Rye Flour "Shampoo" Washing Method

[elfynity]

I like how you ferment the rye and use the water, that is a good trick Reptilianfeline.

I have been using a lot of conditioners and moisturizers on my ends lately because they have been very dry. I'm not sure when, but my plan is to apply a bit of oil to my hair before washday - I've been thinking about trying out Neem or Avocado, not sure yet. And then use cornstarch shampoo to wash off. I don't want it to all come off, just a gentle washing to calm down the oiliness. I just really want to have a hair oil day at least once evey three months. So when I give this a try , I will let you all know how well the cornstarch removed the oil.

I tried to use cornstarch shampoo recently to remove coconut oil, but let's just say coconut oil has a life of it's own, and I put far to much on.

I haven't even tried rye yet, I cannot find the fine one here where I live, but I have also heard really good things about gram / chickpea flour - and I have seen the organic one in health shops here. I want to give it a try. Has anyone had good experiences with it? I'd love to know if the vitamins etc in the flours we use actually penetrate and benefit our hair. It makes me think that the fermented rye flour could have amazing benefits as fermentation breaks down good things in the flour to an absorbable form. Just wondering if anyone knows about all that, or some more info.

[MusicalSpoons]

[Glitched thread ... shoo gremlins!]

Edit: yay, it worked!

[squirrrel]

I have also heard really good things about gram / chickpea flour - and I have seen the organic one in health shops here. I want to give it a try. Has anyone had good experiences with it? I'd love to know if the vitamins etc in the flours we use actually penetrate and benefit our hair. It makes me think that the fermented rye flour could have amazing benefits as fermentation breaks down good things in the flour to an absorbable form. Just wondering if anyone knows about all that, or some more info.

I have been washing with gram flour. My hair seems to really like it. It even came up well when I used it as a dry sha, when I over oiled, and couldn’t get the oil out. I need practice in finding the correct amount to use, but I would never have believed my hair had looked so bad before I put the flour in. My hair transformed from an oily,p/plasticky, tangle prone mess, into soft manageable hair. It was great.

[rytiff]

I was intrigued with this idea and tried it the other week. I used corn flour and mixed it into a watery paste then scrubbed my whole head and length of hair with it and rinsed it out thoroughly with normal warm temperature water followed with a cold water rinse. My hair was the softest and shiniest it has been in a long time. I am concerned if it would cause problems if I continued to use it on a regular basis so I have been too chicken (or lazy?lol) to try it again. But I keep thinking back to that day and how I loved how my hair felt.

[ReptilianFeline]

I find chickpea flour to be the easiest to use. It works like a base and then I add some neem powder or mix it with henna and so on. I sometimes just mix the flour with water and sometimes with fermented rye flour water. I have tried corn starch/flour as well, but the chickpea variety works better for me at the moment.

My best find was the magic water rinse though, since it battles the buildup from hard water.

I need a good scrub for my scalp, so any herb might work, but neem, henna, indigo or the ayurvedic herbs all work well. Ground black pepper doesn't work because when wet, the small hard bits becomes large soft bits.

I tried fine sift oats flour as well, but the sift isn't fine enough, just as with the rye, so fermentation and using the fermented water is the only way for me. I hate little bits in my hair afterwards. It looks like dandruff and this is supposed to battle that, and for me it does... no dandruff when I'm no-pooing.

Water playes a huge part in this. Any hard water needs an acidic counter, and that can be done in many ways... the easiest is to add a bit of citric acid to the no-poo mix and to do a final rinse with magic water.

My hair is somewhat on the dry side, never greasy (unless on a hot summer after two weeks of not washing), and it was like that before I switshed from shampoo as well. I keep my scalp happy with no-poo and try to lock in some moisture with the help of pre-oiling the ends and sometimes adding coconut oil afterwards before it dries.

It does seem to work. I can now use Urtekram's childrens shampoo from time to time when I haven't prepared my mix, but I like the no-poo mixes better. I feel that when I get bubbles, I can't reach my scalp for a proper clean... it's kind of odd, but after more than a year on no-poo, I like the cream and scrub a lot better than bubbles.

[Ylva]

I'm interested in trying this method once I have gone through some more of my opened shampoo bottles. It will be well into the next year, but anyway. I just love the thought of this due to the pH advantage and also because rye holds such an important position here in northern Europe that it just feels right to use it on my body like that.

Would it be okay to mix the rye flour into fermented rice water instead of regular water? I am considering trying that for all of my hair, so if there's any benefit to it, it might be nice to properly apply to the scalp as well when washing. What about something like shikakai? Can shikakai stain blonde hair?

[elfynity]

Would it be okay to mix the rye flour into fermented rice water instead of regular water?

I don't see any harm in that since if you left rye it would do it's own fermentation and Reptilianfeline has used it successfully.

UPDATE to my hair oiling. I oiled my hair with such a teeny amount, but it was over a few days and only on my lengths, but my hair got to the point of saturation. I used such a small amount of cornstarch shampoo, about a half a teaspoon's worth in a cup of water, and sprayed it onto my roots and a bit on the front sections of my face where i get the most oiliness.

When my hair dried it was amazing! Clean yet not stripped, it still smelt a bit like honey, peppermint and lavender from the EO's I've been using. I have had a week's worth of really perfect hair - nice clean roots, but still covered nicely in sebum, beautiful glossy ends and my natural 2a waves are in full force. Very good experience.

I haven't had to condition my ends as much as usual, they seem to be holding the moisture better now. i have started to use preening to distribute the oils manually from root to tip which has actually been working sooooo well - it just takes a bit of time to get done. one episode of Game of Thrones and then it's done.

I am still uncertain about even thinking about applying any oils. It;s always so traumatizing when I land up with an oily mess, especially just before i need to look presentable - so I am thinking of oiling the length a slight bit just before i know I'm going to wash.

[MusicalSpoons]

I don't see any harm in that since if you left rye it would do it's own fermentation and Reptilianfeline has used it successfully.

UPDATE to my hair oiling. I oiled my hair with such a teeny amount, but it was over a few days and only on my lengths, but my hair got to the point of saturation. I used such a small amount of cornstarch shampoo, about a half a teaspoon's worth in a cup of water, and sprayed it onto my roots and a bit on the front sections of my face where i get the most oiliness.

When my hair dried it was amazing! Clean yet not stripped, it still smelt a bit like honey, peppermint and lavender from the EO's I've been using. I have had a week's worth of really perfect hair - nice clean roots, but still covered nicely in sebum, beautiful glossy ends and my natural 2a waves are in full force. Very good experience.

I haven't had to condition my ends as much as usual, they seem to be holding the moisture better now. i have started to use preening to distribute the oils manually from root to tip which has actually been working sooooo well - it just takes a bit of time to get done. one episode of Game of Thrones and then it's done.

I am still uncertain about even thinking about applying any oils. It;s always so traumatizing when I land up with an oily mess, especially just before i need to look presentable - so I am thinking of oiling the length a slight bit just before i know I'm going to wash.

That sounds very interesting - did you rinse off the cornflour mix or leave to dry? I'm considering going back to using cornflour more often to stretch washes because conditioning my scalp once a week seems to be taking care of the dryness, which was a large part of why I stopped relying on cornflour (it made my already dehydrated, flaky scalp even more dehydrated and flaky!) But if this could potentially be a viable option in place of shampoo scalp washes, that would be very cool indeed.

Related but sightly tangential question, do you know whether your water is hard or soft?

[elfynity]

That sounds very interesting - did you rinse off the cornflour mix or leave to dry? I'm considering going back to using cornflour more often to stretch washes because conditioning my scalp once a week seems to be taking care of the dryness, which was a large part of why I stopped relying on cornflour (it made my already dehydrated, flaky scalp even more dehydrated and flaky!) But if this could potentially be a viable option in place of shampoo scalp washes, that would be very cool indeed.

Related but sightly tangential question, do you know whether your water is hard or soft?

Hey Musicalspoons, I spray the cornflour shampoo onto my hair wet, rub my scalp and hair a bit with it in then rinse it out with water. My water is probably more on the soft side.

Perhaps consider using a very mild dose so as to not dry out your scalp too much? There's no reason why you also couldn't put some Lavender EO into the shampoo for more moisture and repair. What is the rest of your hair like moisture wise?

[Hairkay]

I have been happy using oats at times so I have never experimented with other grains and pulses. I have been wondering what the airport authorities would do if I was to travel with some colloidal oats and tell them its for my hair.