On New Years, I started a hair care experiment using ONLY WATER to wash my hair. I’m calling this water-washing. SEE POST ONE.
No shampoo. No conditioner. No anti-frizz. No anti-humidity spray. No curling mousse. No baking soda. No apple cider vinegar.
JUST. WATER.
Well, filtered water. I wouldn’t wash treated city water, because there are harsh chemicals and sediment in the water that can damage your hair and make it brittle. For the best water filters, check out Berkey accessories and shower filters!
Observations
Week 1
was the worst week of this entire experiment. It’s only gotten better from there. For the first seven days, I had to wash my hair every day. Some days, I washed it in the morning AND the evening because the oil was just too much. It was less frizzy than normal, and became soft and curly (when it wasn’t oily). I only had flaky scalp for three days, but it quickly went away. I just scrubbed more in the shower. I’ve also been blow-drying the roots because my hair is so long, and letting the rest air dry.
Week 2
I was able to go two days in between washes, which was nice. My hair wasn’t too terribly oily after two days. Frank couldn’t tell just by looking at it, but it FELT oily to me, so I washed it. My hair doesn’t smell weird or anything. It just doesn’t have a scent. Actually, my mom told me my hair smells like spices, but that’s probably from all the Indian food I cook!
Week 3
I had a REALLY weird hair day, and I caved and washed with apple cider vinegar and baking soda. My hair literally felt [high2]sticky[/high2]! I don’t know why. It was probably oil, but it felt sticky not oily. Anyway, I reset it with the baking soda and ACV rinse, which got rid of the sticky, but then I had a lot of fly-aways afterward.
Week 4
I made it to 3 days without any oil build up, which was awesome! Lots of people told me it can take a few months for your scalp to adjust and quit producing extra oil, but I seem to be adjusting more quickly. I think this is because I did the baking soda and ACV for 5 months before I went to water-washing.
Week 5
has been the best week BY FAR! On Jan. 31 I water-washed my hair, and then set off on a four day trip to California. Just due to circumstances, didn’t wash my hair for SIX DAYS, but it was OKAY! There was no oil build up AT ALL. My hair lost its curls/waviness over the week, but there was no oil build up on my scalp. After six days, my hair still felt clean! I water-washed it on the seventh day just to make it perk up a bit and look nicer, but NO OIL. :)
One of the best things about water-washing is that it’s FRUGAL. Not only am I saving money on shampoo and conditioner, but I ended up not needing my other products, either! When I washed with shampoo and conditioner, my hair would get really frizzy and look flat….SOOOO I used anti-frizz and shine&curl volumizing mousse to get it to look the way I wanted it to.
When I switched to the no ‘poo method (baking soda and ACV), I still needed something in it afterward to tame the frizzies. I was using aloe vera. But with water-washing, I haven’t needed ANYTHING. My hair is soft and curly. The frizz is no worse than normal. It looks like I’ve used anti-frizz in it, but I haven’t. Not only am I saving money on my washing products, but I’m saving money by not needing my styling products, too!
Is it too early to celebrate this as a success?
Maybe. I don’t know. Right now, what I know is that I went a WHOLE WEEK without needing to wash, which felt amazing. I’m one of those people that absolutely can’t THINK when my hair is dirty. It makes me feel crazy until it’s clean again. When I washed with shampoo and conditioner, I washed every 3 days. With the no ‘poo method: every 3-4 days. When I can do just water and only wash it once a week if it needs it…well, that’s success to me!
I’ll probably post another update in a month. :) Let me know how your water-washing experiments are going!!
Featured on Party Wave Wednesday and Pennywise Platter.
I’m on day 7 of water only washing after 6 months of no pooing (bs/acv every other week, egg yolk on the in between weeks….this is all approximate though). I’ve been faithfully scritching/preening/brushing with a boar bristle and it seems that finally the extra oiliness and flakiness on my scalp is going away. I think it may have to do with the fact that I started exercising regularly again and eating well the past few weeks. Strangely enough, I think sweat can be good for hair- it’s been getting progressively softer, silkier, and less frizzy for the past week, and I’ve been washing it in hot water every other day. Either way, I love it, so convenient, and the results are very promising :)
Hi! So I’m only on my second day of trying water washing. Since I have to go to work and look respectable I just added some corn starch to my roots. It works very well as a natural dry shampoo, what I worry is that it will mess with the natural “grease level” so my hair will continue producing as much oil as it usually does. What do you think? Is corn starch “dry shampoo” a good option during my transition time?
Sorry. I have no idea. I’ve never used corn starch in my hair.
My hair has weened itself to water only. It’s only been 3 weeks, but I haven’t had the need to clean it other than a water rinse. Last October I started doing the baking soda/ACV. As my scalp had adjusted, I can go longer between cleanings. Now I feel like water is just fine.
hello,
i’m in my first week now :( and my hair is horrible. i’ve been doing the baking soda- vinegar thing for a year, but also had to wash my hair twice a week, like i washed with shampoo. after i wash my hair with water, it stays the same as before :( i brush my hair every morning and evening with a normal brush and after that with a boar bristle brush. i have hard water, so i boiled it first and let it cool (1 pot of luke warm water and after that 1 pot of cold water). i scrub my head and hair the same way as i scrubbed it with baking soda- should i maybe use a different technique to wash it better? today i put some homemade dry shampoo on my hair, because it was unbearable- my head feels fine and after i brush my hair some parts feel fine, but it looks very very greasy. i have fine slightly wavy hair :( i hope it will get better. i think this method works better on people with thick or curly hair.
I water washed for two months. I made sure to get a shower filter and brush my hair 2 to 3 times a day with a boar brush. Even after getting through the “rough patch” my hair ALWAYS looked stringy, flat and oily!! I NEVER had good hair days anymore!!!! So I went back to baking soda. But baking soda is too harsh so I’m tried water washing again. I’m thinking about going back to shampoo and calling it a day!!! I miss my pretty hair!!! Any suggestions???!
Hey! I struggled with this too. The baking soda is good for cleaning but if you’re using too much it’ll feel awful on your hair. But the main issue is that you’re not doing the ACV rinse. I don’t know about pH stuff but the ACV brings your hair pH to where it should be. Another thing I missed was not rinsing out the ACV after. Just leave it in! The smell will go away as your hair dries and your hair will be SO soft. I have crazy curly hair and even in the middle of frizzy winter, right after my baking soda/ACV wash, my hair is softer than it’s ever been! Stick with it. I’m going onto month 5 and my hair is feeling great!
With the natural pH of hair being between 4.5 to 5.5 and water being about 7.0, I don’t see how “water washing” can be doing anything. What you need to do is use apple cider vinegar to the same pH as hair to promote a healthy cuticle and continue all else. I don’t use shampoo or conditioner either, but use ACV and the frizz is finally after many many years becoming manageable.
I’m into week two and your post has renewed my commitment to continue. I see positive results on the day that I wash and am really looking forward to reaching the point when I don’t have to wash every day. I am concerned though about traveling and not having control over the softness of the water. Any recommendations?
I’ve been no poo for 81 days now and WO for about…30 or 40 days? Since I switched to WO I’ve been having a lot of sebum buildup on my hairline and especially the front of my head, where I can pick off big flakes of sebum… When I scritch and preen, I just feel like my head gets itchier and greasier. Usually after I shower, the next morning my head is the itchiest. I also feel like my hair looks like crap after I brush with a wide toothed brush and then with a BBB… The BBB I have also has longer plastic bristles on it next to the boar bristles. I do feel like my hair has been getting better, but it just doesn’t feel good like it would with shampoo and conditioner, though my hair is a lot less tangled now that I do WO. It’s also pretty frizzy and I still lose a lot of hair, though I’m honestly not sure if it’s any different from before I went no poo. I’ve always been a shedder, haha. I’ve just been hoping that I could do the least amount of work on my hair and having it look awesome and not having to use shampoo or conditioner…lol.
Thank you for posting this. It is very encouraging. I had been using natural shampoos (very simple ingredients), but my hair has been freaking out with terrible soap-like waxy buildup. I refuse to return to the chemical route, and I had come across the no-poo people, so I decided to give that a go. I have done the baking soda/ACV thing, but I really didn’t like how it felt, and I do remember tons of flyaways. Anyway, did the no poo today, just water, and my hair feels waxy. I don’t know if anyone else can tell. They haven’t said anything, but I can tell. I was tempted to give up, but after reading your posts, I am inspired to keep trying and just wash with water more often or use baking soda/ACV if I get desperate, until things level out. Thank you for your time in posting and the photos of your progress.
An applesauce mask will get rid of the waxiness buildup on the hair. Generally you have to do it once, sometimes twice, but after that the waxiness should never be an issue again.
Thank you for inspiring me to switch to water washing! I have washed my hair with natural homemade soap for years, then switched to the ACV/baking soda rinse for several months, and in June made the switch to water washing. I love it EXCEPT for the fact that my scalp is so gunky! Not, dry, flaky, dandruff, but greasy white gross gunk. I only rinse it twice a week, and hardly have time to be doing it more often but perhaps that’s what it needs.
Do you have any particular pointers? I am stubborn and don’t want to give it up but am getting so tired of the sore, gunky scalp and therefore the little white specks through my hair.
I think it’s probably more of an internal imbalance but it’s weird that it started when I switched how I was going to wash my hair,
Thank you so much for any help – I’m at my wit’s end!!
~Nicole
I simply just rinsed it more (daily) until I was through that phase. You can also try out some real food tips: http://www.revivedkitchen.com/2012/12/tips-for-natural-hair-care/
Or some natural shampoo recipes here: http://bit.ly/10MShZs