Water only washing, WO, 2019

[Hairkay]

It's a new year so I have started a new thread. The old one is here.

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=145310&page=30&p=3631742#post3631742

The last two posts are;


https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Tinyponies https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?p=3631535#post3631535)

Shaluwm_agape Your hair looks lovely to me. Echoing what Cate said plus I’m starting to appreciate that wo hair does look/feel/behave differently to hair with sebum removed (which is the look that we see most of out and about and in the media) but I personally prefer hair like yours on an aesthetic and also intellectual level.



I do too. I was only strictly WO for about 7 months, but since then I measure all other methods by it in a way. My hair is just so much happier when it is sebum conditioned. Still can’t stand it when my hair feels and looks stripped. It feels too naked ;)

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Cate36 https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?p=3631643#post3631643)
Yeah I was going to comment on that issue also.. we NEVER see normal hair in the media.. we only see it washed, fluffed, cut, treated.. so seeing natural healthy natural hair is an education that is needed IMO.. I think this with many issues surrounding women. I suffered anorexia for a decade of my life 20 years ago.. even though I am fully recovered and love food now, the inner distress over measuring myself and feeling inadequate to others still plagues me. The media does have a part to play, because our perceptions are based on images.. hair and otherwise... that appear healthy because of what we have been taught.. but are really not all that healthy at all.. rather they are unnatural. Your hair is great.. and if it feels healthy to you, (and it looks it!) then don't ever change.. live and love you X



Amen to that :agree:

Shaluwm_agape
Thank you all for your words of encouragement.

[Dana]

Re-posting my last post from the old thread (from last night):

I am going to try WO for a little while, maybe a long transition into it. My husband has pretty bad scent and chemical allergies, which means that most of the popular S&C are not on the menu for me.

I am currently washing every 5 - 7 days with regular shampoo and a non-cone conditioner (a decent one from Fresh Thyme grocery store - their house brand), with nothing else in between. My ends get dry by that point and my roots pretty oily.

Today might count as my first WO day - I massaged my scalp for a minute before showering, where I massaged and tried to preen a bit. But since this was day 6 post-shampoo wash, my roots were pretty clumpy and I couldn't preen very well. Maybe this would be easier if I had tried to WO preen a few days after washing? Anyway, I have a lot of that cone-free conditioner left, so I am putting that on my ends to help.

RE: cleaning your BBB - Do folks continue to purchase standard shampoo to clean their BBBs? Or do you use liquid dish soap, etc when out?

[Missymo]

I'm doing water only washing for this year as it as been a real pain trying to fine and make shampoos that don't dry out my hair and make it stand of end. I'm also complementing this with herbal conditioning to stop my hair from drying out.

[Tinyponies]

Hey Dana,
Welcome to the thread. I can totally relate as I have multiple allergies too.
I’m only a couple of months in to my wo experiment and loving it, but I’ve gone strictly wo and cut down my wash frequency to once every two or three weeks so my transition experience will be very different to yours.
There’s a lot of wisdom on the old wo thread and also on the nw/so thread. The most helpful thing I can think to say is to bear in mind that your diet, environment, water quality, methods of mechanical manipulation and washing, monthly hormone changes etc,etc all play their part. Your body is unique and will catch up to you in its own way. It’s a balance between seeing what you’re comfortable with and changing mindset and expectations. I certainly feel that it’s getting me a lot more in touch with my body.

I’ve lately been using only my fingers and once a week a comb but I was cleaning my BBB with warm water with a tiny bit of eco dish soap. Let it soak the bristles for 10 mins or so, then rub it against another brush (my dh’s Tangle teezer worked amazingly well).

Hi, Missymo, look forward to reading about your progress!

[RavenMane]

Any advice on getting the smell of cigarette smoke out of my hair? I'm definitely ok with ACV rinses, herbal tea rinses, etc. And if I have to I'll use shampoo.

[Tinyponies]

RavenMane have you tried a very warm (almost hot) shower with lots of preening in the shower? (Followed by a cold rinse)

[RavenMane]

I'll go try that now Tinyponies, thanks!

[Tinyponies]

Hope it helped! Been thinking a lot about what I might do in your situation. Mainly I would want to remove the particles that cause the smell and not use a fragrance to mask it.

[Dana]

Thanks Tiny!

I am on Day 3, I didn’t it WO today, I just massaged and used BBB twice. Will WO tomorrow morning and see how things stand, I may need to WO daily for a while.

After WO two days ago, I used to “towel method” with my turbine twist (microfiber), which really seems to help move the oils down.

It’s interesting how my natural hair smells. Kind of outdoors-like, like a mix between the rain and a clean cat.

Here’s hoping things continue to go this smoothly!

[Luna May]

Hi everyone! I'm new here (so not sure if I should be posting this in the "new? start here" section, but because it's a wo question I thought I'd post here right away, please let me know if that's not okay)
I've started wo in October 2018 as I got fed up with using expensive (natural, sls & silicone free) shampoo & conditioner that were the only ones my hair and scalp tolerated since a horrible eczema outbreak last winter. And I also found that despite heavy condi use my hair would stay frizzy and quite dry (I've got 3a ish curly hair). I did cut my hair a bit (from over chest length to a bit longer than shoulder length) when I started wo as I was worried it would get mega tangled and that washing would be a nightmare but oh I was so wrong! It tangles so so so much less especially while washing as the natural sebum seems to detangle so much better than any condi I've ever tried.

So that's all good so far but... I haven't been full wo since October since after a couple weeks or so of wo my scalp would get mega itchy :( So every other wash (I was 1-2 times a week) I had to use either a bit of shampoo (only on scalp not hair) or white rye flour to stop the itching and flakiness.

Has anyone experienced a flaky itchy scalp when switching to wo? Everyone always says about how greasy their hair gets and I've never had that. My issue is it's being too dry! I think the flakes are just from dryness though rather than bacterial daindruff but any advice would be hiiighly appreciated as I really want to stick with wo as my hair loves it!

Oh and btw I don't like using a hair brush and only use my fingers to massage my scalp / detangle hair.

Many thanks !!

[Tinyponies]

Hi Luna May and welcome! You’ll find lots of good advice and shared experience here. I’m fairly new too, learning so much and starting to settle nicely now.

I’ve had an itchy flaky scalp too, but I had a bad shed that (I’m hoping) is stopping since going wo so a bit of itchiness hasn’t bothered me much. I’ve been washing my scalp with some cold spring water when I really need to ease it.

Wish we could all get together and have a good look at each other’s hair and scalps. That would help a lot.

Yours and my itchiness and flaking could be happening for completely different reasons, we only know that the symptom is similar.

For me I suspect it will ease off in time (as it is relieved by cold water rinse) and is likely acidic waste leaving through the skin that was suppressed before. There’s no redness or weeping or anything like that, just itching and white flakes.

If you don’t really get greasy hair, do you feel that your hair has a coating of sebum? Do you get any at all? Hows your eczema and skin in general? Did you take medication for it, how’s your diet? Things to maybe think about.

Has anyone else here had anything like this as a phase in transition and seen it pass?

[shaluwm_agape]

Hi Luna! Welcome. What I would suggest when your hair does start to itch are diluted teatree oil or diluted peppermint essential oil and spray it on your scalp and massage. Or you can do peppermint tea rinses. I have had Seborrheic Dermatitis for a few years and since being WO I feel it has really helped. My skin and scalp in general are very sensitive. So though I rarely get itchies once every other week I rinse with something acv, peppermint tea, or oils

[Luna May]

Hi Tinyponies & shaluwm_agape, thank you so much for the kind welcome and your helpful answers!

Meeting up would be helpful I guess but not sure if I'd want anyone to have a close look at my snowflakes :D

I do find my scalp produces sebum as I can tell whenever I'm massaging it / washing it that my hands are a bit "tacky" (in a good way) and I can spread it to my ends especially while washing it with lukewarm water. I wondered if my scalp just needs some time to get used to the change? I've also switched to wo for my face (cut out all skincare, and I don't do make up anyways) and it's taking a while for my skin to adjust, too. Maybe I just need to be more patient :hmm: I know skin gets lazy from overusing moisturiser and it stops renewing & moisturising itself properly so I guess it's the same with the scalp so now that it can learn to self regulate again it goes crazy and sheds too much :/ ?

I don't take any medication and currently don't have big issues with eczema other than maybe a bit of itching on my arms/back if there's lots of dust. And diet wise I feel like I could get more vitamin A as I read that helps fix dry skin/hair, so that's still something to try but the thing is I didn't have more vitamin A before I switched to wo and I could go a week or longer without washing my hair and my scalp won't go itchy, my hair would just go dry, so I feel like the itching must be connected to the switch?

How often do you wash your hair Tinyponies (sorry if you already mentioned that somewhere) ?

Do either of you think the dryness/itching could also have to do with the cold weather (I'm in England)?

The peppermint tea wash and teatree oil are great tips, thank you! I've got both at home so that's something I could try easily! Thank you !!

[Luna May]

Edit: I've just found the bit where you said how often you wash your hair, Tinyponies! Do you wet you scalp/hair in between though without washing it? I quite like making it slightly damp before I braid it at night to help give it texture between washes...

And you, shaluwm_agape, do you find you need to wash it often?

[Tinyponies]

Sounds like you’ve covered all the bases. I’m in England too - maybe we will both feel better when it gets warmer! My house is a big old Victorian one and always freezing :brr:
Love the idea of wetting hair a bit to braid - I’ll def try that :)

I’ve been using the corner of a microfibre towel soaked in cold spring water to wash my scalp/rooots when it gets too itchy. Peppermint tea sounds nice.

[RavenMane]

I've never been able to totally get rid of my flakes. After reading a bunch from you all and especially EdG, my guess is that my flakes are actually build-up of waxy sebum and dead skin. Ever since I've gone water only I've been combing a lot while it's damp and I'm getting a lot of dry waxy gunk on my comb. I'm hoping once I comb it all out of my hair and off my scalp I won't see the flakes anymore.

[RavenMane]

Tinyponies, your advice worked very well for getting the smoke smell out of my hair. Thank you so much for sharing.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience on doing a gentle brown sugar scalp scrub? Would there be any cons? I'm still in transition and I'm wondering if it would help clean my scalp.

[shaluwm_agape]

I have done many scrubs and brown sugar & even coffee are my favorite. Just test it because your scalp may be sensitive.

[EdG]

I've never been able to totally get rid of my flakes. After reading a bunch from you all and especially EdG, my guess is that my flakes are actually build-up of waxy sebum and dead skin. Ever since I've gone water only I've been combing a lot while it's damp and I'm getting a lot of dry waxy gunk on my comb. I'm hoping once I comb it all out of my hair and off my scalp I won't see the flakes anymore.Yes, the gunk on the comb is a mixture of accumulated waxy sebum, dead skin cells, and lint. Combing it out is the right approach. The amount will diminish over time (months). Eventually, combing will yield only a small amount of fine powder.

A difference between your experience and mine is that my flakes disappeared long ago. My flakiness seemed to be caused by full-strength shampoo. The flakes disappeared after I switched to diluted shampoo (a decade ago), and remained gone after I went to water-only (2.5 years ago). I think too-strong shampoo is one of several reasons why the scalp can flake.
Ed

[RavenMane]

Thanks Shaluwm_agape and EdG!

[embee]

I'm mostly NW/SO but I will occasionally do WO scalp rinse. That seems to be quite sufficient for me. :) It's been working well for a couple of years now, maybe more.

[Tinyponies]

My bf complimented my evening braids tonight. They are looking quite healthy. Compliments are rare (but always thoughtful). Feels like I’m getting somewhere. :cheer:

[shaluwm_agape]

My bf complimented my evening braids tonight. They are looking quite healthy. Compliments are rare (but always thoughtful). Feels like I’m getting somewhere. :cheer:

That is sooooo awesome you should post a pic!

[Tinyponies]

I have put two in my hair progress picture folder for you <3
“Looking healthy” for me - my tangly frayed mech damaged mane is improving a lot with recent lhc- care.

[Dee94]

Just posting in here to keep up, as it's a new thread for wo.

[Olux]

Tinyponies kindly informed me there's a new thread for this topic. I'm new here and i'm still figuring it all out.
I'll repost here what i posted in the old thread.

So 4 years ago i started to experiment with alternatives to commercial shampoos with very bad results at the beginning due to my lack of information. Since then i have been through periods in which i give up and then go back to experiment what is best for my hair.*
I started with BS followed by ACV rinse and didn't like it at all. Then i started to stretch hair wash days from every day to every other day.
I have to mention that i used to constantly bleach and used to flat iron my hair often as well.*
Then i switched to chemicals free shampoo and conditioner. This took a while for my hair to get used to, but when it did i stretched my hair washes even more to twice per week.*
Then i started oiling and putting deep conditioning products in my hair before wash day. During this time i kept bleaching and using styling tools, less often than before though, sometimes i would go back to regular, but expensive hair products through multiple times, by my hairstylist advice. At first they would work great, but the effect would wear out gradually the more i continued its use, until i was there right back to the beginning, feeling guilty for not being tough and determined enough during transition phase. at this point my search for a hairdresser that actually have some respect for my hair started until i landed with the current one I'm going to, who i consider "less bad than the others", to put it someway. She is very expensive, but i can go 2 or 3 times per year and my haircut looks fresh and her color technique allows me to look ok/decent enough for a while, plus she started to understand i don't want to be overwhelmed with the offering of the tons of products and treatments she sells.
This time i growing my natural color again (long story in between) and i have been 2 months completely free of any kind of bad or good chemical shampoo, only natural methods. At this point i wash my hair in a weekly basis, i stretch it more if i can, or more often if i have to, due to social events. I completely quit heat tools, actually i stepped by accident in my old very expensive flat iron recently (took it as a sign).
I'm very thankful for all the posts in this thread, cause I'm wanting to give it a try to WO and its so helpful to read your experiences with it.

[Olux]

And though I'm not water only (yet) i think i have a few advices that worked for me during my transition and i hope you could find as helpful as i found yours.*
I excuse if i make grammatical mistakes since English isn't my first language, but i hope the message its clear enough.*
First is related to my battle against hair wax. Oh how i suffered, this was one of the main reasons it took me so long to quit shampoo, even when shampoo was not the giving me the best results.
So i read apple sauce would help with that and everytime it was my wash day (which was more often that i wanted too at this point cause all of the horrible looking wax) i would alternate between my homemade applesauce, egg yolk and vinegar rinses. After about a month, it got better, but not enough. So i did it all together. First i let the applesauce mask sit for an hour on my dry hair, then rinsed it with water and applied the mixture of 2 eggyolks (non-diluted) with one spoon of honey and one spoon of olive oil. And for final rinse i diluted a couple spoons of vinegar in a lot of water. When my hair dried it wasnt looking smooth and silky, it looked stripped, with a lot of flyaway hairs (which i have a lot cause breakage in my lengths before i stopped bleaching), but since then i have been wax free*
Since then i adopted the egg yolk cleanse as my main kind of cleanse, mixed with other natural hair masks and rinses.
My second advice has to do with the hard water. After the first month i started this journey i thought of ordering a camping shower head in Amazon. I live in Mexico, the water is very hard, it smells heavily like chlorine and the dream of showering with soft water was growing very strong in me. But i live in a rental house, i might have to move soon again and the idea of spending tons of money in a whole softening system seems impossible by now. I did went through lots of shower head filters, in all price ranges, they helped a little, but it wasn't enough.*
As i said before, i ended ordering the camping shower head and buying jugs of purified water, a bog one one varies from 1 to 2 dollars in my city. I only spend like 4 dollar per month, since i only use it for my hair.
Since then i've been watching my hair with very cold water (cause its winter, and the room temperature is cold) at the end of my shower and results have been beyond great.*
My DBF ordered me now a portable water heater (a piece of metal you put inside the bucket of water), but I'm a little concerned, cause the cold water might have more benefits, according to what i've read. It's nice to have the option though.
So my main concern right now about switching to WO has been the amount of water i would need to rinse all the oils out. But that i will have to find out yet.

I forgot to mentioned i've done other stuff that might have contributed with my wax problem, but those are the main things that i think helped the most.*
One was putting amla fruit juice (which i bought in the frozen stuff aisle of an indian supermarket) directly to my scalp and lengths. Just read it might have chelating properties.

[EdG]

Welcome Olux! :waving:

Warm water should help to remove sebum and to reduce the waxiness.
Ed

[Flittingsis]

Hi all! I have experimented with WO on and off for a number of years, but also struggled with flaky scalp (and usually oily hair). I've been experimenting with all kinds of different things from scalp scrubs to borax water. Nothing worked. I too figured that the flakes were not caused by any bacteria or yeast but was just waxy sebum and dry skin. So, I tried oiling my scalp with sesame oil at night and rinsing in the morning. Obviously, daily or even twice daily scalp massages help, too. No matter the season I still have some dry flakes, but the scalp oiling helps A LOT. I'm currently experimenting with tea rinses for the oily hair; nettle, green, and chamomile is working really well. I'm also using essential oils in my sesame oil. Currently, ginger, rosemary, and Clary sage.
I'm glad people are still trying this method. It is wonderful to see what real hair looks like, and a joy/pain to learn how to deal with it!!

[Olux]

Hi all! I have experimented with WO on and off for a number of years, but also struggled with flaky scalp (and usually oily hair). I've been experimenting with all kinds of different things from scalp scrubs to borax water. Nothing worked. I too figured that the flakes were not caused by any bacteria or yeast but was just waxy sebum and dry skin. So, I tried oiling my scalp with sesame oil at night and rinsing in the morning. Obviously, daily or even twice daily scalp massages help, too. No matter the season I still have some dry flakes, but the scalp oiling helps A LOT. I'm currently experimenting with tea rinses for the oily hair; nettle, green, and chamomile is working really well. I'm also using essential oils in my sesame oil. Currently, ginger, rosemary, and Clary sage.
I'm glad people are still trying this method. It is wonderful to see what real hair looks like, and a joy/pain to learn how to deal with it!!

How do you wash off the oils from your hair after? Just water?

[Flittingsis]

Olux, washing out the oil is a big balancing act. First finding an oil that isn't too heavy or too light for your skin is important and for me involved many greasy hair days. When I oil, I oil at night to give everything time to soak in (I especially like to wear a super soft cashmere hat when I sleep in the winter to keep everything warm). Also, I only put a drop of oil on each finger tip, rub it into the other hand, then massage that in (repeat until I feel good that I've covered my scalp as much as I want). This way all the oil I put on is moved around with my fingers and my scalp and sebum are warmed up. The morning wash out is just warm water (I'm lucky, my city has pretty soft water) sometimes a cool water final rinse. The key I found was the comb out after the wash. I use a very fine tooth wooden comb and either a microfiber cloth or an old T-shirt. As I comb I follow with the cloth and pull the water and oil down the hair.

I am currently also using herbal teas, so I'm not just rinsing with water right now, but just water can work, too.

[Olux]

Flittingsis thanks! I gotta try it some time.

[Luna May]

I thought I'd post a little update about me dealing with flakes with wo! The other week I've mixed apple cider vinegar with water (kind of half half) and after I washed my hair with water made sure I'd massage it into my scalp and let it sit for a while. Then I washed it out. Since then it seems as if I can go longer without having to wash my hair due to ichtiness/flakes without having to repeat the AV procedure. Today is the 5th day of not washing my hair (I've washed it on Saturday and today is Wednesday) and I will wash today as I noticed it's getting a bit itchy and I can see the odd flake.

Inbetween washes I also stopped massaging my scalp (which before I'd do every morning/evening for a few minutes to stimulate hair growth) as I found it just loosens the flakes and makes me itch. Now I leave the massaging till I wash my hair. Before I wet my hair I massage my scalp to loosen up all sebum and flakes and then again massage once wet to make sure I remove it all mechanically and with luke warm water.

To keep texture in my hair inbetween washes I just wet it a bit with fingers before braiding at night.

It's going well, I think my scalp just really needs time to adjust. Skin renews like every 28 days or so, that's a long time, I probably just have to be patient and accept changes are small and steady and no quick results.

Hope this helps someone stick with wo! It's so brilliant and easy!

Oh and another thing I found works are honey masks left in for a while before washing. I also like washing my face with honey/leave as a mask. Maybe that could be an alternative to some people instead of using oils as honey is very moisturising but will wash out easily compared to oils! Also, I found whenever I use oil regularly on skin, my skin gets "lazy" and stops producing oil itself so I wonder if using oil regularly on the scalp could dry it out further in the long run?

All the best to everyone x

[Shepherdess]

I have been thinking about trying this. I went for a few weeks without washing my hair and I didn't have any problems with my scalp (I did use a spray bottle of water with some drops of essential oils in it on my scalp each day however). In the past I use to have a lot of trouble with itchy scalp and such, but seems to have gone away this past year. I feel like all the shampoos that I used to use on my hair were too harsh, even the ones without sulfates made my hair not feel the best; I have a lot of rough hair cuticles on top of my head all the way down around the back of my head which I am certain was caused from the shampoos I was using since I only would put them on my scalp. My hair however has been feeling much smoother and better since not washing it in such a long time, so I have been wanting to try something different. This past month I did switch again to occasionally using a shampoo bar now on my scalp.

How do you exactly "do water only"? Is it that you only wash your hair with water? Are ACV and tea rinses okay? Would using a spray bottle with water and essential oils on the scalp and hair be okay?

[shaluwm_agape]

Yes to everything you asked. Water being the main component is the goal. I do ACV rinses at least every 2 weeks or when I use oils
And tea rinses are great!

[Shepherdess]

Yes to everything you asked. Water being the main component is the goal. I do ACV rinses at least every 2 weeks or when I use oils
And tea rinses are great!
This is wonderful to hear!! Thank you very much! ACV rinses feel so nice too haha. :o That's great you do that! :)

[shaluwm_agape]

Just know depending on what tea rinses you use leaves your hair feeling differently. And acv is great for taking out oils

[AmberJewel]

I'm not sure if I belong on this thread yet, but I'm considering it. Quick backstory: I tried WO once before when I was new on LHC and hated it. I was in an area with very hard water, high heat and humidity and LOTS of dust. Quitting shampoo cold-turkey probably didn't help either. My mom commented that my hair looked "wet" even after it was technically dry. Needless to say, my experiment didn't last very long at all.

Fast forward to this year, I've been gradually weaning myself off of shampoos and other things with harmful chemicals. At this point I've been using a diluted baking soda-and-vinegar-in-water-with-essential-oils mixture instead of shampoo for a couple of weeks. I follow the wash with an ACV rinse since this area also has extremely hard water. I wash once or twice a week and my hair seems to really be loving it! This is encouraging and I'm thinking of gradually switching over to WO. I've had trouble with my scalp for quite some time and it seems to be letting up with the baking soda and vinegar combination.

My concerns
1. Time. I'm keeping a pretty hectic schedule until June and seeing people talk about time spent brushing, scritching, preening, and multiple rinses is intimidating. I prefer a simple, no-fuss way of handling things though the occasional pampering session is always nice. :)

2. Space. Until June I'm also in a very cramped living space with three other people and we don't have a tub or anything for soaks.

3. Crappy roommates who will not hesitate to ruin my reputation the moment I start to look greasy. 'Nuff said.

So if anybody bothers to read through all that, I appreciate it. And please let me know what you think.
I really like the community here and the feedback. Sometimes I read comments just for the sheer pleasure of seeing that some people are still sane and have respectful conversations. ;) Love you guys!

[TwilightMermaid]

Have you tried boar bristle brushing?

[AmberJewel]

A couple of times, but I was never really consistent with it. I after reading some of these threads I dug out the BBB last night. It helps my scalp but I always feel bad pulling it through my ends. I think it did help my hair to look better this morning though; I combed, then brushed it upside-down and bunned it on top of my head. I use a silk/satin pillowcase (not sure which anymore) and it helps as well with breakage.

Hair type is in my little avatar thingy. It is thinner than it used to be when I was younger, but still viable. It tends to get greasy at the roots and dry at the tips. I'm trying to be more gentle with it and oil the ends more regularly with coconut oil. I also use a homemade dry shampoo.

[Tinyponies]

Hi AmberJewel, I don’t have that much wisdom to impart as I’m fairly new too, but want to wish you all the best with your experiment. I think hair without products and with an intact layer of sebum *does* look different to shampoo stripped hair and we aren’t used to seeing it. That said there might be folk here who achieve a totally -socially normal- look, I hope to meet a bunch of them one day to re-calibrate my own perception :grin: I’m still considering myself wo, but seem to be doing a lot better on a very very rare rinse or near so/nw routine. Anyway yep, great to have this little community to bounce ideas off and mutually support. I’m slowly reading through the old very large merged NW/SO/WO thread which is brilliant.

[EdG]

AmberJewel - I think that water-only washing is more work only during the transition period. Any accumulated waxy sebum and lint needs to be combed out. After that, the hair reaches a steady-state in which combing produces very little (mostly fine powder).
Ed

[Tinyponies]

Hi EdG, hows it going? Do you feel that it’s that simple for everyone, or do you have conditions that make it true for you, in this moment? I’m very happy with my routine, i know diet, water quality, health and hormones, methods used, quality of sebum and amount of sebum production, etc and more all have bearing but I like your simple wording. I suppose I am asking you, why do you think more people aren’t over here? I would love to hear your thoughts, especially as you appear to be someone on a wo routine and with what appears to be very socially acceptable (regarding “greasiness”) looking hair. Or does it look different to shampoo stripped hair in person?

[Hairkay]

Hi EdG, hows it going? Do you feel that it’s that simple for everyone, or do you have conditions that make it true for you, in this moment? I’m very happy with my routine, i know diet, water quality, health and hormones, methods used, quality of sebum and amount of sebum production, etc and more all have bearing but I like your simple wording. I suppose I am asking you, why do you think more people aren’t over here? I would love to hear your thoughts, especially as you appear to be someone on a wo routine and with what appears to be very socially acceptable (regarding “greasiness”) looking hair. Or does it look different to shampoo stripped hair in person?

Hi Tinyponies,

I got to this post first so here's my reply. From my perspective simple is best since I have various allergies to deal with. Everyone's transition period is different. I didn't really notice a transition period since I had already been accustomed to water rinses daily then a weekly shampoo from childhood. I had to stop using regular shampoo and all forms of soap from the age of 11 due to allergies. I've got tight curls which never look greasy. I do sometimes get flakey scalp patches which I treat to a little olive oil then wash it out with oat water. The excess oil can be removed with just water if one is willing to let it happen gradually. Water, given enough time can wear stuff away that's why we have such a thing as water erosion in nature. Instead of expecting everything to be sparkling clean instantly and anything that is not that way is a failure. You are cleaning bit by bit, its a gentle gradual process. That's part of the reason I'm quite happy to keep doing daily rinses. I work with hard water too. Preening isn't a problem for me because I combine it with plaiting my hair. I preen as I unplait (unbraid) and plait (braid). I do a low manipulation regime so hair is only restyle once a week.

[AmberJewel]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I'm fine with my hair not quite looking "shampoo-stripped", especially since I usually wear updos anyway. If not it's almost always in a braid.
I'd say my ultimate goal isn't pure WO but more... liquid only maybe? Like stretching washes out to once a week or so and then rinsing with an herbal tea or something. My hair loves peppermint. :) I'm trying to be gentle with my hair and protect the little baby-hairs as they grow. A few years ago I had a major shed (partially stress-related) and lost a lot of thickness. It wasn't even all that thick to begin with! So now I'm down to 2.25 pony diameter. I've hung around LHC for a while now, off and on, and I've just always had a feeling that WO with occasional herbal/vinegar rinses was something to work towards. Anyway thanks for the feedback!

[EdG]

Hi EdG, hows it going? Do you feel that it’s that simple for everyone, or do you have conditions that make it true for you, in this moment? I’m very happy with my routine, i know diet, water quality, health and hormones, methods used, quality of sebum and amount of sebum production, etc and more all have bearing but I like your simple wording. I suppose I am asking you, why do you think more people aren’t over here? I would love to hear your thoughts, especially as you appear to be someone on a wo routine and with what appears to be very socially acceptable (regarding “greasiness”) looking hair. Or does it look different to shampoo stripped hair in person?I think that water-only washing gives acceptable results only for certain people. It would not have worked for me when I was younger due to too much sebum. Even now, water-only washed hair does not look like shampoo-washed hair. It is visibly oily, just not excessively oily. It does not smell (bad odors indicate the presence of mold/bacteria).

The reason why I have stuck with water-only washing for 2.5 years is that my hair had a large amount of lint that accumulated during my shampooing years. The lint came out when I switched to water-only washing. This is probably not a common experience. I am aware of only a few LHC'ers who have had lint problems to the extent that I have had.
Ed

[Shepherdess]

So far I am still doing well with this! I just realized I have been consistently washing/rinsing my hair on a 2 week basis lately, since it has been exactly 2 weeks since my last post in here. I don't even schedule washing days, I just decide to do it when I feel I need it. So far I am using rice water rinses and very diluted apple cider vinegar rinses. No issues yet and my hair has actually been feeling very soft and developing an interesting cascading wavy texture; I'm not sure how to describe it. My hair is still very curly when left loose, but when I take it out of braids and brush through, it has that interesting pattern. I like it. :)

[Tinyponies]

Hairkay and EdG, thank you both for your responses. I’m so fascinated by this lovely texture my hair is developing and while it might be judged as not so 100% great looking by some standards, for me it’s more soft and manageable than I’ve ever known it. Ever. My ends are as silky as my roots, there are hardly any tangles, and it drapes and moves pretty nicely too.

Selfishly I’d love it if there were loads of us or if more were outspoken so I could normalise it more easily for myself, and we could celebrate together. However I have a head start as I’m used to being somewhat of an oddball/outcast.

Shepherdess, sounds like you’re onto a very good thing :thumbsup:

[Tinyponies]

This is a pic dh took of me today, not planned, haven’t brushed for days just detangled. Haven’t felt the need to rinse for ages.
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35489&d=1550176252

[AmberJewel]

Tinyponies, I love the look of your hair in the picture! It looks so natural and also beautiful. The background doesn't hurt either. :) Your description of the softness, movement, and texture is exactly what I'm hoping to achieve.

EdG, I've also had problems with lint... or something that resembles it. I've noticed it stuck to my wide-toothed comb in the past like tiny fluffs and a fine powder that mixes with the oils and takes a while to clean off. It was only on occasion that I noticed the buildup, but I didn't like it. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen it since I've been using Baking soda and ACV.

Question: Who here uses herbal rinses and what kind do you recommend? I'd like to start experimenting with them and am open to suggestions.

[EdG]

Tinyponies - your hair is thudworthy. You have no worries. :)

AmberJewel - yes, that is lint and waxy sebum. Lint accumulates in places where the hair has become folded over itself. Sometimes combing will go through a pocket of lint. Other times, combing will produce no lint at all.
Ed

[AmberJewel]

Sooo would you recommend WO as a good solution? It's very annoying when that happens.

[EdG]

Amberjewel - It sounds like your hair does not have much lint. Any small pockets of lint will come out with combing after water-only washing.
Ed

[Tinyponies]

EdG - thanks, it’s frustrating as I was trying to share a picture that shows the day to day look of my hair, but on uploading lost a lot of detail. So it’s still flattering. Ha! I’m not really self conscious but just fascinated by the texture and look of wo and so hair.

[AmberJewel]

I think I'm doing something wrong. Every time I try a WO wash I end up with a lot of waxy sebum stuck in my hair. It's uncomfortable and looks bad, not to mention it sticks all the hair together in clumps. Using the BBB just spreads it through the hair more evenly and then I have to wash the brush. Any tips?

[Tinyponies]

AmberJewel sorry to hear of your struggle!

Might you have hard or high residue water where you live? I’m sorry I can’t remember if you’ve already said all this.

I had something similar and was washing my brush every day. Changes I made were washing in very cool spring water, which seemed to reset things, then going a long while between washes more like a nw routine. I also only use my boar bristle brush rarely now.

Have you been washing in quite warm/hot water?

I know people have had some success with a distilled water final rinse, or a miracle water rinse, or an acidic rinse.

Other factors could be your overall health and diet as well as what kind of routine you’re coming from.

[shaluwm_agape]

I think I'm doing something wrong. Every time I try a WO wash I end up with a lot of waxy sebum stuck in my hair. It's uncomfortable and looks bad, not to mention it sticks all the hair together in clumps. Using the BBB just spreads it through the hair more evenly and then I have to wash the brush. Any tips?

Sounds like you are in the transition phase. What I would rrecommend is to wash more frequently for now but definitely get a silicone shampoo brush it did wonders for sebum build up.
BBB did not work for me I hate cleaning brushes so no help there I use a wood comb.

My BFF for transitioning was braids the hair during this time doesn't look so bad in braids

Also every other week I did some type of rinse tea rinse acv white vinegar (white vinegar actually gets rid of excess oil )

[EdG]

Amberjewel - you are in the transition phase. The hair clumping is a sign of lint - check your brush for lint. You need to comb out any accumulated waxy sebum and lint. I find that a wooden comb works extremely well (it needs to be cleaned frequently). Also, water-only washing more frequently, with warm water, helps to loosen the sebum and lint.
Ed

[AmberJewel]

Tinyponies, I definitely have high-residue hard water. You have to take the shower cap off occasionally to clean it or the buildup will stop the water flow entirely! Same for all the faucets. ACV rinses help but I'm not sure if that's allowed. I don't use very hot water, just warm with a cool rinse afterwards.

EdG, I appreciate the encouragement. Transition phase is not fun!

shaluwm_agape, Thanks for your idea about the shower brush. That might help. :)

[shaluwm_agape]

AmberJewel you can get a cheap one for like 6 7 bucks on amazon

[AmberJewel]

Yes, unfortunately Amazon doesn't deliver very reliably to Honduras... at least not that I've heard. I'll look for something similar around here. :)

[shaluwm_agape]

Oh ok :) sure you could find it at any beauty supply. It's become Sooo popular! Just my 2 cents but make sure it has the silicone bristles I bought one with plastic bristles. .. ouch

[shaluwm_agape]

My hair just had a tiny knot that was so hard to take out just realized it was because it was wrapped around lint smh

[shaluwm_agape]

https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=35760&d=1551513225

ThoughtI would share an update pic 5 months WO. This is the look of my hair washe'd and bunned so it's abut 85% dry. The texture of my hair feels so much different; more slick and shiny. I'm getting used to it, as it is definitely healthier & growing faster. Atm it's a love hate relationship as my hair is probably never going to feel light & fluffy but, now that I can bun it, that's my go to style.
The biggest benefit to it however which really makes me want to continue with it is... I really see & feel when my hair needs extra TLC. I can actually see what it needs & wants

[Tinyponies]

Thank you for sharing your picture shaluwm, it’s great to see that and hear about your progress. I’m glad to hear you are happy and getting used to it. I am sure that the first inch / inch and a half by my head is much smoother and shinier than the rest of my hair and I’m excited to see that travel down.

I have tried to take a similar pic for you (this is right now, nothing special done) a weird thing happened last week where I warm wo showered my hair at my mums where the water is softer, but my hair went super dry and tangly at the ends (minor panic because before I did that, I was really happy with everything). So I’ve put some olive oil on now because it was that dry & you can see the difference - I’m hoping that it will just sort itself out with my regular routine. My new profile pic is from before the weird thing happened.

https://i.imgur.com/lFKCfs5.jpg

Edit3: took a few tries to stop picture from coming out teeny.

[shaluwm_agape]

Tinyponies honestly you can't even tell in this pic your hair looks so good.

[Tinyponies]

Tinyponies honestly you can't even tell in this pic your hair looks so good.

Same to you, you’ve got some serious shine going on there x

[shaluwm_agape]

Same to you, you’ve got some serious shine going on there x

Thank you ! I'm definitely getting used to that too. Always felt it looked greasy but nope just my natural hair

[vpatt]

So I have been using diluted shampoo for some time. I use corn starch at least once a week to help hide oil.....it works great for that and blends with my color. So I haven't washed for 3 weeks and I have used cornstarch twice during that time. I did WO today and I'm really surprised at how my hair feels. Clean with almost a thicker feel. I did let the water run on my hair for a good while to be sure I got all the powder out. I used cool air to blow dry just a bit on my scalp. I actually had a halo of new growth which has never showed before. So I have been very surprised by the results. I'm not sure if I will go back to diluted shampoo, but may try this for a while and see what I think.

12 hrs later: completely dry and I think the length looks oily and separated. But the scalp looks good so a bun will work. This is opposite of the usual oily scalp and not oily length. Hmmmm......

[AmberJewel]

Ok I confess I caved in and did a wash with a little (highly diluted) baking soda. I just got so tired of it being waxy after a couple weeks! Does anyone have tips on how to get rid of that? I love the look of your hair from the pictures you guys have put up. :) It looks natural and not dirty at all! After doing WO for a week or so, I've noticed that my length is much smoother and shinier which I really like. I just hate the clumpy wax feeling on my scalp. Is it alright to wean off the diluted shampoo instead of going cold-turkey, or is it better to just quit and deal with it? I'm wavering somewhere between the two right now.

[shaluwm_agape]

Amber Jewel I honestly say it depends on how active you are. I did it cold turkey and prefer it but I'm always home & when I am out my hair is braided or in a hat so no one else knew. The 1 or 2 comments I did get about my hair looking dirty was honestly jealous comments

[AmeliaJaneAgain]

I’ve been experimenting with no/low poo over the last few weeks and I had exactly the same waxy build up problem. I did an applesauce mask which shifted the worst of it.

I’m not going to do water only I don’t think as I live in London and the water is super hard. I feel a bit like I have been ignoring all the advice and just trying random different things each time I wash though 😂

I bought a soap nut, neem and shikakai shampoo bar and have been trying that with an acv rinse but it seems to make my hair very dry so on Sunday I made an avocado, honey, banana and egg yolk mask and left it on for an hour.

It is definitely the best thing I’ve done. My hair is so soft and feels in much better condition. It took forever to wash it out though- not sure it’s the low maintenance routine I was looking for 😂

[AmeliaJaneAgain]

I’ve been experimenting with no/low poo over the last few weeks and I had exactly the same waxy build up problem. I did an applesauce mask which shifted the worst of it.

I’m not going to do water only I don’t think as I live in London and the water is super hard. I feel a bit like I have been ignoring all the advice and just trying random different things each time I wash though.

I bought a soap nut, neem and shikakai shampoo bar and have been trying that with an acv rinse but it seems to make my hair very dry so on Sunday I made an avocado, honey, banana and egg yolk mask and left it on for an hour. It is definitely the best thing I’ve done. My hair is so soft and feels in much better condition. It took forever to wash it out though- not sure it’s the low maintenance routine I was looking for 😂

[AmeliaJaneAgain]

Sorry not sure why that posted twice!

[Tinyponies]

I recently lost my boar bristle brush ( was using it a lot less and misplaced it) and my narrow tooth comb, and was just using my wide tooth wooden comb which is lovely but I did notice a lot of lint build up. It turned up last night so I’m going to have a go at sectioning it and going right through with the boar bristles over the next few days and hopefully that will help get some of it out, and also spread the ton of sebum that’s sitting in the first 4 inches or so of my hair.

This might also fix my dry ends issue that I’ve had since I last washed.

AmeliaJaneAgain totally understand, I wouldn’t want to wash with London water either. I’m in the West Midlands and it’s also very hard water so I only use bottled spring water the rare times I want to wash, or wait until I’m visiting family in soft water areas.

[Tinyponies]

Ok I confess I caved in and did a wash with a little (highly diluted) baking soda. I just got so tired of it being waxy after a couple weeks! Does anyone have tips on how to get rid of that? I love the look of your hair from the pictures you guys have put up. :) It looks natural and not dirty at all! After doing WO for a week or so, I've noticed that my length is much smoother and shinier which I really like. I just hate the clumpy wax feeling on my scalp. Is it alright to wean off the diluted shampoo instead of going cold-turkey, or is it better to just quit and deal with it? I'm wavering somewhere between the two right now.

You do you, I’m sure there are a million ways to do it, and only you know what your needs and expectations are. I don’t think your rinse will set you back too far and great if it helped you feel better. I have read a lot of people who strongly warn against baking soda on hair as it’s so harsh but I don’t have any direct experience with that to offer. Be careful and maybe have a dig around in old LHC threads?

Thanks for commenting on the picture, I am cool with how my hair is and enjoying it a lot. I would love to see more pictures of low and no poo/wo/so hair as I find it so interesting but there aren’t that many out there (that I’ve found). There’s a Wo pictures thread http://https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=80734 that maybe we could resurrect?

ETA did it, posted my pics over there :cheer:

[vpatt]

How often do most of you "water onlies" wash your hair?

[Tinyponies]

Hi vpatt,

Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m washing so rarely that really I’m more nw/so than wo. My last (and perhaps final) cool rinse was an experiment as I was staying in a lovely water area, but really my hair was a lot happier before I did it. How are you getting on?

[shaluwm_agape]

It varies for me but 3 times a week usually sometimes 2

[EdG]

I wash 2-3 times a week, more often during hot weather and less often during cold weather.
Ed

[vpatt]

Thanks y'all. I had gone 3 weeks before I washed with water last week and I just did a water wash today. It is still drippy so I won't know if I'm happy with it for a couple hours. So 1 month since I have used diluted shampoo. I massaged my scalp very well with warm water and at the end did a coolish rinse. I suspect if I become unhappy with it that I will go back to diluted shampoo and try to stretch that out.

I did try this before and had just gotten to where I was happier with it and then had to do a treatment that wiped out my WO experiment. So this is experiment #2.

What are your reasons for WO? I'm thinking it may be kinder to our hair....But I have chlorine and fluoride in my water so I don't know about that.

[Hairkay]

Thanks y'all. I had gone 3 weeks before I washed with water last week and I just did a water wash today. It is still drippy so I won't know if I'm happy with it for a couple hours. So 1 month since I have used diluted shampoo. I massaged my scalp very well with warm water and at the end did a coolish rinse. I suspect if I become unhappy with it that I will go back to diluted shampoo and try to stretch that out.

I did try this before and had just gotten to where I was happier with it and then had to do a treatment that wiped out my WO experiment. So this is experiment #2.

What are your reasons for WO? I'm thinking it may be kinder to our hair....But I have chlorine and fluoride in my water so I don't know about that.

I am WO because it's kindest to my extra sensitive allergy prone skin. I do daily rinses which suits my tight curls. My hair can dry out a lot if I leave it too long without water.

[shaluwm_agape]

It's honestly the kindest to my scalp. This is the healthiest my hair has ever been

[EdG]

I do water-only washing because the waxy sebum causes lint to stick to my comb, which I then clean. Sebum's combination of slipperiness and stickiness is unique.
Ed

[Tinyponies]

I also have sensitive skin and allergies so on the physical it suits, also intellectually it makes sense to me that we don’t necessarily all always need hair products (nothing against, it is nice to know there’s another way).

[vpatt]

Thanks so much for the responses! So far so good.

[AmberJewel]

For me, I like the simplicity of washing with water, and also the lack of harmful chemicals that are in most shampoos. My hair tends to be oily at the roots and dry on the ends, so I'm attempting a detox period. I'm not through the transition phase yet, but even so, the length is already looking better and shinier than it ever was using shampoos and conditioners.

[frostedeyes]

I put in an oil mask and tried to wash it out—three times! This last wash finally helped. I first thought that if I just wash my ends with water, it’d slip right off, but nope. After two WO washes, it was still there. Took a bit of shampoo to finally get all of it out. My hair is now silky without it being oily.

[shaluwm_agape]

Yes! I did a DIY mask last Sunday and I finally feel it's back to normal 1 week later. I washed 3 times this week with only water & it finally doesn't look oily

[SparrowWings]

What color is everyone's sebum? Does it change when it's wet, vs when it's dry?

[EdG]

Sebum is a fine gray powder. Colors are due to lint (white, blue, and black in my case).

When I switched to water-only washing three years ago, I found myself combing out amber orange sebum for months afterwards. The color matched the last shampoo that I used. This was proof that the sebum had accumulated during the shampooing months and was not new sebum being produced.
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

For me it's white & powdery has never really been another color

[PeaceTeaRules]

Hello all! It had been forever since I posted here; couldn’t find the other thread so thought my account was gone, lol.

Messing around with kind of water only atm. Dipping my combin the water and combing it through my hair repeatedly, scratching and not getting my scalp wet. After going back to using surface laiden shampoo at least once a week.. so that’s where I am.

Had also cut my hair a while ago and am dealing with the awkward stage that is bangs in face and almost shoulder length ends? Idk how I dealt with hair in my eyes when growing it out last time. Maybe I ignored it. But Ye, had it short for like a year because I almost can’t get past the hair in eyes phase. It’ll take years to get it as long as I had it before I cut it; I cut it short because st some point I gave up and it was too matted to untangle... the hairdressers just chopped it off. I hope to never let it get that bad ever again! : it would’ve been gorgeous if I didn’t take benifpgn neglect to the extreme. Thinking about it is slightly soul crushing...

Sorry for the rant, just wanted to let you all know what was going on since hadn’t been here in s couple of years.

[SparrowWings]

... When I switched to water-only washing three years ago, I found myself combing out amber orange sebum for months afterwards...
Months?! Wow.

I've been effectively NW/SO for the past couple years-ish, but have found that if the sebum gets too built up (either because I was lax/busy, or because it's just not spreading properly), once I finish the normal dry SMP, I can get my hair superficially damp (wet my hands and run them along my hair, repeat a few times) and preen/comb again to fix it.

But the sebum color is doing weird things! When it's dry, the preening gets lint and colorful sebum for a few passes. That clears up to clean (or very faintly green-tinged, yay persistent ultra-fine bedding lint!) pretty quickly, though, and I do a little extra to make sure. Then moisten, and preen/comb again... And suddenly it's BLACK for a few more passes, as if I'd never done the first preening, and only seems to lighten to pale grey, rather than the off white of the dry preening. So I wasn't sure if I was actually someone missing THAT MUCH lint and gunk, or if some of it might have been moisture-related as well.

It's bizarre and a little frustrating, but all in all, I'm happy enough with how it seems to be working. The moistened version, if I do it a couple times, even gets me to a point where I feel like I could wear it loose if I were so inclined, and the tangles are so much less than they ever were with shampoo! Even if I ignore it for several days between detangling sessions. That never used to work.

[EdG]

Welcome PeaceTeaRules! :waving:


Months?! Wow.
...
But the sebum color is doing weird things! When it's dry, the preening gets lint and colorful sebum for a few passes. That clears up to clean (or very faintly green-tinged, yay persistent ultra-fine bedding lint!) pretty quickly, though, and I do a little extra to make sure. Then moisten, and preen/comb again... And suddenly it's BLACK for a few more passes, as if I'd never done the first preening, and only seems to lighten to pale grey, rather than the off white of the dry preening. So I wasn't sure if I was actually someone missing THAT MUCH lint and gunk, or if some of it might have been moisture-related as well.
I had a bad case of accumulated sebum and lint. Today, sebum wouldn't remain in my hair for that long.

The black comb-out may be old polyester. Polyester degrades over time, slowly reverting back to petroleum. Over the past few months, I have been combing out extremely fine polyester lint. This stuff sticks to everything (hair, scalp, and comb), unlike cotton which stays put by wrapping itself around the hair.
Ed

[vpatt]

Well now y'all have me wondering......I am a spinner, so besides my pets which are dogs and cats I work with all kinds of fibers. Rabbit, NZ possum buffalo, yak, llama, alpaca, goat and several sheep breeds. So I wonder how much of this I'm carrying around on my scalp...lol, I know I have lots stuck to my clothing. But while I see a bit of lint in my brush and comb I'm not sure if it is any worse than it was with using shampoo. And pale grayish seems to be the color, at least I've not noticed any other colors. Hmmmm....

I am noticing my scalp flaking a bit, but all my skin is acting up right now with psoriasis. If it gets worse I may need to shampoo, but I am not sure that would even help it.

[EdG]

vpatt - lint won't accumulate as long as the hair remains tangle-free. Coarse fibers are much more likely to be noticed than fine fibers.
Ed

[Tinyponies]

Well now y'all have me wondering......I am a spinner, so besides my pets which are dogs and cats I work with all kinds of fibers. Rabbit, NZ possum buffalo, yak, llama, alpaca, goat and several sheep breeds. So I wonder how much of this I'm carrying around on my scalp...lol, I know I have lots stuck to my clothing. But while I see a bit of lint in my brush and comb I'm not sure if it is any worse than it was with using shampoo. And pale grayish seems to be the color, at least I've not noticed any other colors. Hmmmm....

I am noticing my scalp flaking a bit, but all my skin is acting up right now with psoriasis. If it gets worse I may need to shampoo, but I am not sure that would even help it.

How lovely :love:

I love spinning too! I’ve not been settled in one place for a few years but hoping to make a nice craft space when we move (hopefully soon) :)

[vpatt]

Thnx EdG

Tinyponies, so good to meet a fellow spinner!!

[SparrowWings]

The black comb-out may be old polyester. Polyester degrades over time, slowly reverting back to petroleum.
Huh. I definitely hadn't ever thought of anything like that. Is it really expected that a tiny bit of moisture would make it show up and/or comb out more than when it's dry, though? That's the part that seems so strange to me.

[EdG]

Huh. I definitely hadn't ever thought of anything like that. Is it really expected that a tiny bit of moisture would make it show up and/or comb out more than when it's dry, though? That's the part that seems so strange to me. Yes, my experience has been that lint combs out in greater numbers when the hair is damp. Water acts as a lubricant. Together with waxy sebum, they cause lint to loosen and to stick to the comb.
Ed

[vpatt]

Do you all oil the ends of your hair or ever use conditioner either regularly or occasionally? I have been noticing more fairy knots in the ends of my hair. At first I thought possibly from my hair getting longer, but I just trimmed an inch a while back so I don't think it would be that.

Well, I realize this is a WATER ONLY thread, but I guess my question is do YOU tend to have knots more with WO than other methods and how do you deal with that? Or do you think my knots could come from another issue?

[EdG]

vpatt - my hair is coarse and tends not to get knots.

Knots and lint are related - knots often form around lint.
Ed

[vpatt]

vpatt - my hair is coarse and tends not to get knots.

Knots and lint are related - knots often form around lint.
Ed

Well, I do see some lint in my brush.....I think there has always been a bit. So more lint with WO? My hair is very fine. Way back I would sometimes get rat's nests at my nape, I suspect that was from not wearing my hair up very often. I guess I just have to deal with it....Hopefully it won't get worse. Thnx Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

It's not more lint just more noticeable because your hair is in its natural state with absolutely no product. But I do oil my ends because at times they do get dry

[Growingit]

Is there any advice for extreme static? It’s horrible. I can’t even wear my hair down. I know it’s in my BBB & every other comb and brush I own. I’ve tried to remove it from my brushes with tea tree oil and Castile soap. I’ve been WO for about 10 days I believe.

[vpatt]

Thanks Shawlum_agape. I have to say my hair felt awesome after my last wash. I can't believe how soft it feels.

Growingit, I have heard some recommend wooden brushes and combs to stop static.

[shaluwm_agape]

U are so welcome!

Yes a wooden brush does the trick

[Growingit]

Thank you so much!

[sallytz]

Do you all oil the ends of your hair or ever use conditioner either regularly or occasionally? I have been noticing more fairy knots in the ends of my hair. At first I thought possibly from my hair getting longer, but I just trimmed an inch a while back so I don't think it would be that.

Well, I realize this is a WATER ONLY thread, but I guess my question is do YOU tend to have knots more with WO than other methods and how do you deal with that? Or do you think my knots could come from another issue?

I'm trying to move toward NW/SO, and I find that my ends still get super dry. I put argan oil on the ends. I just use a few drops to add some slip and shine. Even if I over do it a bit and the ends get a little clumped together, it seems like it all absorbs by the next day.

[vpatt]

I'm trying to move toward NW/SO, and I find that my ends still get super dry. I put argan oil on the ends. I just use a few drops to add some slip and shine. Even if I over do it a bit and the ends get a little clumped together, it seems like it all absorbs by the next day.

Coconut oil made my ends crunchy and I have read that argan might tend to yellow silvers, tho I do have some for my face. I have jojoba and garnier Marvelous oil. So I guess I can try those last 2....just play with them a bit...Thanx Sally!

[pili]

Coconut oil made my ends crunchy and I have read that argan might tend to yellow silvers, tho I do have some for my face. I have jojoba and garnier Marvelous oil. So I guess I can try those last 2....just play with them a bit...Thanx Sally!

I use argan a lot, and none of my silvers are yellowing. They are all super silver.

[shaluwm_agape]

My favorite oils is seasame seed & avocado

[vpatt]

I use argan a lot, and none of my silvers are yellowing. They are all super silver.

That is great to know, I will give it a try!

[shalindra]

Hello ladies, going to do w/o again, last year I quit because I missed the smell of shampoo... silly I know. What I like about w/o method, hair tangles far less and fly aways are a thing of the past, hair has the texture to stay up in a bun without 50 bobby pins .. baby fine hair here. What I don't like about w/o, takes much longer in the shower as I tend to rinse and rinse and rinse, I miss the shampoo smell and I wish my hair didn't get darker. I love w/o in the summer because I don't feel bad about rinsing everyday when I get sweat head.
Wil post a new avatar soon, 2 1/2 yrs of growing out my blonde dye year...

[AmberJewel]

I've been away from this thread for a while, just experimenting to find what works for me, and I think I've finally settled on a routine that works for now. It's not completely WO though I'm still moving that direction. Basically I do an egg-wash once a week with a WO wash in between. Sometimes I follow a wash with a tea rinse. My hair seems to really like the egg washes and feels very clean and smooth afterwards. It also does a good job of getting rid of any built-up sebum but without stripping the hair like shampoo does.

I will gradually work my way towards doing more WO once I'm in an area that has better water quality, but for now this works well and I'm happy with it. :) Hopefully the chemical-free stuff will improve my scalp and I'll finally be able to regain some thickness!

[EdG]

Welcome shalindra and Amberjewel! :waving:

I wanted to say that I seem to have reached the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. After three years of water-only washing, I can run a comb through my hair and not get anything on the comb (other than a bit of fine powder and tiny lint). This is very different from three years ago when I was combing out large globs of waxy sebum and lint. My hair is clean with just water. :)
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

That's awesome to hear ED!


Finally getting used to my hair in its natural state

[EdG]

Thanks, shaluwm_agape! :hifive:

It is funny how the body just works without one having to do much. :)
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

It is funny how the body just works without one having to do much. :)
Ed

As long as we make sure to love &care for ouse lives our bodies regulate themselves

[vpatt]

I am not unhappy with water only, but I am missing shampoo fragrance. And I am not fully used to the 'feel'. I like that it feels thicker, but it still has an oily almost waxy feel....this is how it will always feel isn't it? I think I'm noticing that more now because the oil or sebum has migrated further down the length. I am washing a bit more often now with warmer weather. In the winter it makes me cold. It's right at 3 months that I have been WO.

[EdG]

I am not unhappy with water only, but I am missing shampoo fragrance. And I am not fully used to the 'feel'. I like that it feels thicker, but it still has an oily almost waxy feel....this is how it will always feel isn't it? I think I'm noticing that more now because the oil or sebum has migrated further down the length. I am washing a bit more often now with warmer weather. In the winter it makes me cold. Yes, water-only washed hair will always seem somewhat oily, but not excessively oily. The biggest downside is that the sebum will eventually stain the bed sheets. Sebum is too heavy for the washer to remove completely.

I like the absence of fragrance. A feature of water-only washing is that the hair has no odor. :)
Ed

[vpatt]

Thanks EdG. I think if I go back to anything it will be CO. But even that makes my scalp produce oil. I am doomed to always have oil unless I wash everyday or at least every other day. Another option is scalp only washing, but alas, I always seemed to fail at that. I am going to stick with this for now. As I said I'm not unhappy, just not sure I have found my forever routine......And I guess that is ok too, to change it up every so often.

[EdG]

Thanks EdG. I think if I go back to anything it will be CO. But even that makes my scalp produce oil. I am doomed to always have oil unless I wash everyday or at least every other day. Another option is scalp only washing, but alas, I always seemed to fail at that. I am going to stick with this for now. As I said I'm not unhappy, just not sure I have found my forever routine......And I guess that is ok too, to change it up every so often. Oil production varies from person to person.

I found that I was combing out less and less waxy sebum over time, eventually reaching just a small amount of fine powder. The reason was that the accumulated waxy sebum was finally being removed. The oil being produced by the scalp on a daily basis was really quite small (for me).
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

Is it weird that I have not has that problem of stained pillow cases

[EdG]

Is it weird that I have not has that problem of stained pillow cases My washer may not be getting hot enough to melt sebum. I set the water heater temperature to low to save energy. I air-dry my laundry, with at most a few minutes in the dryer during the winter.
Ed

[vpatt]

Oddly, when I braid or bun my hair it does not show the oil as much with WO compared to using shampoo or conditioner. But wearing it down it can look pretty grungy.

[EdG]

Oddly, when I braid or bun my hair it does not show the oil as much with WO compared to using shampoo or conditioner. But wearing it down it can look pretty grungy. Water-only washed hair does look different. It is not bad looking in my opinion.
Ed

[embee]

It's a shame that cold/cool water washing did not really work for me. Some clothes were still smelly - body oils were not well removed - not as smelly, but still that whiff. :( Washing twice helped, but where was the savings in that? So I went back to warm wash, cold rinse. I also try to avoid heavy dryer use, a few minutes to shake out the worse of wrinkles is sufficient, then air dry.

As for WO hair washing, I found a good hot water *scalp* rinse when showering was sufficient to soften any excess sebum and wash it away. A topknot covered with a plastic bag was good... with a plastic hairstick to hold the topknot.

[shaluwm_agape]

So I washed my scalp with shampoo for the first time in 6 months and I hate it. It felt squeaky and too fluffy. I actually like wo and am surprised yet extremely happy to say that

[EdG]

It's a shame that cold/cool water washing did not really work for me. Some clothes were still smelly - body oils were not well removed - not as smelly, but still that whiff. Washing twice helped, but where was the savings in that? So I went back to warm wash, cold rinse. I also try to avoid heavy dryer use, a few minutes to shake out the worse of wrinkles is sufficient, then air dry.

As for WO hair washing, I found a good hot water *scalp* rinse when showering was sufficient to soften any excess sebum and wash it away. A topknot covered with a plastic bag was good... with a plastic hairstick to hold the topknot. I have the washer set to hot wash/cold rinse, but the incoming hot water is maybe only 115F. This is hot enough to get clothes clean, and to loosen sebum when I am taking a shower, but not enough to get waxy sebum out of cotton bed sheet fibers.

I think that warm water is necessary for water-only hair washing. :)


So I washed my scalp with shampoo for the first time in 6 months and I hate it. It felt squeaky and too fluffy. I actually like wo and am surprised yet extremely happy to say that The sebum will return! :cheese:
Ed

[vpatt]

I use warm water for my hair and a cool rinse at the end. Does cool water make a difference in what is it....making the hair scales lay down? Is scales the right word? Well, I always think the hair will end up room temp so does it matter? Seems like the sebum would keep the scales down....hmmm

I told a fellow long hair I met today about LHC.

[shaluwm_agape]

Yes it was only a scalp wash so it shouldn't take long I just wanted to experiment and see but it feels and is so much healthier WO

[EdG]

I use warm water for my hair and a cool rinse at the end. Does cool water make a difference in what is it....making the hair scales lay down? Is scales the right word? Well, I always think the hair will end up room temp so does it matter? Seems like the sebum would keep the scales down....hmmmThat's good. I use warm water throughout. I have not tried cool water rinses.
Ed

[vpatt]

Well. My scalp was getting kind of flaky. Most likely due to my psoriasis. So I am trying CO. So far it is not seeming to clean my hair or scalp very well. Sigh.

[vpatt]

So guys, it is not all sunshine and roses in CO land. I'm thinking WO I just need to figure out how to get my scalp cleaned better. I may need to break down and wash more often, yuck. I hate washing my hair often. I may just need to get over that. Any suggestions? Will it work to shampoo or CO once in a while and water only most of the time? It seems to me that it wouldn't work.

I think it is going around with wet hair that I dislike more than the actual washing. Today for the first time I braided my partly dried hair and I think that feels better than having it hang down my back.

[Shepherdess]

Just checking in to mention that W/O has been working very well for me. I wash my hair about every 2 weeks, although recently I think it has been quite a bit longer since I haven't kept track. It feels so silky and healthy and looks happy too. I do use a spray bottle of water that has a tiny bit of aloe vera and then some drops of lemongrass and lavender in it to spritz over my hair and scalp each day, and I brush my scalp and hair with a tangle teezer which I think helps clean my scalp off too and distribute oils. Sometimes I use a tiny bit of olive oil on my damp hair. But I have been very happy with it. :)

[EdG]

vpatt - a fan can speed up drying. If the weather is cold, a heater-fan can help.

I find that it is important to comb the hair in a perpendicular direction away from the scalp. The goal is to prevent the hair from lying flat against the scalp (which leads to tangles, sebum and lint accumulation, and odors).

Shepherdess - I put a few drops of water on my scalp prior to daily detangling.
Ed

[vpatt]

Ed, what kind of brush and/or comb do you use?

[EdG]

vpatt - I use a wide-tooth wooden comb from The Body Shop. I also use my fingers.
Ed

[vpatt]

vpatt - I use a wide-tooth wooden comb from The Body Shop. I also use my fingers.
Ed

Thanks Ed. I have a wooden brush and a wooden comb, a tangle teaser and a wet brush (which I have only used on dry hair) and I have a Eternally in Amber comb for the shower...But that only gets used if I wash with conditioner. I like finger combing, too. I like them all, but maybe finger comb the most. I never realized before that I have so many...oh and a couple of boar bristle brushes, also. Wow, that's a lot.

[EdG]

Thanks Ed. I have a wooden brush and a wooden comb, a tangle teaser and a wet brush (which I have only used on dry hair) and I have a Eternally in Amber comb for the shower...But that only gets used if I wash with conditioner. I like finger combing, too. I like them all, but maybe finger comb the most. I never realized before that I have so many...oh and a couple of boar bristle brushes, also. Wow, that's a lot. I like finger-combing because it can get out tangles in which the hair is folded over itself. Those tangles can rotate to pass through the tines of the comb. :)

I am getting this strange odor that I think comes from old polyester lint. I clean the lint from my comb frequently. Damp combing appears to be the only way to get it out.
Ed

[vpatt]

I like finger combing because I feel that it is so much more gentle.

[EdG]

My hair needs both finger-untangling and combing with a wide-tooth wooden comb.

Finger-untangling is gentle and can undo folds in the hair. The comb can pull lint out like a pro. :cheese:
Ed

[vpatt]

I'm wondering about combining WO with CO. Wonder if I could get the best of both or would it turn out to be the worst of both. :confused:

WO and diluted shampoo or CO once a month to keep my scalp happy? I'm driving myself nuts here.

[Deborah]

If you are not quite happy with your WO results, occasional CO washing might well be a good choice for you. You don't have to be all or nothing about it.

[EdG]

I'm wondering about combining WO with CO. Wonder if I could get the best of both or would it turn out to be the worst of both. :confused:

WO and diluted shampoo or CO once a month to keep my scalp happy? I'm driving myself nuts here.The scientific method (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method) was invented to answer questions like that. :cheese:
Ed

[vpatt]

Lol.....all or nothing is me for most things. But not all things. And the difference between theory and practice....well.

We are each an experiment of one in some instances.

[jalfoudari]

Hi! Im new here, I recently started water washing only on my hair, with the massage, scritch, preen. I haven't memorized the abbreviations here, so I won't try and use them as descriptors. My hair is waist to hip, not thin, not thick, naturally brownish red, and an underlay of bleached, then dyed blue hair. Its been about 2 weeks since I started water only, and I'm really happy with it. I would only shampoo my hair once a week or so anyways.
My question here is am I handling my hair too much? I generally have it braided down my back, but since I started the w/o and preening, i fond myself running my fingers through it alot and wearing it down much more often.
Should I keep it in a braid? Also, when its wet should I braid it, or put it in a bun, or just leave it to dry before anything? I hope I'm not confusing! Im so glad I have people to ask these questions!

[EdG]

Welcome jalfoudari! :waving:

Water-only washed hair requires more combing to remove excess sebum. The sebum provides lubrication. I think these two cancel each other out as far as possible damage.

All the advice on this board for braiding and bunning applies. I would let the hair dry first.
Ed

[Sarahlabyrinth]

vpatt - I use a wide-tooth wooden comb from The Body Shop. I also use my fingers.
Ed

Do you use any oils on your BS comb Ed?

[EdG]

Do you use any oils on your BS comb Ed?No, I do not see a need for oil.

I clean the comb with a damp washcloth after every use. The comb's varnish had worn off long ago. The tines have also worn down, more on the center tines than the outer ones. The comb is very smooth.
Ed

[Sarahlabyrinth]

No, I do not see a need for oil.

I clean the comb with a damp washcloth after every use. The comb's varnish had worn off long ago. The tines have also worn down, more on the center tines than the outer ones. The comb is very smooth.
Ed

how long have you had yours? I have one coming in the mail.

[EdG]

how long have you had yours? I have one coming in the mail. The comb is maybe 7-8 years old. This comb has outlasted all the previous ones.

I think you will like the Body Shop comb. They are inexpensive enough to order several. :cheese:
Ed

[jalfoudari]

Thanks so much!

[Sarahlabyrinth]

The comb is maybe 7-8 years old. This comb has outlasted all the previous ones.

I think you will like the Body Shop comb. They are inexpensive enough to order several. :cheese:
Ed

I did have one in NZ and liked it, but didn't bring it to France when we moved. I'm looking forward to having another one, they are very nice combs, and not expensive.

[RB14]

4 months of Water Only till I got down to needing to wash it only once in a fortnight. Now I'm giving Sebum Only a try. The 1st pic is from the day I started the WO journey and the 2nd pic is 4 months down the line, 8 days after my last WO wash.
https://i.postimg.cc/6pzPpRNZ/20190602-151734.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[RB14]

Water Only worked great for me for 2 months (barring the first month of transition) till I moved from a soft water place to a hard water area. WO is still working great with regards to hair growth and texture but I've been facing a frequently flaky scalp now, despite installing a shower filter as soon as we switched over to hard water, despite scritching and preening diligently. Any suggestions for treating dandruff the natural way?

[shaluwm_agape]

Diy Oat milk or acv rinse worked great for me RB14

[Hairkay]

Diy Oat milk or acv rinse worked great for me RB14

I use oat milk/water but it it's treating a flaky patch first I use a little olive oil then wash it out with the oat milk.

[RB14]

Thanks Shaluwm and Hairkay! Will try it for sure! :)

[jalfoudari]

Hi! Im new to water only washing. I found this thread, and decided why the heck not? I tend to not wash my hair for a week at a time or so anyways,I am always running around dealing with kids. Its been a little over 2 weeks since I first did water wash only, and today was only the second time I felt the need to do it again. My hair is nowhere near as greasy looking as i expected. It actually looks quite nice. From reading here I learned about SMP, and have ordered a bbb and a wooden comb. So thank you guys for being here! I never would have known it was actually ok to use water only, and my hair seems to love it!

[shaluwm_agape]

jalfoudari that is so great to hear! The simplicity of this method is what I love about it and it seems that you do too.

[RB14]

Welcome aboard Jalfoudari! I guess the transition would be quicker for you because you began at a good point of weekly wash. Quite similar to my case. I happened to accidentally stumble across WO. For all my life, I was used to washing my hair once every 4 days. Then my baby arrived and the washes were stretched to once every 7 days as my now 2-year old got more active. Not to mention that we moved across 3 continents and 4 homes in the last 7 months. With so many moves, I started giving up many things in favour of travelling lighter and my shampoo & conditioner were thrown away too in the process. Because, by this time I had noticed that my new routine was working better for my hair and had read up on WO. All that silicone build-up had rendered my hair lifeless and dry. And over the last few months, the change has been remarkable! I'm never going back to shampoo and silicones. Stay in touch and keep us updated! :)

[Hairkay]

Welcome Jalfoudari.


Welcome aboard Jalfoudari! I guess the transition would be quicker for you because you began at a good point of weekly wash. Quite similar to my case. I happened to accidentally stumble across WO. For all my life, I was used to washing my hair once every 4 days. Then my baby arrived and the washes were stretched to once every 7 days as my now 2-year old got more active. Not to mention that we moved across 3 continents and 4 homes in the last 7 months. With so many moves, I started giving up many things in favour of travelling lighter and my shampoo & conditioner were thrown away too in the process. Because, by this time I had noticed that my new routine was working better for my hair and had read up on WO. All that silicone build-up had rendered my hair lifeless and dry. And over the last few months, the change has been remarkable! I'm never going back to shampoo and silicones. Stay in touch and keep us updated! :)

I find it easy to travel without having to worry about toting around products for hair care. The simplest things are always best in my opinion.

[jalfoudari]

Thank you all for being so welcoming! I will surely figure out how to quote people and reply specifically to each person soon. Im really loving this after my wash yesterday, today my hair feels great, never expected it to feel so nice. I cant wait for my combs and brush to arrive!

[shaluwm_agape]

All you have to do is press the B for bold and type in the names you want between the brackets enter and type in each name every time you want to tag someone

[jalfoudari]

All you have to do is press the B for bold and type in the names you want between the brackets enter and type in each name every time you want to tag someone
Do these things quote people? Im guessing quotation marks might. Lol. The b on my keyboard?

[jalfoudari]

All you have to do is press the B for bold and type in the names you want between the brackets enter and type in each name every time you want to tag someone

Thank you!

[TheMandaRose]

Hey y’all. I couldn’t find the old thread and found this one instead (maybe that means the other one was archived?).

I’ve done water only once before but my hair was too short to braid at that time and I got tired of trying to wear a hat during my transition so sadly I gave up. Plus it was winter and the static was terrible. Now, Summer is in full swing here in Texas and I’m officially WO for 3 months now. My hair loves it. I don’t think I’m fully transitioned cuz my hair still looks stringy if I leave it down and if I comb it one direction it stays a little too well. I occasionally use a watered down soapnut concoction if I oil my hair or get something in it that water won’t remove but the soap nut makes my ends dry and tangly. My growth has been crazy fast! Just since I hennaed my hair, about 3 weeks ago, I’ve had about an inch of growth. It’s easily measurable since my roots are a dark brown and everything else is dark henna red.
When I started this process I asked my friends at work to let me know if I was beginning to look like an oil slick. They’ve actually commented that my hair looks really clean. Of course they’ve only seen it in braids or buns.
I’ve discovered that the silicone shampoo brushes are a bit of a lifesaver. I let the water run over my hair as I scrub with the brush and it really seems to do the trick.

Sorry for rambling, I’m just glad to be back amongst like minded people.

[shaluwm_agape]

TheMandaRose So glad its working for you! And yes shampoo brushes are a huge help :). That little thing saved me so many times. If you don't mind me making a suggestion... you may want to try rye flour rinse or cornstarch rinse to remove oil. Bit if you want to remove oil &keep moisture make some oat water. I have gotten into the habit of using that more as a treatment

[TheMandaRose]

I never thought about oat water. I’ve tried rice water and that was a mess... maybe I didn’t do something right. But I’ll try oat water. Thank you for the suggestion!

[shaluwm_agape]

Np! The best part you can eat the oats while the treatment sits on your hair lol

[jalfoudari]

Just a little update, so I've been water washing only for about 6 weeks. My hair is doing great! Somehow my husband says it smells like shampoo. I think hes smelling my bodywash though. One thing I noticed is the longer I go without washing at all, my hair gets frizzy! I just washed after a little over 2 weeks, it was getting frizzy again a few days ago. It feels wonderful though. Very happy. Im not on here often, I am going to be making more of an effort to be. I hope all is going great with everyone!!!

[jalfoudari]

jalfoudari that is so great to hear! The simplicity of this method is what I love about it and it seems that you do too.

Just a quick update, I absolutely Love this method.
The B BB and wooden comb? Oh man it's been7 weeks? or 8. Dont feel like checking my journal LOL. My point is that it's been magical. My hair has NEVER felt this good. So happy I found you guys! Teach me everything you know! You guys are brilliant,

[leayellena]

yesterday I needed to take a shower because of this terrible heat. I didn't have the nerves to co-wash so I just wo-washed and applyed argan oil on damp hair. omg my hair loves it. it's not poo-voluminous, it's actually lhc clean, with some natural oils still there, but my hair doesn't look too greasy, especially if it's braided or bunned.
PS: did you notive less sweating or less sebum after a wo-wash session? yesterday the sweating didn't stop until I wo-washed, then it stopped completely after wo-wash. I think I'll use less and less conditioner until I have none. let's see if I can make it 90% wo-wash and 10% co or wcc...

[EdG]

I am amazed by how little oil is in my hair. The past oiliness had been a result of accumulated sebum. With that gone, the hair is only minimally oily.
Ed

[vpatt]

That sounds great, EdG. I played with CO and now I'm back to WO...Maybe washing more often for my scalp.

[EdG]

Welcome back, vpatt! I think that washing more often is less problematic for water-only washers because the sebum is not being washed out completely. I wash every 2-3 days.
Ed

[vpatt]

While I'm starting WO over, I don't seem to have as much oil as when I first tried WO. Maybe I just know what to expect this time or maybe my scalp hadn't begin producing as much oil as before.

[EdG]

My experience (which may not be typical of LHC'ers) is that the initial oiliness upon switching to water-only was entirely due to accumulated sebum and lint.

Over the past three years, I have combed out the accumulated sebum and lint, and my hair has completely replaced itself. Now, there is very little oil. I get only small amounts of fine powder on my comb, which I then clean.

My conclusion is that shampoo removes only the lighter, oily components of sebum. It has no effect on the heavier, waxy parts. Those can only be removed by combing. I have been combing much more since I went to water-only washing.
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

I don't know why for me the only time that I see heavy white powder or any kind of white waxy parts is when I haven't manipulated my hair in more than a week or, haven't washed in more than 3 days. I rarely see anything in my combs unless I completely neglect it all together. And now that it's very hot I've noticed that cool water does my hair so much good as opposed to warmer water.

[yl]

I've tried it before for 13 days but my scalp gets really bad, it wasn't oily at all but I just couldn't handle the itchiness!!!

[shaluwm_agape]

When my scalp gets unbearably itchy i use a water or oat milk. At one time my hair has to be washed every other day. Then with shampoo I was able to get it down to once a week. Now with water only I wash it every 3 days or so.

[EdG]

I don't know why for me the only time that I see heavy white powder or any kind of white waxy parts is when I haven't manipulated my hair in more than a week or, haven't washed in more than 3 days. I rarely see anything in my combs unless I completely neglect it all together. And now that it's very hot I've noticed that cool water does my hair so much good as opposed to warmer water. That is exactly the reason. Neglect causes sebum accumulation. Combing through a clump of accumulated sebum turns it into white powder.

The moral of the story is that hair needs thorough combing.


I've tried it before for 13 days but my scalp gets really bad, it wasn't oily at all but I just couldn't handle the itchiness!!!Years ago, I found that vinegar reduced the itchiness. Age may be a factor too. My hair no longer gets itchy.
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

Thanks Ed I'm doing something right then :)

[EdG]

Thanks Ed I'm doing something right then :)Yes, you are doing it right. :hifive: I know that I had been doing it wrong for years. :(
Ed

[brooklynbaby]

Hello! I'm 31 years old and transitioning into WO for the second time - first time was a three years ago and I went WO for over a year, until I bleached my hair and RUINED it!!!

I quit shampoo cold turkey about a week ago, then did a baking soda wash and vinegar rinse to remove any shampoo buildup left. I'm now using my BBB every night and wearing a bun/beanie whenever I need to go out. It's winter down here (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and pretty dry, so that's convenient.
Last time it took a good two months to get past the transition period, so I'm just getting started.

Glad to be joining all of you on this journey :)

[shaluwm_agape]

Brooklynbaby Yay! glad you are joining us!

[Flittingsis]

I hadn't really intended trying WO again, but I have found myself doing just that these last few weeks. It is summer here in North Carolina, so when I walk my dog twice a day my scalp gets sweaty. When I get home I massage my scalp and comb it thru with my horn comb. As I comb, I have to clean the comb frequently of white gunk. I don't find any smell from the sweat. Then, every few days I soak my hair and massage my scalp. When I comb it damp I first use a wide comb, then I use a very narrow tooth comb to comb thru my hair while at the same time using an old T-shirt to pull the sebum down to the ends of the hair and the water out.

Like I said, it's just been a few weeks, but my scalp isn't too flaky after the WO so I'm going to keep going with it. My front tends to get oily first, but so it has been minimal.

Happy WOing!!

[brooklynbaby]

You guys the transition is killing me..!! My hair smells and feels disgusting, even though I use my bbb every day.
How often did you guys wash during your transition?
Any tips are welcome!

[shaluwm_agape]

I was washing every other day
Drinking water and making sure I was staying hydrated really helped me as well. Keeping it in a braid so I didn't feel it. And about once a week I did a diluted white vinegar rinse. It will help with the oil. I promise you it will pass

[EdG]

I wash every 1-3 days. The waxy sebum and lint build-up was so bad that I had to clean my comb after every 5-10 strokes. Now, my comb comes out clean.
Ed

[shaluwm_agape]

So now I am faced with a problem. My hair is now at a long enough state that my ends are completely dry and I am seeing tons of splits. Using a deep conditioner or heavy oiling on my ends is a no go I look greasy... but I don't want to give up WO

[brooklynbaby]

*HUGE FACEPALM*

I was trying to extend the period between washes as much as possible. I was going 5 days without washing! No wonder it was becoming unmanageable.

Thank you so much for your replies shaluwm_agape and EdG!!

[shaluwm_agape]

No problem yeah I say don't do that your hair/scalp has to get use to no product first and it is going haywire right now

[Beeboo123]

I transitioned to WO from CO after i ran out of conditioner and was too lazy to buy. I wash once every week, or every two weeks, and haven’t changed my routine other than the part with the conditioner. My hair doesn’t feel greasier, but i noticed that it is less wavy now! Any tips for getting my wavy texture back? I’m 2c, but my spirals are getting longer and more stretched out

[ynne]

Hello! I was wondering if any of you had some experience with water-only washing affecting hair texture? Unstyled "regularly" washed hair vs. WO hair, basically.

I see @Beeboo123 mentioned looser texture. (Was it because your hair got longer or just the different routine? My curls definitely change shape at various lengths and I see you're growing it out, too.)
Is it a common "issue"?

Photos before/after would be best but I would be very interested in any kind of experience from fellow wavy-curly haired folk. I am not quite ready to try WO yet but this would be a big thing for me to consider.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Shepherdess]

Hello! I was wondering if any of you had some experience with water-only washing affecting hair texture? Unstyled "regularly" washed hair vs. WO hair, basically.

I see @Beeboo123 mentioned looser texture. (Was it because your hair got longer or just the different routine? My curls definitely change shape at various lengths and I see you're growing it out, too.)
Is it a common "issue"?

Photos before/after would be best but I would be very interested in any kind of experience from fellow wavy-curly haired folk. I am not quite ready to try WO yet but this would be a big thing for me to consider.

Thanks so much in advance!

Yes, I think there is a slight change in my hair's texture, although my hair is still very curly, I think that the curls are not as defined and perhaps a bit looser. I don't let my hair curl much anymore and mostly keep it in a braid, so most of my pictures are only of braid waves, so it is hard to tell completely. I do know for sure that my hair has grown more silky and less frizzy than before, although I think it might relate to there being more oil in my hair perhaps since I don't use shampoo, but because my hair is a curly type it doesn't look bad when there are some oils in it so I don't mind.
This picture is from a few years ago and it shows how frizzy my hair was back then.
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=26234&d=1488002685

And this is my most recent picture now that I have been doing mostly W/O this year (occasionally I do use a bar shampoo on my scalp at times still if it needs it, but only once in a great while). It is a lot softer and more manageable. I think my hair must have really hated the shampoos that I used to use.
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=38608&d=1569122772

[Reyn127]

As far as “curl” texture goes, my hair didn’t change too much after stopping using shampoo. It’s been about 2a/b for a while. The “softness” texture really changed though; my hair used to feel like straw and be all dry and unmanageable. Now I know that I was probably having silicone buildup cause that, but it’s made a huge difference in how my hair feels to no longer use silicone conditioner.

My hair did get less frizzy, more.... prone to wave clumping, I guess. I think sucked in more hydration, which I know can alter/reveal your hair’s potential texture - sometimes it can get weighed down and straightened out a bit, or the moisture can help bring your texture to life. It really depends on your hair, and there’s really only one way to find out.

Hopefully that helps answer you a bit.

[redeyedtreefr0g]

I have been water only since my waist-to-"I-want-it-gone" chop in May 2018. I told no one of my plan to do that, so there have been 2 instances (December, May) where I had to actually wash my hair with shampoo again. I hated both times, but I've always disliked the featherlight flyaway constantly-moving feel of freshly stripped hair.

Anyway.

I've also been on and off a ketogenic diet. I have extremely hard water with lots of iron and sulfur in it. To the point where showerheads and sink faucets die on the regular. It's a fact of life. CLR cannot help them.

So far I've loved every minute. I love my short hair, I loved discovering that it likes to part off center. I love windows down and nothing whipping at my eyes...

I'm over the visits to the barber though. The first cut was great. Others are just meh with something wrong with them, and I'm tired of trying already to maintain this. I'm growing out! I think I want to keep bangs this time though.

You guys say that MORE attention results in less stuff clogging up the brushes?

I don't really notice much difference in water temperature for my hair itself. For a while I was craving coolness on my scalp when I showered. Now that we've taken more than just a cheat weekend off of keto my head is just so itchy though!!! No dandruff. I'm wondering if I need to rinse more? Just brush more?

My brush is yucky. I admit I was combing and avoiding it because while wet the comb distributed the hair better so it dries in a style instead of slicked back. You say soak the bristles in soapy water and then card the brushes against each other? I have 2, one is a Wetbrush brand shine brush and the other is an off brand knockoff.

But if I brush more and keep up with it it seems like the gunk shouldn't build up so bad. My hair might not care about buildup but the utensils certainly do!

[EdG]

redeyedtreefr0g - You may want to try a comb. Combs are easy to clean.
Ed

[Linden]

Hello everyone! :waving:

I decided to try WO recently because shampoo/conditioner washing seemed to dry out my hair despite oiling or using the LOC method. I'm about a week in, and its been going well except for a waxy feel that has been slowly spreading down my hair, but I hope that will pass. I haven't noticed any big problems with oiliness, but I usually wear my hair up so it doesn't show. I've been using rice water every week for the past several months, and I think I will keep doing that for now because I like the softness it gives my hair. :)

I'm hopeful that this will work out for me, reading through this thread I see that some people have more success than others.

[SpottedBackson]

So now I am faced with a problem. My hair is now at a long enough state that my ends are completely dry and I am seeing tons of splits. Using a deep conditioner or heavy oiling on my ends is a no go I look greasy... but I don't want to give up WO

I did water-only washing for years when I was a teenager and this was why I eventually went back to shampoo and conditioner. My hair was just soooo dry. That said I went to Japan during that period and my hair was the softest and shiniest it had ever been and has ever been since. I think the success of WO depends a lot on the climate where you live - very dry climates seem to be pretty much incompatible - and the hardness of the water in your area will have an effect too. Even very soft water doesn't seem to be good enough, you pretty much need rainwater in my experience.

[EdG]

I combed out a major fold near the top of my scalp. After a few strokes, the comb becomes covered in waxy sebum and fine polyester lint. I then clean the comb and repeat. This stuff is sticky.

I am amazed by how waxy sebum and lint can accumulate in places where the hair has become folded over itself. I am pretty sure that I no longer own the clothing that was the source of the lint. :hmm:
Ed

[Jaeie]

I wanted to revive this thread because I recently have started trying water only. I'm 1 week in, two washes in, and my hair looks a bit like a grease ball :) but the ends look amazing after brushing all the oil down, which is what I really appreciate. Hair abuse has left my mid-ends really dry and sad, which is why I'm trying WO. If the top keeps feeling like a waxy mess I may end up ditching WO and trying an ACV rinse. Should I hold out since it's only been a week?

[vpatt]

Well, I seem to be swapping back and forth or doing a combination of WO/CO. It seems to be working for me.

[Tinyponies]

I wanted to revive this thread because I recently have started trying water only. I'm 1 week in, two washes in, and my hair looks a bit like a grease ball :) but the ends look amazing after brushing all the oil down, which is what I really appreciate. Hair abuse has left my mid-ends really dry and sad, which is why I'm trying WO. If the top keeps feeling like a waxy mess I may end up ditching WO and trying an ACV rinse. Should I hold out since it's only been a week?
Honestly I think it’s so, so very personal that no one can tell you what to do. I would say though that for a thorough test of wo you’d need to stick it out longer than a week.

Hi, vpatt. I’m doing the same, hair is very happy. A co wash once fortnightly or so is a nice balance right now. Always open to adapt if & when needed and just listening to my hair and scalp needs as best I can.

[EdG]

I did water-only washing for years when I was a teenager and this was why I eventually went back to shampoo and conditioner. My hair was just soooo dry.The dryness can be fixed temporarily by dampening the hair with a small amount of distilled water before combing.


Should I hold out since it's only been a week?I spent the first few months combing out globs of waxy sebum and lint. I could tell it was from the shampoo period because it had the same amber color. After a few months, the waxy amber sebum was mostly gone. I have since been combing out only small amounts of fine, light gray powder.
Ed

[MummaNatural]

This is something I'm really interested in.
I just use water to wash my skin with, use bicarb as deo and toothpaste, and essential oils for scents, so if I could stop using shampoo I'd be a very happy bunny!
I've read quite a lot about it, but failed to reach even the three week mark myself before I gave in.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to experiment, and I think with this kind of thing most people need to.
I've read a good clarifying wash to start off with. Boar bristle brush is essential, apparently. Apple sauce masks really help with the waxiness. And there are loads of different ingredients you can use. Rye flour being quite a popular one.
Personally, I learnt a lot from Reddit groups.
I really want to start this again, but I've no idea how long my transition will last, it could be months!

[EdG]

I think the transition just takes time. It is truly a case of "your mileage may vary".

Water-only washed hair is always somewhat oily, but not excessively oily. You will need to comb out any accumulated waxy sebum and lint. Once you reach a steady-state, you will be able to tell how much oil your scalp produces.
Ed

[MummaNatural]

I just can't with shampoo anymore. Been experimenting with Head and Shoulders after using Faith in Nature shampoo. Faith in Nature just tangled it to buggery. And I hate the stripped, light feeling with Head and shoulders. It makes me feel so dirty.
I want to go back to WO and give it my best shot, I want it to work for me!!
I'm here for good. Just ordered some white vinegar and I have apple sauce. Is this the right forum for discussing things like this? Hmm..

[EdG]

You may want to search the archives. There are threads on using vinegar on the hair and scalp.
Ed

[Shepherdess]

This is something I'm really interested in.
I just use water to wash my skin with, use bicarb as deo and toothpaste, and essential oils for scents, so if I could stop using shampoo I'd be a very happy bunny!
I've read quite a lot about it, but failed to reach even the three week mark myself before I gave in.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to experiment, and I think with this kind of thing most people need to.
I've read a good clarifying wash to start off with. Boar bristle brush is essential, apparently. Apple sauce masks really help with the waxiness. And there are loads of different ingredients you can use. Rye flour being quite a popular one.
Personally, I learnt a lot from Reddit groups.
I really want to start this again, but I've no idea how long my transition will last, it could be months!

Hello! :D I hope that all goes well in your transition!! I have never heard of apple sauce masks before, but I haven't had trouble with waxiness thus far, so that's interesting. :) I feel like no matter what things I try on my hair, it always throws off the balance somehow, so I find just water or tea rinses work best for me. I don't get product buildup anymore so I haven't had to worry about clarifying so far, which I really like. I do use a bit of olive oil and tiny bit of aloe vera with a spray bottle of water with few essential oils for scent, but that's been it lately. :D I mostly use a tangle teazer and sometimes a wooden comb. I feel like bristle brushes might be slightly harsh on my hair, since my hair tends to be fragile, but occasionally I might use one to stimulate my scalp, but mostly I use the wooden fine tooth comb and tangle teezer to clean my scalp. :)

[MummaNatural]

Hello! :D I hope that all goes well in your transition!! I have never heard of apple sauce masks before, but I haven't had trouble with waxiness thus far, so that's interesting. :) I feel like no matter what things I try on my hair, it always throws off the balance somehow, so I find just water or tea rinses work best for me. I don't get product buildup anymore so I haven't had to worry about clarifying so far, which I really like. I do use a bit of olive oil and tiny bit of aloe vera with a spray bottle of water with few essential oils for scent, but that's been it lately. :D I mostly use a tangle teazer and sometimes a wooden comb. I feel like bristle brushes might be slightly harsh on my hair, since my hair tends to be fragile, but occasionally I might use one to stimulate my scalp, but mostly I use the wooden fine tooth comb and tangle teezer to clean my scalp. :)

Thank you. :-)
Your hair is gorgeous!
I do have a tangle teezer, I like it, and have been learning how to be gentle with it!
I'm going to get a wooden comb.
I have a lot of lint stuff on my brush after brushing. This stuff clearly takes ages to get rid of!
I am definitely going to have to experiment with rinses and masks to combat the waxiness, I just really want to get through the transition period, because I know it'll be so worth it and I'll be a happy bunny. I just often feel unwashed if my hair is dirty, even if I've showered, but that is all in my mind, so hopefully I can work through that feeling.
One step at a time!

[EdG]

Lint took a long time to accumulate and will take a long time to comb out. A wooden comb is great because it is easy to clean with a damp washcloth.
Ed

[MummaNatural]

Lint took a long time to accumulate and will take a long time to comb out. A wooden comb is great because it is easy to clean with a damp washcloth.
Ed

Agree. Found a Bodyshop one on Ebay, huzzah. I also found one of those wooden brushes from the Bodyshop, might purchase one of those too when I have some money.

Are there any other transition tips you could give me? I've been
reading as much as I can to help.

[EdG]

Are there any other transition tips you could give me? I've been reading as much as I can to help. I think that you are doing great. :thumbsup:

My only other advice would be to eat the applesauce rather than putting it on one's head. :yumm:
Ed

[Dana]

Hello long-haired lovelies!

I'm hoping to get back into WO. I tried it just over a year ago, and got spooked by the transition period after about a week.

I've been working on stretching my washes and now wash (with traditional shampoo and conditioner) about once a week, but I've also been using some hair oil (https://www.badgerbalm.com/p-493-argan-hair-oil-for-dry-damaged-hair.aspx) in place of some of the conditioner post-wash (), so... I hope I'm ready! :D

To brush, I currently use one of those plastic wide-toothed shower ccombs (where there's maybe 10 large, flat 'teeth') and my fingers, and that's it.

I thought I was a nearly-straight-haired, but now I feel like I'm curlier than I thought. So... I've been experimenting with 'Curly Girl' method-tyle things, but the curls don't stay in, and I don't want to put gel on my hair to make the curls stay.

Anyway, long way to say... It looks like I need to buy a BBB and possibly a wooden comb, and maybe a Tangle Teaser? I have thin hair, and TT has a 'thin / fragile' hair version.

I was also looking at this BBB / comb combo on Amazon, does this comb look like the teeth are too far apart to be useful?
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Bristle-Restore-Headband-Included/dp/B07F9QG9XZ/

Anything else purchase-wise that is necessary? I have a microfiber drying towel thing (like a Turbie Twist).
Any good articles for newbies on things to do, or not do, at the start? I'm guessing I'll need to start 'washing' more often than once a week at the start?

[EdG]

Anything else purchase-wise that is necessary? I have a microfiber drying towel thing (like a Turbie Twist).
Any good articles for newbies on things to do, or not do, at the start? I'm guessing I'll need to start 'washing' more often than once a week at the start?Washing more frequently with warm water will help to loosen any waxy sebum.

I highly recommend the wooden comb. Other than that, you are good to go. :)
Ed

[EdG]

I have gone back to shampoo washing. :)

Water-only washing was great for getting lint out, but I think the waxiness (and resulting friction) has been contributing to the end breakage that I have been experiencing.

The good news is that the sebum returns in a few days. After a week, there is no detectable difference between shampoo-washed hair and water-only washed hair. :)
Ed

[Flittingsis]

4 weeks ago I dislocated my shoulder. It has been a challenge to do a lot of things one handed, especially hair care. I typically flip flop through all kinds of routines, but this time has been two washes with Dr Bronners sugar soap with a vinegar rinse. The rest of the time I don't hardly touch my hair except to comb it in the morning and evening and put it up in a hat when walking the dog. I have sprayed it a couple times with a water, arrowroot mixture to de-grease the scalp. The biggest problem that I still have is a dry, flaky scalp, especially at my hair line. The length is wonderful. No split ends even after 2 years with no cut or trim. I just can't figure out my flakes.

[Lucy McLucyFace]

I tried it a few times but the water around here is neutral so it left my hair with a really weird texture I didn't like. It also did nothing when it comes to removing sebum build up

[Lanalavallama]

Restarting this method.
Shampooed yesterday and twisted my hair. Will keep those twists in until sebum fully coats my strands.

My ends are feeling dry, but hanging on, so I will hold off on adding oils for now.

[Lanalavallama]

I have been diligent with preening and massaging, and I have almost achieved full sebum coverage. The downside is I have not been very gentle and I can feel my scalp starting to complain : it feels so tender. Will be laying off any massaging, and only rinse as far as possible for at least one whole day.
My hair is so soft when dry, and sticky-feeling when wet; and it has that lovely natural sweet smell. My hair is also appearing more full (already! maybe it is fluffy). Imagining I see some growth, and my sister confirmed that tonight.

[EdG]

My sebum is back in full force one week after shampooing. My hair looks and feels exactly like it did with water-only washing.

I think that a periodic stripping of sebum with shampoo washing may be a good thing. Unlike the transition from shampoo washing to water-only washing, which took me months to comb out accumulated waxy sebum and lint, going from water-only washing to shampoo washing has no transition period.
Ed

[01]

Hey Ed. I've been experimenting with children's shampoo lately, with some good results. Nice, gentle product/s... Makes my hair very straight though!

Curly WO folks, how do you style your curls? Do you use gel or something like that? Or some herb as leave-in? Anyone heard about DIY gellatin hair gel, is it WO safe?

[EdG]

Hey Ed. I've been experimenting with children's shampoo lately, with some good results. Nice, gentle product/s... Makes my hair very straight though!I have gone back to diluting shampoo. That works well.
Ed

[01]

I have gone back to diluting shampoo. That works well.
Ed

Yes, I used to do that but was still too drying with shampoo that I used. What shampoo do you use? Normal sls shampoo or something fancier? Do you use conditioner or sebum is enough for you?

[EdG]

Yes, I used to do that but was still too drying with shampoo that I used. What shampoo do you use? Normal sls shampoo or something fancier? Do you use conditioner or sebum is enough for you?I use normal SLS shampoo, diluted maybe 50x just prior to use. The brand is Miracle Mane, from the same manufacturer as Mane n Tail. I do not use conditioner.

Several shampoo/rinse cycles with warm water and scrubbing are required to remove sebum. The sebum returns in a few days.

Hair will be dry for the first day or two after shampooing. I dampen the hair with a small amount of distilled water to provide lubrication prior to combing. Stubborn tangles are invariably caused by lint.
Ed

[Lanalavallama]

The hair definitely does not want to be detangled when soaking wet; well as "soaking" as it can get on WO.
Especially when finger detangling. Detangling with the tangle teaser while soaking is more effective but not something I want to do too frequently.

[Lanalavallama]

I can't stop touching my hair; it feels so soft.
Need to preen though, as roughly 60% of hair length is feeling a wee bit more dry than the rest.

[01]

I can't stop touching my hair; it feels so soft.
Need to preen though, as roughly 60% of hair length is feeling a wee bit more dry than the rest.

Yup, WO makes my hair very soft.

[Lanalavallama]

And when rinsing with cooled boiled-water, my hair feels much better and actually allows me to detangle while wet with my fingers a bit more than before. Guess the water here is too hard.

[Lanalavallama]

Good news : A rollerset on water only is possible. More trial and error required, but it is a success.
Bad news : I already have sebum build up? Granted, I have neglected preening the last 2 or three days but rinsed daily. Will have to monitor this.

[Lanalavallama]

I was redoing my plaits and just could not get over how moisturised my hair is.

- massive picture removed -


Gives me an idea of what braid outs will look like.

[SnowSpot]

I suppose this is the newest WO thread? :)

I’ve been a no-pooer since 2013, washing mostly with water. In the beginning I in addition washed with diluted soda a few times a year. Recent years I’ve washed with rye flour about once in 1-2 weeks and otherwise with water only. Right now I wash with rye only once in 1-2 months and I’m starting to think I don’t need even that.

I’ve used mostly commercial conditioners (with cones) but recently I stopped that. ACV has also been there from the beginning, that I won’t stop. :)

The most significant factor seems to be the diet. If I eat well and healthy, a lot of veggies, the method works for me. My hair is quite straight and thin, so whenever there is grease, it’s very obvious.

[Lanalavallama]

I suppose this is the newest WO thread? :)

I’ve been a no-pooer since 2013, washing mostly with water. In the beginning I in addition washed with diluted soda a few times a year. Recent years I’ve washed with rye flour about once in 1-2 weeks and otherwise with water only. Right now I wash with rye only once in 1-2 months and I’m starting to think I don’t need even that.

I’ve used mostly commercial conditioners (with cones) but recently I stopped that. ACV has also been there from the beginning, that I won’t stop. :)

The most significant factor seems to be the diet. If I eat well and healthy, a lot of veggies, the method works for me. My hair is quite straight and thin, so whenever there is grease, it’s very obvious.

Hi. Yes, I think this is the newest thread.
Agree that diet is a significant factor.

Funny, I was just reading your comments in the NW/SO thread. I think my routine is headed that way.

[Feral_]

Another water only washer here. I refuse to use the term no poo because I don’t like it! No ACV, shampoo alternatives, just warm water to wash and cold to rinse. I can honestly say it’s transformed my hair.. I still cannot believe it. Soft shiny waves that resist humidity and tangles.

Thicker hair for me too, you know when you push your loose hair behind your ears and it won’t go properly? And a hair tie needs fewer loops when tying a pony, that’s how I know it’s got thicker. I don’t know how this has happened as hair is dead, right? Makes me think what shampoos and conditioners were doing to the length previously to make it so thin? And it’s growing like weeds, I have to trim my fringe every 2-3 weeks or it’s in my eyes annoying me, previously with shampoo it was 4-5 weeks.

I’ve had people ask what I use on my hair, my ‘routine’. A friend the other day was complaining about lockdown not being able to go to the hairdresser, as apart from missing her cut and colour, she buys their salon shampoo. She did not believe me when I said it wasn’t affecting me as I cut my own hair and wash it with water.. “As if!!” was her reply. Then I got lots of questions when she realised I was being serious!

I know some folk with hard water say they can’t do WO, and the method itself doesn’t suit some. My water is also hard, but so far that hasn’t had a negative impact on my hair and I’m nearly 5 months in. Time will tell I guess! If I notice a build up I’ll get a filter fitted to my shower. I think the absolute best bit is when I think about the environmental aspect. I’d stopped using shampoo / hair products in plastic bottles years ago, but walking down the bath / hair aisles in supermarkets seeing so much plastic still depresses me. The fact I won’t be putting chemicals on my hair, or into the water supply system is a winner.

[SnowSpot]

Another water only washer here. I refuse to use the term no poo because I don’t like it! No ACV, shampoo alternatives, just warm water to wash and cold to rinse. I can honestly say it’s transformed my hair.. I still cannot believe it. Soft shiny waves that resist humidity and tangles.

Thicker hair for me too, you know when you push your loose hair behind your ears and it won’t go properly? And a hair tie needs fewer loops when tying a pony, that’s how I know it’s got thicker. I don’t know how this has happened as hair is dead, right? Makes me think what shampoos and conditioners were doing to the length previously to make it so thin? And it’s growing like weeds, I have to trim my fringe every 2-3 weeks or it’s in my eyes annoying me, previously with shampoo it was 4-5 weeks.

I’ve had people ask what I use on my hair, my ‘routine’. A friend the other day was complaining about lockdown not being able to go to the hairdresser, as apart from missing her cut and colour, she buys their salon shampoo. She did not believe me when I said it wasn’t affecting me as I cut my own hair and wash it with water.. “As if!!” was her reply. Then I got lots of questions when she realised I was being serious!

I know some folk with hard water say they can’t do WO, and the method itself doesn’t suit some. My water is also hard, but so far that hasn’t had a negative impact on my hair and I’m nearly 5 months in. Time will tell I guess! If I notice a build up I’ll get a filter fitted to my shower. I think the absolute best bit is when I think about the environmental aspect. I’d stopped using shampoo / hair products in plastic bottles years ago, but walking down the bath / hair aisles in supermarkets seeing so much plastic still depresses me. The fact I won’t be putting chemicals on my hair, or into the water supply system is a winner.

The term no poo might have caught me back in 2013 when I came across the alternative hair care in the first place - at that time it was used pretty much, at least in the sources I studied. I actually don’t use the word very often these days myself and am not a huge fan of it either, but it blurped out this time. :)

[Lanalavallama]

Feral_ you can WO with hard water? Legend. I had posted a picture above but removed it because it was obnoxious in size.
Although my hair is moisturised, it definitely felt a bit stiff and was a bit dull. This was in less than a month, I think.
Hard water does me no favours.
I am stretching my rinses (with cooled boiled-water) because of it.

For me, having hair that feels this moisturised without being product-greasy is a novelty. I love it and was SO happy when my scalp was adjusting; no sadness/irritation because of the additional sebum at all.

Do you also find it not only makes the hair feel stronger but more silky too? Ditto with regards to the growth, my hairs at the perimeter have increased.

My natural hair colour is also more pronounced.

Sebum:crush:

[Feral_]

Feral_ you can WO with hard water? Legend. I had posted a picture above but removed it because it was obnoxious in size.
Although my hair is moisturised, it definitely felt a bit stiff and was a bit dull. This was in less than a month, I think.
Hard water does me no favours.
I am stretching my rinses (with cooled boiled-water) because of it.

For me, having hair that feels this moisturised without being product-greasy is a novelty. I love it and was SO happy when my scalp was adjusting; no sadness/irritation because of the additional sebum at all.

Do you also find it not only makes the hair feel stronger but more silky too? Ditto with regards to the growth, my hairs at the perimeter have increased.

My natural hair colour is also more pronounced.

Sebum:crush:

I know, it’s unreal the moisture without product greasiness. Trying to describe how my hair feels is quite difficult - yes it’s definitely silky but also thickened, like there’s a coating on it, but in a good way? I heard a method to determine if the sebum is down the hair length is to wet it a bit - if it feels slightly sticky then apparently it’s coated :-)

[EdG]

I know, it’s unreal the moisture without product greasiness. Trying to describe how my hair feels is quite difficult - yes it’s definitely silky but also thickened, like there’s a coating on it, but in a good way? I heard a method to determine if the sebum is down the hair length is to wet it a bit - if it feels slightly sticky then apparently it’s coated :-)Sebum has a range of densities from oily to waxy. The slight stickiness is the waxy parts. Sebum makes the hair very soft.

I am on day four after shampooing. By now, my hair has a lot of sebum. I find that I can't detangle my hair very thoroughly until after the sebum has returned. Stretching washes allows the sebum to come back.
Ed

[Feral_]

Sebum has a range of densities from oily to waxy. The slight stickiness is the waxy parts. Sebum makes the hair very soft.

I am on day four after shampooing. By now, my hair has a lot of sebum. I find that I can't detangle my hair very thoroughly until after the sebum has returned. Stretching washes allows the sebum to come back.
Ed

That’s interesting about the sebum densities. My hair doesn’t get oily at all, I could probably do sebum only if I wanted to. The reason I wash it once a week is because I like the feeling of water through my scalp and hair. I know what you mean about detangling clean hair - mine was so knotty with shampoo and conditioner - the amount of shed was terrible.

I tried to do conditioner only and that was a fail, my hair just got greasier, it didn’t transition at all. I gave up after 4 weeks as my hair was lank and dull and I couldn’t cope! I didn’t do the brushing and massage though so maybe that was why. With water only I had 2 weeks of just slightly greasy hair - after a decent massage and brush, it was ok. Not great, but ok. Then as the weeks went by it just got better, softer and shinier.

[EdG]

With water only I had 2 weeks of just slightly greasy hair - after a decent massage and brush, it was ok. Not great, but ok. Then as the weeks went by it just got better, softer and shinier.That is a quick transition. You are one of the lucky people who get good results with just water.
Ed

[Feral_]

That is a quick transition. You are one of the lucky people who get good results with just water.
Ed

Ed, I think it’s because I was already using a bastille soap to wash my hair and was washing it every 3-4 days. I didn’t go straight from normal shampoo :-)

[labelo]

Hello everyone,
I have been WO since 2014 (except an occasional shampoo+conditioner at the hairdresser 1-2 times per year). The water is hard here, but I no longer have problems with waxy sebum or similar issues.

I love WO because I like not being dependent on products and I like to keep it "natural". When using shampoo I feel like my hair is way to light, it goes everywhere and I it can hardly hold a ponytail because it's so "slippery".
However, I would like to grow my hair long (currently almost at APL, which is the longest it has ever been), but all of my hair below my ears look dry/dull and seems very prone to splits. The hair near my scalp gets the sebum and is healthy and thriving. BBB seems to be too much mechanical tear on my hair as the individual strands are very fine and fragile.

So any advice on how to keep "the ends" healthy? I'm considering trying CO, but I would prefer something more simple or DIY like. Herbs, oils, etc.

And does someone know of a thread or has an external link to an explanation of how to figure out what your hair needs (oil, protien, moisture)?

Any comments and/or advice are greatly appreciated!

[Feral_]

Hello everyone,
I have been WO since 2014 (except an occasional shampoo+conditioner at the hairdresser 1-2 times per year). The water is hard here, but I no longer have problems with waxy sebum or similar issues.

I love WO because I like not being dependent on products and I like to keep it "natural". When using shampoo I feel like my hair is way to light, it goes everywhere and I it can hardly hold a ponytail because it's so "slippery".
However, I would like to grow my hair long (currently almost at APL, which is the longest it has ever been), but all of my hair below my ears look dry/dull and seems very prone to splits. The hair near my scalp gets the sebum and is healthy and thriving. BBB seems to be too much mechanical tear on my hair as the individual strands are very fine and fragile.

So any advice on how to keep "the ends" healthy? I'm considering trying CO, but I would prefer something more simple or DIY like. Herbs, oils, etc.

And does someone know of a thread or has an external link to an explanation of how to figure out what your hair needs (oil, protien, moisture)?

Any comments and/or advice are greatly appreciated!

Hi! You’ve been WO a lot longer than me and I also have hard water. My hair is BSL so just below APL. I only brush mine with a BBB before washing it after I’ve done my inverted head massage. Mostly I use a wide tooth comb or my fingers to comb it. I also have a bamboo brush with bobbles on the end of the spikes and I find that more gentle on the hair for brushing. I use it if I want it smooth for a plait. As for conditioning the ends I don’t know of any external resources, others on here are much more knowledgable on that so might direct you.

However I do use different oils - I like coconut oil on damp hair so after I’ve washed it. I also like to use argan oil on dry hair as it’s not a greasy oil and absorbs well. Last night after I washed it while it was still damp I used approx a dessert spoon of aloe vera gel and mixed with 5 drops of argan oil, 3 drops rose geranium essential oil (latter for scent only) then massaged that onto the length and combed it through. Hair feels very sleek today, like it’s been conditioned. Might be worth a try for you :)

[labelo]

Thank you very much Feral_ ! I will definitely try adding a bit of oil when my hair is damp and experiment with different types of oils.

[curiouscat13]

Hey, so I started water only about 3 weeks ago. It has been smooth sailing so far. I have a bit of dandruff but I used to have it earlier too and massaging kind of helps. I was my hair with cold water daily and with warm water about once a week. My hair is greasy at all. Is it because I am washing my hair everyday? Am I doing it wrong?