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I was just wondering if there was anyone who had a personal experience on this board with simply washing hair with water and abandoning shampoo and conditioners altogether. Our ancestors did so for centuries and it is still completely hygienic. I only shampoo and condition once a week and afterwards my hair becomes do dry and frizzy, that I end up having to douse it in safflower oil anyway which defeats the whole purpose of the shampoo anyway. In addition, the hair tangles more easily and in an attempt to brush it, more hair falls out. This in turn causes frizz when the root regenerates and sprouts again. Has anyone done this for a while like several months or even years? I still haven't mustered the guts to do it yet.
I only wash my hair once a month for the same reasons. It feels a bit oilier, but looks better in my opinion. When I do wash, I use the Infusium23 shampoo, and I use lots of conditioner and dont wash it all out. I know the cycle of which you speak, because I also have d..r...y hair. It breaks and crinkles when washed in harsh shampoos. If you still want to wash once a week, I'd recommend something gentle, like baby shampoo. By any chance, is your hair naturally curly? Most people I have met with this problem have thin, curly hair like me.
Nova(john)
ive been growing mine for 3 months now and Im not trimming for at least a year. Ive had long hair for about half of my life off and on. In the past, i never really bothered not shampooing everyday. I liked the clean feel. But now, im like you all, I dont like all the frizz and I want it to be as healthy as possible. Im not sure that not washing it at all would be the answer. Im think im going to cut back in a tapering off effect. First, ill shampoo every other day for a week. Then the next week ill wash with shampoo twice and so on till im shampooing about 4 time a month. Something like that. ill start tonight.
morgan
Yes, I hardly use shampoo and conditioner; mostly wash with water.
Living in a warm, humid country do not allow me to do this. Presently, I shampoo my hair every 3 days, just to keep it clean and fragrant. I say "presently" because the frequency of hair-shampooing depends on hair length (or at least, this is what I've found). There is an optimal frequency of wash so that fizzyness and dryness after wash could be minimised.
I've read in some articles that shampoo causes extreme dryness to your hair. Thus, it makes sense to only apply the shampoo at the scalp and massage it without allowing too much to flow towards the ends, where our natural oils could last reach. This applies to conditioners too. Therefore, by doing this, frizziness at the ends could be minimised.
But anyhow, I do agree with the fact that minimise shampooing implies nicer hair. I heard that Jerry Halls (ex-wife of Mick Jagger) do not wash her hair at all!! Wonder how true??
Jin
My hair is very thick and dry. The most I have gone is 2 weeks without shampoo. I wont be doing it again. To cut down on the nasty smell and grease spots on pillows, I washed it every shower with conditioner and then left some in. After several days the result is very much darkened hair, and it gets darker everytime, which just kinda looked dirty on me, maybe a dark haired guy can get away with it An OK smell, not good, when I massage my hair and smell my fingers, I didnt have anyone else smell it though. After awhile It will start to leave your fingers greasy. I think old conditioner tends to get a little nasty after awhile. Also the hair behaved like greasy hair, altho the surface didnt feel greasy, but if i ran my hands back thru my hair it would be heavy and stick in place. Dont expect soft, flowing moving hair. The Pluses: After about 3 days there is no frizz, and I normally have some frizz. The hair is very much straightened, and it had a lot of "hold" but like I said earlier it was kind of a greasy hold. When I got sick of greasy fingers and the worsening smell I shampooed conditioned and then left some in, and it felt amazing and soft I never wanna go that long again. Being coated like that probably protects the hair from damage and moisturizes, because it is better than ever the first time you wash it after that long. Now I wash about every 3 days and condition like I said above every shower. However, whether I shampooed or not everytime I get out of the shower I comb my hair straight and put a hat on over it at least until it drys, which is at least and hour and a half for me. Its better to just leave it on overnight or most of the night if you wake up in the early morning. The hat prevents it from wavying up and makes it moister. When i get up I brush it. Sometimes its a little dry in the morning, but after an hour or two with the hat off and maybe 2 brushings it gets even smoother and moister, and more so as the time goes by. Its like the conditioner attracts moisture. It doesn't get dark enough to look dirty, smells and feels fine, and the frizz is gone everywhere except a little but on the sides, when I do the three-day/hat method.
I've done it. And every time I've decided to try a shampoo lately, I've gone right back to washing in water. A couple of longhair friends who also have curly hair put me onto it two years back, and yeah, now I'd swear by it. I do occasionally have to wash with a shampoo if my hair gets a funny odor, but that is really rare. After I was at Yellowstone, it reeked of sulfur, for an example.
Since going to the "water only" routine, by the way, split ends have disappeared, and my hair seems to be getting longer again. It seemed to have stalled for a while, probably due to breakage.
When I was growing my hair out through the 'awkward' phase, I didn't shampoo for about a year, using a daily warm water rinse instead.
The hair would be relatively oily and quite controllable, so it stayed where combed even though it wasn't long enough for a ponytail.
However, since I have fine hair, the oilyness would rob my hair of body and it would tend to lie close to my scalp and clump together in such a way that my scalp would show between clumps. Hence, I now shampoo every other day to retain the body I like.