RHASSOUL CLAY HAIR WASH

I’m afraid I didn’t manage to take any photos this morning as I didn’t have very much time to do my first clay hair wash, once I’d finished other things like the laundry. As it was, we ended up having a rather late lunch!

Late night preparations for the hair wash

Last night before I went to bed, I followed Katherine’s instructions and applied the scalp oil, and then quite a liberal amount of castor oil to the length of my hair, making it quite oily. I made four loose braids as instructed, but my hair is so thin that I think next time I shall easily be able to get away with making only two. Each of Katherine’s four braids were about as thick as mine when I do a single braid! Oh, for thick hair like I had in my 20s and 30s… Hopefully these techniques will help restore its former glory!

I probably went a bit over the top with the protection aspect of this, not wanting any oil to transfer to my bedding! I did follow Katherine’s directions, and after pinning the braids on the top of my head, I put on a plastic shower cap, followed by my microfibre hair turban. This has a habit of unwinding and coming loose, so I covered the whole thing with a sleep cap. I thought I was well enough protected not to need to put a towel over the pillow, and duly went to bed.

Everything stayed put really well, and there was no oil on the pillow in the morning. In fact, when I unwrapped it all, my hair didn’t feel nearly as greasy as I’d expected, because much of the treatment had been absorbed, which is what is meant to happen.

The DIY conditioner as hand cream

Once I was in bed, I applied the DIY conditioner on my hands, rubbing it well into my nails. This stuff is amazing. It was absorbed pretty quickly, leaving my hands dry, and with no trace of the greasiness that so many hand creams leave. My skin felt really soft. It smells nice, too! I’ve got a lot of it, and because it is made with natural ingredients, it may not keep for long, so I’m keeping it in the fridge.

Getting prepared

This took quite a long time because certain bottles needed opening for the first time (why is everything always SO difficult to open these days?!!) and I had to go downstairs a couple of times to get things that I’d forgotten. In future I shall be a lot better organised and it will be quicker.

I am used to laying everything out ready for any process, partly because my mum always taught me, when cooking, that it is best to get out all the ingredients before you start. If you don’t, you may suddenly discover that half-way through, you haven’t got a vital ingredient! Also, it is sometimes necessary to do something quickly, and you need it right to hand, rather than having to rummage around trying to find it. In addition, the stoma nurse at the hospital taught me that when I am doing a bag change, I need to lay out everything I need before I start. Nothing worse than Kermit (my stoma) misbehaving himself and I’m still cutting his bag, or trying to get the wipes out of the drawer…

So I laid everything out before I started my hair wash.

I mixed up the Rhassoul clay in a glass jug, using a plastic spoon. Apparently if you use metal, it can cause a chemical reaction which reduces the benefits of the clay. Katherine likes to make a very sloppy mix, and this was very liquid indeed, and there was far more than I needed, so next time I shall halve the quantities. Her hair is much thicker and longer than mine, and very curly. As directed, I used equal parts of water and aloe vera juice, and added some rosemary essential oil. I decanted just under half into an applicator bottle and added some peppermint oil, and this would be for applying directly to my scalp.

I got my apple cider vinegar rinse ready – a little vinegar diluted with water in a plastic jug that I put in the shower ready. I also put my pot of DIY conditioner ready in the shower.

I managed to get the clay liquid onto my scalp with the applicator bottle, and massaged it in well, without disturbing the braids. Dipping the braids in the remaining clay liquid in the jug made an awful mess, so next time I shall definitely stand the jug in the basin, which should help! There was clay splashed everywhere!! This added to the time everything took, because I had to clean up afterwards!

I think I shall make my clay liquid thicker next time. I’ve kept what was left in the jug (quite a bit) and the clay has settled to the bottom, but it hasn’t gone solid and can be stirred to suspend it in the liquid again. I’m going to cover it with cling film and if it’s still good, I shall use it again – I’ll keep an eye on it. The only reason it may go off is the aloe vera juice in it, which of course is a plant-based product.

I rinsed the clay out of my hair in the shower. Someone mentioned to me that Rhassoul clay can clog your drains, but there was actually so little on my hair that it didn’t seem to make any difference from normal. I repeated the dunking of the braids in the jug of clay, and rinsed again. Katherine didn’t specify when to undo the braids, but I did it at this point. I put on loads of my DIY conditioner which felt really slick, and used the vinegar rinse. The final step was a cold water rinse, and I was done.

I gently squeezed out as much water as possible and didn’t attempt to do any detangling because the hair is much weaker when wet. I wrapped it in a towel to soak up the bulk of it. At this point I applied some jojoba oil to the ends to seal in the moisture, and then put on my microfibre hair turban.

By the time I’d had my shower and done everything else that needed doing, my hair was damp but not dripping. I tied it very loosely in a low ponytail with a scrunchy so that it wouldn’t get in the food while I was preparing lunch, and I let it dry naturally during the afternoon. Once it was dry I detangled it with my fingers and then brushed it with the natural bristle brush.

Washing the brush

Before using it on my newly-washed hair, I needed to clean the brush. I’d done a bit of research online on how to clean antique brushes, and made up a solution of washing soda in warm water in the basin. I dunked the bristles up and down in this, taking care not to get the roots of the bristles and the body of the brush wet. The water instantly became quite dirty. I repeated the process with two or three successive baths of cold water and nothing further came out. I placed the brush bristles-side down onto a towel in the airing cupboard so that it would be ready to use when my hair was dry.

That process seemed to work very well.

I am going to do this on a weekly basis so that it gets cleaned between hair washing. Natural bristle brushing acts like dry shampoo, removing debris, lint and other dirt, and any naturally shedding hairs (not broken hairs) while distributing the natural sebum throughout the length of the hair. Before reseaching any of this, I had no idea that brushing was anything to do with cleaning – I thought it was for detangling. The brushing is not for detangling as this would tend to cause breakage; the detangling is done first, and then the lengthy 100-stroke brushing, which is immensely soothing and enjoyable. I envy those ladies of past generations who had a maid to do it for them! What bliss it must have been, to have this done, and then to braid the hair loosely, or perhaps have it tied up in its curling rags, and go to bed. Very relaxing.

The result

My hair does feel very soft and moisturised. There is no irritation, and no residue. I am happy to report that neither the clay, nor the fenugreek in the scalp oil, seem to have stained my hair; this may be because I used so little clay, and I didn’t leave it in contact with my hair for a long time, as many people do, using it as a hair mask.

I may try using kaolin in future; this is a white clay and very nourishing for the hair. There are several different clays you can use for hair washing, and you can blend them if you wish, as well.

It did feel a bit strange washing my hair with no shampoo, and no lather. It feels different from a post-shampoo wash – much less dry and fly-away, and I didn’t get that “squeaky clean” feel during the final rinse. It actually feels really great.

There wasn’t nearly as much shedding of hair during the process as there used to be with a standard shampoo wash; this is probably because I always did a lot of detangling while conditioning the wet hair.

My hair smelt lovely – a delicate suggestion of the fenugreek, with a hint of peppermint! Later, when I went up into the bathroom again, there was a lovely smell in there, too!

The whole process, even if it takes a lot longer than the standard “wash-and-go,” is much gentler, and does not strip your hair of its natural oils. This in itself if bound to make the hair stronger because it will be less brittle and likely to break.

Future plans

In addition to reducing the quantity of clay liquid and making it a bit thicker, and maybe using a different variety of clay, I am thinking that I need to trim the ends. They are getting pretty thin and ragged, and there are probably some split ends, although I couldn’t see any. I intend doing the trim at the beginning of next month, just before I measure it and do the next Inversion Method massage; this way I shall get an accurate measurement of how much the hair has grown in total this month.

As instructed by both Katherine and Curly Proverbz (who invented the scalp oil recipe), I am going to be using the scalp oil two or three times a week from now on, to encourage growth, both length and thickness. I shall next be applying it on Wednesday, and then on Friday this week. After this I shall see how it goes; if I am finding it is weighing my rather thin hair down too much, I shall use it only twice a week. In between, I shall use the clove and rosemary infusion on my scalp, alternating with a little jojoba oil with added rosemary essential oil, and apply jojoba oil to the ends.

Conclusion

I know this all sounds a huge amount of work for a hairwash, especially if you are a “wash-and-go” sort of gal, but I shall only be doing it once a month once I get into a routine next year. The next clay wash will be on the first Monday in January, and then on the first Monday of each succeeding month. There is also the additional work involved on a daily basis, with scalp massage either with the oil, or the clove and rosemary infusion, and the 100-stroke brushing with the bristle brush. Then there is the monthly Inversion Method treatment for one week out of four. However, I think this is well worth doing, if the numerous comments I have read are to be believed – in a few months’ time I should notice a dramatic difference in the quality and length of my hair.

I shall update my blog with occasional length updates, and the difference any changes in the washing routine make.