No shampoo water only hair care?

[zeebs]

Hi ladies, has anybody tried this no shampoo hair care thing? How did it turn out? When you go to the stylist, do they understand and not shampoo your hair for you before they cut it or do they give you a lecture on why you should use shampoo? Do you use rinses? Etc.

[Cupcake]

I tried it a few years ago when I found an online community called something like 'long hair community'. I'd been ill and a lot of my hair had fallen out or become really weak, so I was all about the natural approach and restoration. I couldn't make the water-only approach work for me because I had an oily scalp and fine hair - although there is a lot of it. What worked for me was the conditioner-only approach: use a silicone-free conditioner and once the hair is wet, massage it liberally into the scalp. The idea is that there are sufficient gentle detergents within this type of conditioner to allow the conditioner to rinse cleanly away and still clean the hair and scalp. It took about a week of daily 'washing' this way to settle into the routine, and I kept on with that for well over a year. I had rapid hair growth - about an inch and a half a month, on average. During this time, I was still dyeing my hair (Nice n Easy).
After a number of months once my head was used to very gentle cleansing, I did try the water only approach but it wasn't suitable for me. It left my scalp feeling a little cakey and itchy - from the LHC, I understand that this is a common side effect because to compensate for the lack of detergent cleansing, people manually 'scritch' (scratch / itch) with fingernails, firm combs or other things to scrape away the white-ish scalp debris buildup. There were off-shoot ideas for ways to cope with that - an adapted OCM which was ridiculously fussy, herbal tinctures, all manner of rinses - all too time consuming or awkward for me. I was happy with the conditioner only cleanse and still often do just that.
I don't remember when I started using gentle shampoo again but these days I still need to 'wash' my hair daily, but that's shampoo or conditioner-only. I still get around an inch of growth a month. I cut my bum-length hair down to a pixie about 18 months ago and even with trims, it's now down to collarbone again, dye free (no reason for dye free, just fancied a change).

Don't know if that's any help, but I can testify that silicone (-cone) free really works, really cuts down on scalp itching, and that cone-free conditioner only washing did significantly improve the health of my scalp and strength of my hair (with no other factors, as I hadn't changed diet etc during that time).

p.s. I haven't been to a hair-dresser in over 20 years as I don't trust the blighters around here. They'd take one look at my long hair and see endless possibilities for their own amusement to play, or practice radical styling - anything but enhance my self-image and well being. Those hairdressers I knew personally saw my hair as something they could play with, so I just didn't seek their opinions - but they did say how shiny and healthy it was. I wouldn't let them get their grubby paws on it, though

[karen]

My brother did water only when he was going through a hippy phase. I suppose it "worked" for him (thick blond, relatively short hair), but his head smelled funky all the time.

I've done the conditioner only route, and it does work. I used Wen because I had a free sample of it. I think something like that is the better way to go because hair gets damaged no matter what, and conditioners are designed to put something back into your hair. Your own natural oils are good, but I like some good cationic conditioners too.

Somewhere on this hard drive I have some links to some hair information a formulating buddy posted to her blog. I'll try to dig it up for you tonight.

[Maria_Elvira]

I have done it too over a year now and it works like a charm. My hair is soft and smooth nowadays and it is growing really fast.
If you want more information in english I think long hair community is a good start they have a lot of information there
and plenty of helpful people to answer questions

[tizzylou]

I have conditioner only washed off and on for the better part of 2 years. When I do use shampoo I use a SLS free shampoo, and have used several both from etailers on Etsy and drugstore or health food store available. I wear my hair in a chin length tapered bob and have to have it trimmerd every 3 weeks to be able to manage it from the growth. The long hair community is a great palce to start as they have lots of information. Conditioner only washing, but it does work. I will confess, I don't fight with my stylist, she shampoos my hair every 3 weeks, I figure that only once every 3 weeks probably isn't going to cause that many problems. Any cheap silcone free conditioner will work, or Sally's beauty supply sells a product called Hair One that is similar to WEN at very reasonable cost. I agree with Karen in that I think that this is a better way to go than just water only.

[superwahz]

I've done the "conditioner only" approach ala the long haired community for a few years now. I started it because I'd lost a lot of hair thanks to a lovely hormonal disorder I have and what hair was left was really dry and coarse. I have a pretty oily scalp and hair that's halfway to my waist, so the process is a bit time consuming! But, it's so worth it, I was able to avoid chopping all my hair off! Boy did it grow fast too! I used the really cheap conditioners with no "cones" (some of the VO5 conditioners are suitable) and was able to get my scalp squeaky clean after letting it sit a bit. The coolest benefit of it was I realized that my hair is not stick straight like I've always thought, it has waves when babied properly and not weighed down by "cones". Curly haired girls especially benefit from less shampoo as it tends to frizz out their curls.

Nowadays I alternate conditioner only with diluted gentle SLS free shampoo for the days when I don't have time to let the conditioner sit long enough to prevent greasiness. I still use a heavy conditioner at times on the ponytail part of my hair because it needs extra moisture. I also was able to cut down to washing every other day instead of the every day scrubbing I was used to. It gets a bit oily looking on day 2 but I try to wear it up or back and ignore it. Others swear it looks fine on day 2 so the oily paranoia is my own crazy hang up. The key to trying the conditioner only wash is to RINSE WELL! When you think you've rinsed enough, rinse some more! Oh, and your hair might misbehave for a while as it adjust if it's like mine and adores silicone in all its incarnations...

As for going to a hair stylist, just go with clean, damp hair and tell them you don't need a wash! It'll save you both time and should save you a few bucks (a lot of salons discount their price if you don't get a wash or have them blow dry your hair). Then the subject doesn't even need to come up. Though if they use a bunch of product to style your hair you might need to give it a gentle shampooing to get it all out. Personally I just tell stylists not to use products in my hair since I'm sensitive to the fragrances anyway.

[egerandi]

I tried conditioner-only with some success, but I couldn't keep doing it, perhaps it was the wrong product. I think I'll try that again. Never tried water-only exclusively, but I do that sometimes between shampoos (I'm now back to the shampoo but use soapnut liquid instead of actual shampoo + non SLS conditioner). I try not to 'soap' my hair too often, and just do the water rinse in between, but yeah, the weird 'head smell' comes into play if I do that for too long.

I would love to try that formula, if you can find it, Karen.

[egerandi]

p.s. I haven't been to a hair-dresser in over 20 years

Holy!!! Yeah, I just couldn't, my hair is so meh without tending :/

[Xarata]

My hair has always grown really fast, and i do like a shampoo but i have gone the natural route. Some days i just wet my hair in the shower, some days i just add conditioner and some days i want shampoo.

For shampoos I've used aloe based or other natural base (Kiss my face makes one, foryournose makes a custom scented shampoo/bodywash that works well, and i really like burt's bees grapefruit and sugarbeet shampoo)

For conditioners i again have gone all natural rotating between hair oils (like manoi/coconut oil) and a variety of natural conditioners (i've made my own but its time consuming, i've also used kiss my face whenever conditioner- smells like lime, for your nose conditioner-custom scented, burt's bees conditioner- just ok)

For salons, i recommend asking for a dry cut (preferrably at a salon that is comfortable doing dry cuts, ask when you make your appt) and if they want to wash-dry-blow out first, let them know that you've gone chemical free/shampoo free

[Silverfern]

p.s. I haven't been to a hair-dresser in over 20 years

Holy!!! Yeah, I just couldn't, my hair is so meh without tending :/

I'm the same way. I think I last went 7 years ago. I had hair almost to my waist and I asked hair dresser to cut it in layers, you know shorter on the sides, like a face frame thing. They cut it totally uneven, one side was much shorter and didn't hang right at all. And it's costs at least $60 to get my hair cut where I live because it's "long". Whatever. So that was the end of that. My husband has cut my hair 3 times a year since then. straight across. 5 or 6 inches, sir. done and done. And into a pony tail it goes. haha

Even when I dye it purple or blue I bleach it myself and use Special Effects dye in the privacy of my own home. (However the color stripper and dye hurts my head too much now and I haven't dyed it in a year. But my hair is blue in my dreams.).

Ok back to the topic at hand, haha. I haven't tried the no-poo method yet but I keep hearing about it. I workout and get super sweaty so I'm nervous about leaving any of that oil and salt! on me. I'll have to read more. This is a very interesting thread. Thanks!