tweaked water only method??

[JessJess]

Hey everyone im new here and i love hair like im obsessed with hair! i wanted to hear if anyone has done the water only method ie washing your hair with just water! yup just water! some might think is gross but actually its kinda nice not putting chemicals on your hair destroying it...:soapbox:shudder:

little bit of background i was using salon products which yes worked very well with my coloured hair however i got it bleached to match my natural roots (transitioning) because i want my natural hair back! now after bleaching my hair stop responding to shampoo and conditioner just everything! i mean every time i would wash my hair would feel so yuk! i could feel the product left in my hair! no bounce was knotty looked like a rats nest underneath, i would brush it and it would be knotty an hour later! it wuld feel waxy and i could feel the "oils" from the products, so i started techniques from curly girl method yes that helped a little bit but in terms of products but my hair was still not responding! i order some samples to try from cg method and thought stuff it im going to wash with water only till my sample get here and omg my hair was just so lovely! i was brushing all the natural oils through everyday and just wow my ends felt amazing my bleached hair was so sleek, soft, de tangles, shiny but not oily! and i was using nothing in my hair!! yes my roots were because you would have to go through that "transitioning stage" so here i am trying this water only method however so many factors stuff this up for me!
we dont live like we did back 500 years ago were you could wash your hair in a lake lol we now deal with pollution, hard water, smoke, chlorine etc

has anyone used diluted baby wash to cleanse their scalp? i figured like once a week or fortnight i could use diluted baby wash with a bit of tea tree oil and cleanse that waxy feeling you can get because of hard water just enough to get rid of excess without taking it all
honestly your natural oils are the best conditioner for your hair! and no your hair doesnt smell it just smells like hair lol

clarifying is also another subject i would like to discuss because once a month this would have to be a must and i have a really good shampoo but i do not want to use it there would be no point in this method because you are trying to get your scalp to regulate oil production
acv or lemon rinses...thoughts? are they damaging if you dilute? iv done a acv rinses using no conditioner after, i only used abit of de tangling spray (bs free ingredients) to protect and it didnt dry out at all =)

i would like to know others experiences with no shampoo methods partially water only
have a fantastic day =):cheese:

[Ylva]

Here's an entire thread for water only washing, perhaps you're interested in it: https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=145310

[akurah]

I would not use diluted baby anything (including shampoo!) to wash my hair--those are formulated not to sting the eyes, and while they might not trash your hair outright, they are unkind to hair. If you want to dilute anything with which to wash your hair, use shampoo that is not baby-oriented.

[shaluwm_agape]

WO is pretty narural here but yes I was no poo for a while using acv & baking soda. I loved it & my hair did flourish but at the time I really didn't care for my hair or scalp properly. My scalp is naturally dry and I was so frustrated with my scalp that I gave it up.

Now I am water only and have chose once a month to still use baking soda to cleanse. But that might change as acv tends to work for me now that I use no products. I'm in the transition phase as i only really started last month... But this isn't the first time I went natural. This is the first time I am WO though

[JessJess]

Oh ok I checked the ingredients on the gaia sleeptime and it seems ok

What about clear henna wax would that be a better idea for sebum build up? :)

[akurah]

Oh ok I checked the ingredients on the gaia sleeptime and it seems ok

What about clear henna wax would that be a better idea for sebum build up? :)

I don't think a wax would accomplish anything except contribute to build up. When I wasn't washing my hair I didn't really get sebum buildup, the reason I'm back to washing is to get cigarette smell out of my hair.

I think a diluted regular shampoo would do you find, just make sure it's silicone free and not a baby shampoo

[JessJess]

Lol it's not actually a wax it's a conditioner treatment that is meant to remove build up :p
Oh ok maybe it's just my imagination about the sebum build up it got really sticky and waxy is that normal? Washing it with water wouldnt really get rid of it or is that just apart of the transition stage?
What shampoo do you use?

[akurah]

I predominantly use Head and Shoulders. I'm pretty sure even the shampoo has silicones though. When I'm not using H&S I use Biotera Hypoallergenic (this one is silicone free)

I like H&S because the pyrithione zinc controls my itching (unrelated to scalp, every inch of my skin is itchy), and I like the Biotera because the absence of fragrance reduces skin irritation for me (fragrance makes my itching worse)

[Ophidian]

There are several ways that you can use to cleanse your hair without completely removing sebum, which could be helpful if you are experimenting with water-only but want some way to get more cleansing from time to time. I don't think that WO is generally compatible with clarifying in the traditional sense for the reasons you mentioned. However, I found that once my hair got used to being washed without shampoo (I was WO for 7 months), I could essential do a "clarifying" wash with very dilute shampoo every once in a while if I wanted a reset without throwing everything off. Many people actually find baby shampoo to be kinda harsh. Honestly whatever you have will be mild enough though if you dilute it down before use and focus on rinsing the soapy water through your hair instead of getting a lot of lather going. I did occasionally use ACV rinses, but it tended to leave a residue if I used it more than 2 washes in a row. YMMV though. I did like very dilute lemon water.

If you're interested in more alternative no-poo methods, I might suggest looking into rye flour. It's easy, cheap, and the worse that can happen is you'll have rye flakes in your hair (strain your flour and/or brush em out once your hair dries). This is a thread on washing with Rye (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=147423&highlight=flour) started recently by Reyne, who has been using it for quite a while now in conjunction with WO:

Herbs can be great too, though are a bit more fiddly than rye flour in my experience until you get your recipe right. I had to experiment for a few months before I found what worked for me, but now I wash with Indian (Ayurvedic) herbs pretty much exclusively (link in siggy).

There's also this thread (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=141641) from a while ago which ended up being a general discussion of various no-poo methods and water only with occasional use of other cleansing agents. There are also a ton of relevant discussions in various threads in the recipes and herbal haircare section of the forums. It can take a while to find what you're looking for but there's lots of great stuff there :). You'll hear a lot of conflicting opinions sometimes, but that's because everyone is pretty much speaking from their own experience (including me) and there's a lot of trial and error involved to figure out what works for your particular head of hair.

This is a little disjointed because I'm trying to throw a lot in here without bogging you down with too much fine print, so I'll leave it here. If you have more questions I'm happy to help if I can. Good luck!

[JessJess]

Thankyou so much this was really helpful! i would love to just use WO as i really dislike shampoo and conditioners in general, i could never find the right ones for me, even co washing just isnt the same as sebum it can still leave that product feeling, im keen on the idea of just using like a soapy (shampoo) water just to get rid of excess without having to start all over again! they are probably right about the baby shampoo i tried one once and it was sooooo drying!!! the only product i have left is clear henna wax i havnt tried it yet but its meant to remove build up and condition the hair (its not an actual wax) lol
i got something new from the thread though about tea rinses?? what are these used for mainly? im very interested in this!

i was actually looking at rye flour, have you tried this yourself? it would seem drying and very hard to wash out no harm in trying i guess..there has been soo much trial and error lately im exhausted! lol i was looking at the rye thread today but need to read more..rye flour does seem to be the winner compared to like acv rinse egg wash etc how long did your hair take to settle down? on day 5 my hair was very oily and just using water didnt seem to do much is that normal for the transitioning period?
x

[JessJess]

Actually can i ask if your hair ever felt crunchy while drying?? Its almost like I have hair spray in my hair it's so odd
I used a clarifying shampoo before starting a no poo method so it's not silicones..would this just be sebum drying along the hair strands?

[Ophidian]

Hi JessJess,

I can relate. Though I don't have a specific issue with using products, my hair just feels and behaves better consistently without them. To answer your questions:

-Tea rinses are great. Different herbs have different properties. Common ones include green or black tea which can be mildly cleansing and some say helps with hair fall, chamomile which is soothing for the scalp and has some conditioning properties, catnip which is also good for scalp and some use to condition hair and prevent split ends, nettle for overall hair health, hibiscus for conditioning (can temporarily stain light hair), and rooibos which I'm not well versed in but there's a thread about it. Basically if you're not allergic to it, play around and see what your hair likes :).

-I'm not familiar with henna wax... what is in it?

-I have tried rye flour and liked it a lot. I did not find it to be drying. It did a good job of removing excess sebum without stripping it all away. Many people do seem to get good results with it among the diy no-poo methods and it's an easy one to experiment with. Getting it all out is definitely a main challenge with this method. General recommendations are to sift the flour before you use it, or go with light rye which is milled more finely than dark or whole meal rye. Consistency is also a factor. Some people like to mix it into a mud which can be more difficult to rinse out than a thinner gravy consistency. I found that soaking it allows the particles to drop out easier than just rinsing in the shower. I would draw a bath and wash my hair, soak it to get most of the flour out, then do a final rinse with the shower head. Many people report that they just rinse as thoroughly as they can, then shake/brush out whatever is left once hair is dry. Much easier to get out then. My biggest problem with rye was that I felt like my length was more tangly. I have heard some say that acidic rinses (ACV etc) can help with this. I also tried adding slippery elm powder, which has a slimy texture and can add conditioning and slip. That did seem to help. I would ask Reyne over on the rye thread if you have more questions, she's the most experienced rye washer on the forum that I'm aware of.

-Honestly when I was transitioning I just wore my hair in styles that looked intentionally slicked back i.e. braids. Everybody's hair/scalp responds differently, so in my experience going into it with a timeline in mind is a recipe for stress if your deadline for looking like an otter in an oilslick passes and you're still not where you want to be. My advice would be to take it day by day.

-Trial and error can be fun, and it can also be exhausting :). A helpful rule of thumb that I learned when I joined the boards is to experiment with one new thing for 2 weeks before changing anything else. This gives you a chance to get a pretty good idea of how it works for you before moving on to the next thing. If you try a ton of things at once, it's hard to gauge individual results and easy to burn yourself (and your hair) out. Keeping notes on paper or in your LHC blog can be a really helpful way to monitor things.

-My hair definitely felt different drying in the beginning. If you're used to shampoo clean, it suddenly feels like there is a coating on your hair. For me it was just something to get used to, as my hair would dry soft. There's a lot of info about stuff like that on the WO thread since it is super common to go through a period of adjusting to how your hair behaves without s+c.

Hope this helps!

ETA: Forgot to add that your bleached hair will behave differently than your regrowth, so it's probably good to keep that in mind. There is some discussion of that too in the old WO thread if I recall.

[JessJess]

Thankyou so much for all the information:)

I will definitely try the tea rinses especially the chamomile

Clear henna wax is a intense conditiong treatment with henna power in it, it's conditions and washes off build up, I tried it last night and wow its really good it removed excess without stripping and washes right out :) especially after doing a acv rinse my hair was so tangle prone and yuky but this cleared it right up

I'm now following the rye thread thankyou so much!

It's hard to put my finger on what it feels like when it's drying but when it drys it's so soft! Maybe that's what hair is meant to feel like without assistance of commercial products

Yes there is definitely a difference however I'm so happy what this is doing for the bleached part of my hair,it's done more in a week then 4 months of products

Thankyou so much for your help x