So. Rye flour has been used as a dry shampoo for ages and I’ve known about that but this winter I found out how to use it as a replacement for regular shampoo. I’ve now used it for about 2 months and it works really well, after washing my hair is not the least bit dirty-looking and it gave some more volume than after using regular shampoo-conditioner combo (which made my hair flat). Well, at least after the first few tries it worked like a dream, after that it’s been less Agent Scully-like and more a week in a beanie. I did some googling and found that rye flour apparently washes hair a bit too well (it got saponins, like birch leaves, another shampoo replacement I’ve used) and it’d be better to use it alongside something like lemon or honey-aloe vera water so the hair doesn’t get too dry. I’ve yet to try it, so I have no experience about it now, will keep you posted. Also I use rye to wash my hair once or twice a week with washing with just water during the days between if needed, and once a week or longer seemes to be the habit in the blogs I used for info, so it’s not recommended to use it every day (as the point of u no poo-life is to wash hair less often than with shampoo).

Now, more about the practical aspects of how to use rye flour. It can be used as a dry shampoo like I said earlier, but that turned out to be pretty hard to get out of hair (it was my first time with dry shampoo) and there was flour dust everywhere after I tried it, but it gave some super volume, so I think I could use it again in summer before going to somewhere so I can brush my hair outside. The other way to use it is to mix it with water until a nice paste that can be put on head (I use about 1 rye:3 water). I use 2 teaspoons of rye because my hair is relatively short and very thin so that’s enough to wash mine. This is also time consuming to get out of hair, even when my hair type is the type of thin I’d be bald if I was a guy, so don’t try it in a rush (I wash my hair before going to sauna, then comb my hair while in sauna). I have also tried a mix of the dry and wet methods, which is getting my hair wet and then using dry flour. This seemes to give a nice volume at least for tonight. We’ll see how it develops (it’s a bit itchy at the moment).