CO washes and darker hair???

[jojo]

Hi all and happy easter!
Okay ive cut down the amount of time i shampoo my hair to just once a week but i CO wash every other day and my hair seems to be going darker and the red really coming out. I use a coneless conditioner is this normal for hair to look darker with CO washes?
TIA

[Hypnotica]

Some conditioners make my hair look darker. I suppose that happens with certain substances in the conditioner coating your hair.

[SolSara]

Me and my sweden fellows doing CO concluded a while ago that doing all CO surely made both natural and colored hair to get a deeper color. I'm golden blond and it really has become more lively. Not really darker, actually ACV-rinses has made it lighter (=cleaner) but more colorful. :)

[artemis]

After I started CO, I was accused of coloring my hair (lighter, not darker), so I think it's completely believable that the color would change a bit when you change your washing methods. Do you like the new color?

[MemSahib]

I don't CO so I am unsure what the effect might be but my hair darkened naturally when I was in my 30s and it happened quite fast. My oldest daughter has done the same. The only way to know for sure if it is CO is to stop for a while and see what it does.

[AJoifulNoise]

When I first started CO my friend told me that she could see natural red highlights in my virgin hair. Hadn't seen those before. It also made my red colored hair shine amazingly.

[chloeishere]

It generally made my hair visibly darker, but also shinier.

[CurlyNinja]

I noticed NO change in my natural color after I quit the shampoo.

[icydove]

I thought CO washing typically made hair go lighter and redder, although subtle :ponder:

[Unofficial_Rose]

Mine looked darker - but went back to normal when I shampooed later.

Some shampoos & conditioners, i.e. Redken Blonde Glam, mae my hair appear lighter, possibly because of the citric acid.

[Xandergrammy]

Hmmmm..... that sounds like a good thing to me. I'd like my natural dark hair to be as dark as possible so my whites will pop. :thumbsup:

[jojo]

its really subtle really, definitely more red in it, im going to do a ACV rinse tonight, i dont mind it really, probably the conditioner does bring out the different colours, cool!

[Flaxen]

I didn't notice darker or lighter with CO, but my hair definitely looked redder.

[jojo]

yeah i see more red too, strange eh?

[Anje]

I've noticed mine looking a bit darker and hanging together in big moisturized-looking chunks. Makes sense to me that washing methods would be at least slightly reflected in the appearance of you hair.

[jojo]

that makes sense, mine is also more chunkified (good word!) too!

[rx queen.]

ah, i am so glad for this validation! people were even commenting that i'd dyed my hair (and if anything i'd like to lighten it). i stopped CO a couple of months ago (after a good year or so of it) and my hair is much happier now, btw. i guess it's just not for me.

[Elizabeth]

My hair also became darker with CO. I actually started using a shampoo from a salon a couple of times a week and my hair got lighter and redder as a result.

[Xanthippe]

my hair seems to be going darker and the red really coming out. I use a coneless conditioner is this normal for hair to look darker with CO washes?

Back when I did CO, my hair did look reddish after a few weeks. My BF and my mom independently commented that it looked like I had hennaed or tinted my hair. I used V05 condish.

Hmm. I wonder what the underlying cause is?

[Nynaeve]

Hmmm, this is interesting. I've not noticed any change in hair color since I started CO... maybe slightly lighter, since you can see slight bits of red in some light, but I would have attributed that to the summer past.

[SaveTheTapirs]

I wonder if the color change only occurs when you CO consecutively. I do it occasionally, but CWC the rest of the time (about twice a week). Is there anyone who alternates shampoo washes and CO who has still noticed a color change?

[TheSpottedCow]

When I first started COing a while ago I had blonde hair and it made it extremely brassy and darker. Since then I have returned to my natural haircolor (and took a break from CO for a while), and now that I have started again it doesn't affect my hair color anymore (med. brown)... Maybe it makes the very ends, which are significantly lighter in some spots, a little darker temporarily. But overall, no, but it did have an effect on my blonde hair in the past.

[jojo]

yes i alternate from cwc washes to co washes, my hair is definitely going redder and i really like it! i suppose most hair has bits of red in it and red hair is 'normally' fine, so maybe the fine hair soaks the conditioner making it more moisteners, so it reflects red more??

who knows its sure a mystery

[Faepirate]

I've CO'd only twice so far (consecutively) and today I already noticed that my hair is a darker shade of blonde. It feels healthier, but is less golden. Le sad. :(

Would adding some honey to my wash help to lighten it again, do you think...?

I'm sure it's to do with the CO washing, but I don't want to go back to shampoo for now because my hair feels so wonderful and soft in comparison to how it did... but I am a wee bit sad about the darkened shade. Cos I don't think this colour is as striking. My colour was always my favourite aspect of my hair. Hmmmm. Someone said ACV rinses lightened their hair (sorry, it was on the first page so I can't immediately see who it was! :P) - is that true? I have some AVC but haven't rinsed with it for a while. I might try this and see if there is a difference.

I'm also considering cassia because I know that's supposed to lighten (right?) and add great shine. My hair is quite shiny at the moment but I miss the goldilocks!