Washing hair with rye flour

[catoala]

Hi!

Curious, anybody washing hair with rye flour? I want to try it, but I'm quite scared for some reason.... There was a thread regarding this washing method - so I'm curious due to that. :hmm:

[Joules]

But why? Just out of curiosity? I've been there with trying out no-shampoo washing methods, and it's just not worth it. It's not the same, and it can cause damage to the scalp.

[catoala]

How it could cause the damage? The pH of flour is 5 or 5.5 (which is not harming to us), no problem?

[guska]

It is a PITA to wash out completely from your hair. And if you have dark hair like me, it will look like dandruff.

Not trying to discourage you though :)

[Joules]

How it could cause the damage? The pH of flour is 5 or 5.5 (which is not harming to us), no problem?

I meant damage to the scalp. Not cleansing the scalp enough creates scalp problems more often than not (I myself am a victim of a low-to-no-shampoo routine), and it in turn can cause thinning and hairloss.

[Reyn127]

Hi there, I'm the one (I believe) who started that most recent rye-flour-washing thread. I used it primarily for about a year and a half.

There are for sure pros and cons to the method, but in my opinion, it's pretty safe on the hair. Don't be discouraged by everyone saying it's not the same - it's true, it's not the same, but that's probably why you're here. So here are my tips.

Use very fine ground flour, and sift it if you are able. Larger ground flour is much more difficult to remove.
Mix your "shampoo" up right before you use it, because the longer you let it sit in the water, the more protein will develop, and the harder it is to get out. (If you're familiar with breadmaking, essentially you DON'T want it to autolyze.)
It can be pretty thick and hard to spread sometimes, so spend time getting it to every area of your scalp or it won't be cleansing thoroughly. Once it's in, you can splash a tiny bit of water on your head and it actually WILL lather pretty good.
Rinse thoroughly - but be aware, at least for me, there were always a number of flour flakes that never came out until my hair was drying. No matter what I did, I could never get all the flour out in the shower. So if it seems like it's not rinsing much anymore, don't be frustrated, just be aware that it may need to dry to let out the last of the flour. Which gets me to...
Dry very thoroughly after washing! The flakes will likely not be all gone until your hair is fully dry and there's nothing to stick on anymore. I had to give up on airdrying only in order to make this work long-term, I literally HAD to use a blowdrier so I had time in the day for things other than hair.
If you're using any sort of conditioner, I would recommend doing washing and conditioning separately. Anything sticky or oily makes the flour ridiculously resilient in the hair.
You can also use just about any LOW-GLUTEN grain with very similar results if the flour washing really appeals to you but the rye is giving you a hard time. The gluten in the grain is what makes it hard to wash out because it's sticky and gummy. What you're really wanting is the starch - that's what's doing the cleansing, and it's the first to get rinsed out as well. Chickpea and rice flour, I've heard, are other popular alternatives.

Those are the basics. Here's the link to that rye flour washing thread, which has a lot of information: https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=147423
Also if you want, here's a link to my blog where I wrote down a lot of my experiments and experiences https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/blog.php?u=78891 The best entries to read are going to be the most recent 4, but not including the first one up there. (So not the first most recent, but the four that I posted right before it.) You'll get a good idea of how many methods I tried, and overall what the pros and cons are.

If you have any specific questions, I'll probably pop into this thread again soon to help some more.

[Reyn127]

Oh yeah, and as far as "Will this cleanse my scalp enough?", it depends on your individual scalp. Joules seems to have had problems because it wasn't cleansing enough, but for me, it was. Though I also have very dry skin where soap and shampoo is "too much". So it is very important to check how your scalp is feeling after a couple of washes. Is the oil and sebum getting cleansed away enough for you? Is it itchy or irritated? Does your hair like it, and behave well with it?

Just keep aware of how things are feeling. Don't push it too far if it doesn't seem to be getting better the more you do it.

[lapushka]

If you have a scalp that is "finicky", I would not try a lower shampoo method, if I were you.

You just have to gauge it by your scalp.

I don't think I could do this as I have SD (seborrheic dermatitis) and I need to "power" cleanse.

Also, does flower have a lot of slip? Regular shampoo slides over the hair cleansing it thus not pulling hairs out, but flower just has to have the opposite effect, no? I would fear for not enough slip and getting sheds due to it.

[SleepyTangles]

I´ve heard mostly about washing hair with chickpea or beans flower. Many legumes have a small content of saponines that makes them quite effective, even if your hair will probably smell like soup for a while.
If this becomes your regular and/or ONLY method of washing, you risk to overstimulate the growth of the bacteria that live in most human scalps (including yeasts, malassezia, fungus etc). If you want to try it every now and then I don´t see the harm... unless you already battle dandruff and stuff like that. Maybe you can add a bit of fenugreek to the mixture to make it less pleasant to bacteria, its known to be quite effective against parasites and many populations use it against lice and scalp ailments.

I did some washes with chickpeas flour when my scalp was very dry and damaged by chemical dyes, so it probably needed the gentleness.

Also, washing with every kind of flour, in my very limited experience, requires rinsing in lukewarm/cold water: if expose it to warm water you risk of accidentally "cooking" the flour ON your hair. It will a nightmare to remove and you will probably end up using shampoo out of desperation. Don´t ask me how I know ;)