The CO (conditioner only) washing thread

[Linika]

I was a hard core COer for three years, only washing my hair with shampoo once ever three months with a clarifying shampoo. But this last year I started useing shampoo once a week again because my family was telling me how unclean I was being by not actually cleaning my hair, so it was freaking me out.

Now I look in the mirror and my hair is limp and greasy looking, it makes me feel icky, so I went back to CO and I will never go back to washing with shampoo every other day. I am a CO girl and nothing else makes my hair look as great as it does when only conditioner is used.

Good for you ! I refuse to listen to my mom when she says I should use shampoo or start using regular everything that has to do with cleanliness of the body.
I see what works for me and I won't be swayed by her scepcism and negativity


(please remind me of this post if I am ever to sway in my conviction xD)

[MagicalMystery]

I've been using conditioner (Tre Semme Naturals) on a daily basis, and only shampoo every 2 weeks. This has been my routing since last October, and my hair has never been healthier!!

The only reason I shampoo is because I use leave-in conditioners in my hair and they build up and weigh down my curls. Any work arounds to avoid shampoo? I absolutely need to use a leave-in on a daily basis.

[Dragon Faery]

I posted sometime ago about greasy hair with VO5 Kiwi Lime on the boards....

I had about a week and a half of greasy yucky looking hair (wore it down anyway to school in a side braid). Update: Washed my hair this morning - three palmfuls, and really working the sides of my scalp and the underside of the scalp, leave it on for the shower and rinse out. I let it air dry today and... NICE hair!

I was prepared for a month or more of greasy hair, but it's so soft and smooth now....when I touch my scalp I don't feel a residue or grease anymore. The stringy hair on the sides are gone and I have volume. My ends are little crunchy still but not near as bad as two weeks ago (from hot air brush styling). I have done the washing conditioner and heavier conditioner thing yet.

Did my hair just get used to it?

Yay!
It could be the case that your hair simply adjusted. But it probably helped a lot that you used more than normal (at least, this is what it sounded like you did) and massaged it in so well. Those two things make the biggest difference for me.

I've been using conditioner (Tre Semme Naturals) on a daily basis, and only shampoo every 2 weeks. This has been my routing since last October, and my hair has never been healthier!!

The only reason I shampoo is because I use leave-in conditioners in my hair and they build up and weigh down my curls. Any work arounds to avoid shampoo? I absolutely need to use a leave-in on a daily basis.

Maybe a clarifying conditioner would do the trick? Or else letting a LOT of conditioner soak in (with massaging and smooshing into the length) before rinsing?
I don't like leave-ins because of build-up, but my conditioner seems to clean my hair just fine.
Usually instead of a leave-in conditioner, I try various oils on wet opr damp hair, and aloe vera gel. But my hair isn't as curly as yours, so I don't know if that would work for you.
If you need shampoo occasionally, there's nothing wrong with that. Not unless you can really tell it's damaging to your hair.

[MagicalMystery]

Maybe a clarifying conditioner would do the trick? Or else letting a LOT of conditioner soak in (with massaging and smooshing into the length) before rinsing?
I don't like leave-ins because of build-up, but my conditioner seems to clean my hair just fine.
Usually instead of a leave-in conditioner, I try various oils on wet opr damp hair, and aloe vera gel. But my hair isn't as curly as yours, so I don't know if that would work for you.
If you need shampoo occasionally, there's nothing wrong with that. Not unless you can really tell it's damaging to your hair.

I've never heard of clarifying conditioners. Any in particular that are interesting? I actually use both argan oil and leave-in in my hair. My hair is always thirsty for that stuff and without it, I get frizz.

I really do have to try aloe vera gel!!

[fridgee]

I've been using conditioner (Tre Semme Naturals) on a daily basis, and only shampoo every 2 weeks. This has been my routing since last October, and my hair has never been healthier!!

The only reason I shampoo is because I use leave-in conditioners in my hair and they build up and weigh down my curls. Any work arounds to avoid shampoo? I absolutely need to use a leave-in on a daily basis.

You can use a very small dab of your normal conditioner as your leave in, which will then be rinsed out next time you wash your hair. I use tresemme Naturals too and find it works great as a leave in.

But as someone else said, shampooing every couple of weeks is not really a problem unless it is causing you issues. If you've got a routine that works for you that's great!

[Theobroma]

Piggy has a hypothesis!

I think the increased scalp manipulation that usually occurs in conjunction with CO-washing causes shedding of hairs that have already entered the telogen stage and thus are close to shedding anyway. By the time a hair follicle reaches the that point, the bulb has atrophied and the hair is only loosely attached to the scalp. Normally that old hair is shed when a new hair begins to grow beneath the telogen follicle, pushing the old hair out. Perhaps the massaging shifts the schedule forward a bit for these hairs that would have been shed in the near future.

Once the "backlog" of telogen fibers is gone, the daily shed rate should decrease back to normal levels.

It's a plausible hypothesis, and it's what I kept telling myself... but I was CO for a year and a half and the shedding started out normal, but gradually increased over time (the exact reverse of what your hypothesis would predict) until there was a huge wad of hair coming out in every wash. It cut in half the moment I stopped putting condish on my scalp.

I can only conclude that putting conditioner on my scalp instead of shampoo causes extra shedding for me in the long term, even though I have no idea why exactly it does this!

[afu]

You can use a very small dab of your normal conditioner as your leave in, which will then be rinsed out next time you wash your hair. I use tresemme Naturals too and find it works great as a leave in.

But as someone else said, shampooing every couple of weeks is not really a problem unless it is causing you issues. If you've got a routine that works for you that's great!

I too just use normal conditioner as a leave in and it works brilliantly as it seems to help keep moisture in without adding much weight and easily washes out. I normally CO, pat dry hair with a towel, smooth a little conditoner through, put hair up in turban for a few mins, work through some coconut oil and then air dry. It seems to be the best method be fighting frizz, defining curl and adding body (for me).

I too use shampoo every few weeks if my hair starts to feel a bit crunchy (my conditoner has one cone in it at the end of the list, maybe theres a bit of build up - im trying to use up what i have before buying more though). When i do use shampoo i just add a little splodge to my conditioner wash though, i don't do a full on 'normal' shampoo wash.

[Kizuna]

I posted sometime ago about greasy hair with VO5 Kiwi Lime on the boards....

I had about a week and a half of greasy yucky looking hair (wore it down anyway to school in a side braid). Update: Washed my hair this morning - three palmfuls, and really working the sides of my scalp and the underside of the scalp, leave it on for the shower and rinse out. I let it air dry today and... NICE hair!

I was prepared for a month or more of greasy hair, but it's so soft and smooth now....when I touch my scalp I don't feel a residue or grease anymore. The stringy hair on the sides are gone and I have volume. My ends are little crunchy still but not near as bad as two weeks ago (from hot air brush styling). I have done the washing conditioner and heavier conditioner thing yet.

Did my hair just get used to it?

It's very possible.
I had no greasy period at all and I feel very lucky!

[curlsgalore]

I used Sally's Cure Carehttp://www.sallybeauty.com/scalp-con...l?cm_vc=SEARCH for the first time as a co-wash and a leave in and my hair turned out fantastic!! Simple ingredients and no added fragrance! Cheap too, $3 for 20 oz!

[Shinitori]

Good for you ! I refuse to listen to my mom when she says I should use shampoo or start using regular everything that has to do with cleanliness of the body.
I see what works for me and I won't be swayed by her scepcism and negativity


(please remind me of this post if I am ever to sway in my conviction xD)

I will ^_^ Thanks