streaching my washes

[WinterButterfly]

So I realised that I got cought in a trap of washing my hair a bit more than I would like to. So I decided what my dry scalp needed was no shampoo for a little while. But I'm a bit surprised at how much softer my ends are. I was begining to think that they were just damaged and needed to come off. But now they are soft again. The last time I washed my hair was Monday, I believe. It could have been Sunday eavning. But I think it was Monday. Yesterday when my scalp was feeling weird I bunned my hair and let some water soak into my scalp but kept it off my length. And it worked like a charm. My hair is starting to look a little greasy. So I might shampoo today. But I want to hold out for tomarrow eavning so I can go to church with fresh hair. I wonder if there are any really good tricks for streaching washes (mostly shampoos). I want to be able to wash only once a week on saturdays. My hair takes so long to dry that it is a pain to wash. Plus, the days I shampoo are the worst because my scalp feels way too dry. (I tend towards dry sensitive skin). Any advice is welcome. And I suppose if there isn't a thread dedicated to streaching washes this one could be for that. I must admitt that I didn't search for one. It is difficult to use the search function through my mobile device. I try to click on the place to type and it almost always hits the add underneath.

But hey, at least there is cheese, right? :cheese:

[luxepiggy]

I know what you mean about your ends - mine have also become much softer since I started stretching washes. One product that really helps me is dry shampoo - I like the Rene Furterer brand. It really helps reduce the appearance of oily roots (^(oo)^)v

[teal]

There is always cheese! :cheese:

My goal for stretching washes was to transition to no-poo. I didn't follow any advice for stretching washes, but from what I understand everyone goes through a bit of a yucky phase, no matter how gently they try to ease into it. I cut out shampoo entirely, did water-only washes for the first week and a half, then started washing with a dilute baking soda mix and rinsing with a dilute apple cider vinegar mix once a week with WO washes in between.

My head was a greaseball for the first week (mostly because I was doing it wrong... see below), on the oily side after the first couple of days after washing for the next couple of weeks, then settled into normalcy after that (sebum production slowed down). By the five to six-week mark, everything was fine. It's been over five days now since I washed my hair and it's not greasy at all.

So, my tricks:
- Start with cold water on the scalp. It's supposed to invigorate the hair follicles and help them squeeze out any extra sebum that's hanging around.
- During WO washes, massage the scalp with your fingertips and manually move the sebum down the hair shaft - I use flat hands for this. (When I first started out, I thought WO-washing was just standing under the shower head... oh how wrong I was! :o)
- End with a cool rinse. I like to use ACV rinses too - YMMV, some people complain of greasiness with this, but I've never had a problem. Diluting further might help if you run into greasies with ACV.
- Boar bristle brush. Some brush every day; I can't handle brushing that often. Either way, a BBB will help move oils down the hair shaft and smooth the cuticle. If you search for some of Madora's posts, she has a lot of information on how to do this correctly. If I had to choose the most important tips, it would be to make sure your hair is detangled before brushing and to brush gently but firmly.

That's about it. You CAN stretch your washes if you are patient! There are others here who wash less often than I do... like every two weeks, or once a month! You can do it!! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

[Modarunner]

I think no matter what you do when trying to stretch out your washes you are going to run into some greasiness since you scalp has to adjust it's oil production. Usually adding just one day at a time helps. Add one day before you wash and allow your scalp to adjust. I wore my hair up on those greasy days and it wasn't very noticeable.

[skyblue]

the whole thing is a process and it takes time, what I did was start waiting a day or two longer between washes, let my head adjust a few weeks then when I noticed my head didn't get all gressy till that last day I would stretch it out another day or two and so on...for those weeks when your head is adjusting you can put a little baby powder on your roots it really helps soak up the oils just make sure and fluff it up really good or you'll look like you suddenly got all grey lol

oh opps I didn't mean to repeat what the poster above me said but she's right! Sorry Modarunner!

[Flying Penguin]

I'm also trying to stretch my washes, mainly because washing my hair is so time consuming. I also would love to only have to wash it once a week. :) I'm currently CWC'ing every 3 days. Once my hair starts to look like it could stand another day without washing, I'll stretch it to 4 days, and then so on. My only other tip would be to use a BBB on the hair that looks greasy. At least for me, usually the hair near my face will look greasy the soonest, so (after detangling) I'll run a BBB over that area so it doesn't look clumped together.

Here is another thread you can read for more tips:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=78949

[jojo]

I went a week once and by day 3 my greasy roots got better. I then went back to every other day, I really need to try this again soon as my hair felt so much better.

[jacqueline101]

I wash my hair once a week.

[FrozenBritannia]

I'm trying to stretch my washes to Sunday and Wednesday.. We'll see how it goes! I'm trying the baking soda method. Just washed my hair so I'm not sure how it turned out yet- waiting for it to dry! :cheese:

[goldenmoments]

CO has really helped me stretch. After 6 months I clarified and realized I could wash once a week. I wouldn't say this is the way to stretch washes- but it has made it aparent to me that shampooing to often or with harsh shampoos really is often the culprit for oily scalps

[sipnsun]

I've been CWC once a week for the past 5 months and my scalp is really oily by day 5. If I have somewhere to go or I'm really sweaty from exercise, I'll do a CO in the shower which helps to remove some of the oil on my scalp and hydrate my ends. Otherwise, I just let it be. My scalp has been much happier since I quit using sulfates and over-washing.