2021 edit: i no longer subscribe to or support the “all-natural” label. more here.
whew, it’s been AWHILE since i’ve updated everyone on how the ROM is goin for me.
the last time y’all heard about it from me, it was a bunch of frustration…..
now, long story short, i’m beginning to really, truly LOVE it.
it’s been about 6ish weeks since my last post, so i’ll do my best to sum up what my hair’s been going through:
- i used only water to wash my hair every thursday or the following saturday (idk how i came to that conclusion, other than i was hoping my hair would be “nicer” for the weekend.. ha)
- i used my BBB every other day (like a dummy. i got lazy)
- i used my dry shampoo either every week or week and a half.
- ……prepare yourselves for this one… i cheated!…. i used a diluted mix of shea moisture shampoo (1 part ‘poo to about 5 or 6 times water) the night before i was going to be around the CEO of my company. the C.E.O…
dear ROM,
i’m sorry.
love,
alexraye
at least it was low-‘poo…right? Wrong! even though it was diluted, the shea moisture was way more cleaning power than my hair was used to at that point in time. so guess what happened…. my hair became grease city 4 days after! FOUR DAYS. i was NOT a happy hippie!
that started this nasty cycle where i was super greasy and used dry shampoo every 5 to 6 days. and when i tried to do water-only, it just wouldn’t work! i used an egg to wash and raw honey on the length of my hair a couple times, and that set me back on the ROM path. thank goodness!
i also took a week off of work (10 days total including weekends) to get my life together (i’m still between states.. the midwest and the east coast are fighting over me..haha) and decided it was the perfect time for me to not wash my hair at all! so i gave myself the completely-made-up-on-the-spot-10 day challenge.
THE 10 DAY CHALLENGE
- no dry shampoo
- no diluted shea moisture
- no eggs
- no honey
- no ‘poo of ANY kind!
- BBB every day
- water only wash on day 1 and day 10
- nothing else. nothing. else.
results?
as amazed as i was that my hair turned greasy super fast after using ‘poo, i’m even more amazed at how fast my hair bounced back into the ROM swing of things. my hair’s done the BEST it’s ever done with water-only since i started. so now it’s been over 2 weeks since i’ve washed my hair, and 1 week since i’ve washed it with only water. and lemme tell ya, i’m so stinkin proud of my hair!! looky, looky!
2 days after my water-only wash –
(& before my daily BBB brushing… which was 8 days after my last diluted ‘poo…don’t remind me of that terrible mistake lol. sorry that i forgot to take pics with flash, too.)
& 1 week after my water-only wash –
(which is 2 weeks after my last ‘poo. these pics are after i used my BBB… with flash & without. idk if you can see the greasiness differently)
so greasy, but not as greasy as i thought it’d be! i still have 3ish days left for my 10 Day Challenge… but after tomorrow’s post, you’ll understand why i decided to post an update now 😉
dare i say i’m at the very end of the transition?!?
water-only washing is possible!
almostexactlyblog.com 
Hello Alex, I’ve been following you blog, and always come back when I am discouraged.
I am finally finally stick to ROM, during my year of going no-poo, I tried SOOOO many methods and gave up few times in between using SLS free shampoo, but it still not working well for me, it makes my hair greasy in just 2 days. I am just not happy washing with shampoo because my goal is to ditch chemical infused product altogether.
To be honest, I still have lots problems with my hair(dandruff,itchy and dry scalp,oily hair) but I am so much happier living with less chemical in my life. I’ve been abusing my hair for so many years, I dont expect it to become great over night.
So one day, my hair still to feel itchy and oil but I got so tired to be washing every other day, so I told my hair,”you know what, I am not gonna wash you.” So I waited for 6 days until I can feel a layer of oil covering my scalp, I washed. It took sooo long for my hair to dry, about 8 hours but its okay for me. I keep doing this for about 4 cycles and switch to washing every wed and sunday. I washed yesterday and I realized my hair dries faster than better, I am so happy with this breakthrough!! I am gonna keep doing this and hopefully the oil production can reduce to what I hope because some part of my hair still a little oily after washing.
– dandruff appear less, still some.
– itchiness postponed
– hair dry faster
Anyway, thank you for the inspiration on doing the ROM.
this is great to hear ellis! thanks for sharing 🙂 do you have any cool tips you can share?