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Is Water Only Washing on your TO DO LIST?


                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                       
What have I been up to in my life? Well, golly gee whiz, thanks for asking! Like many of you, I've been just living. I'm kind of tired of that routine so I've have been making a  half ass attempt at sprucing up my life. HOW, you might ask? Nothing drastic, just small changes that I'm trying to get used to before so that they can become staples in my life. I don't want to do something that's a total 360 from what I'm used to, I'm easing into transition. Yes, just like when I was transitioning from relaxed to natural. Wait....I didn't transition, I wore a wig for 2 weeks and said "TA HELL WIT DAT, IF THEY DON'T LIKE IT, DEN DON'T LOOK!!" Shoot, my head was itching and sweating, I couldn't take, I cut that perm off with the quickness. Plus it just wasn't me, the wig was too different, so it didn't stick. I don't want to waste time and money in something that's gonna go to the way side (where the wigs are, Ha ha).

Simplify my hair care routine

This may be a strange thing to list as a top priority, but it takes up so much of my time, time that I could be using doing other shit. Fun shit. CRAZY SHIT!! Well maybe not crazy.......but anyways, new things. So to cut my hair care routine by like 75%, I'm trying the water only hair washing method. Or maybe it's called rinsing only method. I think it also goes as the crunchy, lazy, hippie, green, cheap method. But any who that's the first chang.

The water only hair washing method consists of washing your hair with water and letting your God given sebum condition and seal your strands. That seems simple enough except, most of us wash our sebum right down the drains in our sinks and tubs. That pretty much means you have to start from scratch, unless you have been on a no poo routine. If you have been cleansing your hair with baking soda, black soap, clay, egg or something else that does not strip away your natural oil, you are half way there.

I was reading emails and came across this post from BGLH.com about this chick using water only for 30 days. It was intriguing but I never thought about doing it. Then I came across this YouTube video and was in awe of this woman's type 4 hair and how nice it was.  I mean, I have been a fan of Naptural85 from day one of my natural hair journey, and even though she uses natural stuff, it was just too time consuming and I thought, I don't even like cooking why should I spend all this time making my own products? And believe me, I tried! I am still making and using her flax seed gel recipe with a tweak or two. So on May 16, 2014, I shampooed my hair one final time and embarked on a new journey.

To start this transition off right, I shampooed with Aubrey Organics J.A.Y Desert Herb, the old bottle, not this one. I don't know if the ingredients changed with the packaging because I haven't repurchased this shampoo in years. I chose this over my other shampoos because it is more natural with no sulfates and would not strip the oil that I now needed for this method. I noticed when I used this particular shampoo in the past, my hair would still feel "dirty" or waxy and not squeaky clean. Up until now  I was doing more co-washing anyway and I wanted to keep my sebum that was already there. Feeling like I had a "jump" on things, I did not condition after this final wash. I then braided my hair in mini braids, which I will NEVER do again because at this point I am still removing them. It only took me 2 1/2 days to install them, which was still too much time.  I started taking them down June 16th and I'm still not finished, UGHHHH over 1 week to remove a style, NEEEVVVA, NEVA AGAIN! It is recommended to put your hair in braids or twists(#notminis) during the transition period.

Because it is taking so long to unbraid my hair, I have had the chance to dig out my old boar bristle brush to aid in distributing my sebum, which is also recommended. I had not used that thing in years but I will now use it weekly following my ACV rinse during my main wash day. At the beginning I was rinsing daily to help build up my sebum and get it down my strands, now that I am mostly covered, except for maybe the last inch, I will try more styling and possibly WNG's which didn't work with my hair before. I have noticed that my hair looks dull and gray, I also have hard water which the ACV is supposed to help with, but I'm going to invest in a shower head filter.

My hair does have some sort of smell when it is wet but once it dries I only smell it if I itch my scalp then smell my fingers. EW, sounds kind of gross but I know we all do it. I have noticed that my scalp hardly ever itches, I no longer have huge scaly flakes or ANY flakes for that matter. My hair dries super fast, like in an hour or so. I can see the curls much better and can finger detangle in the shower with no problem. I even used my BBB in the shower and my hair felt great. No more digging out a bunch of products to get my hair to feel soft, I just twist in the shower and I'm done. I think I'm gonna love this!!

Do you have any tips on this method? Are you making changes to your daily life?


Comments

Unknown said…
Congrats on trying this method. I have been doing this method for over 100 days and I love it. My hair loves the daily water washes and I've gotten accustomed to twisting nightly. The first 45 days were about sticking to the regimen (scritching, preening, scalp massages, daily washes, nightly bagging). Now I am able to style my hair any way I want using no stylers and I love it. I tried a wash n go using my old gels and they stripped my sebum. I tried using flax seed gel and I didn't like the definition. My hair needed a bit of conditioner underneath the gel to give me the definition I desired and that seems to work for a day or 2. I try to use the most natural products when my hair requires it, but generally I will use what's in my kitchen. ACV rinses weekly, banana, honey, olive oil, & egg for deep conditioners every 6 weeks. I love this method and it's my regimen.
Skorpyanj said…
Karen, thanks for the reply and congrats on your journey so far. I have been rinsing daily but never did any bagging. The sound of the plastic drives me crazy and I have a hard time sleeping. I am waiting to remove my last few braids before I deep condition with the combo you listed. I literally have 7 left, I made them way too small to begin this method. I have done some ACV rinses but I think I will do them weekly like you. What conditioner did you use under the FSG? I did find that it made my hair too crunchy and stiff. I look forward to using this method for the rest of my life!
Unknown said…
It's been a while and I failed to respond to you regarding the conditioner I used under the FSG. I believe I used Karen's Body Beautiful Sweet Ambrosia Leave In. I literally used a dime size. I have since given up on a defined wash and go because I have not found an all natural gel that will define my coils like the X-treme gel did.
Anonymous said…
Hi can you give me more info on this method please. Would I just simply wash with water and use the same products as usual to style with? Would
Skorpyanj said…
Hi Anon
This method uses water only to cleanse and moisturize your hair. You be as hardcore or not with it, incorporate it any way you want. It is an extreme detox for your hair. You start by stripping the hair of all product and use your sebum only to condition, moisturize and seal the hair strands. I would suggest that you achieve full sebum coverage before reintroducing water based only products to your regimen. Check G+ community WaterOnlyWashingforBlackGirls
Christine said…
Recently (past 2 weeks) I have been adding the GHE method in my routine. Week 1 I did the 7 day I version method, rinsing on day 3/7. I GHE for 24 hrs each day for the week. I have also done a few nights in week 2 without the inversion. Plan to invert once a month with the GHE to help products e more sebum and hopefully retain moisture and growth as a pay off.
Skorpyanj said…
I've used the GHE method only a couple times while on this method. I did some reading about it a couple of years ago and again recently. The bag it too noisy for me to use overnight, but when I did use it, it was after showering while I was getting dressed. I may return to that now that the air is cold.

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