Recently, Time ran an article featuring Adina Grigore, author of  Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin. Grigore advocates washing your face with water only, and rinsing your hair with beer. Naturally, that piqued our interest here at VinePair. We put our friend Hannah to the test, making her wash her hair with only beer (that means no shampoo or conditioner) for six days straight. Here’s what happened.

Day One

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: My hair feels all right, but is actually slightly oilier than normal after the first wash. It dried straighter than normal. Also, my hair is snowing like Christmas morning.

Our thoughts: Hannah’s hair looks pretty much the same as usual, but we do notice a particular greasiness at the top. Additionally, her naturally wavy hair looks quite straight.

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Day Two

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: It looks like my hair is less oily after the second wash, but is still drying straighter than normal. One downside is that my scalp is still so flaky I have to wear a hat.

Our thoughts: In this shot, Hannah’s hair definitely looks stick-straight, particularly around the sides of her face. From the back, the hair looks so moist, we were shocked to realized it was actually completely dry in this photo. That definitely doesn’t bode well for the “grease” factor of the beer treatment.

Day Three

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: Once again, the hair is less oily but drying straight. When I was rinsing it in the shower, it smelled like a frat house – in a bad way. It reminded me of the college parties I’ve come to regret.

Our thoughts: Although still straight, Hannah’s hair looks oddly pouffier here.

Day Four

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: My hair is still progressively less oily and more straight. Flakes are still present.

Our thoughts: We’re noticing a nice wave creep in, and the “wet” look of the hair is definitely fading.

Day Five

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: I’m almost rid of the dandruff and oil! My hair is also exceptionally straight today.

Our thoughts: This is closest, so far, to what Hannah’s hair looks like normally. However, we’re seeing that the hair looks very set in place, giving it kind of a dull, wig-like appearance.

Day Six

We washed our hair with beerHannah’s notes: After having pretty flaky hair for most of this experience, my dandruff finally calmed down on day six. I will say that my hair seems cleaner today.

Our thoughts: Although we saw a recognized a lack of oiliness, Hannah’s hair has now taken on a weird shape of being fitted at the top of the scalp while flared at the bottom. She did mention that she’d snapped this photo on a particularly humid day, which could account for some of the frizz.

All In All…

Hannah’s notes: My hair is definitely not as greasy as it would have been if I’d just washed it with water. I was also surprised to realize that never once this whole time did I end up smelling like beer. However, the costliness of this process combined with how much dandruff I got made the whole thing not worth it.

Our thoughts: Considering how expensive this experiment was, combined with the somewhat lackluster results, we wouldn’t recommend rinsing your hair with beer. If you use quality craft beer on your hair, you’ll end up having to spend nearly $50 a month on hair treatment, which is up there with a bottle of super pricy shampoo (which will probably last you longer). Plus, it saddens us to see all of that beer being poured down the drain. Our verdict? Drink your brews, don’t wash with them.