Updates 2015 Water Only Routine, Wetting Hair Daily Routine (not Co Washing)

[almond eyes]

Dear Ladies,

I know some of us are doing the water only routine or at least modified versions of this.

Let us discuss some of the issues about the benefits and cons you may have using water only or in wetting your hair daily.

I am high porosity. I began to use water daily everyday in May after I shaved my hair. My barber recommended it.

At the time, my version was a natural shampoo and conditioner. Then as my hair began to grow out I did conditioner washes. But somehow my hair was feeling dry. I discovered the Washing Water Only Method after going on youtube. So I decided to try it in September. It was great but then I had a set back, I got an Aveda hair color and while I had no hair changes or any hair breakage my hair seemed overly porous and my sebum that was coming in seemed to be gone.

I was frustrated and began again. I started doing water only rinses but from time to time would do a shampoo and a DC or co wash if I felt my hair was dry or build up and I always added some kind of a leave in.

By January, my sebum was looking correct in my hair except the some parts in the front which I blame on past over processing of relaxers in that part and braiding with extensions over the years. I was determined to normalize my hair.

I began to understand more and more about the water only method and that the thesis isn't that you only use water but that you can use water with products that will not strip away the sebum.

I am now about 95 percent covered and my hair is fully saturated. I know my sebum is now in working order because I do flat twists to stretch my hair and when I take down my hair to message it even though my hair has no product I can see the oils in my hands. Pretty neat.

Now that I am almost fully covered, I plan to now just spritz my flat twists daily with distilled water and komaza's vitamin reign. I also re do my twists gently daily keeping my hair stretched means no issues with detangling.

I found that if I use products with oils or conditioners with a lot of heavy oils, my hair gets dry immediately, my hair I guess some may discover does not like competing with the other oils since my sebum is enough.

As it gets longer I will use shea butter or grease on the ends.

I will do mild shampoos not often but when I get build up from products or sebum. And I will use a conditioner and protein as needed. I like Aussie Moist it doesn't strip my sebum away. I used to like Trader Joe's but I find that there are too many oils in that product and my hair doesn't like so much oils like that closer to my scalp. But I won't throw the products away when my hair gets longer I will save them to use for the ends of my hair. So, I plan to do my water spritzes daily and do a warm water rinse every 3-7 days depending.

I feel like I am now saving money and I cannot believe how much money I was spending on conditioners and leave ins. Our hair doesn't really need as much as we think and I think sometimes the more products we use the more our hair becomes dependent on them and then becomes drier.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[curlicarib]

What do you mean by "I am now about 95 percent covered and my hair is fully saturated."

Is your scalp 95% covered in hair??? Saturated with what? Shampoo, conditioner, sebum?

How long is your hair?

I'm a little confused.

 

[faithVA]

Do you have any pictures of your hair?

How can you tell the sebum has been stripped or not?

 

[almond eyes]

What do you mean by "I am now about 95 percent covered and my hair is fully saturated."

Is your scalp 95% covered in hair??? Saturated with what? Shampoo, conditioner, sebum?

How long is your hair?

I'm a little confused.

Sorry about that. I meant that I would say that 95 percent of my hair has full sebum coverage. With the exception of a bit front of my hair. And fully saturated meaning that my hair has reaped the benefits of the water only rinsing daily routine so I no longer have to rinse everyday.

My hair is 3 to 4 inches now.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[almond eyes]

Do you have any pictures of your hair?

How can you tell the sebum has been stripped or not?

I will try and get some pictures and send them. But it would not be of the sebum on my hair though.

You can tell mostly when the hair is wet how it looks.

Well you can feel when your hair has been stripped of sebum. It just feels dry especially after you put product in it or if you are in the shower and your hair is wet and then you put a conditioner on top and all of a sudden your hair feels dry. Also using too much hot water can also strip your sebum.

Again the water rinse daily woman has a new blog out you can google it. I think it is called water only wash. She is still working on it though.

The sebum thing is like a science some products will help it along and other products will strip it. But the most important thing is the water.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[Bunnyhaslonghair]

I'm so glad you made this thread. I've been water only for about a month now. I was inspired by one of my favorite youtubers in this vid http://youtu.be/kcfBBMJek34. I couldn't believe her looked so great from just water. I'm loving it so far. My hair is looking great to me at least. It's so touchable and full of body. I'm discovering that my hair doesn't need a bunch of products and methods like I thought.

I tried to go cold turkey with just water but my hair was feeling rough after a week. I stated to add oil to the lower half my hair either before or after my wash to lubricate my stands which has helped. Getting sebum coverage is going A LOT slower than I expected. I can feel some oiliness at the roots but it's coming in slowly.

Detangling is the most complicated part of my regimen now. I mostly finger detangle on dry hair. I feel like if I try to comb it without a product with slip I will damage my hair. I did manage to run a shower comb through it while I was under the shower head with a little olive oil applied. Hopefully when I get full coverage the comb will slide on though. My hair also seems to snap easily now from less lubrication. I'm hoping sebum will cure the breakage too.

 

[almond eyes]

I'm so glad you made this thread. I've been water only for about a month now. I was inspired by one of my favorite youtubers in this vid http://youtu.be/kcfBBMJek34. I couldn't believe her looked so great from just water. I'm loving it so far. My hair is looking great to me at least. It's so touchable and full of body. I'm discovering that my hair doesn't need a bunch of products and methods like I thought.

I tried to go cold turkey with just water but my hair was feeling rough after a week. I stated to add oil to the lower half my hair either before or after my wash to lubricate my stands which has helped. Getting sebum coverage is going A LOT slower than I expected. I can feel some oiliness at the roots but it's coming in slowly.

Detangling is the most complicated part of my regimen now. I mostly finger detangle on dry hair. I feel like if I try to comb it without a product with slip I will damage my hair. I did manage to run a shower comb through it while I was under the shower head with a little olive oil applied. Hopefully when I get full coverage the comb will slide on though. My hair also seems to snap easily now from less lubrication. I'm hoping sebum will cure the breakage too.

Most welcome. I think the most important thing to glean from this whole water only wetting the hair daily is to modify it to your own hair.

I have no issues with detangling. I think what works for me is the following, once I have saturated my hair in the shower I put on a plastic shower cap. And that also helps to bring in the sebum. Then I take off the plastic cap after about 5 to 10 minutes after doing my thing in the shower and rinse my hair again.

I make sure to only use certain combs. Since I came across hot combs the website recommended on here, I use the seamless combs which have made a huge difference in my combing and my hair in general. I wish these combs were around when I was growing up. If your hair is snapping, you may need to use a protein treatment followed up by a moisturizing treatment. Komaza makes the best protein treatment for natural hair and then follow up with Aussie Moist.

Again, I think the whole point is not to necessarily kick all products out but to reduce our dependency on extraneous products and letting our own natural hair do its own work.

Be aware though that if your hair was already weakened, you may need to get that issue addressed before drenching your hair in water everyday.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[PJaye]

Have any of you experienced hygral fatigue with this method? What techniques, if any, are you implementing in order to avoid it?

 

[almond eyes]

Have any of you experienced hygral fatigue with this method? What techniques, if any, are you implementing in order to avoid it?

I think hygral fatigue can happen if you use very hot water and manipulate your hair for long periods of time under the shower. But I do not believe that using water daily or a few times a week for 30 minutes with warm to luke warm water will harm your hair or many people would be bald by now.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[almond eyes]

I also wanted to add very importantly that for me the water only method was a good method to help my hair get the much needed moisture as my hair has a tendency towards high porosity. Now that my hair is in a very good condition, I now do more spritzing with water from my spray bottle but I do that with my flat twists being very gentle not to cause over manipulation. My hair texture is fine and I don't want to create limp looking hair from using warm water in the shower daily.

I think as your hair gets longer some women want the moisture but the spritz isn't good enough so a quick five minute drench is not going to harm. I think women with thicker hair can withstand much more than women with finer hair.

What can cause that hygral fatigue is the over manipulation in the shower with fingers or tools, standing under the shower for long periods of time and using very hot water and plying on too much conditioner.

With that being said, our hair structure is very unique from straight hair. Our kinky, oily, curly hair pattern swells with the use of especially warm water. Now, you don't want to overly constrict and expand your individual strands too much or your hair will start looking limp and lifeless. That would also be like taking your hair from an alkaline to an acid state too many times. But I can say with confidence water rinsing two to three times a week is not going to harm your hair unless you get overly crazy again with rough handling your hair under the water pressure.

So, my recommendation is that if your hair is feeling very dry and nothing has worked, some drench time in the shower may work but I would not recommend this for longer than 6 months daily especially if you have a longer hair texture and when your hair begins to reap the benefits of moisture you can revert to spritzing/moisturise with product and do your co wash, water rinse, shampoo/co wash, ACV wash weekly or every two weeks. But being very careful also with that ACV wash because that stuff can rip through your hair like acid if not carefully diluted and used occasionally.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[CenteredGirl]

Hello all, I am a devotee of daily hair wetting thanks to the brilliant suggestion by almond eyes. I've been diligently wetting for just over 3 months. OMG, my hair is really nice now. I had to add a bit of my oil concoction to the ends because my sebum took a while to spread down. What has really helped also is eating clean and drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day. I beleive in my heart that by the end of 2015, I will be full BSL (I can't wait )

 

[davisbr88]

I started the method on January 28, and I am in love. I started off rinsing daily, but then my hair started to get mushy. I dropped down to every other day, but still think it might be too much. So I just decided (today... lol) to try rinsing 2-3 times per week and use my baby and boar bristle brushes on the days I don't rinse to distribute the sebum down the length (I was doing this already). I also try to baggy on nights I don't rinse. So far, so good.
What I love about rinsing is that it really melts my sebum and makes it nice and easy to spread, so I do enjoy that.
Until I get 100% coverage, I am spritzing my ends with fenugreek tea for moisture or black tea for strength.

Some recent hair pics:

 

[CenteredGirl]

You and your hair are beautiful

I started the method on January 28, and I am in love. I started off rinsing daily, but then my hair started to get mushy. I dropped down to every other day, but still think it might be too much. So I just decided (today... lol) to try rinsing 2-3 times per week and use my baby and boar bristle brushes on the days I don't rinse to distribute the sebum down the length (I was doing this already). I also try to baggy on nights I don't rinse. So far, so good.
What I love about rinsing is that it really melts my sebum and makes it nice and easy to spread, so I do enjoy that.
Until I get 100% coverage, I am spritzing my ends with fenugreek tea for moisture or black tea for strength.

Some recent hair pics:

 

[Amarilles]

How would one clean the scalp?

My scalp would be on fyah without a proper wash...I overproduce sebum though.

 

[almond eyes]

I started the method on January 28, and I am in love. I started off rinsing daily, but then my hair started to get mushy. I dropped down to every other day, but still think it might be too much. So I just decided (today... lol) to try rinsing 2-3 times per week and use my baby and boar bristle brushes on the days I don't rinse to distribute the sebum down the length (I was doing this already). I also try to baggy on nights I don't rinse. So far, so good.
What I love about rinsing is that it really melts my sebum and makes it nice and easy to spread, so I do enjoy that.
Until I get 100% coverage, I am spritzing my ends with fenugreek tea for moisture or black tea for strength.

Some recent hair pics:

Thanks for sharing. What I have realized slowly over time is that complete product elimination is not necessary. It's just being conscious of products that don't help the sebum or that dry out the hair and that the healthier your hair and scalp are the less products you need to use on a daily or weekly basis. And the water should be a refresher and if your hair feels mushy, then water spritzing with a spray bottle helps. Very often it is not the water itself that is a problem but other factors that result in the mushy hair like warm water for too long a period plus manipulation with hands (excessive preening) that can cause that limp like effect. Also remember warm water in the shower causes hair to swell.

You have beautiful hair and it doesn't look dry to me. I think you can do one water rinse a week and perhaps do two Deep Conditioners per week to seal in the moisture.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[almond eyes]

How would one clean the scalp?

My scalp would be on fyah without a proper wash...I overproduce sebum though.

I think the most important thing is that water in the shower should be a refresher. Some women find that daily co washing causes limp strands. I still believe that a shampoo should be done on a a weekly, monthly or every two months basis depending on your life style and your hair texture (fine, medium-fine, thick).

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[davisbr88]

CenteredGirl: I just saw this. Thank you!
almond eyes: thanks for the tips! I cut out the baggying and just rinse pretty much daily and my hair is doing very well!

 

[almond eyes]

CenteredGirl: I just saw this. Thank you!
almond eyes: thanks for the tips! I cut out the baggying and just rinse pretty much daily and my hair is doing very well!

Most welcome. But remember once your hair gets the benefits of the daily wetting, you do not need to do it everyday because as your hair gets longer you don't want the over manipulation. Don't forget to keep up with your DC's and protein treatments.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[Muse]

Is anyone still doing this?

 

[snoop]

I've been wetting regularly but I'm going to try to develop a regimen around it then experiment with that for a few months.

 

[davisbr88]

I still rinse daily (although I took a little break last month) but I do use conditioner and oil. I will go back to water only when it's cooler. The humidity demolished my naked hair when I tried to keep it up once it got warmer outside.

 

[almond eyes]

Is anyone still doing this?

I have stopped doing this now. The water only which I did almost everyday was great when my hair was very short and my hair really benefitted. Once it sprang to more than three inches, my fine hi po hair started to get over moisturized. I would say it can be great to do for a few weeks or when you hair is short granted that you use protein treatments mild or strong depends on your hair in order to keep the strands strong but as you hair gets longer you can do water only but not everyday or every other day either it can cause too much moisture especially if you have fine strands which can lead to limp hair and breakage.

Now I wash my hair that is shampoo and deep condition once a week and also alternate with mild and strong proteins followed by a deep conditioner. Having a weekly hair regiment helps immensely.

What I realized is that hard dry hair is caused my several reasons and once you identify that you don't need the water only method at least not everyday. My dry hair was caused by using conditioners I thought were moisturizing as a DC but were actually protein as well as using protein leave ins which my hair hates, I now use an olive oil to my twists to stretch my hair and then do the style on that stretched hair using some moisturizer that has no protein. If I would advise anyone I would say no to co wash but alternate with water only and shampoo/conditioner washes. But also do not skip out on your protein treatments especially if you have fine, coloured or relaxed hair. My hair is natural.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[Muse]

I have stopped doing this now. The water only which I did almost everyday was great when my hair was very short and my hair really benefitted. Once it sprang to more than three inches, my fine hi po hair started to get over moisturized. I would say it can be great to do for a few weeks or when you hair is short granted that you use protein treatments mild or strong depends on your hair in order to keep the strands strong but as you hair gets longer you can do water only but not everyday or every other day either it can cause too much moisture especially if you have fine strands which can lead to limp hair and breakage.

Now I wash my hair that is shampoo and deep condition once a week and also alternate with mild and strong proteins followed by a deep conditioner. Having a weekly hair regiment helps immensely.

What I realized is that hard dry hair is caused my several reasons and once you identify that you don't need the water only method at least not everyday. My dry hair was caused by using conditioners I thought were moisturizing as a DC but were actually protein as well as using protein leave ins which my hair hates, I now use an olive oil to my twists to stretch my hair and then do the style on that stretched hair using some moisturizer that has no protein. If I would advise anyone I would say no to co wash but alternate with water only and shampoo/conditioner washes. But also do not skip out on your protein treatments especially if you have fine, coloured or relaxed hair. My hair is natural.

Best,
Almond Eyes

Thanks Almond Eyes. I didn't know that just sebum and water would over moisturize the hair. Were you using anything else while you water washed? I plan on water washing daily until I get full sebum coverage then water washing 1-2 times per week.

 

[Muse]

I still rinse daily (although I took a little break last month) but I do use conditioner and oil. I will go back to water only when it's cooler. The humidity demolished my naked hair when I tried to keep it up once it got warmer outside.

Interesting. I thought the sebum covering your hair would've helped protect against humidity.

 

[davisbr88]

@Muse I thought it would, too, until I stepped outside on a humid day and my hair felt like dry steel wool. My hair is naturally very soft. Maybe I did something wrong, but I was afraid to keep it up after that.

 

[Muse]

@Muse I thought it would, too, until I stepped outside on a humid day and my hair felt like dry steel wool. My hair is naturally very soft. Maybe I did something wrong, but I was afraid to keep it up after that.

@davisbr88 Wow, not good! Were you using any other products? I'm just trying to see how I can avoid running into some of the problems other ladies who have done this had.

 

[snoop]

I still rinse daily (although I took a little break last month) but I do use conditioner and oil. I will go back to water only when it's cooler. The humidity demolished my naked hair when I tried to keep it up once it got warmer outside.

What would you say your sebum coverage was like? I've never heard of humidity drying hair out... hmmm.....
I know that my hair started drying very fast once I got full coverage, which is something that waterwashonly mentions on her website. Maybe you just needed some time for the humidity to penetrate your hair? (I'm just grasping at straws...)

 

[snoop]

I have stopped doing this now. The water only which I did almost everyday was great when my hair was very short and my hair really benefitted. Once it sprang to more than three inches, my fine hi po hair started to get over moisturized. I would say it can be great to do for a few weeks or when you hair is short granted that you use protein treatments mild or strong depends on your hair in order to keep the strands strong but as you hair gets longer you can do water only but not everyday or every other day either it can cause too much moisture especially if you have fine strands which can lead to limp hair and breakage.

Now I wash my hair that is shampoo and deep condition once a week and also alternate with mild and strong proteins followed by a deep conditioner. Having a weekly hair regiment helps immensely.

What I realized is that hard dry hair is caused my several reasons and once you identify that you don't need the water only method at least not everyday. My dry hair was caused by using conditioners I thought were moisturizing as a DC but were actually protein as well as using protein leave ins which my hair hates, I now use an olive oil to my twists to stretch my hair and then do the style on that stretched hair using some moisturizer that has no protein. If I would advise anyone I would say no to co wash but alternate with water only and shampoo/conditioner washes. But also do not skip out on your protein treatments especially if you have fine, coloured or relaxed hair. My hair is natural.

Best,
Almond Eyes

I think that lo-po's with longer hair may still be able to benefit from washing every day up to every three days. I think I'm somewhere between low to medium porosity and I found that the daily wetting helped me to distribute my sebum faster and helped to get some moisture in. I think that doing it as you said for a few weeks which is approximately how long it would take to get full coverage is fine, but I think not long after that you'd end up clarifying and starting the process again since the sebum would end up being too thick.

I haven't yet figured out the key to using my sebum to keep my hair super soft, but I did like the way my hair felt while doing this method.

 

[davisbr88]

@Muse: nope! Water only.
@snoop: By that time, I had full coverage. My sebum was waxy and I was overproducing (and I have lo-normal po hair), so maybe that had something to do with it? I really don't know. Maybe I will experiment with doing it in humidity again when I've met my length goal, but I was too afraid to continue at that point.

 

[almond eyes]

Thanks Almond Eyes. I didn't know that just sebum and water would over moisturize the hair. Were you using anything else while you water washed? I plan on water washing daily until I get full sebum coverage then water washing 1-2 times per week.

The sebum coverage is good but it needs to be clarified or else it can clog your scalp. It is the use of the warm water everyday that can cause your strands to get over moisturized. And if your hair is fine that warm water daily for too long a period of time can really weaken your strands. Doing it twice a week is okay it is everyday or every other day that can get tricky and then the styling you have to do with your hair afterwards that causes over manipulation and weak strands.

Best,
Almond Eyes