Greetings

[SWM4myboys]

I have only recently discovered this community although I have had long hair most of my life. My first haircut was when I was 27 years old. Most of my life my hair was down almost to my hips. I cut it to my shoulders and donated it when I was 27. I cut and donated again at 30. When I was 34 my son was diagnosed with a rare cancer. Chemotherapy caused him to lose his hair, so I shaved my head too. I shaved it twice that year. The last time being May of 2012. He asked me to grow it long again, I am sad to say he will never see it long until I get to Heaven to join him. He passed away in May of 2013.

My hair is now down between my shoulder blades. I have been trying to detoxify my life and have not used shampoo in a few months. I started off with baking soda/vinegar method but was unhappy with how dry my hair was getting and how much hair was falling out. Then I tried a couple of different natural shampoo recipes but wasn't totally happy with any of them. For the last month I have been washing with water only and occasionally rinsing with Apple Cider Vinegar.

My difficulty now is that I have so much flaky gray stuff on my hair brush. My hair often feels sticky right after I wash it and sometimes looks greasy. I exercise a lot and its hot where I live so I frequently want to rinse my head. I have thought about trying a shampoo bar but haven't yet. I wish the water only method would work all the time for me, but it seems like its hit and miss, sometimes my hair looks great, sometimes it doesn't. I feel like I have a lot of residue (sebum?) in my hair.

I did get a boars hair brush but I don't spend a lot of time brushing my hair. I really want my hair to look nice without a lot of effort.

My hair is straight with a slight wave and pretty thick. I guess I should post a pic...

[kidso]

Welcome, and sorry for your loss. Heaven and happy reunions are something to look forward to. In the meantime, keep growing your hair and be patient with it. Try wearing your hair up for a while if it is hot and sticky out. There is a thread here that "challenges one to wear their hair up." There is a lot of good information and support here on LHC, just waiting to be tapped. Enjoy it!

[Gamma Vector]

Hello there. Welcome to the forum. I'm so sorry for your loss. *hugs*

As to your hair, I have a couple of things to suggest: The gray sticky stuff could be residue from hard water, so if you don't have a softener, try that. Also, a lot of brushing is pretty mandatory for water-only to work properly. If you consider preening and brushing your hair to be a lot of effort, water only may not be for you. But it takes 6-8 weeks, generally speaking, for hair to settle into a new routine, so all isn't lost! Stick it out and see if things get better, since you've already made it a month.

If water only doesn't work out, you might want to look into conditioner-only washing with no silicones. It's much nicer on your hair, and much less work than water only. Shampoo bars or castile soap is another option, but I've never been able to get them to work for me due to a combination of hard water and curly hair.

Again, welcome, and good luck on your hair journey!