What Is The Makeup Of Plain Water

Back in October, I thought I'd try a no-'poo experiment only do it 1 further: no cleansers at all. No conditioners. No products, natural or otherwise. Just water.

I wanted to meet if water alone could keep my face, trunk, and hair clean. Here are the results of my two-month experiment.

In crunchy parlance, no-'poo refers to forgoing shampoo and conditioner to cleanse one's hair and instead using natural concoctions of blistering soda, apple tree cider vinegar, coconut oil, and the like. I'd already been doing no-'poo or low-'poo for years in Curly Girl terms, which means, literally, no shampoo merely yet plenty of conditioner (known as co-washing).

I was happy with my electric current hair regimen, only I was curious to endeavor the crunchier methods. I sort of figured that since I hadn't used harsh shampoos in my pilus for years that I already had a good oil level in my pilus, and I was skeptical that any other no-'poo routine would serve me meliorate than the conditioner routine I already had set up. But I do love me an experiment (and potentially making myself miserable). And since I was going to experiment, I thought I'd get-go get-go with water-simply, since that intrigued me even more. Nothing crunchier than patently water, right?

How to cleanse with water but

Here'south the thing: Soap and detergent have a purpose. Soap acts as an emulsifier, and detergent breaks the surface tension of water, both of which, essentially, permit water and oil to mix, and thereby let the dirty greasiness on your body be washed away. Or, as Beakman's World helpfully and catchily taught me, soap makes h2o wetter.

I point this out but to show that: (a) I don't have anything against cleaning agents. They do a job, and they make life easier. Because: (b) If you don't use soap or detergent, y'all'll want to apply some other method of making the h2o go rid of the things you're trying to clean off your torso. Namely: friction.

Here was my routine for water-simply washing in the shower:

Stand up under warm water spray and get pilus and body wet.
Scrub scalp with pads of fingertips.
Use broad-tooth comb to go off any extra expressionless skin and assistance pull scalp oils through hair.
Use washcloth to scrub trunk, paying shut attention to scrubbing and rinsing traditionally scent-prone areas (armpits, crotch, anxiety, yum) and anywhere dead peel tends to build up and get itchy (legs, for instance).
For my face, I normally just rinsed. Honestly, I've been doing water-only washing of my face for a couple years now, so I already knew that worked fine. Sometimes I do a footling oil cleansing, simply I skipped information technology for this experiment. I have acne, and I'd already constitute that less is more when it comes to cleansing my face.
For shaving … well, I'm fine with water-only shaving, really. I unremarkably exercise that, or shave dry. And by "oft," I mean, I don't shave that frequently. And particularly non in the winter when I was doing this experiment. You'll have to decide what you're comfortable with in that location.
Rinse well.

(I will bespeak out that I connected to use whatever soap was available to wash my easily throughout the mean solar day. I know water-only plus friction tin piece of work to kill bacteria, but frankly, I didn't want to chance it.)

Pros of water-only cleansing

There was a freedom in stepping into the shower with admittedly no need for products. It felt almost gleeful, this complete divorce from our culture'southward obsession with Products to Make You Clean. I could belittle at all the commercials, because I had something no one had to sell me: water. Just tap water and elbow grease.

It alerted me to the possibilities for travel and camping. If you ever forget your toiletry handbag or the airline loses your luggage, no worries. If y'all're out in the wilderness and don't want to pollute the stream, then don't. But scrub, rinse, done. (Now, when you're traveling, you might actually care how you await, who'south going to run into y'all, and what pictures are being taken, and so that could limit your insouciance about water-only cleansing unless information technology's a brusque trip.)

Water-only washing is very gentle on your pare and scalp. I didn't need whatever sort of moisturizing, because my natural oils were immune to stay put.

My body and hair were clean. I desire to add some sort of qualifier to "clean," similar "technically" or "pretty much." More on that subsequently, merely here I'll just say that the basic standards of hygiene were being met. I had no visible dirt, my pilus looked like hair (albeit a bit limper), I didn't become sick, I didn't become an invasion of fleas or annihilation. I was hygienically acceptable. Clean (ish).

I already knew it was theoretically possible to be clean with water-simply washing, because it'south how we've washed our kids. Mikko and Alrik are both water-only washers for their bodies, and though I had to graduate Mikko early on to conditioner-washing with his mop o' hair, Alrik's pilus (such as it is) still just gets a rinse in the tub. They're both clean (right after a bathroom, anyhow!) and non-smelly (barring obvious reasons they might periodically become smelly again). Their peel is soft and healthy. We never need to put moisturizer or other creams on them, and they never complain of itchiness or the like. In short, I already had a bully experiment in them to show me that h2o-but washing is a win … for those of us who have not striking puberty and/or don't care what their hair looks like.

Those terminal two points were the rub, and why I eventually stopped.

Downsides, and why I stopped

Equally for puberty, fifty-fifty though, every bit I've said, Mikko and Alrik are never smelly despite a weekly or so water-only bath, I found that I was. Not just subsequently I showered, but shortly thereafter. I'one thousand not used to smelling trunk aroma on myself and my clothes, so I'grand guessing that usually soap holds that at bay for me. Water-only washing was just non as effective at long-term cleanliness — or, I judge, technically, long-term unsmelliness.

Presentable, but not inspiring.

My hair was make clean enough, just it was never great. The oils weren't overwhelming, merely they were present, weighing downward my locks, and seriously, my hair doesn't demand help being limp. It pulled out the wave and any volume. I don't know that anyone else would have noticed the difference, just I could see the subtle sheen of oils near the scalp, and information technology just wasn't my favorite look. Second-twenty-four hours (or further-twenty-four hours) pilus was a large miss and needed to only exist pulled back or upwards afterwards using a natural-bristle brush to try to move some of the oils down the hair length. By the end of the experiment, I was feeling quite discouraged with how I looked, and it was messing with my cocky-conviction about going out in public. (That's when I knew it was time to move on.)

The biggest blow to water-only washing was how ungreen it was. I know — that was the big reason I wanted to try it! And my conclusions were that it was worse for the environs (for me). I typically shower every 3-iv days, and my showers last presumably a short to normal amount of time. I take my routine down pretty well, and I accept people waiting for me, so I don't dally. With conditioner washing my pilus and using organic soap to launder my torso, taking brief showers twice a calendar week or and so is perfect for me. I'g clean, my hair is manageable, I'm unsmelly.

With water-only, I institute myself getting antsy to shower once more after simply a 24-hour interval. After all, I smelled. My hair was limp. My legs were itchy. And when I'd become in the shower, I'd stay in much longer than you'd think necessary for water-only ablutions, trying to make sure I scrubbed and rinsed every bit much of the grease, smell, and dead skin away every bit I could to make the shower'south furnishings last longer. I couldn't help but realize I was using much more than h2o than earlier, and how could using several times more water exist better for the environment than using dabs of organic conditioner and shampoo?

I'll point out, too, that if you've been using conventional shampoos and switch cold turkey to h2o-only, you'll likely have a detox-type flow where your scalp will be pumping out oils (as information technology'due south been taught to past the harsh shampoos, to replenish what they've been stripping), and simply several weeks in will the production level out.

I'chiliad guessing everyone'south experience of water-simply washing volition be different. I've read from people with thick or unruly hair that they similar the extra weight the grease gives. I'd imagine that a curt haircut such as on a typical Western male person might practise simply fine, or also, very long and thick hair, whereas with my hair, being of a normal weight and at a middling length, it simply pulled out the wave and fabricated information technology await pretty blah.

I'd imagine other people have different tolerance levels, likewise, for (a) how often they shower (if you already shower every day, y'all'd probably non discover much of a difference switching to water-merely) and (b) how much they smell (I was surprised that I smelled as much every bit I did, though Sam said he didn't notice it; I was too embarrassed to ask anyone else!).

Conclusions and recommendations

Ok, these are my opinions, based on my experience with the experiment.

For kids, absolutely give water-merely washing a go. It makes things easy and keeps their skin good for you and soft. It works perfectly well, for at present, for our kiddos. Mikko does sometimes luxuriate in a bubble bathroom now, only because he discovered the fun of bubbling, but I appreciate that their peel isn't regularly beingness stripped of harmless oils at their historic period. Depending on your kids' hair type (thickness, cut, fashion), y'all can effort water-only there as well, or you could do some gentle conditioner washing.

For face up, definitely endeavor a gentle water-merely wash, specially if you're acne-decumbent or have other skin weather. Despite having greasy skin, I find not using cleansers doesn't increment the grease level — quite the opposite. If you use makeup, try to switch to all-natural brands that won't clog pores or hurt your peel if it doesn't all get rinsed off, such as a natural mineral makeup. (I like Everyday Minerals.)

For hair, I next tried the crunchy no-'poo of baking soda and vinegar, which I promise to write near. But (spoiler alert), I still adopt my conditioner-washing method or using Jessicurl's curl-friendly shampoo and other products (giveaway coming soon, I swear; I dearest this line!).

For body, well, at that place'due south a reason soap was invented! I'm back to cleansing with actual cleansers, and I no longer scent. Woo!

Have you lot ever experimented with h2o-only washing or other culling cleansing methods? What do you recommend?

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