Tell me about your conditioning method!

[Gypsygirl]

I had an interesting discussion with my (pretty short-haired) besties last night...about conditioning. Turns out we all do it differently! Am I the only one who applies the conditioner to soaking wet hair? Both of my girlfriends actually towl-dry their hair before conditioning- I don't even squeeze my hair! I also don't usually leave the conditioner in my hair for a very long time... One of my friends lets it work while she has breakfast! So...what about you girls (and guys)?

[Arriens]

I whip my towel around my head and let it dry. When its somewhat dry I apply a mixture of conditioner/oil/honey and style my hair with that. I leave that in until I get under a shower again. Every sunday I wash with kesham to get the build up out.

[redneckprincess]

in the shower with soaking wet hair I apply the conditioner, clip it up and out of the way (a new development :) ...) and let it sit while I wash & shave before I rince it out..
once a week (or so) I SMT (on dry hair) with cassia, amla & shakkikia and let that sit for 2-8 hours

Ive never heard of anyone getting out of the shower to dry and condition their hair...only to get back in to rince it out

[whiteisle]

When I do use conditioner, I usually just squeeze out the excess water and then apply a generous amount, comb it through and let it be while I do other shower duties. Then I rinse it out (leaving just a tad in). Done. :)

[Firefly]

I gently squeeze out as much water as possible, add the conditioner and clip my hair up out of the way while I finish my other showerly tasks. Then at the end, I unclip, add some more conditioner, and do a final rinse.

[Pixna]

After I shampoo, I gently squeeze out as much water as possible, put a large blob of conditioner from the ears down (I don't condition above my ears or put conditioner on my scalp), and gently work it into the canopy and underneath (from the nape down). Then I go about my other shower duties and rinse it out.

I never heard of your friends' method. Sounds like a pain in the rear to me and unnecessary. I want my hair care to be as easy as possible (while still being effective).

[*Rose Red*]

For deep conditioning I leave it in for 2 or 3 hours, but normal conditioning only takes a few minutes under the shower, while I´m washing or shaving my legs.

[Madame J]

I squeeze my hair out and make sure to only apply conditioner to the length (ears down). Then I bun it and do the rest of my shower and rinse with warm and then cool water. I don't use conditioner all the time, though, since I use shampoo bars.

[EqLady]

I had an interesting discussion with my (pretty short-haired) besties last night...about conditioning. Turns out we all do it differently! Am I the only one who applies the conditioner to soaking wet hair? Both of my girlfriends actually towl-dry their hair before conditioning- I don't even squeeze my hair! I also don't usually leave the conditioner in my hair for a very long time... One of my friends lets it work while she has breakfast! So...what about you girls (and guys)?
After shampooing and rinsing, I gently squeeze out the excess water. I put a dollop of conditioner onto my palm and then smoosh my two hands together a bit. I start at the ends and squish the conditioner into the length, getting more conditioner if needed. I pat the conditioner onto my head. Finally, I massage the conditioner into my scalp.

After all that, I let the conditioner just sit there a bit while I do my other shower duties. I rinse and comb the conditioner through the length under the shower stream, very gently, with a wide-tooth comb.

[Sissy]

I apply my conditioner while in the shower. I usually try to get some excess water off before applying the conditioner. I put my hair under a plastic shower cap and let the conditioner soak on my hair while doing my other shower duties. I then rinse it out. I also do conditioning with catnip tea treatments. For this, I leave the catnip tea on my length of my hair for an hour, then I rinse it gently in the sink and apply a bit of leave-in or conditioner.

[AJoifulNoise]

I CO most days. And I apply it to soaking wet hair. I then work it through, scrub my scalp, detangle, and braid. It stays in the braid for 3-5 minutes while I attend to other things in the shower. Then it gets unbraided and rinsed.

[Prism]

Depends on what I'm doing.

Since I'm usually one to wash hair in the shower along with the rest of me, I squeeze out as much water as I can by squeezing in sections from scalp to tips (resisting the urge to twist is hard). Then I add conditioner roughly from the ears down, but a bit also to any other areas that feel dry. I usually give it another squeeze before I'm fully done adding conditioner because by then more water has run to the ends and can be squeezed out. I add the rest of the conditioner, then go about shaving my legs or washing my body. That usually gives it several minutes to sit.

Sometimes when I'm going to be home for a while, I'll add an oil and/or conditioner to my hair from root to tip and leave it in for as long as I want. Currently I have coconut oil on my hair from root to tip. It's been there for probably 4+ hours now. Before bed I'll get a shower and lightly wash it out.

I have been told by stylists that the best conditioning is achieved on hair that is towel-dried rather than wet, and it makes sense, really. Otherwise, you're probably just putting conditioner over water and at best hoping it mixes with the water and somehow gets to the hair. Towel drying first will take away some of that water and allow the conditioner to get to the hair.

[adiapalic]

I apply my conditioner to soaking wet hair from ears down, twist it in a bun and put that up with an ouchless band, leave it up while I wash the rest of my body. Then I rinse it out with warm, and do a cold rinse before getting out.

Never thought to squeeze out excess water before applying... will have to try that.

:bluebiggr

[Sweetness]

I think I might be starting a catnip addiction :crush:

[deviantkitten]

Well, the night before washing day (I only wash every 4 days or so), i coat my dry hair with coconut oil from the ears down. i will put it up some way-bun or english braids pinned up. Then, on wash day, i wash my hair, squeeze excess water out of my hair, divide hair into 2 sections, and apply conditioner from the ears down. I then pin that up and let it soak while I wash, shave, etc. I then rinse with cool water-note-whenever the water is touching my hair, it is always cool. Then, put it up in a towel for a while, take it down, and let the rest air dry.

[christine1989]

I have never heard of towel drying before conditioning! I just squeeze out excess water then cobb it through with a wide tooth comb and let it sit for at least 15 min. Then I wash it out with FREEZING cold water.

[walterSCAN]

I gently squeeze out as much water as I can while I'm in there and apply conditioner ears-down. Then, I bun it with a really loose hair-friendly hairtie and leave it up while I do whatever shaving I need to do.

Since I have idiotically sensitive skin, I have to wash out the conditioner before I wash the rest of me so I can get it off my skin. The conditioner is on my hair for anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes, depending on what I need to get done that shower/ how much hot water is available. Then I turn the water down a bit and rinse... then I re-bun my hair and turn the water way back up once the hair's out of the way.

I <3 really hot showers!

[Ash]

I squeeze out most of the water and then use a decent amount of conditioner which gets applied all the way through (including the scalp on CO days.) Then the hair gets bunned while I wash the rest of myself and then rinsed at the end. I also apply a dime sized amount of the same conditioner once out of the shower and again after squeezing water out. This is to aid in detangling before wrapping hair in a towel to dry.

[Masara]

There was a discussion a while back about squeezing water out of hair before putting conditioner on, the idea being that with sopping wet hair you were diluting the conditioner and with less water in your hair, it could get to work on the hair faster and you didn't need as much (if I remember right, it was a while back and I've slept since) I tried it but I found that my hair actually feels more conditioned if I add conditioner to it while it's dripping.

So I rinse shampoo, dunk my ends in a jug of citric acid rinse, apply (loads of) conditioner from the ears down, leave it on the short moment I wash the rest of my body, rinse, re-dunk, add a small amount of conditioner as a leave in and only then squeeze water out of my hair, first with my hands and then with a towel.

I'm a daily washer. I don't have time to hang around with conditioner on my head.

[Rhiannon7]

For normal conditioning i squeeze as much water out of the hair, smooth alot of condish from ends to scalp, wrap it in a shower cap and continue my other shower duties, ( about 6-7 mins.) then let it down, add some water and smooth my fingers through the hair to make sure all the hair got condish then rinse for about 1 minute and get out of the shower, after applying moisturizer on my body i comb my wet hair with my wood comb to detangle and add a quarter sized glob of a mix of Shea Butter, Aloe Vera Gel and Almond Oil and allow to air dry.

For deep conditioning i do an SMT every 2-4 weeks, leave the SMT for about 3-5 hours and rinse.

HTH.

[HairColoredHair]

Wash, rinse, condition, wash body, rinse, condition, rinse, done.

Or at least, that's it in a nutshell.

I condition twice just because I can, mostly, since the time while I soap and shave seems wasted otherwise. :) Never dry my hair or wring before I condition, that seems a bit silly to waste another towel (hate using already wet towels!) and the water seems to make the conditioner spread through the hair better.

'course if I change conditioners/wash I might change the pattern, who knows!

[Debra83]

I wet my hair, then condition, rinse, shampoo, rinse, squeeze out water, condition, let sit while I do my bodysoap, showercomb it then rinse - leave soaking wet and put on leave in conditioner, or a dollop of real conditioner and scrunch. On fast days (when I sleep in), I wash my hair over the side of the tub, wet, condition, rinse, shampoo, rinse, condition rinse, towel turban it, take off towel, put in some creamy thing, comb (ouch), and leave air dry.

[JamieLeigh]

I apply mine dry. I use either Suave Naturals tropical coconut, Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition, or Giovanni's Tea Tree Triple Treat conditioner. Since I don't shampoo more than a few times a year to clarify my scalp when I feel it needs it, I just apply it before getting into the shower, and let it sit under a shower cap while I'm doing other things like shaving (sorry if that's TMI, but most of us do it. :p). When I'm ready, I turn the cooler water on so that the water becomes tepid-cool. Then I rinse it out and wrap it in a towel, THEN turn the hot water back on to wash my body. If I were to make my condish rinse my final activity, I'd have back-ne (back acne) like crazy.

I haven't used a leave-in in a long time, and haven't really needed to. :)

[curlylocks85]

I switch between the CO method and the CWC method. I too apply it to my soaking wet hair. However, I leave mine in while I apply my deep conditioning treatment. When I am finished, I always leave it my hair and do not rinse so I get all moisture possible.

[Suszi]

I apply conditioner to soaking wet hair. First on the length, I leave it the for 3-5 minutes. Then I apply some near the scalp and rinse immediately.

[AbruptlyWanderi]

I apply conditioner, put my hair up, get in the shower, do other shower things, rinse, shampoo, rinse, condition, and rinse.

Yeah, I condition before I get in the shower. My hair seems to like it, so I do it.

[pinklemonade]

I've done CWC for a while but recently stopped because I feel like I want to let my hair breathe a little (I think my conditioners don't contain very 'natural' ingredients...). So now I condition on dampo hair, leave it on for about an hour and then shampoo out (diluted shampoo). I hope this is less harmful to the hair (the fact that the shampoo is diluted AND I still have some conditioner on the ends...). Does anyone else condition and then shampoo only, without conditioning afterwards?-I haven't seen any posts on this

[Squeaky]

I just squeeze out the excess water and then apply from the ears down. Otherwise the conditioner would just run out with the water, and I like to make sure I have an even amount of it throughout my hair. After that I let it sit for a few minutes as I do whatever I need to do, then I rinse and detangle under the water. I apply some to my scalp and then rinse after massaging it in. I do all this when I don't CO after I use a diluted shampoo.

[enfys]

I sometimes squeeze my hair with a towel if it seems I can't squeeze enough water out of it. I them apply the conditioner roughly from my ears down in the front but from my nape in the back, and work just what's left on my hands through the rest of my scalp.
I then chuck it in a bun and hop in the shower or bath, and use the shower to rinse it off.

It should be noted I do all the first bit stood overhanging the bath, not in it, so I'm free to wander off and towel dry.

When I'm doing an SMT (weekly) or cassia and SMT (monthly) I have to towel dry because otherwise I end up with a very soggy collar. I leave these on for an hour each while I watch tv or read usually.

ETA: I also clearly spend too long doing these things because I can put the towel on the radiator after towel drying and it will be almost dry again by the time I'm done and wanting to properly towel dry!

[Teacherbear]

I condition the ends (neck down), shampoo the scalp, rinse it all, then I squeeze out the water and apply more conditioner to everything (except directly to the scalp. Then I rinse everything. When I'm finished, I squeeze my hair dry, again, and apply my leave in conditioner.

So, yes, I apply it to squeezed dried hair.

I can't stand getting in the shower, doing all of that business, drying off, doing other things, THEN getting back into the shower! NO WAY!

[paperwhite]

I wash my hair first thing, then squeeze out as much water as I can without being rough. After that, I apply whatever conditioner I'm using from about the ears down, concentrating on the ends and then smooth the remaining conditioner over my scalp/roots. Then it gets clipped up with a bear claw clip, I finish my other shower activities, and rinse in warm water. I find that this allows the conditioner the maximum amount of time on my hair and does the job pretty well :)

[TXbarbie]

I don't use shampoo so I start off by letting water run through my hair for a few minutes before applying multiple palmfuls of conditioner to my scalp and ends. I massage it onto my scalp, add maybe two more palmfuls to my scalp and clip it all up while showering. It's probably up for ten minutes or so. Then I rinse for a longgg time, add two more palmfuls to the length only and do my final rinse.

I get highlights done so I have an oily scalp and dry ends :)

[alwayssmiling]

I shampoo my hair over the bath. Wrap in a towel until a lot of the water has been absored. Put a nice thick layer of conditioner on, leave for half an hour (if longer I use shower cap or plastic to keep it moist) I then jump in the shower and rinse like mad. It always surprises me that others keep a little in because my hair goes very lank if its not rinsed really well.

Then there are my DTs, SMT's and henna glosses. I do those at the weekend, and love doing them (accompanied with a face pack) a real treat! Would do them everyday if I had the time.

[Irishred]

After I wash my hair I squeeze out some of the excess. I then do a honey treatment (trying to brighten my tones) that I leave on for about an hour. Honey is conditioning :) Rinse that out and apply conditioner to the length. Unlike most here I also lightly condition over other the top of my head or I get major frizzy halo. Leave that for a min or two, rinse. Depending on my time, I will condition a second time or skip to this step. On Soaking wet hair I apply about a pea drop of a light conditioner (rubbed on my hands first) to the length then squeeze that out. I leave that in. END of Wash :)

For a DT I will leave the conditioner on for an hour or longer. If I wasn't doing the honey, I would leave the conditioner on for 10 min or so.

[Dimitri'sMom]

I wet my hair, coat with VO5 passion fruit smoothie from the ears down, wash scalp with Organix coconut milk shampoo, then re-condition all of it with the VO5. For deep conditioning I'm trying to use up my old conditioners with cones...there's no way I can justify the expense of yet another hair product to my husband. I love the man, but he washes his hair with Lever 2000 and looks fabulous.

[BrightEyes7]

I squeeze most of the water out. Apply conditioner and let sit while I do my other duties in the shower. If I am home early at night, which I normally am not, I'll take a shower put the conditioner in and let it sit for a few hours or even over night.