Washing your hair in the sink?

[claymoregalatea]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to know who washes their hair in the kitchen sink. I've heard there is chlorine in bathroom water and your hair soaks it up (which is bad). I know there is a chlorine filtering shower head but that's expensive and I'm not rich.:rolleyes: So if there is anyone who washes their hair in the sink or something, how do you do it? And please correct me if I'm wrong about something. :D

[AnnaJamila]

If there was chlorine in the bathroom water wouldn't there be chlorine in all the rest of the water? I don't understand why that water would be different in different sinks; it comes through the same pipes from the same source.

If you are noticing it affecting your hair then the shower head may be a good investment, but if you aren't noticing anything then I say don't worry about it. If it ain't broke don't fix it, and all that! :)

[pink.sara]

I have no idea where you are in the world but here in the UK the same water supply is used for domestic houses. So no difference in the water you drink from the kitchen tap, or the water that fills your toilet cistern or hot water tank.
Do you have 2 separate water supplies?

[AshleyTheRed]

My grandmother does! but I'm with everybody else. I have well water and its the same for every tap.
When my hair was short I would wash it in the sink, but I stick with the shower head now that it is long.

[free_hug]

WARNING: works on short hair only :D It's super comfortable, I used to do it under the bathroom sink when it was pix or close enough. You do a hair-and-face wash and get that neat and tidy look in about 10 minutes :)

The thing is, with hair just a few inches longer, it would fall right down on the sink surface, or worse - into the sinkhole... yuck, I'd hate it.

Also, if your bathroom has chlorine water, probably so does your kitchen. Water most probably comes from the same service provider :) Where do you live? By the way

[papillion]

I always wash my hair in the sink. My hair is only BSL at the moment, but even when it was at Waist, I never had any problems.

I agree with the others about the chlorine issue. Unless you have different water supplies, I don't see how which tap/shower you use will make any difference.

[Sweet Beat]

I used the sink a few days ago to dip my hair in water blended with EVOO... Even the roots :P And sometimes I rinse it with cold water in the sink also.

[Carolyn]

If you think you have chlorine in your water you might want to save up for a filter. I suppose it would be possible for a home to have 2 water supplies. Maybe you have well water and city water? I've known of a couple of instances where all the household use water was softened except for one tap in the kitchen for drinking water. My house was supposed to have been that way but it was never hooked up correctly. I would chose soft water for hair washing any day over hard water.

I grew up having my hair washed in the kitchen sink and when I was allowed to wash my own hair I continued to do it that way. I didn't live in a house with a shower until I was in my mid teens.

[Theobroma]

WARNING: works on short hair only :D [...]

The thing is, with hair just a few inches longer, it would fall right down on the sink surface, or worse - into the sinkhole... yuck, I'd hate it.

Works with hip-length hair too, and I don't expect any problems when I reach classic either.

As for touching the surface of the sink, I clean the sink before I wash my hair (or more correctly I keep the sink clean enough at all times that there's no reason why I wouldn't want my hair to touch it. And it doesn't go down the drain because that's what the plug is there for. I don't see any problem!

[Madora]

I did it once...years ago...never again! Not nearly enough water pressure in the faucet and it took forever to get the shampoo and conditioner out of it. What was I thinking?

[PinkyCat]

I had a friend who did this. She said she felt she couldn't get her hair clean enough in the shower. :confused:

She also would fill up the tub every time she shaved her legs. :confused::confused:

[longcurlygirl<3]

I did once but I have so much hair it toke forever. But I have done it for my mom. She has fine, 3b hair mbl and we have no problem :). It actually help to make it a bit curlier as I scrunched.

[motormuffin]

I have a shower filter. It cost $30. I don't wash my hair in the sink because I usually have to wash all of me anyway.

[spidermom]

I hate washing my hair in the sink. Never again. I'd rather use a pitcher in the bathtub.

If you've got chlorine in your water, it's in both the kitchen and the bathroom, unless you have a filter in the kitchen and not the bathroom or something like that.

[Evalea]

I wash in the sink - kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, usually when I just need it wet or don't have enough energy or time for a shower. I have not done it as much the last few months as I moved to a different place and I now have a detachable shower head. Now I just lan into the tub and use that. I usually won't wash all my hair in the sink. I'll do a root touch-up or get it wet and rinse with vinegar.
As for the water, I'm on a well so I don't worry about additives.

[Velvet Dreamer]

Echoing that the water is probably the same everywhere, but I tend to wash my hair in the sink as well. Mainly to avoid clogging my bathtub.

[Aqua Gal]

Sink washer here! (or bent over the bathtub) Mainly I do it because I prefer washing hair at night and showering the rest of me in the morning.

[clairenewcastle]

I've never washed my hair in either my kitchen sink or my bathroom sink.
Usually I bend over the bath and use a hand-held shower spray which I attach to the bath taps, although sometimes i wash it in the shower.

[Buggheart]

I have washed my hair in the kitchen sink but only when I'm washing henna out. I feel I have more control over the rinsing and I use less water in the sink. For example the kitchen sink has a spray hose thing so it's easy to concentrate it on all the parts of my head so I can wash all the henna paste out. I don't like to do it in the shower because then the henna gets all over me and the tub and shower and results in much more cleanup.

[MemoryXIII]

Hmm... People may use a tub and fill it with distilled water. That's the only thing I can think of.

[claymoregalatea]

Thanks for the replies, after reading I'm beginning to think that it doesn't really matter anymore because I share the house and I don't want to go into too much trouble finding information about water sources etc,..btw, I live in Australia for those who wanted to know.:D

[swearnsue]

You might want to try the kitchen sink washing for a month and then switch to the bathroom for a month and see if there is any difference. Unless you have been warned to NOT drink water from the bathroom water, then I'm sure it is all from the same water source. To plumb two different sources would be really unusual and expensive. Chlorine dissipates in air over time, so you COULD fill a bucket with water and let it sit overnight or so(stir a couple of times) and most or all of the chlorine will be gone.

[Panth]

I'm with everyone else, all the water in your house is almost certainly coming from the same pipes and so there would be no difference in the water from the kitchen sink compared with the shower water.

Just to add, this:

WARNING: works on short hair only :D
is just not true!

My mum only washes her hair in the kitchen sink. It's approx. waist but it has been as long as classic (age has made it more frail and it's baby fine to start with ... I suspect she has a false terminal going on, but that's a whole 'nother story! :p).

I washed my hair almost exclusively in the kitchen sink when living at home (hair lengths: waist, then chopped to chin at age 11, then grown from then on until it was probably approx. TB). Only the other week, I was visiting and washed my hair in the sink - my hair is approx. an inch off fingertip now, so considerably longer.

The way we do it is this:
- use the large kitchen sink, with a basin in it to prevent the hair trying to go down the plug hole (the basin also allows you to easily remove soapy water and mix up fresh water)
- use kettle water / water heated on the stove, mixed with cold tap water, to get the water to a nice temperature, particularly in the winter

Routine:
- make a basin of warm water, bend over it, thoroughly wet hair (using a mug to help wet the nape of the neck)
- apply shampoo to scalp, massage in / over hair
- rinse hair in basin of water thoroughly, using mug to get nape / around ears
- gently squeeze water out of hair and pile it on your head
- empty basin, rinse it with tap water then make up a fresh batch of warm water in it

- rinse the hair thoroughly in the clean water, again using mug
- once thoroughly rinsed, apply conditioner and massage through hair (if you like to leave it sit, or if you like to comb it through do that now)
- rinse the hair thoroughly, again using mug
- gently squeeze water out of hair, pile it on your head
- empty basin, rinse it and make up fresh batch of warm water

- rinse hair thoroughly
- squeeze water out of hair, pile it on your head
- empty basin, rinse it, make up fresh warm water
- repeat with at least 2 more basins of rinsing to ensure all conditioner is washed out

So, that's one basin-full for applying/rinsing out shampoo, one for rinsing out shampoo/applying conditioner and then at least 3 for rinsing out the conditioner.

As far as the LHC consensus goes, I can see a few disadvantages with this method:
- hard to keep shampoo off length
- if you want to shampoo your length and you are more than BSL you will probably have to shampoo whilst piling the hair on the top of your head a la hair commercials
- very difficult to condition length and not scalp if you have any length of hair (again, the piling hair on top of your head method, though potentially tangle-inducing, works best here as otherwise it is hard to keep your length out of the water whilst applying the product unless you step away from the sink ... and then you make a mess all over the kitchen floor)
- must flip hair forwards (over your face) ... which some find tangle-inducing and I find causes the shampoo to dry out my forehead, resulting in lovely scaley skin

The other main disadvantage is that it takes a bit of getting used to and your first few attempts are likely to result in water everywhere. However, as with everything, practice makes perfect. The other disadvantage is if it's a child washing their hair they may need to stand on something to reach the sink and when they are too tall for a stool but too short really to reach properly it really hurts the back and neck (but trying to stand in a way that makes it not hurt means the water drains off your head down your back, not into the sink...).

Personally, I'd chose a shower over a sink wash any time. However, might chose a sink wash over a bath (I don't like baths!).

[stuffy623]

That sounds like a lot a work. All credit to you looking after your very long hair. Do you wrap it in a towel after you finish?

[unheardletters]

I’ve been washing my hair in the kitchen sink for many years. If I wash my hair in the shower I always get swimmers ear every time I get my head wet in the shower. So I have better control in the sink to keep water from getting inside my ear. It hurts my lower and mid-back terribly when I wash my hair in the sink due to the very awkward position. I wish their was a better option for washing my hair, but I just avoid for it as long as I can, stretching washing for weeks sometimes because I just don’t want to deal with the back pain, and I really, really, really don’t want swimmers ear so there is zero chance of me attempting to wash it in the shower.

[MusicalSpoons]

Wow, really old thread! But anyway, I have washed my hair in the kitchen sink when circumstances called for it, including on holiday in a caravan a couple of years ago where the shower pressure was awful and the mixer tap in the kitchen sink was the far better option. I don't remember details, but I do remember I used a jug to help. My hair was somewhere between classic and knee - however it tapers all down the length so it's not really a lot of hair to wrangle, and even past knee I can wrap the whole of the length around my hand to hold it when it's that wet. It might not be so doable with thicker hair or without taper.