One of the latest trends in the haircare world is ‘water-only washing,’ but is it really worth it?
The idea of rinsing and washing your hair with water dates back to the 1900s. With not too many chemically-produced shampoos around, women during that time resorted to more natural means of cleaning their hair, such as olive oil, vinegar or tea. They also used abrasive brushing techniques and warm water to rinse their hair. The harsh brushing breaks the dirt accumulated, while the warm water washes it away.
Why Do People Wash With Just Water?
When we wash our hair with shampoos and conditioners, we think we’re cleaning it and bringing back its shine. However, chemicals and harsh ingredients present in hair products strip our hair of its natural oils. This makes our scalp go into a continuous cycle of overproducing sebum, which eventually makes our hair greasy within a day or two. Water-only washing will help your hair relieve its healthy and balanced state by diminishing, or even completely nullifying, the use of soaps and shampoos.
Should You Go For It?
If you have thick, curly hair, using half of the $50 shampoo water in one week isn’t always the ideal solution. Water-only washing works best for similar hair that is voluminous and dries out quickly due to the usage of shampoo.
However, this technique is not for everyone. Women who opt for blow dries expect full, bouncy results from their hairstylist. It would be challenging to achieve that if they’re only washing their hair with water, and not using products that would create that blow-dry-bounce, to begin with.
A beginner should also be aware of the results of water-only washing. It doesn’t sound as exciting as it looks because the hair tends to feel greasy until the scalp normalizes its sebum levels. Even after the scalp settles into the new routine, water-only washing will only clean the hair – not give smooth and shiny results in comparison to shampoos.
Keeping all these factors in mind, if you’re still leaning towards water-only washing, we’d say go for it! But we highly recommend using natural products such as oil, vinegar or egg yolk for healthy hair.
