I can’t believe it’s already been 4 months since I quit shampoo and started “no poo,” and 3.5 months since I went water-only! I am definitely out of the oily transitional phase and still going strong on water-only, so figured it was time to post an update to my Ultimate Water-Only Hair Washing Routine.
These pictures were all taken in the same lighting, room, and with the same camera as the pictures from the Ultimate Water-Only Hair Washing Routine post for an accurate assessment of progress.
Water Only Hair Washing Progress
How often do I wash my hair now? Once every 7-10 days with just water.
How long can I go between water-only hair washes before my hair looks oily now? My hair actually doesn’t get oily anymore, not even after 10 days of not washing it! :D
How long did the oily transitional phase last? / How did I get out of it? It took me approximately 2 weeks to stop looking excessively oily and about 2 months to get completely out of the initial oily phase to the point where my hair just doesn’t get oily anymore. I followed these tips from my other post to get through the oily transition as quickly as possible.
What does it feel like? My hair feels different… definitely softer and more hydrated, slightly heavier, and it’s a little harder to run my fingers through my roots than if I used shampoo. But I really don’t mind the new texture! It gives my hair more body, thickness, and volume at the roots!
Do I still get split ends? I got my hair trimmed right before going no shampoo (~ 4 months before these pictures). With shampoo, my ends would definitely be split, dry, brittle, rough, scraggly, and in need of another trim at this point, but with water-only, they are just as hydrated as the rest of my hair. They are soft, shiny (I’ve never had shiny ends), and I have very few split ends. (Pictured Below)
Growth? It has definitely grown ~2 inches over the past 4 months. This is a good rate of growth, but I also eat a lot of fruits/veggies/nuts and a daily multi-vitamin so this much growth is normal for me. :) The difference here is that my ends didn’t dry out so I can keep growing it without having to trim off the new progress.
Does it smell? Okay so I’ve been doing routine smell checks since I started no shampoo (for science), :) because I’m paranoid about smelling bad. For the first 5-7 days after a water-wash without any fragrances added, my hair doesn’t smell like anything. That’s a decently long time! After that, I’ll sometimes notice my scalp (not my hair) smells like… well hair. It doesn’t really smell bad, but it doesn’t smell like flowers and dandelions or what I’m used to. So if it doesn’t smell that nice, then I’ll add a drop of a blend of really fragrant shea butter/coconut butter (that smells like french vanilla mixed with chocolate… mmm) to my scalp and hair and it completely refreshes the scent. No more scalp smell. Dry shampoo also deodorizes it very well, and this DIY recipe makes my scalp & hair smell like chocolate. Boar-bristle brushing also helps keep any scalp smells from building up at the roots. There are actually loads of ways to make your hair smell like flowers and dandelions or whatever you want while on No Poo / water-only, so I made a separate post for that.
How is my scalp acting? Great! No issues here.
Do I still have to boar-bristle brush it in sections every day? Nope! Spending time each day to section my hair and brush the natural oils through it was the one time-consuming side to water-only, but I really don’t have to do it anymore. Right before I wash my hair, I’ll still scritch & brush it to make washing easier, and I’ll probably scritch/brush once more during the 7-10 days between washes. But I don’t have to do it daily anymore since my hair no longer gets excessively oily. I do brush my hair every day for a minute just to soften the look and style it for the day. Most importantly, I keep my brush really clean between uses as to not add last week’s oils back onto this week’s hair.
How has my hair dye lasted? I got my hair dyed a semi-permanent dark color the day I switched to no-poo (4 months ago). With shampoo, the color would typically last me ~6 weeks and then start to fade. However, this time the color was strong for ~3 months, and only during this past month has it faded a bit. Pictured above on the left is what my hair color looks like when my camera isn’t beefing up the contrast to solar flare status. You can see my blondeish-brownish roots coming in. Pretty good for 4 months after a semi-permanent dye! Pictured right is a contrast-y shot.
Manageability? Styling? My hair is very manageable now. My natural hair oils act like a styling product. I can make my hair super voluminous with the flick of my hand fluffing it up, or flat to my head if I wanted. It’s like there’s a natural hairspray in it. I really don’t need to do anything to my hair anymore. It’s weird standing in front of the mirror expecting to have to do something to my hair, but there’s just nothing to do. Hallelujah.
Do I use any styling products? The only things I put on my hair now are shea butter (for added hydration on the ends of my hair or for heat protection) and the rare usage of homemade dry shampoo (like once per month maybe) just to make my style fluffier.
Do I use heat to style my hair? I don’t have to! And that’s certainly an improvement since going no poo. With shampoo, I had to use heat to tame my dry/damaged hair every time I styled it, but now I can let my hair air dry which used to be out of the question before. Now around 1-2 times per month I’ll use a flat iron, and I use shea butter as a natural heat protectant during those times. Check this post for natural heat protectants for No Poo.
Do I still use coconut oil to hydrate the ends of my hair? I actually switched from straight coconut oil to using a shea butter/cocoa butter blend that has some coconut oil in it. I prefer using the shea butter blend as it dries less greasy and works excellently to hydrate the ends of my hair in winter. I literally just slathered the shea butter all over the bottom 2/3 of my hair right before taking the Day 4 pictures so I could flat iron it a little bit to assess the length. It definitely dries much less greasy than straight coconut oil, and completely absorbs into my “low porosity” hair within a few hours.
Will I continue to use only water to wash my hair? YES. I am very happy with my hair!
Would I recommend others try water-only? YES.
How is water-only going for you? Post your update in the comments!
Check out these posts next:
Hi there! I’ve been doing the WO only method for over 3 months now, i’ve got quite curly hair and it always used to be very dry and unmanageable. It is noticeably better now and has gone quite wavy and soft and I’m very happy I made the switch. I noticed my hair seemed to go back into a transition period about 1/1.5 months in and then got better again.
However, now I’ve noticed my scalp has gone very dandruffy and flaky and it’s becoming a bit greasy at times! I work out about 6 days a week and I think this is contributing to the greasy factor, but I’m not sure how to combat the dandruff.
Is there anything anyone could suggest for this other than the BBB? I have to admit I’m very lazy with the BBB, scrithing and preening!
Has anyone else experienced a flaky phase, or hair getting slightly greasy again?
Thanks!! x
KateT, in one of her other posts about this, she says that if you exercise and sweat frequently, to rinse your hair with cold water and little to no scrubbing. The cold water will remove the dirt and sweat, but not the oils. Maybe this will help?
Hi Catherine, thank you for commenting back! I used coconut oil on my head for the dandruff/dry skin issue i was having and to get the thick of that out I had to use shampoo today… my hair feels so dry and horrible now! Hoping I can slip back into the No Poo easily enough! I’ll definitely try the cold water thing after the gym though :)
I have just seen your post below about the hair dye, I would have thought that you would have to wash this out initially and then slip back into no poo. Otherwise I could imagine some of the excess dye will sit in your hair and this could come off on clothes/etc. I had an issue with some purple dye once that was only rinsed out and when I went to use the straighteners, the excess melted off in my hand. This may have been a rubbish dye though! I’m planning on doing blonde ombre in mine for the summer so I’ve accepted I’ll have to shampoo it when I do! If your hair’s not being shampooed I doubt it will take as long to settle back into the routine :)
However, I have just read an article about how hair washing is actually not linked to sebum production and it’s linked to hormones, etc so now I’m beginning to wonder about the science behind now poo. Having said that, science or no science it seems to work for my hair! Good luck on your no-poo journey :) X
Hi KateT, I left a really long comment response on this page to “Alex” about the flaking / dandruff, hopefully that information helps you. I don’t know how to directly link you to the comment, but you can press Ctrl+F on this page and search for “dandruff” to find it on this page!
So i just stumbled across all of your no poo posts and you have given me hope that this method can work and that I too can have clean, manageable hair!! One thing on my mind is if I start this and it works, what will happen if I dye my hair? I’m planning on highlighting it next month (already bought the Group-On) and don’t know how it will work when she has to wash it out after bleaching it… Do i let her and then just work my way back to full water-only glory? Is there a way around this, or is it not as big of a deal as it seems? Please help.
Hi Catherine, I’m glad this blog gives you hope! You can talk to the stylist beforehand (by calling the salon) and ask if they HAVE to use shampoo to rinse out the hair dye. From what I’ve seen, they will almost always say yes, because it’s necessary to wash out all of the product, especially bleach. Washing your hair one time won’t set your progress back completely, but just remember every time you wash it with shampoo, you are 1) stripping all of the oils off of your hair and have to wait maybe a week with a lot of boar-bristle brushing to get the oils back through your hair and coating it. And 2) you are causing your scalp to freak out and produce a lot of oils every time you strip it, so if you do that often, it’s difficult for your scalp to normalize.
I dye my hair about twice per year now, so it’s not a big deal for me. I just let them wash it with shampoo, and then I literally hate the way my hair looks, it’s fluffy and dry looking… and then I just brush the oils through my hair as much as possible for the next week until it’s back to normal.
Hi there! Love all this info – thanks for the detailed instructions & tips! I’m new to trying it all out but wanted to know in the beginning if this is ‘normal’: After washing my hair with water, my roots actually look super good, thick, and rich, but the length of my hair is what is heavy and weighed down a bit, to the point I would not leave it down (yet), or especially do a half ponytail as under the top layers is where it seems to look the greasiest/feel the heaviest…but my roots look fantastic so I feel like I am doing a good job of distributing the oils, but maybe not a good job of washing them out of the length of my hair? Did anything similar happen to you? I’ve showered with water twice so far and the second time I really tried to remove the oil so I just want to see if I am doing something wrong! Thanks!
Hi Lena, Congrats on your roots looking fantastic!!
Are you parting your hair into sections and brushing the underneath part really well with the BBB? You might want to try washing very warm water through the length of your hair during water-washes to get some of the excess oil off of the length of your hair. You can also part your hair while you’re showering, and get the very warm water all throughout the underneath part of your hair.
Do you notice that your hair looks less oily the day after water-washing? Sometimes it takes my hair ~8-12 hours to fully absorb the oils after I distribute them with a BBB, and my hair seems to hold on to water for ~12-24 hours right after washing my hair which can make it feel a little more weighed down, but then it looks much better the next day. Do you experience this?
Thank you so much for your response! The day I left it was my third time to try and I just made the water very warm and really spent time rinsing my hair and focusing on the length too and it made a world of difference. Under the back was still a bit heavy because I guess I got a little lazy, but the front and length were so much better and less heavy! I realized how bad I must have been washing it before to have accepted the ‘heavy’ as normal, haha! So excited for my next time to shower to so I can really do the back as well. Seems the oil from my scalp goes away with no problem, but my length likes to hold on to it :D
But thank you for your response! I will see about what you said if my hair feels lighter the day after washing it
Awesome!! I’m so glad it worked for you. Remember, the warmer the water, the better it will break up the oils on your hair/scalp. But also remember that hot water isn’t ideal for your hair and skin, so there is a trade off there. Try not too use water that is too hot, and try to lower the temperature over time as your scalp oil production normalizes. Good luck! And let us know how it goes.
I’m considering going with this. I already generally go at least a week without having to wash my hair (at this moment I’ve got it stretched out to 2, which is pushing it but still looks alright). But what about exercise? Do you wash after you workout? I admit that I have not been on my game for the last few weeks but normally I run or do do yoga 3-4 times a week and have always had to wash my hair more often, depending on how sweaty the workout is, obviously. Does WO negate those effects? Or does that cause you to have to wash off more often?
I’m super psyched to give it a try!
I should make a post about this because this is a frequent question…. How does your hair feel after you work out and the sweat dries? Does it smell? You can try just brushing through your hair with a BBB or wooden-bristled brush to see if it looks okay. If it does, leave it! You can also try the dry shampoo recipe I discussed in this post which will make your hair look non-greasy and can get rid of any odors. Or you can rinse your hair with cool water & not much scrubbing after a workout, which will wash away any dirt/sweat, but it won’t wash away all of the oils on your head (which need warm water to dissolve).
Hi!
I enjoyed reading your posts so much. It is one of the most detailed/structured/easily explained blogs I have read about no poo.
I would like to describe my routine to you until know and it would really help me if you could tell which routine to follow (water-only or co-wash)
I have wavy hair until my lower back but my curls straighten out easily. I can’t use a brush though, otherwise my curls would get undefined. Normally my hair is not that greasy.
I used for about one month a sulfate-free shampoo (Jessicurl), silicone-free CO & natural styling products (Jessicurl, Jojoba oil). Then I switched to co-wash and my scalp felt cleaner (I mixed the North American Hemp & co with cold water and distributed like this on my hair).
Now I am not sure if this causes a silicone build-up? Indeed I am feeling that my scalp is getting greasier (although it is easy to put it in a ponyhair and no one notices).
A lot of blogs recommend clarifying but I don’t want to use any shampoo anymore.
Then I started reading about water-only. The only problem is that I can’t brush it with BBB and I have read on your blog that you can brush it before the shower but even then my hair comes out all different after showering.
Should I stick to my co-wash? Should I clarify (which I’d rather not)?
Can I try water-only with silicone-free conditioner, natural styling products & jojoba oil?
Or should I go completely cold turkey?
Thank you so much for your help & please keep inspiring us!
Margot