So, I've got mixed feelings about this, but leaning towards the positive. So I used the straight honey yesterday to cleanse. First, I rinsed out the ACV which I had sitting on my hair for an hour (it was diluted to a pH of 5). Then I worked the honey into my hair in sections. I rubbed it into my scalp where my hair was parted.
The honey that I was using was semi-solid and grainy so I didn't rub it through my scalp as I should because it would have been too abrasive.* I left it on my hair for about half an hour? I did a bit of a steam with it because some of the older threads claimed that when it's heated it doesn't change your hair colour.
When I was rinsing it out, I could smell the product the week before. Not sure if this was the product being lifted out or being re-activated from not being removed, since I didn't smell anything but the vinegar rinse at the pre-poo stage. I didn't follow up with conditioner. I plopped my hair. And went for a nap. When I woke up I took off the wet towel and started moisturizing my hair.
Observations: Yesterday, was super sunny! So I'm not sure if it was the fact that we had some real sun or if it was the honey, but my hair had a reddish glow to it. My natural hair colour isn't black, but you can only really see that it isn't when it's sunny out. But I don't want to play around with lightning my hair at the moment.
The other thing that I noticed was that my hair was really soft. It felt nice. Unfortunately, glycine spray and shea butter to moisturize and seal my hair -- I also used a moisturizer in between. The problem is that sometimes shea butter leaves my hair feeling hard at other times my hair ends up feeling really soft, so I won't have any idea how the honey makes my hair feel on its own.
Overall, it's going to stay in my regimen. It's for so many beneficial properties for scalp health. I would prefer to use it straight instead of diluted now that I know that it's an option.
My new regimen might look something like, clay wash, conditioner rinse, honey mask for 3 weeks then, protein treatment, shampoo, conditioner on week 4.
*Note: I didn't want to microwave the honey to melt it, because I didn't want to destroy any of the properties. I did set it in a warm bath which melted it a bit.