Diamonds & Pebbles: Making A Case For Only Washing Hair With Water.

I have a question. Have you ever washed your hair with just water? Yes, just water. No shampoo, no conditioner, just plain old water? Before you start throwing tomatoes, hear me out because this is a fairly popular method.

For starters, washing with just water saves a hell of a lot of time because you’re not having to rinse out shampoo or conditioner. Other benefits include: your hair doesn’t lose its natural oils that can get stripped away in the usual washing process; you’ll save a lot of money, after all we all know how expensive products can be; and going cold turkey can give your hair and scalp the rest it may be in need of from drying shampoos and overzealous conditioners.

Now obviously there are downsides to washing your hair with just water. One being that your hair and scalp does not get the thorough clean that comes with shampooing and conditioning. Not cleaning your hair properly leads to product build-up which could have negative effects on your hair.

While I haven’t tried this exact method, I can attest to some of this logic. It was a few weeks ago on wash day when I was feeling especially lazy. I had started doing the reverse method by starting with my deep conditioner, but for some reason when it came time to rinse my hair, I didn’t want to/ couldn’t be bothered to reach for the conditioner and decided to rinse my deep conditioner out with just water! To my wonderment and utter surprise, I noticed my hair had never felt better. Maybe because the conditioner wasn’t able to interfere with all the hard work of the deep conditioner or because my hair was able to hold on to the deep conditioner for longer, my hair was a lot softer (and lasted a lot longer – nearly three days) and had a lot less knots than normal.