2021 edit: i no longer subscribe to or support the “all-natural” label. more here.
with this winter being one of the hardest in a long time, keeping my hair and skin moisturized has been at the top of my list!
since i only use water to wash my hair, i couldn’t use my beloved coconut oil on my scalp. but i still needed extra moisture! so what is a gal to do?
DIY her own scalp rinse. duh 😉
this rinse is for anyone battling a flaky, itchy, dry scalp at any point in time, using ANY hair washing method. it doesn’t matter if you’re no-poo, low-poo, clay ‘poo, water-only, etc… this rinse is safe to use!
what’s in this rinse?
- raw honey – acts as a humectant and draws in moisture
- undistilled alcohol-free witch hazel – soothes an irritated and itchy scalp and helps combat dryness (if you don’t use alcohol-free, it will dry out your scalp even more. it also needs to be undistilled to ensure the tannins are still present in the liquid)
- rose water – reduces inflammation and helps combat dryness
- distilled water
- pure aloe vera gel- great moisturizer and soothes itch (you can most certainly add this, but to store your mix in the shower, don’t use aloe. otherwise, store it in the fridge!)
- mix 1 1/4 cups of warm, distilled water with 1/2 tablespoon raw honey until the honey is mixed well into the water
- add 1 tablespoon alcohol-free witch hazel, 1/2 cup pure aloe, and 1 tsp rose water
- mix well and pour into a plastic squeezy bottle so it can be applied directly to your scalp
- after washing (whatever that may be for you) or wetting your hair, apply it to your scalp in sections, rubbing in for a few seconds in each spot.
- let it sit for a few minutes (5 to 10) and rinse well in cool water
voila!
this mix should be enough to use for 2 or 3 rinses. you may keep the rinse in a bottle in your shower for a couple weeks. no need to worry about anything spoiling (unless you added aloe)!
also, be sure to never wash or wet your hair in hot water! this will dry out both your hair and scalp, as well as cause typical heat damage to your strands!
now go give this rinse a try 🙂
almostexactlyblog.com 
I am in my second full month of water only, washing with only an egg every now and again. I’ve been doing ok…still somewhat greasier than I had hoped but definitely not as greasy as when I started no-poo. I do try to BBB as often as I can, however I feel like it makes my hair flakier than if I didn’t. Not sure if it’s dry scalp, sebum buildup, or both. I shall give this scalp rinse a try and see if that helps. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to settle into an every 3-4 day ROM bc I can’t seem to get past that stage without being super flakey. Thanks for your blog!!!
Alex, is there any substitute I can make for rose water or witch hazel?
Thanks!
Hey Alex, I was just wondering do you buy your rose water? Or do you make it? Thanks:)
I buy mine 🙂
Do you just it at an organic store or online? Have you ever thought about making it?
what can you replace rose water with?
Hello! I just picked up some raw honey and I’ve been using rose water as a hair spritz for scent so I already had that on hand. Would using the two together work out for my hair? I went from low ‘poo (shea moisture) to castille / acv, and both do okay but my hair still gets oily after the second day, and my scalp has been really flaky.
I’ve also heard about using honey as a shampoo, I was wondering.. have you tried it?
Thanks!
Hello! I thought this was such a good idea i wrote about this myself (with metric measurements) and linked to your blog. I hope that’s okay 🙂
Hi Alex, This post has come just at the right time. I have been using BS to wash my hair for 2 months now, with the ACV rinse after, but my scalp has got quite flaky. Its not itchy just flaky, so I am so happy that you have posted this recipe. Can I just ask, if using the ACV rinse, should this still be used, and if yes when? Before or after applying the honey/witch hazel/rose water mixture?
Many many thanks!
hey kim! use the scalp rinse after everything else 🙂 hope this helps!
I’m a WO washer as well (9 months!), and I’ve been scouring your blog over and over for two days trying to find a solution for my dry scalp so I was pretty ecstatic to see this post today! Talk about timing!
I have a question for you, though, because I’m running into a little issue. I think my scalp hasn’t adjusted to the amount of oil it needs to produce for my super thick, waist length hair (my original transition period was almost 3 months!). My roots get greasy after 3 or 4 days of no washing, but I’m still working on getting the sebum to the ends so I’m scared to wash it so soon. If I use a diy dry shampoo then I can go another week and a half (actually my hair usually looks really dry after a WO wash and amazing after a dry shampoo – odd), and then another if I dry shampoo again. I’m thinking it’s probably terrible for my scalp to use a dry shampoo that often… I try to use my BBB daily but sometimes I do forget.
Any tips?
hey AJ! thanks for reaching out! i hope this recipe helps ya. as far as WO advice, my saving grace was getting a shower head filter. also, try ditching the dry shampoo and just washing every 3 or 4 days if you need it, and wean off from there. the dry shampoo might be keeping your hair from adjusting past that time frame. any readers have any tips? 🙂 hope this helps!
Where can you get alcohol-free witch hazel?
Thayers has a few versions 🙂
Hi, I searched on the Thayers website. Do you mean the witch hazel toner? I can’t find something like ‘witch hazel extract’ or so. Thank you!
Hi Alex! Let me first start off by saying I love your blog! It has made my transition to being a crunchy girl so easy! My question is about no poo and water only washing. I went no poo about 5 weeks ago and started water only last week. But let me tell you MY HAIR IS STILL A GREASY MESS. I know you say it doesn’t work for everyone but when should I just throw in the towel? I really don’t want to and I’m trying to be patient but I’m always so greasy!
Thanks for the help 🙂
Kate
Thanks kate!! I totally understand what you’re going thru… it literally took mooonths for my hair to get it’s stuff together to go water-only and i was already no-poo. it’s frustrating! have you thought about trying to slowly wean off a natural wash? that way you won’t be greasy 24/7 and you can still try to get to water-only after some time. maybe you could do a clay wash once a week or so and see how that goes? 🙂 hope this helps!
That’s super helpful! What sort of natural wash would you recommend? I was doing the baking soda with ACV for about a month. And what kind of clay products do you use? I haven’t looked much into the clay thing so I don’t know anything about it!
Thank you!! :))
check out my post for the “holy grail shampoo”. it’s a bentonite clay and raw honey mix. you can also try an egg yolk wash for now if you don’t have those ingredients on hand 🙂