After seeing the discussion on another thread ( https://umd.net/forums/flour-and-water ) about how to use Flour and Water, I decided to try some experiments. I'm a scientist, after all.

There were two strategies posted on the thread - mix in oil, or put on conditioner first. There were also comments about long hair vs. short hair.

I made up two batches. I started with equal parts warm water and flour, but in one of the batches, I substituted 25% of the water with vegetable oil.

As I mixed them, I found that the batch with oil was not as gloppy as the batch with just water, so I ended up using additional water (that original 25% replacement). So, my flour/water/oil mixture was 1 part flour to 1 part water to .25 part oil.

I also put conditioner on one half of my head, beard, arms, and chest.

I went outside and applied the mix, with the flour/water/oil mix on the untreated side of the body and the flour/water on the conditioner-treated side of my body. I also realized my legs had no conditioner on them, so I applied the flour/water mix on my untreated legs as a control.

I noted the mix with the oil stuck more to itself than the mix with just water, which embedded into my hair immediately. I scrubbed and rubbed to ensure that it was all well-integrated.

Here are the stages of cleanup, and what I noted:
1 - Cool water from an outside hose. I wanted to get off the bulk of it outside so I didn't put it down my drains. This left huge globs in all the hair, and there was no difference between the treatments.

2 - Warm shower with no soap. The side with conditioner was noticeably better than the side without. I was down to about 10% of the dough balls on the side with conditioner, while the oil-based side was about twice that.

3 - Dishwashing liquid. This is my go-to for cleanup, and here we saw a real change. The side with the oil cleaned up quite well (as the dishwashing liquid broke up the oil), which the side with the conditioner was not as clean. Both sides were acceptable; while there were still bits on dough, it was now at a state where I could continue with life, picking them off.

The leg hair, however, still had bits of dough on it. So, either treatment makes a big difference if you have access to warm water and dishwashing liquid.

Except for one thing: The Beard.

On the short hair, it all came off. On the beard... well, see the attached picture. It was a mess.

I turned to my other trick for messes in hair, and that is conditioner and a comb. I ran conditioner through the beard, and then used a comb, and was able to easily comb it all out. I was also able to use the comb/conditioner on the legs to remove the dough.

The results of my study:
- Add oil to the flour/water mix. (More research will be needed to determine if more oil will help, but 25% of the amount of water is appropriate to start.)

- Have a warm shower and dishwashing liquid available. (If you only have cold water, don't do it. If you only have warm water, use a conditioner pre-coating.)

- Have a comb and conditioner on hand to deal with long hair.


As always, replication and further study is a key part of science, so now you are tasked to replicate or advance this research, and report on your results.