Questions about W/O

[Cindershadow]

Hello! I'm new to LHC, but have been lurking for a while. I've been tweaking my hair care routine a bit, and just started W/O. I was wondering about a few things: One, do I have to get my hair wet every day? I was shampooing every other day/ twice a week. Two: Are there any recommended hair 'washes'? I used a baking soda and vinegar rinse yesterday. Thank you all for your help!

[Emanuelle]

1. That's something you decide... I would personally never wash or wet my hair EVERY day. That's just too much of a hassle.

2. I've heard baking soda is pretty aggressive. It's salt for the most part, and salt is drying and highly corrosive. Baking soda is often used because it's ''natural''. But remember, if something's natural doesn't necessarily mean that it's healthy or good for the hair. There are natural ingredients that are bad for the hair, and non-natural ingredients that are good for the hair and healthy.

[embee]

WO for me meant Water Only, not "a bunch of other things, just not ordinary shampoo or conditioner".

Baking soda dried out my hair so much (in one try) that I could not comb it at all and it took quite some work to fix. Be very careful.

WO for me means a nice long warm rinse with plenty of scritching when ever I feel like my scalp needs it... which can be every few days - or less in winter when the air is dry and my activity is less sweaty. One joy was the quick drying I noticed. But some people say WO takes longer to dry. ??? :)

[LadyCelestina]

There is a big WO thread,lots of useful information there,you might find some useful information/experiences :)

[Firefox7275]

Baking soda is alkaline so damaging for skin and hair.

[Anje]

One, do I have to get my hair wet every day?
Definitely not. When I did WO, I found that my hair got less and less oily, so that I only tended to need to wash about once a week in the summer. Just go by how your hair looks.
Two: Are there any recommended hair 'washes'? I used a baking soda and vinegar rinse yesterday.
That's pretty harsh stuff, and definitely doesn't qualify as "water only". (There is a scheme called "no poo" by someone calling herself Babyslime floating around, which uses baking soda and vinegar, but the number of longhairs who have luck with it long-term is pretty small. Gossamer here on the forum has made it work for her, IIRC.) Cool-warm-cool was a useful pattern for a lot of people. I tended to finish with a vinegar rinse (also not water only) because I have quite hard water and wanted to reduce any mineral buildup.

[emilyann]

What if I live near the beach and the salty air is in my hair all the time? Will WO washes get the salt and sweat out?

I'd love to WO for the cost-saving and chemical-saving alone! I just know I'd go the the world's greasiest hair stage for a while...

[YamaMaya]

WO for me meant Water Only, not "a bunch of other things, just not ordinary shampoo or conditioner".

Baking soda dried out my hair so much (in one try) that I could not comb it at all and it took quite some work to fix. Be very careful.

WO for me means a nice long warm rinse with plenty of scritching when ever I feel like my scalp needs it... which can be every few days - or less in winter when the air is dry and my activity is less sweaty. One joy was the quick drying I noticed. But some people say WO takes longer to dry. ??? :)

My hair not only takes longer to dry with WO, but actually feels greasier. Maybe it's the water in England, but I just can't do WO without my hair looking like a stringy mess :(

Similarly, I'd warn against Baking Soda, as it made my hair actually break off quite badly after several years of no poo. Had to give it up to save my hair.

[jeanniet]

Water only means just that, water only. Some people do ACV rinses while transitioning. Many rinse every day because it makes them feel fresher, but you don't have to if you don't feel that it's necessary. Baking soda isn't WO, but it's also pretty harsh and not something that should be done regularly, if at all.

[majesticmoon]

Maybe you should try to do herbal rinses. The WO technique seems to leave me a bit greaser then i would like after quite sometime of doing it. I also tried shampoo bars but felt drying. So I started herbal hair rinses or hair teas. http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/products/for-the-hair/herbal-hair-teas/ Here a link to some online. However if you do a little research and like to garden you can just have a little herb garden and grow most of the stuff there which is quite economical and natural considering you know the stuff came right from your back yard.

[Cindershadow]

Thank you all for your help . . . But I don't think I've explained myself well enough here. The baking soda/vinegar was for the transition, and once you've passed though the super-oily greasy phase, you're supposed to reduce baking soda washes to once a month/every other month. I have continued to condition the length, so I'm not technically W/O, but sort of No-Poo/Conditioner Only mix. Since baking soda is so drying, are there any substitutes that will make my hair at least look clean?

[majesticmoon]

conditioner only is c/o As I stated before you can use herbal rinses as i always feel my hair is much cleaner after and conditioned at the same time.

[proo]

I tried WO but it ended up rinsing out the oil and leaving the waxy part of sebum behind,
hence the dreaded "helmet head".
This led me to the SO method which for me was a more direct transition:
my scalp balanced it produced much less sebum.
Once I stopped plying my hair/scalp with stuff it calmed right down.
Btw, water is not a neutral substance; for me it was drying.

[BeckyL]

I tried WO but it ended up rinsing out the oil and leaving the waxy part of sebum behind,
hence the dreaded "helmet head".
This led me to the SO method which for me was a more direct transition:
my scalp balanced it produced much less sebum.
Once I stopped plying my hair/scalp with stuff it calmed right down.
Btw, water is not a neutral substance; for me it was drying.


Sorry, I am new here. What is the SO method?

[Aderyn]

Sorry, I am new here. What is the SO method?

SO is sebum-only. Also commonly abbreviated as NW/SO (No water/sebum only).

[CousinItt]

SO is sebum only. It's a method where you cleanse your hair with your natural oils.

If you want something gentle to balance out greasy hair during your transition, often a simple herbal rinse will work. If you need a stronger cleanser, I've used kaolin clay with success, others have used bentonite or rhassoul clays. Clays don't strip all the oils off the hair when you wash with them, so they're ideal as a transition wash.

I stay away from baking soda now because I tried the baking soda and vinegar cleansing method, and it ruined my hair. The only time I've used baking soda since, was once to clarify my hair before trying out the SO method.

[lapushka]

Found this neat video on W/O (naturally (tightly) curly hair), and couldn't find the W/O thread, so I'm posting here. Hope you don't mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5pGfHyI3Hg