Conditioner Washing Hair
For 
idat who was intrigued:
Conditioner washing is washing your hair without shampoo. Cheap conditioners apparently have mild surfactants (detergents) in them, so doing so is way less drying. CO (conditioner-only) washing consistently has left my hair with a lot more body than it had, and frequently, full on mermaid hair (long curls). It also behaves better. I can actually leave it down & have it stay out of my eyes when I'm not a year overdue for a haircut. *eyerolls*
How to?
1) Select cheap conditioner. You don't want a protein conditioner because this will leave your hair feeling vaguely icky and coated. You don't want a silicone conditioner because I understand they won't work as well. (It may just be that silicone conditioners are too high end and don't have the surfactants.) You also want cheap because you WILL use a giant handful or two of it, not the small dollop you're used to for shampoo. I find that the Suave Naturals line works best for me.
2) In shower: wet hair, take giant handful of conditioner and massage the hell out of it into scalp like you would with shampoo (use fingertips, not nails). You're going to leave it in for 5-10min (**), so unless your hair is short, the next step is to pull hair up into hair clip to keep it out of your way, & then take a smaller dollop of conditioner and get the underside of the hair that's now exposed that probably didn't get the conditioner worked in as fully. If your hair is thin/fine, this might not be necessary, but my hair is thick and the first dollop never seems to get it thoroughly.
3) Go about the rest of your shower: soap/body wash/shave/etc. You've got a few minutes to kill.
4) Take down your hair, stick your head under the spray briefly & massage scalp again briefly. (you're loosening up the dirt for the rinse off)
5) Rinse thoroughly. For at *least* two minutes. (Literally, I count to 120 while combing out my hair under the shower spray.)
6) If you're just getting used to the process(***), or if your hair is particularly oily (**), you may wish to repeat this whole process. (Note: this is one more reason for the cheap conditioner.)
(**) - Many conditioner washing websites will say something like, the longer you leave the conditioner in the better, the better. I never found that true. I find the leave-in time to pretty much not matter. I do find that I generally need to do it twice. Probably because I leave it too long much of the time, but possibly just because my hair is *thick.*
(***) Many CO washing sites say, (and this I find true), that shampoo is overly harsh and your scalp produces too much oil in self-defense. And that after you've been CO-washing for a bit, your hair produces less oil. True for me (****). But in the begining, your scalp is still in defensive mode, so you may wish to CO-wash twice (lather, rinse, repeat), and still shampoo every 2nd-3rd time & gradually draw it out.
(****) Anyone whose seen me on a bad hair day and disagrees, I blame the fibro. On bad weeks (pain or fatigue) I've allowed the lesser amount of oil produced to spoil me and I'll push off CO washing far too long (more than 4-5 days) and I know it but fool myself into thnking that I'm covering. Body gets washed with hair out of the way every day. Takes 5 min. With hair THIS long, (to my butt) a shower with hair washing takes next to forever (30-45min), and yes, has serious spoon cost. If you don't know spoon theory of chronic illness yet, here, have a link: http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory-written-by-christine-miserandino/
idat who was intrigued:Conditioner washing is washing your hair without shampoo. Cheap conditioners apparently have mild surfactants (detergents) in them, so doing so is way less drying. CO (conditioner-only) washing consistently has left my hair with a lot more body than it had, and frequently, full on mermaid hair (long curls). It also behaves better. I can actually leave it down & have it stay out of my eyes when I'm not a year overdue for a haircut. *eyerolls*
How to?
1) Select cheap conditioner. You don't want a protein conditioner because this will leave your hair feeling vaguely icky and coated. You don't want a silicone conditioner because I understand they won't work as well. (It may just be that silicone conditioners are too high end and don't have the surfactants.) You also want cheap because you WILL use a giant handful or two of it, not the small dollop you're used to for shampoo. I find that the Suave Naturals line works best for me.
2) In shower: wet hair, take giant handful of conditioner and massage the hell out of it into scalp like you would with shampoo (use fingertips, not nails). You're going to leave it in for 5-10min (**), so unless your hair is short, the next step is to pull hair up into hair clip to keep it out of your way, & then take a smaller dollop of conditioner and get the underside of the hair that's now exposed that probably didn't get the conditioner worked in as fully. If your hair is thin/fine, this might not be necessary, but my hair is thick and the first dollop never seems to get it thoroughly.
3) Go about the rest of your shower: soap/body wash/shave/etc. You've got a few minutes to kill.
4) Take down your hair, stick your head under the spray briefly & massage scalp again briefly. (you're loosening up the dirt for the rinse off)
5) Rinse thoroughly. For at *least* two minutes. (Literally, I count to 120 while combing out my hair under the shower spray.)
6) If you're just getting used to the process(***), or if your hair is particularly oily (**), you may wish to repeat this whole process. (Note: this is one more reason for the cheap conditioner.)
(**) - Many conditioner washing websites will say something like, the longer you leave the conditioner in the better, the better. I never found that true. I find the leave-in time to pretty much not matter. I do find that I generally need to do it twice. Probably because I leave it too long much of the time, but possibly just because my hair is *thick.*
(***) Many CO washing sites say, (and this I find true), that shampoo is overly harsh and your scalp produces too much oil in self-defense. And that after you've been CO-washing for a bit, your hair produces less oil. True for me (****). But in the begining, your scalp is still in defensive mode, so you may wish to CO-wash twice (lather, rinse, repeat), and still shampoo every 2nd-3rd time & gradually draw it out.
(****) Anyone whose seen me on a bad hair day and disagrees, I blame the fibro. On bad weeks (pain or fatigue) I've allowed the lesser amount of oil produced to spoil me and I'll push off CO washing far too long (more than 4-5 days) and I know it but fool myself into thnking that I'm covering. Body gets washed with hair out of the way every day. Takes 5 min. With hair THIS long, (to my butt) a shower with hair washing takes next to forever (30-45min), and yes, has serious spoon cost. If you don't know spoon theory of chronic illness yet, here, have a link: http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory-written-by-christine-miserandino/