Calling All Alternative Wash Dropouts

[Um Enis]

Over the past year+ I have tried extended WO periods (up to 1 month, and that over a few months), then soapwart shampoos, first weekly then every third day...

I haven't seen any positive results... and I am thinking of going back to regular old CWC.

Has anyone else dropped out from regular use of an alternative wash method: CO, WO, herbal, etc?

[Irishred]

I COed for a long time after I came to LHC. Then pregnancy changed my hair and I went back to S&C. I tried COing again and my hair just didn't like it.

I have also tried washing with a homemade egg shampoo that I actually liked but it was not practical.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I've tried CO - sometimes it works and looks really good, sometimes hair goes all gunky and has to be put up for the day.:shrug:

Tried shampoo bars/soap based - stringy, waxy hair :(

Best method for me is overnight oiling followed by S&C :)

Nothing wrong with a bit of shampoo, imo. There was a thread a while back with lots of people who had tried CO and given up - some had scalp issues. Another case of YMMV, I guess...

[Delenn]

I was doing CO for easily 2+ years and suddenly my scalp got mad at me. So I've been CWCing with a teensy bit of Nature's Gate something-or-other that I grabbed out of desparation from the store. Scalp's happy again.

[starfire]

I did CO for a bit, WO for a very short while, shampoo bars for a while...
I'm currently back to SC, sometimes just the shampoo! But now I use a sulfate free shampoo. It's just faster.

[Anje]

Hi, I'm definitely in.

I did WO for almost 9 months. Finally went back to CO because my ends always seemed to get dry so easily, and they usually ended up kinked, too. That and I wanted to not be afraid of chlorinated pools because I'd never get the chlorine out with WO. I miss the simplicity and freedom of WO, though, as well as the lack of frizz and incredibly low shed rate. I keep wondering if I should go back, modifying it to include occasional dilute conditioner.

ETA: Oh, yeah... I used shampoo bars for a few months, too. Having to bring vinegar with me when I traveled just wasn't my thing. I never found them that moisturizing, either. Not even CV's Honey Butter bar.

[Leisa]

Sometimes i get frustrated with herbal washing. Too much oil, or too little shikakai, or too little oil and too much herbs. Sometimes my hair is too dry from the herbs, then I'll compensate with oil and its too oily...etc...

Then I use shampoo because I know what the effects will be and its easy and always gets out the oil.

However, I've not gone back to conditioner. I think that will be a permanent ban. I prefer oil as long as I can get it out completely and not have stringy hair, which shampoo does if the herbs don't.

[glitterati]

I'm like Delenn - I was sucessfully CO for over two years, until the conditioner that I was using started building up on my scalp. So now I'm back to shampooing twice a week, which makes for a much happier scalp!

[girlcat36]

I was WO for about 4 months?, I think. I liked the way it kept my frizz to a minmum, but my hair is so thin that I decided to go back to 'poo bars in order to gain much needed volume. So I traded frizz for volume. If my hair were thicker I think I would have stayed WO.

[Flaxen]

Has anyone else dropped out from regular use of an alternative wash method: CO, WO, herbal, etc?
Umm, all of them? :lol:

Most of the alternative methods leave my hair looking darker. CO leaves it looking redder, as does baking soda washing, herbs can over clean, shampoo bars leave it looking duller, and I never made it through the transition with WO (either time). Oh, and the last time I did egg washing, there was a lingering egg aroma, and I lost interest in trying to figure out a solution.

I'm back to my favorite liquid soap based shampoo, the one I keep returning to again and again. Like Leisa, I don't know if I'll return to conditioner, though. I haven't been able to find a natural one that I really like, and oil is working quite well for me. I might revisit some of the conditioners I have, just to make sure. :smile:

[teela1978]

I CO'd successfully for a long time, but then I moved and I'm not sure if it's me or the water or what.. but I really can't CO anymore. Leaves my hair all gunky. I didn't have the patience to wait out WO, and think I'm too greasy for it anyway. I occasionally play with baking soda, and it works for a bit but then I get tangly again.

I do a normal S/C these days and it leaves my hair shiny, smooth, and mostly tangle-free.

[embee]

Winter of 2006-2007 I went WO and was very pleased. Summer came and I had to go back to S&C... very diluted. Winter of 2007-2008 and I was back on WO and so far it's fine. But summer is coming, and if I work in my garden I 'spect I'll be back to S&C.

But WO is the solution for me in winter.

[Um Enis]

ah ha. I WC 'd two weeks ago for a clean slate, then herbal washed every 3rd day since then... it looked and felt great for a week... maybe my solution is a weekly SC with herbal maintenance. i really miss SC and condition. my hair is healthier w/o it but doesn't look as good! ironic, huh!

[spidermom]

The second time I tried CO, the result was so nice that I thought "hooray; I've found the holy grail!" False alarm. By the time I had CO'd three times in a row, my hair had become dull and limp and my scalp itched like crazy. Every once in awhile I buy a new conditioner and try it again, but nope. Once? Great! Twice? O.k. Three times in a row? Limp and ugly.

On the other hand, CWC with diluted shampoo gives me consistent good results, though not as beautiful as one CO in a row. So I keep rotating in a CO every other week or three.

Actually, when I joined LHC, CWC was an alternative wash method, so yes - I learned an alternative wash method and stuck to it. Oiling was new, too.

[n3m3sis42]

Has anyone else dropped out from regular use of an alternative wash method: CO, WO, herbal, etc?

I did a no-poo routine that consisted of a baking soda/water wash and an ACV rinse for a little over a year. I was pretty happy with it, too, until a month or so ago when I just decided that I "needed" to order a large variety of Chagrin Valley shampoo bars.

I felt sort of guilty, but I don't regret it at all now that I've tried the shampoo bars. :D

[Catia]

I did herbal washes (shikakai with various other herbs) for 2+ years, at first with no conditoner - then homemade conditioner - and finally [almost]natural bottled conditioner.

I use Giovanni S&C now. It's nice to just grab a bottle and go. I get tired of thinking.

The herbal washes were fantastic for my scalp health though. I get mild dandruff from 'poo(although Giovanni is the best luck I have) but my henna treatments knock that out before it gets too out of hand.

Another reason it was easy to slip back into a more normal routine was when I went from henndigo to two-step black I no longer have to worry about shampoo stripping the indigo out of my henndigo(which it would). Nothing can budge the dark out of my hair now.

I don't regret the changes at all. I can utilize the knowledge anytime I want and go back. Heh. Not that I'm feeling any urges ...

[Madam Librarian]

I did CO for quite a while and was very happy with it. I went through a ton of changes at once (I moved house, went through a tremendous amount of stress, and started to sort through a bunch of my hormonal issues all around the same period of time) and CO flopped for me. I'm like Spidermom in that I still like to CO every once in a while, but it is no longer my staple.

I also tried shampoo bars and have decided that my water is entirely too hard for them to work.

I'm back to regular old shampoo and conditioner, but I do take care to select shampoos that are gentler on my hair instead of just using the match to the conditioner I like.

[Delila]

I did a LOT of experimenting for about 6-7 years, mostly with regular S&C, but then I joined LHC and branched out into herbal cleansing, Morrocco Method, CO, CWC, shampoo bars, etc.

Somehow along the way I got started with dilute shampoo pretty regularly back in the winter, and wound up returning to a pretty standard S&C routine.

I will say, though, that the conditioners I use now are more moisturizing than I could have used 2 years ago, and the shampoos are gentler than the ones I used to use.

[Nat242]

Kind of. I tried CO a few times, it was a disaster. Then I switched to BS and vinegar, followed by a deep treatment, which worked well for a while, but then turned horrible. Then I tried just C-W-C, the last C often being SMT if I had the time.

The last few weeks, even that has failed me. Now I'm just using diluted shampoo on my scalp, nothing on the length, unless it seems a dry when my hair has dried after my shower, if that makes sense. Then I get a tiny bit of coconut oil and apply to length. My hair hates deep treatments now, too. I have temperamental hair!
-- Natalie

[Finoriel]

I wash my hair with a mixture of eggs, honey and lemon, followed by an acidic rinse and sometimes I use a yogurt-deep-treatment :lol: is this alternative enough? ;)
So far I like it, it does it´s job: washes good, is gentle on hair and scalp, no buildup.
I did this on and of since about 2 years, but since 4 months I´m "eggs only" and it´s perfect for my hair :cloud9: definitely not switching back to conventional products.
It even seems like my scalp is producing more baby hairs since I skip shampoo, but it´s too early to say anything for sure.

[Miss Murphy]

You can totally count me in on this! I tried poo bars, and I think I am just about ready to give up on them for now. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get rid of extremely waxy, stringy hair.

So it's back to CWC - but that, like Spidermom said, was a new routine for me, too - and one I'm getting back to now.

[florenonite]

I did WO one summer when canoe tripping, but went back to every-other-day S&C afterwards, thinking it was revolting to not wash hair (so naive, eh?) I tried BS & ACV and the first wash was great, but the second produced less-than-stellar results. CO never worked, unless I'd been swimming and that was the only reason my hair needed washed. If it was greasy, forget it. I tried CWC but couldn't really be bothered with it. I tend to Condition then Shampoo then oil, and today I intend to throw in an ACV rinse, does that count as an alternative wash method?

[Calista]

I did WO for about two months after I joined LHC. I stopped because even after all that time I wasn´t quite satisfied with the way my hair looked. It was a great experience, though, and one I would like to repeat. I then did CO with good results, but I wanted to go more natural, so... I have been using shampoo bars exclusively since September 2006 and don´t plan to switch any time soon. :D

[KnightsLady]

Over the past year+ I have tried extended WO periods (up to 1 month, and that over a few months), then soapwart shampoos, first weekly then every third day...

I haven't seen any positive results... and I am thinking of going back to regular old CWC.

Has anyone else dropped out from regular use of an alternative wash method: CO, WO, herbal, etc?


Sounds like I'm going to be the only "no"! Or at least a qualified "no".

Although I did revert back to shampoo and conditioner after using Conditioner Only, Shikekai, Soapwort, Shampoo Bars and Water Only, my trial with sorbolene is currently proving rather successful.

I've been using sorbolene of various types for the past 10-12 months. I have tried reverting back to shampoo on occassion (primarily for perfuming), but just don't get the same good results from it. It leaves my hair dry, frizzy and tangly and my scalp itches. Since finding a plain coconut oil to use as a pre-wash oil, I don't even seem to need a detangling lotion for my damaged old ends and my hair is looking even better. Have only been using the coconut oil for a few days though. :cheese:

[MusingFrog]

I tried WO for two months. One day I just had it and washed. Best thing I ever did. I'm now in a very steady routine of baking soda once a week and one quick rinse during the week (now that it is summer my hair appreciates the extra dousing).

[ACEerCP]

:brickwall: This is totally me as well. Started out using boxed dye every 3 weeks ans salon-only S/C/treatments. First switched to CO wash and thought I had died and gone to heaven...incredible body, hair looked awesome. Converted all my friends (my SO still CO washes!). Toyed with apple cider rinses. Then I found how great citric acid was as a rinse...did CO and citric acid rinses for a long time. Then I started doing henna and found WEN. Used WEN for a couple months. Then had the Ultimate Henna Disaster in fall of 06 involving red wine as the liquid to mix it that I'm still regretting...dried all 12" of my hair to a total all out crisp. That changed everything...and CO washing just flat out didn't work anymore. Switched to no-cones....nothing special happened; went back to low cones because the ends were so ruined that I had to do SOMETHING to coat it.

Sampled around with oilings and in doing so went back to traditional S/C for a while. Then I had a major, major epiphany...I found a "detoxifying detangling" spray from Philip B. and experimented with SHAMPOO ONLY followed by this spray...it was a total experiment one night on a trip when a bad hair night didn't matter..and wow, it worked! So I started messing around with various products using shampoo only and using leave-ins or just the spray when out of the shower. Amazingly enough, this has worked the best for me out of ANYTHING because I have such instantly oily hair and dry ends. My scalp doesn't get overloaded before I'm even out of the shower and my ends still get a treatment. I've been reusing a bunch of old products to see what works and that's been interesting too...helps to use up stuff that's been sitting around. I picked up the new Herbal Essences shampoo for long hair and have been using that with the Philip B spray and a mix of leave-ins (or none) on the ends. I did a combo of the HE and the spray along with Jonathan leave-in gloss treatment on the ends the other day and loved it!

So how about that...go from S/C to CO to CWC to just shampoo! :blueeek: I've been suggesting to friends to just experiment on lazy days..you'll never know what will and won't work. If the shampoo only stops working, I'll just move on to something else :)

[Just_Isabel]

I didn't experiment as much as many here, but I did try BS+ACV, CO, CWC, natural shampoo and conditioner bars, oiling after washing.
Regular bottled shampoo and conditioner with cones, followed by a little coney leave in is what works best for me.
But I'm not done experimenting. :D I think I'll probably always come back to shampoo, conditioner and leave in, but I get flaky scalp (got worse with CO and BS washes) so I still need to find a solution for that.

[Kyamo]

I couldn't make WO work, my scalp is too itchy. I love CO though, been using pretty much the whole time since I joined LHC, except for a couple of experiments.

[Rheia Althia]

I did the BS ACV for a few weeks once a week and I ended up caving and going back to my non-sulphate shampoo on my scalp twice a week while conditioning the length.

I had a dance performance the day of one of my BS ACV washes and I wasn't pleased with my heavy hair at all, it had a sheen of grease even after it dried.

I think my hair will be fine if I use everything in moderation. I do a CWC (washing scalp only) twice a week, and a ACV rinse one a week after one of those.

[nomadhome]

Dropped out of CO, stopped diluting my shampoo and went back to a shampoo that contains sodium lauryl sulphate. I still CWC. I cannot imagine that I will ever try WO or SO. I think I've learned my lesson :)

[wintersun99]

............

[birdiefu]

I had been COing for over 2 years, with a bit of experimenting in there, too (herbs, clay, eggs, etc). The stuff that I had to mix up first didn't last long because of laziness, but Indian herbs were great for my hair. CO left my hair great...until I moved and my scalp had a fit and my hair got weird, apparently from the water. So now I mostly CWC with a full SC once in a while, and a single CO here and there when I think I can pull it off.

[Um Enis]

I wash my hair with a mixture of eggs, honey and lemon, followed by an acidic rinse and sometimes I use a yogurt-deep-treatment :lol: is this alternative enough? ;)
So far I like it, it does it´s job: washes good, is gentle on hair and scalp, no buildup.
I did this on and of since about 2 years, but since 4 months I´m "eggs only" and it´s perfect for my hair :cloud9: definitely not switching back to conventional products.
It even seems like my scalp is producing more baby hairs since I skip shampoo, but it´s too early to say anything for sure.

how do you do your egg/honey/lemon thing?

I'm starting to think that I want to use a regular SC and then stretch with alt wash methods until I need to SC again

[Isilya]

I COed for a couple of months and it went really well, but suddenly my hair didn't get as clean as it used to, it still was sticky after washing. I thought I needed clarifying, but it didn't help, so I changed to CWC. So far it works like a charm :)
Now I hope my hair is illiterate or else it may decide to turn on me, as a punishment for my optimism:scared:

[busnutmedic]

Yes, I dropped out, and now I'm back!! I'm COing again after a looong time of S/C every other day. It's going OK.

Bonnie

[Finoriel]

Hej Um Enis :) there has been a thread about how you can use eggs for hair... more about deep treatments, but I´ve posted the exact shampoo-recipe and how I use it there: klick (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=63836&postcount=14)
and this is the link to the whole thread about "the incredible edible egg" (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=2993).
The shampoo is really very easy to make and can be rinsed out with normal warm water, I never had the "scrambled egg" effect. This effect only occurs when you have too much acid in the shampoo. Acid set´s down the denaturation temperature of protein. But in this concentration, with honey as an additional buffer, you can use hot water to rinse out the shampoo without problems.

[terriej]

I was doing CO before I found LHC and discovered other people do it too. But at some point I noticed a lot more shedding than usual, so I went back to S&C. Now I CO, S&C, or just shampoo--no routine or reasoning to it, just whatever I feel like doing at the time.

[rossjen]

When I first joined LHC, I was a regular COer, and while it worked well for me, over time it just became a little too tedious, and I was always wondering if I had applied enough conditioner, did I apply it to all sections of hair, rinse enough, etc... Over time, I got sick of the smell of some of the VO5 conditioners, and I felt the entire process was getting cumbersome.
Other methods such as herbal washing with soapwort were a complete bust, so I gave that up after several weeks; the baking soda and vinegar rinses worked fine, but they were not convenient anywhere else but at home. (gym, swimming, trips)
Terressentials and Morocco Method were too expensive and there were always too many hurdles to jump over, and it was never simple. One day my hair was staticky and dry, and the next wash, everything was oily and stringy.
So after all that, I just started shampooing every three days with Giovanni (and other natural brands), and I don't even need conditioner or miss it. My routine is simpler, saves time, and it just works.

So now I want to give it all up for experimenting with CV shampoo bars, heh. :rolleyes:

[julya]

I've dabbled in CO, it works well for me but my hair takes ages to dry and I dislike the slimey feel of conditioner. Right now I'm trying again at WO.
I've had the most success lately with shampoo only on the scalp and keeping water off the length

[snowbird]

I tried CO (didn't go well) and WO was a disaster, I ended up trimming about 3" from my hair at the end of a few weeks of that. But, the good news was that I learned that my hair just likes to be clean in order to be healthy. I use plain soap now and wash every few days or so.

[alys]

I dont think I've gone as 'alternative' as some others. I've tried in the past, and subsequently quit shortly afterwards, herbal washes/rinses...I'm not even sure where to start or what to say about those. I love the *idea* of it, hated the results. I've tried natural shampoo bars, both CV and some other healthfood store brands. Had to quit after a few months, as my hair became what I like to call 'matted'...too much buildup of some sort.
I've tried the drug store, the salon, the kitchen and the healthfood store. Currently using AO and sometimes Avalon Organics products for my hair. Also use only Camellia oil.

I'm green in most aspects but I simply cannot let go of a 'real washing'. I must have shampoo and I must wash the nastiness from me. I am compelled to wash at least 3 times per week. My hair gets yech and my scalp gets itchy. The smoke, smog, dust and junk that collects is best removed with a strong soap or very mild detergent when needed, for me personally anyhow.

[kwaniesiam]

I tried CO for about 7-8 months, it worked okay, my hair was healthy and soft but at the roots kind of lank. Now that I'm back to diluted S & C, I think I'm going to try to CO for 2 days and on the 3rd wash use the shampoo.

[Gutterfayrie]

I tried CO for a few weeks, but never felt that my hair was clean, then I went to CWC for about a month, but now I'm back to SC every other day-every 3 days and my hair is happier.

[snowbear]

I remember joining here, and thinking that I absolutely needed to quit using what I was using, and start COing. I've probably tried every version of hair washing, save for NW and WO. I've also tried multiple products, some natural, some chemical-laden.
I've tried expensive brands, cheap brands, and everything in between.

I remember diluting my shampoo into multiple bottles, each with a different potency. I remember using ACV as a rinse, by dumping it undiluted onto my scalp. I remember trying oils, butters, and leave-ins.

I've felt guilty for being a conehead, felt bad for brushing, and felt chastised for cutting.
...and then I got over it.

My current routine?

* Albertson's brand Head and Shoulders shampoo (I don't have dandruff, but I like the way the shampoo makes my hair feel.)
* CureCare conditioner (after hearing Morticia rave about it for what seems like years, I picked some up--it's great)
* Sunsilk Hydra TLC leave-in

Chemical-laden, perfumed, and wonderful for my hair.

[Melisande]

Snowbear, I think that's great. You came full circle. Now at least you KNOW why you use the things you use.

For me, CO didn't work, but CWC with diluted no-cone, no-SLS shampoo is ideal for me.