Newbie with Chemi-curls

[saaski_moql]

Hey there. I'm relatively new to going without shampoo, but when I came across an article about it, I was intrigued and figured that it would be worth at least experimenting with. I've never really had much trouble with my hair or my scalp, but my thought process mostly went along the lines of, "if this works just as well/maybe better, why not?" I

Comments

[rosarisata]

I agree with spacegirl, CO washing works okay for curly hair. Anyway I was reading that people into sebum only wash use to massage the scalp and preen the sebum from the scalp through the lenght for at least 10 minutes. Might seem yucky, but I tried to do that treatment in order to retard my next washing (I don't have a "routine", I go from CO washing to eggs to shikakai to WO to regular shampoo) and...suprisingly no smell and really wonderful appearance. I think that this tecnique works wonderfully if you have coarse curly hair: if you have fine straight hair you'd better not preen your hair cause it will get awfully oily.

[nyghtinggail]

I have fine straight hair and when I do water only I do all the preening work under the water and it turns out fine. However, if I touch my roots and pull at my hair over and over when it's not in water it does get pretty oily.

[mshanai]

Sebum-Only straightens out curly hair.

I agree on CO as the easiest alternative. And cheapie conditioners like the ones from the Suave Naturals line are very popular for this method. They tend to be free of silicone derivatives (though check the label anyway) and are cheap enough that you can use them in the large amounts that CO requires.

If you want a non-commercial, environmentally friendly alternative, check out the flaxseed wash tag. Both I and westcoastred have curly hair and use this method. It is more labor-intensive since you have to make your own "conditioner," but it is really only a 20 minutes a week time investment, if that. Depends on how often you wash.

[saaski_moql]

Does it really? I've read several different people with curly hair say it worked best for them, which is why I wanted to try it. This really varies from person to person, doesn't it? I suppose I'll learn more the further along this goes.

I did want to avoid using commercial conditioners (I'm a bit lost on the talk of -cone and things, i admit), so I'll definitely check out the flaxseed tag.

I tried a BS wash and ACV rinse today to try and get rid of some of the build-up around my roots. It worked about half-and-half, which I think is because I didn't do a good job getting the BS all over (living and learning). I'll try looking into other rinse/conditioning methods. Thank you for the comment.

[mshanai]

Info on the Sebum-Only (a.k.a. No Water) method:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=144

You don't want to get BS all over your hair. It's for your roots only. BS saponifies sebum, and most of the sebum is near your scalp. All that BS would do for your length is rough up the cuticle and make it look frizzy, pale, and dull.

[saaski_moql]

Ah, pardon me, by "all over" I meant my scalp, not all of my hair. That's why I think I missed parts of my scalp; I was trying to be careful in avoiding getting it on all of my hair.

Thank you for the link. I've been reading through the first "Official water Only Thread" and was unaware that there was another one.

[saaski_moql]

I do massage my scalp before and during a shower, but it straightens out my hair before I get it wet, and once it's wet it's a lot harder to do, because my hair gets really sticky from the naturalization build-up. Maybe I haven't been doing it long enough before getting it wet. Thank you for the advice!