I sooooo wanted to be writing a more positive update absolutely raving about how amazing the water only hair washing method is and how I’m now a convert...  but sadly not.

I still have faith in this method, after all so many bloggers saying how their hair is incredible using this method can’t be wrong, right?!

My husband has also been washing his hair with water only and continues to do so.  The difference being his hair is 1-2 inches long, whereas mine is waist length.  He also has to wash it every single day to keep it clean and flake free. 

If you have short hair, then it’s definitely easier.  I read a newspaper article about a lady suggesting the WO method, but her hair was shorter than my husband's!  Easy peasy!

Let me tell you what happened with my hair and why I had to stop the no poo method for good.

To see why I decided to wash my hair with water only (yep, nothing else) read my first blog post here.

Why the 'no poo' method didn't work for my hair

After my 7 week update (click link at the beginning of this article) I gave in and washed with some Burt’s Bees baby shampoo.  The waxy build up was so much, no amount of scritching, preening, brushing, hot water, cold water, you name it, worked.  I decided to do a ‘refining’ wash to rid my hair of this grossness and see if it went away for good.

My hair was wonderful.  After being washed with a natural shampoo for the first time in 7 weeks it felt like never before.  Different to how it used to be when shampooed.  Soft, fluffy, light, lovely.  I couldn’t stop stroking it for days!  I truly believed this may have been all it needed and now I could be on my way to water only luscious locks.

Unfortunately after only two more weeks, so 9 weeks in to my challenge, the yucky waxy build up was back.  It just wouldn’t shift.  I imagine if your hair is only 1-2 inches long then this stuff is a LOT easier to wash out in the shower.  But in my super long hair the water alone is not enough to make it budge.  It’s needs something to lift it and slide it out of the hair!  It was like a magnet for dust and grime and super waxy to touch, as opposed to greasy.

I almost gave up, but Ben persuaded me not to after coming so far.  I decided to stick with natural and no ‘poo and washed in eggs!  Yep raw mixed together eggs!  I poured it over my wet hair in the shower and used as I would shampoo.  I was slightly worried I’d come out with white egg bits all over my head if it cooked in the warm shower!!  Luckily no eggy head or weird eggy smell after, but my hair wasn’t that amazing either and the annoying wax build up returned quicker than ever.

Why I had to give up on water-only hair washing

I stuck it out another two weeks, reaching 11 weeks in total.  At 11 weeks I suddenly had an interview for a new job so that day decided I had better wash my hair!  I’m not sure they’d have approved of my flaky wax roots!

So there we go.  After washing it with natural baby shampoo for a second time, I decided to give up as I just know the wax would have come straight back should I have tried water-only hair washing again.

I believe the reason for the waxy stuff is our water.  We live in a hard water area so our water has a lot of minerals and basically crap in it.  The build up on my roots could be a build up of these minerals.  Another blogger I spoke to on Twitter recently (who has been doing water-only for one year, go her), told me her hair is always amazing in soft water areas in Europe.  I did buy a filter for our shower, but we guess it’s just not working.  It was £30 from eBay, so perhaps too cheap to be any good!  A whole house one starts from around £600, so a bit out of our budget at the moment for something that may not work.

No poo didn't work for me

So there it is.  My failed water only hair washing experiment.  I shall, however, continue to wash my hair only in natural shampoo and I’m attempting to wash only once per week.  I used to wash every day, so 52 times instead of 365 times is a lot better for the environment.  Hopefully one day we’ll have soft water and I can try again.