Yay! WO triumph =P

[Signe]

Hi all!
Just wanted to share an experience I had this weekend at a music festival because it made my day!

I was talking to this girl I met a few weeks ago who has gorgeous BCL hair and she asked about my routine, so I told her straight up that I almost never washed it, and when I did it was only with cold water. I was expecting a horrified gasp, but instead she was in awe! :cheese:
She said that it made total sense and that she wanted to do it too! Her BF and a few other male friends were standing in the vicinity and they started in on the conversation and thought my routine was awesome...one of them was even WO as well! (out of laziness at first but then because it looked just as nice as washing with shampoo so he left it that way)
Anyway, we ended up having a big conversation about the acid mantle and the health of hair and skin and everyone agreed at the end that my routine of only washing my skin and hair with water was spot-on!
Needless to say, I was bowled over that a whole group of people at once would be so accepting of a WO routine. Most of the time I just get disgusted looks followed by a small step in the other direction. :p

As a side note, I would like to say that I have only wet my hair twice in the last three weeks, and it was in an ice-cold river. It has never looked better! Hard city water sure is rough on the hair!

[jujube]

That's great. I love when people respond positively to unconventional haircare methods. I'm also glad NW/SO - WO is working for you.

[jeanniet]

Signe, would you mind sharing your routine? I would like to transition to WO from herbal washing at some point, and I'd love to hear about your cold water washing (but I don't think I can do cold water only, eek).

[denzelswifey86]

I posted a new theard recently asking about WO washes after I ran out of shampoo and washed my hair with cold water! I do see a diffrance. But since Im going to oil my hair twice a week I need shampoo to rid my hair from the remaing oil!
After I get the length I want and thickness I'd definitly going to WO

[SpinDance]

I may try WO after I use up all the conditioners I've got. :) BTW, denzelswifey86, I find conditioner gets oil out much better than shampoo.

[denzelswifey86]

SpinDance , Even when your hair is soaked in oil? I'm planning to dump ALOT of oil on my hair n cover it with a slik scarf and wash it the next day!

[kitcatsmeow]

Your hair is gorgeous and I'm envious of the WO cleaning! Maybe one day...

[proo]

I'm pretty much wo these days, rinsing once a week but occasionally I'll rinse with very dilute shampoo to 'de-wax' it. I'm wondering if the waxy feeling will eventually abate and what your experience with this has been signe. Thx

[SpinDance]

denzelswifey86, yes, I've been known to really dump the coconut oil, or whatever, on and even leave it for a day or so. I usually do deep overnight oiling, and so long as I use a light conditioner (usually Suave Naturals atm) a couple times it comes out nicely. Much better than with shampoo. I thought it was weird when I first heard about it, but it works for me. Of course, your mileage may vary!

[denzelswifey86]

Oh ok :) going to try it out tomorow then !! Thanks SpinDance

[Annibelle]

Your hair is BEAUTIFUL! It makes me want to try WO... could you tell me how you transitioned to that? I remember very rarely washing my hair as a child and teen, and it was gorgeous... and now it's much frizzier. :( I've been CO for over a month now and my hair is improving. I'm also able to stretch washes from three times a week to a little more than once a week (three times every two weeks). Did you just start stretching washes, or did you quit cold turkey?

Thanks... :heart:

[silverjen]

I'm not the OP, but I've done my share of WO. I have transitioned by going cold turkey and also by stretching, and stretching is muuuuuuuch easier. Personally, once I got down to two washes a week or fewer, the transition was pretty manageable.

With WO mechanical cleaning of hair becomes more important. I use horn combs and my BBB daily to help manage my sebum and remove dust and flakes. It takes all of five minutes, done regularly. My hair feels protected, manageable, and it rarely tangles.

Here's the current official WO thread, for more info than you can shake a stick at: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=3412

WO rocks!

[tinywife]

Your hair is beautiful, just beautiful. You may convert me yet!

[Spring]

Signe, would you mind sharing your routine? I would like to transition to WO from herbal washing at some point, and I'd love to hear about your cold water washing (but I don't think I can do cold water only, eek).


I second this :)...... your hair is beautiful

[MagicAndMayhem]

That's really cool, since you have such lovely hair I might be inspired to go WO (or at least poo free)

[Signe]

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been on to reply for a while! :)

Signe, would you mind sharing your routine? I would like to transition to WO from herbal washing at some point, and I'd love to hear about your cold water washing (but I don't think I can do cold water only, eek).

My routine is pretty basic...once a week or less.
I start by throughly detangling, BBBing, scritching, and preening before I get in the shower.
I have a hand-held shower head, so I just do my normal shower routine with warm/hot water without getting hair wet so I am nice and warm, then I bend over at the waist letting my hair fall forward, turn the water on cold, and hold the shower-head right up to my scalp. I set it to the single-stream setting so that the water pressure is decent and make sure I get all of my scalp wet. Then I massage my wet scalp a bit to get any extra sebum out and finish with a final blast to the scalp whilst leaning back a bit (so the cold water doesn't run down my back so much!). I gently squeeze the water out of my length but don't manipulate it much other than that.
I find if I put my hair under the water for the final rinse while leaning back every so slightly, it sets my hair in a nice direction for air-drying.
Every once in a while I will do a vinegar rinse (if I have to wash in the city), and sometimes I oil the ends to detangle easier. I don't find that I get a big build up with this even though I am WO. I use a mixture of 50/50 EVOO and coconut oil.
Between washes I scritch and preen as necessary, but I find that if my hair is looking like it needs a wash, sometimes it is enough just to do a good preening session and all's well again.

When I washed it in the river these past two weeks I was at festivals, so I just jumped in and had fun! My favourite routine! :cheese:




I'm pretty much wo these days, rinsing once a week but occasionally I'll rinse with very dilute shampoo to 'de-wax' it. I'm wondering if the waxy feeling will eventually abate and what your experience with this has been signe. Thx

The waxy feeling definitely goes away. This is why I started using only cold water... I have a theory that warm water washes away the oils faster than the sebum (which is waxy) and leaves your hair imbalanced on the waxier side. With cold water the oils stick around a bit more and I read on the boards that sebum is a mild emulsifier, so I guess maybe it incorporates with the oil and spreads better down the hair shaft that way. Just a thought, it could be totally off base.


Your hair is BEAUTIFUL! It makes me want to try WO... could you tell me how you transitioned to that? I remember very rarely washing my hair as a child and teen, and it was gorgeous... and now it's much frizzier. :( I've been CO for over a month now and my hair is improving. I'm also able to stretch washes from three times a week to a little more than once a week (three times every two weeks). Did you just start stretching washes, or did you quit cold turkey?

Thanks... :heart:

I went cold-turkey when I started WO ages ago, but I already stretched washes to around 5-7 days for a number of years. Then I went abroad and had a few formal functions to go to so I used a dilute shampoo for the scalp and garnier triple nutrition on the ends for a number of weeks (still only once a week). Finally when I got back home and into a normal routine, I went cold turkey again with WO, and had no trouble whatsoever with a transition.

[jeanniet]

Thanks, that was very helpful. I have funky water (well), so I may not ever be able to be completely WO, but I'm at least experimenting with my wash recipe to see how much I can dilute it down. I think if I dilute and then stretch, I may be able to achieve WO, but it's probably going to take some time to get to that point. I really appreciate you sharing with us!

[IanB]

Great to hear all the positive WO news :)

[Signe]

Jeanniet...I think well water will probably be fine for WO....in my experience it has always been quite soft. If you are worried about build-up, maybe a distilled-water rinse every few washes would sort you out? Anyway, good luck transitioning and I hope WO works for you in time!

I see you are from the UK, IanB :)
I live there too and have actually found an overwhelmingly positive reception to this sort of hair-care, as compared to the US, where everyone sort of inched slowly away when I told them.
I was talking hair to yet another girl the other day and she was totally on board with the WO system, although she doesn't practice it herself.

[IanB]

Ahh! perhaps the UK water is purer!!! :cheese:

[Mommyof4]

Ahh! perhaps the UK water is purer!!! :cheese:

I live in the US, in Florida, and my city water is so hard that even without using soap or shampoo, my hair and skin are dried out after. I am saving up for a chlorine filter for my shower head. My shower head is shaped different than the cheaper ones, unfortunately. I would love to be WO, it seems to make perfect sense! My friends just came back from a 3 week holiday in Framlingham and they talked about how the water was much cleaner and didn't smell like bleach.:) My water smells like bleach very strongly. Congrats to everyone that is WO! That's awesome! For right now, I'm CO and I rinse olive oil onto my hair in the sink, fingercomb, and air dry. I am gonna research WO on here and try to figure out a transition that would work for me.:)