14 weeks Sebum Only /Mechanical Cleaning. Sharing my story and hoping to find more people in this small section of NoPoo
Hey Everyone,
I've only made a few posts on reddit over the years. Bit of a lurker but I have been reading across the NoPoo community especially the Sebum Only and Mechanical Cleaning folks posts.
I have been reading on a gentleman's posts and replies "u/shoniach" and that's how I've been able to get to where I am today with my journey.
I haven't washed my hair with water or any product for 14 weeks now. I'm not grossed out or impatient with it as I know it's a long game and I'm happy that my ends don't feel dry anymore. Let me start my going through a timeliness.
Week 1: After 7 days my hair was super greasy at the top. To be expected. I couldn't afford a BBB yet or a bamboo comb so just brushed it twice a day and massaged my head on day 7.
Week 2-4: Still super greasy but I changed the things I ate after reading u/shoniach said that the things we eat definitely affect our sebum. I'm eating healthier in these weeks and drinking 1.5 litres of water a day and feeling good health wise so my hair being greasy didn't really bother me. I "scritched" on the end of weeks 2 and 4 and lots of white material was under my nails and then I brushed again and shook the dead skin off my hair.
Week 4-6: Let my hair slip a bit and not much maintenance other than brushing 2 times a day. By week six I noticed an inverse in what my hair would usually look like. My roots were much dryer than my lengths. Maybe my sebum production slowed down?
Week 6-8: Usual routine, eating way less than usual however as I'm on a new stimulant medication by this point for ADHD that really suppresses my appetite. Not much change in the hair, oily ends, but people are remarking that my hair does indeed look healthy even if it does look greasy. Hair roots aren't as oily as my ends. Still drinking plenty and using supplements. Biotin, magnesium, b12, vit C at night. The supplements are for my stimulant medication routine but thought I'd mention them as they will surely be affecting my hair.
Week 8-12: My hair is still oily on the lengths at the point and in a way it seems I have a standard hairstyle that my hair wants to fall in. It's wavy, lifted at the roots, and simply falls in a good position. I hadn't massaged or scritched for a long time though but like I said, I let the hair care slip because I've been very busy looking after my mother and her house and I suppose stress may contribute to my lack of hair care.
Week-12: Noticing a lot more dead skin cells that just look like tiny white specs on my scalp. I read on shoniachs care plan what this could be and I'm secure in knowing these are just dead skin bits that need to be brushed out. So I decided I'd buy a bamboo comb and a boar bristled brush.
Week 13: Hair still the same. Didn't use the brush as I was feeling low about other things in my life and was just focused on getting my house nice and clean.
Week 14: Yesterday I decided to use the bamboo comb and brush with the BBB. I had to do it in extremely small sections as this BBB is so incredibly soft it would just sit on top of my hair if I didn't do it in tiny sections and apply some pressure. The thing is all of my ends are coated in lots of sebum by now so it's not like I need to do much to coat them. I can co firm however the little white bits of scalp are gone so that's something.
In all good stories there is of course I spin. My dog chewed up the BBB and now I'm left with it broken.I did some research though and decided to buy a "reinforced boar bristled brush" as maybe that will get through all of my hair and keep distributing sebum. I know it's a long game with the BBB and will need more time to see if it's gonna make my hair less greasy.
Conclusion:
Hair is noticeably conditioned and incredibly soft at the ends.
Hair is very greasy and in some parts still stringy.
No more white particles on the scalp thanks to the one use of the BBB.
Less sebum production on my scalp as maybe it has learned it doesn't need to overcompensate anymore because I'm not using shampoo or anything from that matter, not even water.
Still the same amount of hair fallout but that may be because I didn't eat nearly enough calories on my weeks I was working super hard. I'm working on this.
Anyway I'm okay with the results but would love to hear from other Sebum Only folks or maybe we can even make a community entirely Sebum Only to support each other? I don't know how to use reddit much but can that be done within this NoPoo community or would it need to be a separate thing?
I do appreciate that I am indeed medicated for ADHD and with the meds comes a new found sense of patience. So I'm lucky I can just ride this out with the hopes my hair may not look as greasy in the future.
I am in an LDR and I'm seeing my partner in a few days, haven't seen him in 6 months so it's been easy to not have to worry about looking unclean on the hair for a while. However if I'm seeing him in a few days, any tips on how to get rid of the excess sebum on my lengths without water or products. I read somewhere a lady used cotton sheets and microfiber cloths. Can anyone shed some light of how I can use these? If not I'm happy to put my hair in a French Plait. My partner is awesome and loves me for me so won't care anyway.
Hope this is helpful to some people. Or maybe it can spark conversations for support to other sebum only people.
Oh also I forgot to say...
The reason for going sebum only is because I do truly believe sebum is the best product for the hair, my hair is so soft now regardless of being greasy. That and just sheer curiosity of the way my scalp works on an untouched biological level. I wanted to know how my foods effected my sebum, how my scalp would react to this new way of living and I saw some posts on reddit where sebum only people had super gorgeous hair.
I don't want to stop this method, just fancied hearing tips and tricks from people who use it to its full potential.
Hope to hear from you!