The joys of cold water! Washing hair outside/in cold water

[Dark40]

Oh, I love rinsing my hair in cold water! Does that count? I remember when I went swimming, and as I came from the pool I rinsed all of the chlorine out with cold water. Both my hair and skin loved it!

[knobbly]

Tinyponies, can I ask you what kind of conditioner you use for cowashing? Interesting that it works well in cold water (with your modifications.)

[Tinyponies]

Tinyponies, can I ask you what kind of conditioner you use for cowashing? Interesting that it works well in cold water (with your modifications.)

Hi there knobbly,

I’m using garnier hair food papaya. It appears to be working well so far.

I tried the bowl method that some lovely people here were recommending a while back, where you mix conditioner with a small amount of water then dunk your hair into it, but my conditioner wouldn’t “melt” into the water, which I take it was because of the temperature.

I seem to have no issues with smooshing it straight onto my wet (squeezed out) hair, or with rinsing it off.

Leaving the conditioner on for a few minutes is part of my routine, I tend to coil it up and hold it in a bun-shape against my head, in my warm hands. Usually in a squatting position which feels safe, and I can shut my eyes without falling over!

As far as I can understand, out of my two “hair foods” papaya and banana, the papaya one is likely to work better because it doesn’t contain shea butter (I may be wrong) which I imagine may have more issues with the cold. I’ve used the banana one successfully but not for more than one co-wash in a row.

Yesterday I swam in the sea! We saw dolphins in the distance. It was divine. But my hair stayed dry in its high bun.

current length - bcl

[knobbly]

Dolphins! Sounds so amazing.

Thanks for the info. I am having some tangling issues while washing and considering going back to cowashing.

[Tinyponies]

Dolphins! Sounds so amazing.

Thanks for the info. I am having some tangling issues while washing and considering going back to cowashing.

You’re welcome. Do you wash upside down? I’m currently working on figuring out some tangles when washing too.

[knobbly]

You’re welcome. Do you wash upside down? I’m currently working on figuring out some tangles when washing too.

Well haha, yes sort of? I have a whole post about it but it was suggested that going from standing up while washing to conditioning upside down, to rinsing right side up, was contributing to the tangles. So, last wash day I did the whole thing upside down and threw my back out. Now I'm marinating on doing the whole thing standing with my hair parted down the middle, even though I don't love the feeling of wet hair clinging to me in the shower, just from a sensory level. We'll see what I come up with next Sunday.

I just know that when I was CO there weren't so many steps, because my washing step didn't create a ton of tangles in the first place, so that is on the table as a way to make the whole process shorter. Plus when I am heavily pregnant I won't be able to bend over at all for lengthy periods, even if my back suddenly decides it loves me in that posture (it won't.)

If you want to take a look to see if you have any suggestions, or could benefit from any of the tangle advice given to me, the post is called "the crowdsourced routine troubleshooting thread" and it's on the front page or close to it in this forum. I haven't yet figured out how to link threads, sorry I can't give you a link!

[Tinyponies]

Hope your back feels better soon, knobbly.

I found and read through your thread. Thanks I had missed it! Some very good suggestions and ideas there, and I like the idea of having a go-to thread for those kinds of issues too.

I’ve just been and washed this morning with a few changes to my usual thing. Hopefully we’ll both hit on something that helps with my washday tangles soon!

Enjoy your pregnancy

[Tinyponies]

Full moon of Jan and Imbolc coming up, time for a wash. Last wash was Solstice, and have been really happy using combing and BBB.

Still enjoying CO washing, and delighted each time with how squeaky clean my hair feels afterwards, without feeling stripped. Today I used the hairfood papaya, but last time it was the macadamia one which was divine, it felt like it had a lot more oil content.

I washed up near the house, using collected rain water instead of going to the spring. The rain water is a lot colder! Ooohhh

I’ve tried a number of different things to reduce the tangling I was having each wash day. I wash in a bucket of cold water that is on the ground. The tangles were coming from (and there may be more):

- washing upside down and then tangling when going back right side up

- too enthusiastic scalp rubbing

- dunking lengths in water and letting them swish around (whilst enjoying how pretty that looks lol)

- same as above but then also dunking my head into the water in order to wet/rinse.

So some of the things I have settled on doing differently are:

- no more combing or brushing until mostly dry. I tried for ages to brush it down again after flipping right side up and felt like I was causing damage.

- before starting to wash, dividing (detangled) hair in half and bringing to the front. Holding it under my chin with lengths folded up in palm. Dunk top of head in water and give scalp a little rub with other hand. This is where I hung out with my head in the water. It gave me the feeling afterward of having been wild swimming.

- rubbing scalp under water, only making small movements in a line, not rubbing circles (I use fingertips). I think this is pretty well known but it wasn’t obvious to me just how careful I could be, so adding it here.

- when right way up, using a large cup (I used a pint glass today) to then pour water over head and length. This is my main way of rinsing.

- at end of wash, squeezing out each side whilst leaving them in one big clump, then gently shaking hair out and bunning high on my head and wrap with T-shirt. This I leave on for half an hour or so then switch to my microfibre bunny hat.

Best wishes to all!

current length: tbl

[Feral_]

Thanks for sharing that ‘Ponies, sounds like a good system. I concur with the rubbing in line and not circles, I do this with dry hair, far less tangles that way. Roll on summer for warmer hair rinsing!

[Tinyponies]

Thanks for sharing that ‘Ponies, sounds like a good system. I concur with the rubbing in line and not circles, I do this with dry hair, far less tangles that way. Roll on summer for warmer hair rinsing!

Yep summer washing will be lovely, also a return to river and hopefully lots of sea swimming too. Anything that gives that bodily reminder of the fact that we are little animals too.

I don’t mind the cold, I’ll happily wash outside in cold, or rain but not freezy cold, or when there’s a cold wind. For me there’s this nourishing, clear feeling of cold water and the action of skin adjusting to it. But really I’ve got to be outside while I do it.

So glad to have had this living experience where I had no alternative. We can now heat up a big “jam pan” of rain water on the fire each evening for a bucket bath next to the fire, which is just heavenly. But I’m definitely going to carry on hair washing outside in cold water.