For the CO thread

[Lile]

Just wondering.......:-)


What's against SLS free mild herbal shampoos?
Why did you choose conditioner instead?
Why a cheap conditioner is better than a nice herbal shampoo?(apart from the price...)

[Speckla]

I'm sure there are plenty of SLS free shampoos that work just fine. It's just too expensive to keep trying to find one. Suave conditioners for around 99 aren't too bad. I've found one that I really like and I'll stick with it. I'm not looking for another shampoo because I only use Aussie when I am going to shampoo. It works great and no need to find another. Any product I use must have Aloe in it.

Why CO? I've tried everything else so why not?:cheese:

[manderly]

Why no shampoo?

Because it's very drying. No matter how "gentle" it professes to be, it dries hair out.



Why conditioner?

It is able to cleanse hair all on its own and it doesn't strip hair like poo does and leaves it moisturized.


Why a cheap conditioner instead of good poo?

You use a lot of conditioner when COing, it doesn't make financial sense to use something expensive. Plus, the majority of more expensive stuff contains cones, which doesn't work too well for most COers. No "good" poo because of the reason mentioned above.


Hope that helps.

[LisaJaney]

Yes, what Manderly said. I will add to the "how does CO cleanse" (kinda) question: Conditioner contains surfactants that loosen and lift dirt and oils, but it does it without stripping all the NECESSARY oils from the hairshaft (shampoo loosen and lifts dirt and oils, but it takes it ALL, even the necessary stuff. That's part of what leaves hair drier with poo than with CO. That and pH stuff that I just am too exhausted to properly explain and will foul up, so I'll let someone smarter than me explain it.) I just know that BOTH can loosen and lift dirt and oil, the conditioner allows my hair to retain its natural moisture, whereas shampoo removes MORE than it needs to, to do the job.

And cheap is better partly because of the cones (IMO) but also because the expensiver ones tend to be more moisturizing. When you've not stripped the living crap out of your hair, you don't NEED so much "moisturizing" going on -- and the more "moisturizing" you've got going on, the less UNnecessary oils (the "make my hair look greasy" ones) are being removed. That doesn't read well to me now. I mean: If I am cleaning my hair with a MOISTURIZING condish, it's so busy RE-moisturizing my hair that it's not really CLEANING it. So my hair ends up SO moisturized that it doesn't look CLEAN. But if I use a cheapie, it's just removing the EXCESS oil, making the hair look CLEAN, but without making it DRY. I can go-ahead and use a moisturizing condish AFTERWARDS if I want, but when the hair's not been stripped to within an inch of its LIFE (like it is with shampoo), I just don't NEED to do that. I use a light creme-rinse sometimes. And it's not even necessary most of the time, because the hair's still MOIST; it's just not GREASY.

I hope that makes sense.

[Carolyn]

I've never used any shampoo that didn't dry and strip my hair to some degree. Cheapie conditioner cleanses well, moisturizes and doesn't leave my hair naked and stripped. I can get 4-5 "washes" out of a big bottle of White Rain that I paid $1. I've used lots of shampoos, both el cheapo and expensive and nothing leaves my hair nicer than CO'ing. I do use shampoo now and then but it's either a blue shampoo for taking brassiness out of blonde hair or it's a clarifying shampoo. I can't see ever going back to a steady routine of shampoo.

[GlassEyes]

Since other people ahve already answered...

1) What's against a nice CO wash?
2) Why would you choose shampoo instead?
3) Why is a nice conditioner better than a cheap, herbal shampoo (aside from the price)?


No matter how you wash, not technique is really better than any other as long as it gets the job done. Herbal shampoos aren't necessarily the best either; I know plenty of herbs that would be as harsh, if not HARSHER on hair than SLS, and for some, they just don't work. On others, SLS works. For those of us who CO, conditioner works. :shrug: Just the way it is.

Trial and error. xD

[AlleyKitten]

It makes my hair happier. I alternate between CO and diluted SLS-free shampoo (Giovanni), and even diluted gentle shampoo tends to dry my hair out more than I like. It's also easier to get a more consistent degree of clean with CO -- shampoo always tends to leave the hair on the outside cleaner/drier than the hair in the middle of my ponytail.

[JamieLeigh]

I like the way my hair feels when I use my products of choice. :) Plain and simple, and cost has nothing to do with it - the new organic conditioner I've found is a bit pricey but it's worth it.

[jera]

I'm a dry head. Dry scalp. Dry hair. Dry everything. :( Consequently even the mildest SLS free shamppos were more drying than I wanted. It had nothing to do with money or anything like that.
After reading many threads here about the benefits of CO, I decided to try it and loved the result. So now that's all I use. :eyebrows:

[Lile]

Thank you guys for the answers!:)They are all quite informative!

I'm thinking about CO only.My scalp is usually dry,and I like doing CO packs anyway.
CO also gets the oiling out,so it does everything I need.

[Carolyn]

I like the way my hair feels when I use my products of choice. :) Plain and simple, and cost has nothing to do with it - the new organic conditioner I've found is a bit pricey but it's worth it.What is your new conditioner? I looked in your blog and couldn't find a mention of it.

[ButterCup02]

I started CO about 4 weeks ago, and my hair has never felt better! It looks great too! I have dry hair, so I was always having a hard time finding a shampoo that didn't turn me into a frizz ball. The CO method is really working for me! A cheap bottle of Suave ($2 here in Canada :D) is what I have been using. It's cone free and COing would get pretty pricey if I used expensive brands!

[cleanbug]

I started CO about 4 weeks ago, and my hair has never felt better! It looks great too! I have dry hair, so I was always having a hard time finding a shampoo that didn't turn me into a frizz ball. The CO method is really working for me! A cheap bottle of Suave ($2 here in Canada :D) is what I have been using. It's cone free and COing would get pretty pricey if I used expensive brands!

Just curious, do you co wash daily or every second day?? I have been co washing every other day for the week & then shampoo with a mild shampoo on sundays. I find that my hair doesn't get as dry & knotty when co washing. I do find that after about a week I feel like I need a diluted shampoo wash, though. Maybe as time goes on, I can stretch the shampoo days to every 2 weeks & just co wash every other day.

[Carolyn]

Just curious, do you co wash daily or every second day?? I have been co washing every other day for the week & then shampoo with a mild shampoo on sundays. I find that my hair doesn't get as dry & knotty when co washing. I do find that after about a week I feel like I need a diluted shampoo wash, though. Maybe as time goes on, I can stretch the shampoo days to every 2 weeks & just co wash every other day.As you have found out, it's a matter of experimenting and deciding what works for you. There are a lot of us doing CO who throw in occasional CWC or SC washes as needed. I think changing things up now and then, makes products work better. Sometimes I'll CO wash daily but most of the time it's every 2 or even 3 days when I can get away with it. Do what you need to do for your hair. I don't think there is any reason to think that you have to skip X number of days. CO washing is a nice tool to have in your hair care arsenal.

[creativehoney]

The closest health food store/ (with all natural products). Is like almost an hour away where I live.

So, I started co-ing and I love it. So, as of now, I'm not wanting to switch.
But, I suppose one of those shampoos might be ok for an occasional wash :hmm: ... but I'm not sure if I want to do that.
I'm afraid It might wash away all of my natural oils.
Maybe I'm missinformed but co washing cleans hair without stripping hair of all of its natural oils right?
So I'm thinking, its probably gonna take a long time for my natural oils to get to the ends of my hair......
And if I keep interrupting it with acv rinses and shampoos, won't I have to start from scratch again??

Isn't the whole point of co wash to only cleanse away excess oil? Not all of it?
I'm a fairly new co-er so I'm not sure if this is the way it really works, but from what I've read..........it sounds like that to me.

[manderly]

The reason many people will throw in an occasional shampoo is because COing does tend to build up and need to be stripped down a bit. Nothing is perfect, so we're just in a constant battle to do the best we can with what we can. :shrug:

[GlassEyes]

Actually, I've found that COing without cones doesn't leave much build up. I shampoo about once a week, however, due to the nature of my job, but if I didn't have to work in a Nursing Home Kitchen, I could probably go a few months without it.

The ony thing I've found that could possibly build up with this are certain ingredients in conditioners I DON'T like. Like anything containing vegetable wax or large amounts of protein.

[snnej]

I love CO! It did wonders for my itchy dry scalp. I was a little leary at first but I've tried everything else so why not this. I won't go back. My hair looks better and my scalp hardly itches at all.

[swirlytresses]

I love conditioner washing too! I alternate with co washing and using DW and poo bars. I find that co washing keeps my hair from drying out.

[Honey39]

I love CO_washing - I tend to use cheapo cone-free conditioner every day, and about every six - eight weeks I'll shampoo it. I've been doing this for about a year now, and my hair loves it.

I honestly find cheap conditioner works best - I pile it on, and sort of 'wash' the hair, it lifts even a heavy oiling effortlessly. I hate that tangled, rough feel I get now when I shampoo.

Weird how I never knew hair care could work for me so effortlessly till I found this site! :-)

[Lile]

Weird how I never knew hair care could work for me so effortlessly till I found this site! :-)

Yeah that's so true!I think I cut my long hair back 3 years ago because it was more of a pain then anything...
everybody should come here first,try out every major hair treatment,and if hair doesn't get more beautiful,then no other remedy then cut it....

even little changes make the whole hair care easy,and give spectacular results.

Since I joined LHC I tend to imagine everybody on the streets with long hair...and I have to tell,most people would look much better with it...:p even the very fine haired ones....

[ButterCup02]

Just curious, do you co wash daily or every second day?? I have been co washing every other day for the week & then shampoo with a mild shampoo on sundays. I find that my hair doesn't get as dry & knotty when co washing. I do find that after about a week I feel like I need a diluted shampoo wash, though. Maybe as time goes on, I can stretch the shampoo days to every 2 weeks & just co wash every other day.

I do it every other day, sometimes every third! Depends how my hair is feeling. I was never an every day shampoo'er though. My hair adjusted to CO pretty easily after only 1 week or so. Some people take longer to adjust, and some people still shampoo every now and then it seems! Who knows, I might end up shampooing it from time to time too! So far I like how it looks and feels with just CO though :)