Water Only Washing - Thoughts?

[movingforward]

I'm surfing youtube and i noticed alot of naturals are only using WATER (no products) to wash hair.

What are your thoughts?

LHCF Thread back in 2011

https://www.longhaircareforum.com/threads/natural-hair-water-only-washing.574991/

Youtube Videos

 

[DarkJoy]

I think @almond eyes was water washing for a while?

I cant do it. My highly porous 4c hair and eczema prone scalp need regular soap cleansing to remove product. Plus I sweat a lot and need to remove the salt with soap or it gets itchy.

 

[fatimablush]

i rinse only when i style it..

but my scalp and hair needs shampoo to remove possible build up...and besides my scalp would itch...sorry but there isn't anything cute about an itchy scalp.

 

[almond eyes]

I think @almond eyes was water washing for a while?

I cant do it. My highly porous 4c hair and eczema prone scalp need regular soap cleansing to remove product. Plus I sweat a lot and need to remove the salt with soap or it gets itchy.

I was water washing for awhile. It was very helpful and added a lot of moisture. However, when I stopped doing my protein treatments I had a slight set back in February. But I since learnt my lesson about proteins and have recovered triple fold.

My water washing was not just exclusively. I water rinsed or washed daily but still kept up with my shampooing and Deep Conditioning weekly as well as I used a moisturizer but where I went wrong was sealing my moisturizer with an oil which made my hair dry or drier.

I would like to say now that I think it is isn't necessary to get well moisturised hair if you shampoo and deep conditioner wash weekly. And use your spray bottle and leave in and skip oil as a sealant. But if your hair is super dry you can sneak in a warm water rinse and then use your moisturizer leave in to lock in the moisture from the water.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[Muse]

I tried it for a few months. Nothing but water and jojoba oil. It worked great in the begining and actually cleared up my scalp problems and I had less shedding. Also, my hair was soft and easy to detangle from the sebum. The problem was I produce too much sebum not to scritch and preen and brush daily to help remove the excess and I couldnt keep up so my hair started looking dull and dusty. I couldnt take it anymore and went back to shampoo. Now im able to wash and style and leave it alone for the rest of the week. It works well if you have the time to make it work. With my lifestyle now I just cant be in my hair daily.

 

[snoop]

There was a more recent thread started by @almond eyes. I've been using her advice coupled with the YouTube videos and website by wateronlyhairwash (beautiful head of hair!)

I did it for about 2 months straight and was happy about it, but I'm going to follow my results from Komaza and re-introduce shampoo into my routine, though not as often as they prescribed because I liked how my hair was feeling on water only washing. I rinsed my hair daily in mini twists every day for a month. I had full sebum coverage by the end of the first week. After that I water washed/rinsed about 5 days a week. I loved being able to just wet my hair and not care about what it would do (because nothing bad was happening.) I was moisturizing and sealing with a light oil daily. My intention was to do a clay wash every 8 weeks.

Now I water wash/rinse about 2-3 times a week with a clay wash at the end of the week. I like, just being able to put my head under water and not be "afraid" of it. I also am now more aware of my sebum and I pay attention to which products soak up a lot of sebum and which ones strip it.

 

[beingofserenity]

There was a more recent thread started by @almond eyes. I've been using her advice coupled with the YouTube videos and website by wateronlyhairwash (beautiful head of hair!)

I did it for about 2 months straight and was happy about it, but I'm going to follow my results from Komaza and re-introduce shampoo into my routine, though not as often as they prescribed because I liked how my hair was feeling on water only washing. I rinsed my hair daily in mini twists every day for a month. I had full sebum coverage by the end of the first week. After that I water washed/rinsed about 5 days a week. I loved being able to just wet my hair and not care about what it would do (because nothing bad was happening.) I was moisturizing and sealing with a light oil daily. My intention was to do a clay wash every 8 weeks.

Now I water wash/rinse about 2-3 times a week with a clay wash at the end of the week. I like, just being able to put my head under water and not be "afraid" of it. I also am now more aware of my sebum and I pay attention to which products soak up a lot of sebum and which ones strip it.

Which product strip or soak up sebum?

 

[grownwomanaz]

Been water rinsing/washing for about 3 months now. I use acv once a month and started exfoliating my scalp. Still use coconut oil on my ends. My hair is way more moisturized, less tangly, and shiny. I haven't figured out how to post pics since the changes to the site

 

[snoop]

Which product strip or soak up sebum?

@beingofserenity

For me I found that washing with clay like I would a shampoo didn't affect my sebum, but leaving the clay in like a treatment for a couple of hours did. (I did this because I thought I had too much and wanted to strip some off.)

I find that my Giovanni shampoo was ok, but I think the conditioner removes sebum.

Wateronlyhairwash identifies on her site some things that she finds stripping or can be used to clarify. The ones that I remember off the top of my head are clay washing, flax seed gel, clarifying using oil.

 

[snoop]

I haven't figured out how to post pics since the changes to the site

@grownwomanaz

From my phone I can see an upload for button beside the past reply button.

 

[nomadpixi]

Bumping-I've been doing this for a month and it's fantastic. Anyone else?

 

[snoop]

I ended up going back to my old routine but water rinsing a couple of times during the week. I've found that my sebum has dried up simply because I haven't kept up with the massages, scritching, and preening. I was starting to get bothered by the heavy sebum smell during some of my washes, but I liked when it was light because then I knew that things were working well on my scalp. I think that I will at least start up with those steps again because the products that I am using don't dry up my sebum.

 

[nomadpixi]

Hi Snoop, my sebum is not all there yet either, but I've been using a water filter/rainwater to soak my hair nightly and sealing the hair with shea butter. I've mixed my shea butter with a bit of aloe. I had no idea that my hair could even look like this. My hair is behaving consistently. I even got caught in a rainstorm recently and my curls didn't frizz up at all. I started producing a bit more sebum the more water I started drinking. I'm curious what will happen in summer, since it's so dry here. I'm going to keep at this for a year and see how it goes. So far it's great. The other thing is that you can maybe use rosewater or orange blossom water to cut down on the sebum smell. Or if you use shea butter, add essential oils to the shea that smell nice. Can't hurt.

It would be nice for this thread not to go away. I think this may work for a lot of people. Sure has saved me crazy money! Thanks for sharing Snoop.

 

[snoop]

@nomadpixi Thanks for the suggestion for the floral waters. Do you use them as a final rinse or as a daily spritz?

I've learned a lot about how my hair behaves after doing it for a month, primarily that I should be looking for products that don't dry up my sebum. I wish I'd learned this process earlier on in my journey. I think that it would have helped me tremendously!

 

[nomadpixi]

@nomadpixi Thanks for the suggestion for the floral waters. Do you use them as a final rinse or as a daily spritz?

I've learned a lot about how my hair behaves after doing it for a month, primarily that I should be looking for products that don't dry up my sebum. I wish I'd learned this process earlier on in my journey. I think that it would have helped me tremendously!

Hi Snoop, I'm currently using the floral waters as just a finishing spritz, as we've just changed over to a shower filter and wanted to test the effectiveness of the filter. My hair doesn't smell, but I just like the scent of my hair with them. I also have tried a few drops of essential oil in my rainwater spritz bottle.

Have you worked out how often you need to "cleanse" to avoid removing sebum?

 

[snoop]

I was cleansing weekly before my sebum dried up. I was also able to use commercial products to. I concluded that regular massages are key to maintaining sebum production. Ever since I stopped massaging my sebum dried up. It's on my list of things to do in 2016, though.

 

[snoop]

I would smell my sebum only if my hair was wet. I asked DH and he couldn't smell it. If I had a normal production and rinsed I could smell a light earthy/nutty smell. If the production was high it would be a lot stronger. I think of it add the difference between smelling an individual product from the body shop and standing in the store and smelling everything at the same time.

 

[nomadpixi]

bumping-anyone else still doing this?

 

[Shay72]

I water rinse 5 of 7 days. The other two days: 1. Cowash 2. Cocleanse, dc, cowash. When I'm traveling for a weekend (like now) or 2-3 days I water rinse because I'm not bringing a bunch of product with me. I've done this off & on for awhile. When doing it for a consistent amount of time I'll report back.

 

[snoop]

I started again in the weekend. My sebum is starting to come in. I'm doing it daily at the moment and will continue until the weekend at which point I'll put my hair into mini twists and water rinse may 2 or 3 days a week. I'm hoping that it'll keep my hair from webbing. My hair isn't really dry right now but I'm forever on the quest for super moist hair. Also I think that sebum will provide my hair with added protection now that the weather has gotten colder.

 

[grow]

Been water rinsing/washing for about 3 months now. I use acv once a month and started exfoliating my scalp. Still use coconut oil on my ends. My hair is way more moisturized, less tangly, and shiny. I haven't figured out how to post pics since the changes to the site

Hi @grownwomanaz , do you have a perm? I texlax and was wondering how this water washing is working for people with any kind of perm. Thanks

 

[Kindheart]

Hm after that scalp thread we had recently I ll pass . What a drop of shampoo going to do ?

 

[grownwomanaz]

@grow I am natural dear. I did water only for about 4 mos and it worked well for me. I still do protein treatments and DC. In the summer I'll be going back to water only. I straighten my hair in the cooler months.

 

[gn1g]

Look into rice water washing. People grow their hair down to floor with rice water washing.

you put rice, orange peels and whatever herbs you like i.e rosemary into a gallon of water, let it sit a week and wash you hair with the water from that

 

[snoop]

I've been reading up on it. You ferment it then boil it to stop the fermentation. Of people that I've read who have tried it they seem to like it (type 1 and 2). I've been hesitant because my rice has dusty stuff when I wash...not sure if straining it with a stocking foot would get all of that out?

I might be willing to be the guinea pig on this one.

 

[brg240]

One summer I did this and it worked pretty well . Can't remember why I stopped

 

[Guinan]

Look into rice water washing. People grow their hair down to floor with rice water washing.

you put rice, orange peels and whatever herbs you like i.e rosemary into a gallon of water, let it sit a week and wash you hair with the water from that

I thought you were joking about using rice water until I looked it up on youtube. Since I love trying new things, I think I might try this rice water thing.

 

[snoop]

Wateronlyhairwash has a couple of rice water videos (and water only washing videos -- of course!)

 

[gn1g]

@pelohello also good for skin

fermented rice water

 

[CocoGlow]

Hey Ladies

I just started the Water Only Hair Washing Method this week! I wanted to try it because I have found that when using conventional products & methods, in order to get my hair soft & moisturized, my hair would end up feeling too greasy which did not agree with my scalp or my hands or my couch LOL Also, I would love to be a lot less reliant on commercial products overall. And I'm very curious about how well my own sebum could actually condition my hair and help with detangling my fine fragile strands and how clean I could actually keep my scalp/hair with natural ingredients. This really fascinates me!

I tried this method 2 years ago when it first started getting popular on Youtube, but at the time I was using a boar bristle brush to try to distribute my sebum down my strands and my poor sensitive tender scalp could not take it. I also didn't know that I needed to clarify periodically (use something other than water) so when my scalp started itching like crazy I gave up. There wasn't as much information about the method for those of us with kinkier hair so I was doing it wrong. But now with so many of "our" people jumping on the bandwagon and sharing their experiences & modifications, I have a better idea about how to proceed and deal with any bumps in the road.

I plan to rinse every 2-3 days and supplement my sebum with butters/oils on the ends of my hair until I reach full coverage to avoid breakage.

If I run into problems with too much sebum buildup, breakage, or mushy over moisturized hair I will try to use all natural clarifiers/conditioners that do not strip the sebum. There are so many to choose from and I will have to experiment to see which ones work best for my hair & lifestyle (clays, coconut milk, banana baby food, cactus, fenugreek, marshmallow, etc, etc). I will also experiment to see if I can still use my beloved Bobeam Shampoo Bars as gentle non sebum stripping clarifiers. I really hope they work well with this method because a lot of them contain some of these all natural ingredients (clays/herbs) in an easy to use no mess no fuss shampoo bar.

I will update with my experiences....

FYI: There is a Google+ Community with close to 300 members called: Water Only Washing For Black Girls
https://plus.google.com/communities/101426194130082079829