polluted. We live near a major overpass.

[FrozenBritannia]

I would love to do this. It doesn't rain enough here, and the rain is always very cold, so I've not even really walked rond with my hood down in the rain in years. I am hoping to move to a place where it rains a lot though, and warmer rain too! Then I will put a bucket out to collect water for my hair!

[anitacs9101]

I had a big rain storm today so I figured I'd give this a try! I set two buckets out, one under the gutter spout and one just out in the open. I collected tons from the gutter and filled my 2 gallon bucket. but only a few inches of water from the other bucket. I heard some people say the water from their gutters came out brown or with tons of debris but mine is crystal clear with just a few small leaves that I filtered out with a towel.

But now I'm kind of at a loss, lol. We don't get much rain here, and I collected enough water to wash my hair about 2 times I'm guessing.

1. Can I just store what's left in my kitchen for a week??
2. Can I only use the water I washed with once?
3. Do I have to rinse with additional water? I was guessing you just lean over in the bucket, get your hair wet, lather, then dip back in the bucket use your fingers to get the soap out of your hair.
4. When you rinse the conditioner out, is it ok to use the same water you rinsed the shampoo in?
5. And lastly how long do you think will I have to wash like this before I start noticing any sort of difference in my hair?

[anitacs9101]

I had a big rain storm today so I figured I'd give this a try! I set two buckets out, one under the gutter spout and one just out in the open. I collected tons from the gutter and filled my 2 gallon bucket. but only a few inches of water from the other bucket. I heard some people say the water from their gutters came out brown or with tons of debris but mine is crystal clear with just a few small leaves that I filtered out with a towel.

But now I'm kind of at a loss, lol. We don't get much rain here, and I collected enough water to wash my hair about 2 times I'm guessing.

1. Can I just store what's left in my kitchen for a week??
2. Can I only use the water I washed with once?
3. Do I have to rinse with additional water? I was guessing you just lean over in the bucket, get your hair wet, lather, then dip back in the bucket use your fingers to get the soap out of your hair.
4. When you rinse the conditioner out, is it ok to use the same water you rinsed the shampoo in?
5. And lastly how long do you think will I have to wash like this before I start noticing any sort of difference in my hair?

bumpity bump? :)

[Rilig]

Whenever I'm out and it starts to rain, I try to let it wet my hair as much as possible without soaking my clothes. And Anitacs, I think it's more just rinsing with raiwater than actually washing. Rain in the US is acidic, so it's similar to a vinegar rinse. At least that's what I've gathered reading this thread.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

When I was growing up we lived on a small Pacific island, we would get amazing tropical downpours and from time to time I would put my bikini on and stand outside and wash my hair standing under the torrent of water pouring off the roof. It was never cold (being tropical), but as for what it did to my hair, I couldn't tell you, not being an LHCer in those days I didn't notice...But it was lots of fun. If the rain stopped and I still had shampoo in my hair I would have to tiptoe through the house dripping water and rinse in the shower, lol.

[lunalocks]

When I used rainwater I could tell right away.