Water only hair care

I've unintentionally come very close to doing this haha. I learned recently that you're only supposed to wash your hair sparingly in order to preserve oils, but then I just lost track of how often I was actually washing, and I think I went about 2 weeks without washing my hair. But hey, more power to you, I bet your hair looks awesome right now!

I started to research this last night and now am officially on day one. I really hope it works because, like I've posted, I'm going backpacking through N.E. Europe and although Im pretty sure all of our hostels have showers, I would like that sebum build up to be as small as possible on the off chance that one of my hostels lacks a shower

I used to conditioner only for a while. now i just wash my hair and put some grease/pomade right back in after. my hair looks the best after 2 or 3 days of not washing it.

That's the one thing I couldn't find online. I know its supposed to look bad and greasy for 6 weeks, I just didn't know to what extent.

BTW, I don't know if this is just me or not, but both days, I've noticed my hair is near bone-dry once I step out of the shower. If I don't comb it immediately, it won't be stylable. Is that normal with everyone elses experiences?

All depend on the oilyness of your hair and length. If i was going to go a while without washing i would cut it very short. There are also cans of aerosol dry shampoo available. http://www.drugstore.com/products/pr...LAID=902759503

My hair luckily is short since that is how I keep it. Also, the boar bristle brush, am I supposed to use that in the shower, or once I step out?

Just an update.
Im one week in, 5 more to go. My hair does look worse than normal, but it is still better looking than if I were to skip a day of shower. All-in-all, I haven't found the switch to be a nuisance. The only thing that sucks is the cold water part of my shower to help break down the sebum, the rest has been fine though

Why do you have to use cold water? Makes no sense to me. Hot water should be best for breaking up/washing out sebum, which is oil based.

Do you have a link to the site where you found this method?

I can look up the quote but basically it said start in very hot water and scritch, then do cold water, and then back to warm. Its supposed to break up the sebum the most over just using a single temperature.

Ya, its everyday, and so far I haven't noticed a smell and people dont seem to be avoiding me. I havent actually asked anyone about the smell so I may do that in the next few days to see if I have one.

i wouldn't do this, i wash my hair every day with water and every other day with mild (no drugstore stuff) shampoo. i wash it gently and with only a very small amount of shampoo. i almost never wash all the oils out, when shampoo starts to foam it's overkill.
i do a rinse with cold water. no conditioner. sometimes a hair mask or an oil (palm oil, jojoba, before washing). if it comes out too dry (not very often) i might use a little dot of leave-in moisturizer or something like that.

if i would live in a very clean environment, i might have given the water only thing a try. with my city life, going to nightclubs, smoking, and so on, i just feel i need to wash all that dirt out of my hair.

I have not tried this method on purpose but i often go a few day washing only with water because my hair looks much better when it is oily. If i wash it i just put back in some Murray's pomade or wax stick so its greasy again right way anyways.
I havnt noticed any bad smell ever, just natural skin smell, which is nice to me.
Wouldnt it be ok to just wash your hair every few days when you get a chance. If you hair is short you would be able to quickly wash in a sink or with a water bottle. I did that while camping in the desert in California, feels great. Im sure you will have room for a small hotel shampoo in your pack.
i read some of those paleo sites and those people really get into this as a lifestyle. they are worried about toxic chemicals in soap and cologne, which i think is ridiculous in the scheme of things.

i'm not convinced, especially when we are talking hydrophobic dirt. the problem is, smelly molecules tend to cling to grease. and grease repels water. some grease you will wash away; but the near-solid sticky stuff, that's next to impossible. and these kind of molecules fly around, think car exhaust, think cigarette smoke, and so on.

sweat and dust might not be a problem, though, as long as your hair isn't greasy to begin with. just jump under the shower immediately and i suppose you would be fine.

I personally dont smoke, but as for the tougher grease, they recommend scritching in hot water, then doing it again in cold water, and then again in warm water to kind of shock(not the right wrod but ohwell) the grease and make it come off. As for the dirt and stuff, the boar bristle brush is supposed to take care of it one it is loose

the hotter the better (for dissolving and washing away grease, not for your hair!) not sure about the hot/cold/hot treatment. i prefer to end with cold water. it will smoothen your hair by folding/collapsing the hair cuticles, in which state your hair will be better protected; whereas hot water will do the opposite, and that's just not good.

yes, a small amount of your own natural hair oil is good for your hair. but i just don't think the solution is discarding shampoo altogether. for me, it is finding the right shampoo (look further than common drugstore products) and use little of it, don't let it foam a lot, just on/below the edge before where it starts to foam is right. people generally use too much shampoo, strip everything away, and then apply a cheap conditioner that does damage to your hair in the long run to make up for it. not good.

every once in a while i do strip all the grease, and then apply a hair mask. you could even switch every time between two or three different shampoos to avoid build-up from the conditioning products that are in shampoos.

finding the right shampoo is very personal. we all have different hair and requirements. i currently use a shampoo from leonor greyl. i've had very variable experiences with shampoos from bio/health-stores, most of them are rather bad.

Interesting thread.

I've been reading Katherine Hepburn's book The Making of the African Queen. She wrote about how soft the river water was at the filming location in Africa, and how well it cleansed even without soap.

I have well water that tests on the low end of "moderately hard". It's not hard enough to require us to install a water softener but hard enough that soap leaves a scum, so we use liquid soaps and shower gels (which are technically detergents, not soaps, and behave differently in hard water.)

Cannot imagine keeping my hair clean and looking nice without shampoo - just me.

I had a relapse yesterday because I went into shower while I was tired and put shampoo in my hair out of habit. Anyway, to address hednic, it honestly does take me a little longer to maintain it looking good. I do use the boar bristle brush one I come out of the shower, and then as Im on the verge of having dry hair Ill brush it again, and then I normally have to do it one more time about half an hour to two hours later just so the hair doesnt look so flat on my skull. As for cleanliness, my hair feels a bit more waxy, but that is to be expected for the first 6 weeks apparently. No other problems though

I prefer to wash and style with cat saliva.

Though I am tempted by the method, since I am prone to light and even moderate dandruff, which I keep under control thanks to my shampoo, I could never venture to try this

Me too. There are probably exceptions but you can usually tell when someone doesn't wash their hair (with shampoo or at all) and I don't like it.

I know enough women who only was their hair every other or few days too (because the hair is long) and I like it best when it's clean. The inconvenience of washing long hair frequently is a different matter.

I do understand that some people have very dry hair and I guess that's a little different.

I suppose the other thing to factor in is your scalps cleanliness and health - it's not all about the hair.

What a great idea. Not only could you save money on not buying shampoo, but you would no longer have to buy grease when frying chicken! You'd just get it from your own head!

And why not take this a step further? Why bother with soap when bathing? That's just a senseless waste. And those girl wrestling matches?....no need to add any unnecessary oil.....they could be slip-sliding away in their own body oils after awhile!

The possibilities are endless!

That's an ignorant post. I don't believe anyone that tries this method is doing it to save money on shampoo. We do this method to improve the overall health of our hairs since many shampoos (with the exception to gido's speciality shampoo) are very damaging. Some may also do it for environmental purposes or for the natural shine of sebum, but the main attraction of this method is our hairs health. Next time do a bit of research before posting because you come across as an ignorant man who's trying to be a troll

I guess there's a thread for everyone......even for people who don't wash their hair to call others "ignorant".

Hey man, your free to contribute, just be constructive instead of trolling the site and posting stuff when your uninformed and in no position to criticize. If you had tried it before, or had read something on the subject, then go for it. Those sort of posts like your original one do bug me a lot because they lack any contribution in a forum that is supposed to be productive to its members.

In other words, everyone here is free to voice their opinion, as long as their opinion agrees with yours. And if their opinion DOESN'T agree with yours, you feel that gives you the right to personally attack them, call them names, and make false accusations.

And you do this with all of 23 posts. LOL...thanks for telling me I'm "free to contribute," though.

No, you can be like gido and disagree. The difference is that he is basing his posts on experience and based on articles he has read. I actually enjoy those because it improves my knowledge on the subject. You were just trolling the thread

I did disagree, strongly. Maybe you have trouble interpreting. Most don't.

What is it about newbies like you who come to a message board and ridiculously call people "trolls" when they make statements they disagree with? If you're into personal confrontations, you're in the wrong place.

I do agree, that with you being a senior member of the forum, you should be given more respect from noobies..... You did, however, come into this thread only to make bad jokes and actually your first post should have just been ignored and you never would have looked at this thread again.

Oh the Internets.

(says the guy who posted a video of his cat licking his head.)

Who would have thought hair care could be such a heated topic!?

Some accuracy there, some....not so much.

I believe everyone should respect everyone, newbie or not. I believe we should follow the board's rules and refrain from personal attacks.....yes, even when we do not agree with that person. Edgar had a hard time with that, although he did go back and revise some of the name-calling after I brought it to his attention.

Regardless of whether or not my humor was appreciated, I did not "only" post what I posted to make "bad jokes". It was nothing more than dealing with what I thought was an absurd notion by BEING absurd. I think it's an illogical and unreasonable notion to not wash one's hair because whatever positives might be gained will also be accompanied by negatives (and we all know what those negatives are).

You can joke all you want as far as im concerned, i love bad jokes and make them all the time. Just like my bad joke about you being a senior member. Hopefully you can also take a bad joke.

Im really interested to see what happens after using only water to wash your hair after several weeks. I dont think i can do it but it seems to work for some.

Great to hear, Ender. Probably the main reason we all can't agree on this is because we simply aren't all the same. Some have very oily hair, while others don't have that problem at all. How long it is would certainly affect the overall success, too. I know when my hair is longer, I could never possibly entertain such a thing. But when it's shorter, I do notice that it seems to look better the day after shampooing.

one little provocative joke and the whole thing spirals out of hand. too bad.

So, needless to say, I over reacted. I am kinda stressed out because I was studying for a midterm worth 25% of my final mark that I had today and Im trying to balance that with a midterm I write tomorrow worth 30% of my final mark so Im kinda out of my zone. At the time, I didn't take that as a joke, but rather as a personal attack in that since I am trying this method, I must be very unhygienic and frankly put, gross and disgusting. Anyway, Ill take full blame for the mini-fight that occurred. I should just ignored it.

Oh, and sorry for breaking the thread Ender

let's just forget about it, and return to topic. it would be interesting to hear back from people after a while, so i hope the moderators won't shut this thread down.

i remain in the a little skeptic camp, another argument i would like to pose is that all that hard scrubbing is a bit rough and could potentially your damage hair, especially if you're not young and/or your hair is long. especially balding men should be cautious about this. if you find a lot of hair in the shower or in your brush, then that could be a sign that you should care more gentle for your hair.

Here is another article about a guy doing no soap and no shampoo for at least a year.

http://freetheanimal.com/2009/12/pal...o-shampoo.html

I cant remember the site I read this on, but it said that it actually stimulates hair growth because the constant scrtiching and massaging increases bloodflow to your scalp. I think I found that the same day that I was researching your cold water thing and with regards to that, it said switching between cold and hot during your shower is also healthy for blood flow because the hot drives blood to the surface of your skin, and the cold briings it in closer to your organs so switching a few times during the shower is useful apparently

massaging the scalp is said to be good for blood flow, and people say this works against hairloss. personally i don't think it does that much good, but this aside, as it is an entirely different subject than scrubbing your hair too hard. that is just bad for your hair, no way around it. same goes for hot water, it's not so good, be very gentle to hot-and-wet hair, it's more prone to damage in that state. ending with cold water helps because it folds the hair cuticles back in the right position to protect your hair. just try ending with real hot water, and then another time with real cold water. you should be able to feel the difference, your hair will be much smoother to the touch and look better. in my opinion ending with cold is a win-win-win situation. (health/protection + look + feel)

That is one thing Ive noticed in the shower over the last month. Cold water oddly makes my hair feel dry and hot feels wet. That is kind of a weird way to describe washing your hair with water, but that it what it feels like to me

I'm doing something in between gido and ender.

Before, I would shampoo every day and condition with good quality salon brand products. My hair was always dry and poofy. I had to keep it cut short to keep it under control, or I would have to use lots of pomade or other product. Even then, with longer hair, by the end of the day my hair would be like crazy caveman Einstein hair. If I skipped washing one day, my scalp would be itchy and oily, and I would get crusty/dandruff-like stuff forming.

I started washing my hair with shampoo less frequently a couple of months ago. At first I would skip one day, then two ... now, I'm washing about once a week. I switched to a sulfate-free shampoo with argan oil by DermOrganic. I use very little - just enough to break up the sebum on my scalp - no heavy lather. I condition one day mid-week. The other days, I wash with hot water alone, gently scrubbing my scalp with my fingertips, and combing through my hair with a fine tooth comb under running water. I rinse with cold water (thanks, gido!)

When I get out of the shower - even washing days - my hair slicks back when I brush it as if it had vaseline or a waxy pomade. It's waxy enough that it feels almost like a solid shell when I brush it all back. My wife jokes that it's like I'm producing my own styling product now. It may sound bad, but it doesn't smell at all when I get out of the shower. When it dries, it fluffs up nicely. It gets wavy with some body, and feels soft and healthy. It's looking like Gabriel Byrne's hair a little bit as I'm starting to let it grow out now. It always feels like I used a deep conditioning treatment, it's easy to manage all day with no product, and it doesn't feel oily or greasy.

By the end of the day it smells a little "animalic", but no worst than when I was washing every day. It doesn't get itchy now.

I'm very happy with my new routine. I'll never go back to washing every day. It feels like I've been paying to trash my hair all these years. If you haven't ever tried it, I think you'll be surprised by the results. I was skeptical and very pleasantly surprised. The transition can be hard while the scalp adapts to not being stripped squeaky clean every day, but tough it out a few weeks and you get past that.

I started doing the same with my kids. I wash their hair about twice a week - anytime it smells. Their hair feels very nice and soft now and doesn't tangle. My daughter has fine curly hair, and she used to wake up with it tangled and matted - now it brushes out easily and is soft and silky. Full disclosure: my wife thinks her hair is not as shiny, and that shininess is "very important for girls".

I haven't made it to water only washing but I have been conditioner only washing for over a year now. And I gotta say my hair hasn't ever looked better lol. I'm a guy with short hair and I use pretty much any nice conditioner that smells good. Dont really worry about what specific type of hair it might be targeted for as long as it smells good. So basically a lot of woman's conditioners. Been through a lot of bumble and bumple. Rusk and Nexxus make a lot of good ones. I've been using Organix for about 4 months now and have grown to like them a great deal. I usually apply the conditioner as soon as I get in the shower and leave it in usually close to 10 min. My hair is not oily at all. It has a great shine to it, its sooo soft and it smells great. I also don't use any styling product in my hair. Ive also got a nice beard that I take equally as particular care of. No shampoos at all, just conditioner washing and my beard looks equally as great lol.

i think not shampooing AT ALL is silly.

the more your hair gets oily and greasy the more its going to attract dirt and sweat,which is never a good thing.

i do advocate shampooing much less then the average person though.i have very dry hair,so i do like to allow the sebum(natural oils)to produce and naturally moisturize my hair.

i shampoo once,at most twice a week.but if my hair is ever dry and i want to give it some shine or a healthy look,i can just reach for some natural hair products ,such as shea butter, jojoba oil, or argan oil.

those 3 are excellent for your hair,i highly suggest you use all natural products to avoid damaging your hair in the long run with a bunch of chemicals though.

cheers

yeah, those chemicals again! bad chemicals! the world would be a better place without them, no? cough.