This post is about my experience with the water only hair wash regimen I did.
So I reached 8 days of only washing my hair with water.  During doing this routine, I noticed the benefits by day 4. I rinsed my hair with water every morning in the shower and massaged my scalp daily to encourage my natural oils to come through. At day 4 my natural oils (sebum) had coated all of my strands from root to tip. From then on when I would wash, my hair felt as though it was protected and it felt moisturised at the same time. It definitely was amazing. When my hair would dry, it felt a little moisturised but didn’t exactly look the way I wanted it to. It seemed like it was lacking curl definition and this was due to the fact that not enough moisture was built inside the strands and it may have taken a while for this to happen. The reason why I stopped was because I began to have issues with having too much sebum. This caused me to have a white coating on my hair when it dried, which looked like I had poured powder on my hair. I did research to try to figure out what to do about it and it was either I use a natural homemade cleanser or I use a boar bristle brush to brush out the excess sebum. Firstly I felt that using a natural cleanser defeats the purpose of me doing a water only wash. If I was to do it, I’d rather go hard or go home! And in regards to the boar bristle brush,  I tried it, but it was too harsh on my fine strands and was causing the ends of my hair to break off. So this is what caused me to end this journey as I wasn’t sure when or if the situation was going to correct itself in the future and I wasn’t enjoying how my hair was looking.
Did I regret doing it?
No way! In fact I am so thankful I did it because it is as though I did a hair detox,  in fact that’s exactly what it was. My hair did an 8 day water only fast and it loves me for it! As soon as I cleansed my hair with my Dr bronner’s castile soap then deep conditioned with my kinky curly knot today conditioner, my hair was the softest I think it has ever felt. I then rinsed out and applied only shea butter to my hair before twisting and the next morning, my hair was amazingly soft, shiny and smooth. It’s been 3 days since I washed my hair and my hair has never felt better. It still feels buttery soft and moisturised and this is without adding any extra water or product. I definitely attribute the way my hair is now to the 8 days of water only washing I did. I think it gave me the chance to reset my hair and allow my natural oils to moisturise my hair from root to tip. I definitely believe that if anyone is having problems with dryness, brittle hair, breakage, hair not absorbing moisture and all other hair problems that you can think of, you should give water only washing a go. It not only helps to strengthen your hair from the inside by getting your natural oils to do the work for you. It allows you to start from a clean and natural palette. Your sebum simply creates a protective layer to your hair and it’s more ready to withstand manipulation. I’m telling you, I have never felt my hair feeling so soft in the many years that I’ve been natural.
Now if you were to attempt water only washing until you have reached full sebum coverage (this will be based on the length of your hair and how quickly you produce your own natural oils, you will know as when you are washing with water, the hair will eventually feel moisturised from root to tip. This could be anywhere from about 4 days – 3 weeks and it’s best to have two strand twists in for kinkier hair so that it’s easier for the sebum to travel down to the tips) it’s best to use a natural cleanser so as not to completely remove the sebum that was built on the hair. I used Dr bronner’s castile soap diluted and my hair was extremely soft.  You may want to use a homemade natural cleanser but I couldn’t make a suggestion since I haven’t tried anything else since doing the water only washing routine.
Let me know if you plan on trying it by leaving a comment.