How to Start Water Only Hair Washing

I'm getting so conceited about my hair. It's my favorite accessory. I'd rather let my ears freeze off like one of Doug E. Doug's cornrows in Cool Runnings than put a hat over my curls this winter. I think I flip my hair more than I blink these days! Lately I even try to steer completely unrelated conversations towards the topic of water only. It doesn't matter if we're talking about shampoo or intersectional feminism or the distribution of permafrost in Kamchatka's western slopes. Water only hair washing applies to all of it!

Think about the way nature works. Everything from the surface of a leaf to feathers, guillemot eggs, butterfly wings, the scales of a fish, and the skin of a whale is self cleaning. Other structures utilize various organisms to remove contaminants or allow droplet flow in a non-exploitative, non-toxic, non-polluting way- take mycoremediation, for instance, or hydrocarbon chewing microbes. You don't need all of those products, and you don't need to spend so much time caring for hair and skin. Water only makes hair less frizzy and more manageable without silicones or palm oil. It also lets skin heal and repair itself naturally.

I went cold turkey with water only, but I used natural ingredients (like mayonnaise or baking soda and ACV) for quite some time beforehand. To get started from scratch, wash with gram flour or castile soap first (for my face, I just let water drip on it in the shower and scrubbed with a washcloth afterwards). I don't recommend buying clarifying shampoo just for this purpose- nor do I advocate using harsh baking soda and vinegar, which ruined my hair. Thereafter, wash with water one to three times a week, brushing with a wooden or vegan tampico brush or comb beforehand, to remove dust and other contaminants manually. In the shower or in a basin or bucket, soak your hair completely and massage thoroughly, paying special attention to the top back of your scalp, where buildup frequently occurs. Work the sebum down the hair shaft as you go. In the beginning, you will need to dry massage your scalp daily, perhaps even twice a day, and regularly brush to break up dusty or waxy patches and help move oils to the ends.

You want to try and stretch out the time between washings as much as possible, so you may initially need to apply oils, such as jojoba or coconut, in your hair and on scalp for extra moisture, or use cornstarch / cocoa powder as dry shampoo to look presentable. Avoid this if you can, since oil strips oil and dry shampoos can make hair harder to clean. If you really have a problem with frizz, wear a secondhand / recycled silk scarf to smooth things out, and use rag or pin curl methods to style. Water is enough to make hair smell clean, like nothing at all, but if you're self conscious about it, soak some citrus peels in vodka, or mix essential oils in a spray bottle with water, and mist hair between washes. After a workout, rinsing your hair is sufficient to remove sweat, just tie hair up to get it off your neck first (duh). For troubleshooting, click here. Click here for tips on transitioning to water only in a corporate environment. For my face, I wash it once a day, in the evening, with a washcloth, using oil to remove my eye makeup only- the rest comes off using a hemp washcloth alone (I like hemp because of it's antimicrobial and gentle scrubbing properties). I've had this routine since the beginning, and I saw results for my cystic acne in less than a month. If you have hard water, you have to use distilled or rain water, depending on where you live. Like, if you live in Arizona, rainwater is fine, but if you live in Paris, forget it. I used about a liter of distilled water on my hair once a week when I lived there, and my hair is NOT Asian- it's coarse actually eats ponytail holders.

Testosterone levels can affect sebum production, so I recommend eating plantbased if you decide to go water only. Sebum isn't as bad as L'oreal likes us to think- overwashing and stripping hair or skin of sebum makes it dry and disrupts a protective layer known as the acid mantle, a layer of oil and sweat with a slightly acidic pH, which protects us from potential infections, chemical irritants, pollution particles, etc. We need it to protect and maintain the skin’s integrity. Excessive cleansing or astringents degrade our skin's barrier of protection against the environment, further aggravating skin problems like dandruff, acne, and so on. My acne heals so much quicker now that I'm not putting benzoyl peroxide or prescription drugs on it, along with toner, lotion, eye creams, etc. Instead of hydrating externally (I still use olive or coconut oil under my eyes sometimes), drink at least 3L of water a day, eat lots of good fats, and lay off the sugar and alcohol. Dark circles will lessen, wrinkles will plump out, and skin will overall be smoother, healthier looking, clearer- I saw results in two weeks (but I keep forgetting to drink water lately so it's back to my usual haggard appearance).

In April (or March, I forget) it will be two years since I started water only and my hair appears thicker, shinier, naturally more curly, darker for whatever reason, and I lose less of it. I used to have to clean a chunk out of the drain after every shower = and brushed it off clothing more than my angora cats' fur. "This can't be possible, but, is your hair longer than when I saw you last?" asked my environmental activist friend and ecohero Tori, who'd seen me two days earlier. Actually I think she was right- it does grow faster, sans shark containing Viviscal. My skin is a million times better (I still use soap and coconut or olive oil on my body) and it takes me no time to get ready in the morning, which is great since I'm lazy. I know this because I often let my phone die instead of reaching over in bed to get the charger.