water washing

2021 edit: i no longer subscribe to or support the “all-natural” label. more here.

welcome back to SKIN WEEK! day TWO! & yep, you read that title correctly. i’ve ditched my castile soap body wash. i’ve gone more hippie than i ever thought i’d go!

*cue confusion*

water-only washing (don't be scared!)

first, let’s get one thing straight – I STILL SHOWER! okay. let’s go-

why switch to water-only washing? or at least try?

skin’s ph is normally acidic, ranging in ph values of 4–6, while the body’s internal environment maintains a near-neutral ph (7–9). this creates a steep ph gradient of 2–3 units between the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of skin, consisting of dead or peeling cells) and underlying epidermis and dermis. the physiologic role of an acidic skin surface is to be a defense mechanism against invading organisms. it has been demonstrated that several key enzymes involved in the synthesis and maintenance of a competent skin barrier are largely impacted by ph. soap cleansers are typically alkaline in nature (ph 10), and have a higher potential to irritate skin (source). [and since we’ll be getting into acne-based subjects later in the week, note this for future reference – acne flourishes well at ph values between 6 and 6.5, and is drastically reduced at ph values less than 6. what does that mean? do. not. use. soap. on. your. face. OCM, anyone?!] the stratum corneum makes up a very thin, slightly acidic film called the “acid mantle” that is secreted from the skin’s sebaceous (oil) glands. this is the barrier that prevents unwanted materials (bacteria, viruses, contaminants) from entering, and excessive loss of water from exiting the body. when we wash with soap, the acid mantle is stripped away, leaving the skin and body vulnerable (source).

*i do NOT have issues with organic soaps. i actually have a slight obsession with buying them that i’m trying to curb…. as in, i currently have 7 bottles of dr bronners liquid castile soaps sitting in my room because those are the ones that haven’t even been used yet. i keep finding them on sale! seriously…

20130425_144732#1 20130603_142004

what to do instead:

water-only washing! i already water-only wash my face on the days between the OCM method, so going soap-free for my body wasn’t a big deal to me personally. i knew i’d be okay.

so how do i do it?

pull my hair up (i do NOT get it wet in the hot water. heat damage is heat damage. doesn’t matter if it’s water or a blow dryer)
run a pretty warm/hot-ish shower
let the water run all over my body for a couple minutes (feels so relaxing!). i honestly just spin around very slowly.
grab my washcloth, wet it, and scrub, scrub every inch of my skin!
spin around again in the water
turn the water to “cool” and rinse off my body, helping to close my pores

…and that’s my shower! very uneventful. & i only wash my hair every 2ish weeks now, so showers are very short and i save lots of water! woohoo!

i think mixing water and some EOs of your choice would be great, too! you’d get the benefits of water washing, with the smell-goods of the EOs. sounds like a WIN in my book!

your skin (as with no-‘poo & the OCM) will need time to normalize and learn to take care of itself.

also, you HAVE to eat properly and get enough water. that drastically impacts your smell. i can tell from my armpits when i’ve strayed from my organic foods or ate a lot of red meat. sorry if that’s tmi. welcome to my blog! haha.

how it’s been so far:

honestly, pinky promise- pretty well!! i don’t stink to high heaven or anything (which i’m sure would be the #1 question if i didn’t explicitly state it, haha).

but, my upper back broke out at first. i’m not sure if that’s because washing up there without a back brush thing is pretty darn difficult to scrub, or what. but with dry brushing and using apple cider vinegar (posting on both for SkinWeek; don’t worry), it’s okay now. i’d say it took about a week and a half for it to get its stuff together. but to me, it was worth it to be able to be even more crunchy than i ever though i’d be!

no, i don’t water-only shave. or dry shave. but i will let you in on my shaving things tomorrow!

i know water-only washing isn’t even remotely an option for some. my matt is a mechanic and there’s no way in the boohockey he could do this. he comes home covered in car grease. but oh, i love a hard workin’ man… 😉 we’ll be talkin about soaps later today!

ok. let’s talk armpits & private parts…SKIP THIS SECTION if it’s TMI!

SERIOUSLY.

you may totally skip this part, but i know some people are probably wondering how the heck it’s all staying clean and not smelly. i for one scoured for other people’s experiences with these bits and going soap-free. i’m going to assume that if i was worried about it, chances are i’m not the only one. so here goes the TMI section of this post-
i already make my own deodorant, and found i smell AND sweat WAY less than i used to. i give my armpits a twice-over with the washcloth to clean them, and they’ve been okay! promise! if i miss showering one day, i’m not terribly stinky, even in this heat & humidity. okay…. about private parts… i was raised to keep that stuff private. so naturally i’ll tell you about it (if you’re a coworker/family member/etc, stop reading NOW. i order you! haha). i was terrified of how water-only washing was gonna go. absolutely terrified. i alternated every other wash between my castile soap mix and water only, doing that about 3-4 times each before i abandoned soap altogether… and it honestly hasn’t been terrible in the slightest. as every female should know, soaps shouldn’t be down there in the first place (guilty as charged). it’s way too delicate of a place to be stripped down with soaps. i was really paranoid everyone around me would know i’m not using body wash in general, and this one area only magnified my paranoia. but honestly ladies (& guys, too i guess!), it’s fine. everything’s fine and dandy! partner approved! haha. oh goodness. please don’t unfollow my blog now, haha! i did warn you… so Your fault!

TMI OVER! it’s safe to read now…

besides you awesome readers, those that know me personally know my hippie ways all too well. at first some were horrified/disgusted, and others were really genuinely intrigued. either way, by embarking on my crunchy lifestyle, i’ve found that i don’t care what anyone else thinks because i’m doing this for ME and MY health. right? 🙂 they can keep their sulfates & parabens. i’ll keep my water & coconut oil!

generally speaking though, if anyone knocks your crunchy lifestyle, don’t worry. those close-minded people are the ones that have ZERO idea of what they’re really putting on their skin, in their bodies, and the REAL dangers of it all.

anyone out there who’s ditched soap? or tried it for a bit? or even interested? haha. what do you think??

signature

2021 edit: i no longer subscribe to or support the “all-natural” label. more here.

so i’m terrible at updating you guys apparently. sowwy ❤

this post is gonna be much longer than my past updates, but it’s honest. please keep in mind i’m still a HUGE fan of water-only washing when you read this! it seems like i’m discouraged (kind of) BUT i’m sticking to my guns!

rinseonlymethod

one more thing….

……

………….

i only took a few pictures… IM SORRY! and they were from before my first wash and after my last. i was in the shower thinking “i can finally update people….cool! ….CRAP I DIDNT TAKE PICTURES!”

meh.

ok, so let’s see what i’ve been doin:

– used my bbb like it’s my job
– didn’t wet my hair between water-only washes
– washed my hair with ONLY water on 6/10 (last wash was 5/24)
– used my dry shampoo last weekish
– washed with water ONLY day before yesterday, 6/19 cuz it was getting oily
– washed my hair with ONLY water last night, 6/20

before my first wash ^

so this time around was really weird….

i water-only washed for the first that monday night. to “wash” my hair, i stood under the warm shower water and rubbed my scalp all over in small circles. after i was out and my hair air dried, i only had that clumpy grease feeling in the back of my hair. so i thought “whatever. i’ll just rinse better next time and my scalp can deal with itself…” lol. i didn’t do anything about it.

then about 3 or 4 days later, my scalp was SO greasy. probably because my scalp was thinkin “hey, wanna ACTUALLY wash me now?!” … to which i naturally replied, “nope.”

so before i went to bed, i used my bbb for twice as long as i usually do. then i woke up with less greasy hair. thanks, bbb ❤ it was still on the gready side, so i used a TINY amount of dry shampoo. then i went about my life, loving how low maintenance and hippie my hair is for the next 3ish days. then i REALLY needed to do something. i’m quite certain that greaseball head doesn’t scream “i’m successful at life” in the office. so, i used dry shampoo before work and went about my day with voluminous hair.

then that day and the days after, i had SO many fly-aways. SO many. it looked like i just hadn’t brushed my hair in days (well. i hadn’t. but you know what i mean, right?). and to top it all off, my hair was getting that “heavy” feeling from the grease. so the day before yesterday, i broke down and washed with water only again…so about a week later, instead of 2.

the day after i washed (yesterday), my hair was SO greasy in the back. the front was golden. it was soft and grease-free. but the back….and the underside…. it looked like i put too much leave in conditioner in or something. idk. so what did i do? told my hair to deal with itself faster and threw it up in a bun. when i got home from work, i couldn’t take the grease anymore! iiiiiiii couldn’t take it. i think that says a lot, coming from the girl that wants to only wash her hair once every few weeks lol. so i gave in and washed it with only water again last night. it helped, but it’s still not where i want to be.

verdict- the FULL transition to water-only wasn’t as smooth as i thought. it might also have a lot to do with the fact that i love sleeping in summer weather. it drives my matt insane because he loves having a fan on him while he sleeps, and i’ll use a full on comforter in the middle of the summer. clearly from the grease ball i am, my scalp wasn’t my biggest fan the past couple weeks.

about “washing my hair”— guys. i didn’t realize how much work it’d be. haha. i was rubbing and rubbing and rubbing and rubbing… and my arms were getting tired, and my neck hurt because my hair was entirely too heavy. i had to ‘fold’ my hair over my shoulders to keep the weight off my neck while i tried to scrub my scalp with water lol. at one point, i got so fed up with it that i stopped and just stood there staring at my castile soap mix.

meme-angry_00283374

exactly how i felt in the shower last night

but i didn’t use it! i didn’t!

so here i am, total greaseball after washing 2 nights in a row, giving you Update 3. i’m not as frustrated as i was last night… just want the transition to be over with, ya know? 🙂

after my third water-only wash…blegh. the top is okay… the underside…grease city! wish me luck at work today!

but when i think about it, i haven’t washed my hair with any sort of no-poo in almost exactly 1 month! it’s been either nothing or water for almost 4 weeks. so i’m a little more okay with where i’m at.

anyone else still tryin to chug through that transition period? i’m right there with y’all!

signature

Tag: water washing

water-only washing

rinse-only method…. update 3!