Rainwater and hair

[Anya15]

Okay, so it started raining and this is what it's going to be like for the next few months. I got stuck in the rain today without an umbrella so I was soaked. After I dried off, I noticed that my (3rd day) hair had got its wurls back but it felt really gross. Like the rainwater had made my hair dirtier, somehow.

What's the deal with rainwater and hair? Is it good or bad? :(

[lithostoic]

Rainwater always makes my hair look and feel fantastic! Not sure what the problem is. Is it dusty where you are?

[littlestarface]

Rainwater always makes my hair look and feel fantastic! Not sure what the problem is. Is it dusty where you are?

Me too, if we ever see rain here in cali....

[pailin]

It almost sounds like my attempt at water only washing several years ago. My hair got greasier and flatter, because I think the water brought stuff from scalp further down the hairshaft. Maybe something similar is what happened with yours

[spidermom]

My hair likes rainwater, which is fortunate since we get so much of it here in PNW.

[Pearly~91]

Like the rainwater had made my hair dirtier, somehow.

This is possible, especially if you live in an area that is polluted, or if it was windy before the rain so there was dust mixed in, or if you got hit with rain water that was running off dirty surfaces like a roof or trees.

But I think it is more likely that the rain did something to the product in your hair. If I remember correctly you use some methods with leave in and layered products, right? A possibility is that you had some kind of product in it that soaked up the moisture, like a humectant, and this changed how your products were interacting, or the rain could have rinsed some product out.

Rain water agrees with my hair, but I don't usually have leave on products in my hair. I have noticed before that when I use products to tame flyaways and then rewet my hair it can feel gross.

[TatsuOni]

If I try to WO-wash my hair it gets greasy even if it feels clean before. I have no products in my hair and it still gets greasy.

Does your hair react different if you rinse it with water compared to rainwater?

[Anya15]

Yes, my city is fairly polluted and there are a lot of trees in my uni campus... So it's possible that the rainwater just brought a lot of stuff with it.

And yes I normally use products, but right now I have temporarily cut them out because of the humidity (they were making my hair limp) . all I use is a very dilute conditioner-av gel mix in a spritz bottle and some oils.

Oh no, WO leaves my hair feeling good. I've only tried water rinses alternating with my regular washes though, never gone full WO.

[Pearly~91]

Yes, my city is fairly polluted and there are a lot of trees in my uni campus... So it's possible that the rainwater just brought a lot of stuff with it.

Well, if you hadn't had a big rain in a while, things were probably pretty dirty, so as it continues to rain the rain might be less dirty? I'm not sure how it works with monsoon season, but that's my guess.


And yes I normally use products, but right now I have temporarily cut them out because of the humidity (they were making my hair limp) . all I use is a very dilute conditioner-av gel mix in a spritz bottle and some oils.

Hmm. It is still possible that the rain messed with the av and oils, possibly rinsing them out and leaving weird residue.

Hopefully, as this is just the start of the season, you can see what happens if your hair gets wet in the rain again. There might be different results?

I'm sure someone will come along who has more experience and will be able to help more.

[sumidha]

If there's lots of smog and particulates in the air when it rains, they will come down with the rain, and end up in your hair. :(

Using rain water to wash is a lovely romantic idea, but in this day and age with the amount of air pollution some areas experience I don't think it's very practical and possibly even borderline unhealthy (obviously not the case if you live somewhere with excellent air quality but sadly that's not a blanket assumption you can make about everyone).

[cailinbee]

This is such an interesting topic -- rain has always been my favorite "product" because it would throw my (apparently natural) waves back into my hair. Something about the intermittent water drops without totally soaking my hair all at once ala the shower made for great hair texture.

That being said, everyone's concerns over the actual quality of rain water based on pollution is pretty valid...rain is something I wouldn't intentionally "put" in my hair on a regular basis! :P

[Angela_Rose]

Oh, my hair loves rainwater, but then again when I let my hair play in the rain I am out in the woods where there isn't much pollution, and I don't use a lot of stuff in my hair.

[Anya15]

I don't plan to intentionally soak myself in the rain, haha, this was just unfortunate! XD But part of my hair is definitely going to get wet whenever it rains. The ends usually do.

[01]

Eek! Rainwater can actually dirty your hair? Something to think about before I start collecting rainwater. But each time I got caught in our local rain my hair were great and 2c/3a.

[Estrid]

I don't live in an area with heavily polluted air, but my hair gets really frizzy in the rain, emphasis on the really. Soaked or not, a little rain and my hair will look frizzy and stringy. I have sometimes wondered if it is because my hair is "used to" hard water and the rain is lower in pH and "soft"? I'm not sure, all I know is that my hair looks horrible after a day out in rain.

[Tosca]

For the first 19 years of my life I washed it in rainwater, but we moved into town and I'm using chlorinated town water now (I can't taste the chlorine when I drink it). To be honest I have not been able to tell the difference between my hair washed in rainwater and washed in townwater.

I second the ideas upthread, that the water either had a lot of smog or pollution in it, or it rewet your products and therefore made them go funny.

[Anya15]

I'm not at all happy with the effect. :lol: I thought I'd wash it out today but I'm sick so I have to put it off :(

[Adorkable One]

I would love the opportunity to wash my hair in rain water some day, straight from the sky. Living in Southern California, obviously this is difficult to make happen. When it does rain a lot, it's usually when it's far too cold to actually stand in. Lol.

Really, I'm just curious how washing my hair in non-hard water will be like, and nothing seems better than pure rain water. Though I plan on trying a distilled water rinse to see what that is like. Close enough.

[Tosca]

Maybe try boiling/heating the water in a big pot on the stove? Our rainwater was heated by gas (we didn't have townwater hooked up)

[nakima]

My hair loves rain water as well. When my grandmother was still alive I would go to our farm to visit her and because she had a well we couldn't use much water in the house or it would go dry so I always used the water in the rain barrel to wash and then when it would rain really hard I would put on my bathing suit and shower in the rain. It was cold but so invigorating! I miss those days...

[littlestarface]

I would love the opportunity to wash my hair in rain water some day, straight from the sky. Living in Southern California, obviously this is difficult to make happen. When it does rain a lot, it's usually when it's far too cold to actually stand in. Lol.

Really, I'm just curious how washing my hair in non-hard water will be like, and nothing seems better than pure rain water. Though I plan on trying a distilled water rinse to see what that is like. Close enough.

I'm in central cali and when it rains here I try to put a pot or a jug outside to catch it but it's never enough it's only like half an inch if even that. Better to try distilled water instead of never getting enough rain water to wash with.

But if you can just stand outside and let the rain soak you it's good to see how rain effects your hair. Mine turns really wurly in the rain, it's nice. But that wont happen until late october so you got alot of months to wait :lol: