If its meant to be rinsed out with water, it’s probably not for me. If its kept to a dry routine that’s combed out, looks ok. Here’s why. 🙂

(Read till the end for my updated hair powder recipe)

Any method you chose will come with its downsides, and while some downsides should be avoided at all costs if you want to have floor-length hair, others are annoying at most and are manageable. This is what I’ve learned from using modern shampoos as well as traditional methods. Both have their pros and cons and it’s a matter of what matters to you most. Are you ok with the damage from modern haircare, or are you ok with the time and effort required for historical haircare?

Most modern shampoos strip the oil and zap my already dry, fine hair, requiring any conditioners to work overtime to get all that moisture back into the hair. I’m not saying this from copy-pasting the internet; I have way too much first-hand experience with the horrors of this, and it had left my hair years ago unhealthy, despite just how long it had gotten. It was demoralizing. If you want to see what that looked like, go back to my first couple of posts and you can see how damaged it had become. My skin is the same way, it cannot stand the use of modern soaps because it is also prone to becoming dry. So when I tried looking for other ways of getting clean without the dryness problem, and without avoiding bathing altogether (that’s a story in and of itself), I was happy to find traditional methods of hair powders that used plants and clays.

Traditional haircare, on the other hand, has its own downsides, notably being odd hair textures or higher upfront “costs” (time, skill, experimentation, preparation). This can mean residues that, while not damaging and that solve a lack of volume, may be hard to get used to. Still, sometimes residues are intentional and are needed, like waxy residues that seal my hair and skin. The thing is, it can be tricky knowing what kinds of plants and clays to use if a) you are learning it for the first time, and b) you’re using resources by other women who have hair texture different from yours. Seeing it took Katherine Haircare several years to figure out just the clay wash for her own unique and lovely hair, I went into things knowing for certain I wouldn’t get great results for a while.

However, I also knew that by the way clay washing works that, even if I was left with a bunch of residue in my hair, that the hair would not have been destroyed by that mistake. Although, not getting it all out can feel scary the first few times it happens, as the residue tricks your fingers’ ability to tell if the stiffness and dryness is actually your hair or is just the clay coating them. Very fortunately, it often was just the latter.

For the past year I’ve been documenting my journey back to super long hair and it goes only as fast as the hair grows, not surprisingly. I started this blog in September of 2025, which means that I’ve been at it for about 12 months now. Seeing that number on the page just surprised me, to be honest. I didn’t realize it’s been that long! At the time of initially drafting this post I was 7 months into the journey and my hair had grown 3 inches since the original 2.5in estimate (the result of both growth and search-and-destroy trims). Now at 12 months its starting to touch the back of my neck and shoulders. Yay!

This change in scalp oil production has led to an interesting situation when using clays. My hair and skin have always been prone to dryness, and often overcompensation with oil, hence dry yet greasy. While I’m not using things that dry out the hair anymore, I still need to make sure that my hair gets back what it needs when it’s low. Clay doesn’t strip the hair, but it can be a bit too strong if the wrong clay is used.

I admittedly did a beginner mistake and used Bentonite instead of Rhassoul or Kaolin when making my own clay hair powder recipe–you can still see that mistake in the original post. Still, even knowing my mistakes and moving forward with the fixes, I’ve found clay washing when using water to be difficult. Not to mention the risk of clay clogging your drain if you don’t use a mixing bowl or bucket under your head (a few times won’t do this if you do it correctly, the amount of clay in the rinse mixture should be quite runny and minimal).

Kaolin is what’s in the pre made hair powder I regularly used in 2025, and which had been part of my no-water routine. In 2026 I have entirely switched to my own hair recipe, albeit clay-less. I’ve gone no-water because with how fine my hair type is, I find I struggle with making a rinse solution where it doesn’t get full of buildup. And since my scalp now doesn’t produce much oil, I don’t see why I’d now need to use something so effective. Again, clay does not strip your scalp, but if you tend to be on the low-oil side anyways, this may be too much as you want that little bit of oil.

That said, I am just sticking to using a dry powder and combing routine to clean my hair. It’s a mechanical method that you already see in traditional techniques, often just by itself for smoothing and detangling but also alongside cornstarch -based powders for extending time between baths. Note: Always use combs and brushes that are clean; see my list for the little black brush cleaner, it works for combs too.

I have found that if I use just a little bit of powder and comb it out all the way, not leaving much to any on my scalp, by the time I do need a rinse to remove sweat or mulch powder or dirt or deep-shelf dust (anyone working in home-improvement retail knows what this last one is, it’s awful), I don’t have any problems because there isn’t any clay or powder to get gunky under the shower. As soon as there is any leftover clay, though, whether left there by forgetting to comb enough, or intentional introduction for a clay-wash rinse, it’s very difficult to get out of the hair without vinegar, something I’ve also not been successful at using.

Do I think I could eventually get clays to work? Sure, I could, eventually. However, I find combing out dry powder more preferable, as time-intensive as that may be upfront. Unlike the clay rinse, I know I can get it all out of my hair with the method I have, and I’ve had the best success mechanically cleaning my hair with combs and brushes and powders, so I think going forward this is what I’ll do.

Updated Hair Powder Recipe

Here is the current recipe I use for Daily hair powdering, even if I don’t apply literally daily.

• Wheat flour (all purpose baking flour), 4/5ths total volume
• Amla
• Maca
• Ginger
• Cinnamon

Hope to share a more proper photo update of my hair length soon (long overdue)!