CO?

[firicia]

Hello everyone.

I am wondering if some people could give me some info on conditioning only.

Does it work you for?
What exactly do you do?
What about grease in your hair?
Do you think it saves you money?

Thanks so much!:D

[fandango]

Have you had a look a the CO-washing thread? http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=2898

I've been CO-washing for about a year now. It gets my hair clean and makes it super soft. I also feel it makes it easier to extend washes because my sebum doesn't build up as quickly as with shampoo. I don't know if it saves me money, I've been experimenting with different conditioners but the first I used was 175ml for $2, so I imagine it could.

[RitaPG]

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=18

Yes, it works
I do it like the article says
Nop, it doesn't make hair greasy
Same, doesn't make me save money but doesn't make me spend more either since I don't do expensive conditioners.

[mallorykay13]

Yes, it works
I do it like the article says
Nop, it doesn't make hair greasy
Same, doesn't make me save money but doesn't make me spend more either since I don't do expensive conditioners.
Basically what she said..

[emelnd]

I tried it recently too. I agree with the above, but I did wash with a shampoo bar every week or so. It doesn't leave hair greasy, especially if you give your scalp a good long massage.

Although I don't do it now, because my boyfriend bought some moroccan oil, which is full of silicones. I still love the stuff, but conditioner washing will be very gentle and not be able to get the silicones off my hair. Basically, if you are not putting silicones on your hair the conditioner has enough soap in it.

[Cassie 123]

Does it work you for?

It really works brilliantly. My hair and scalp feel every bit as clean as if I'd shampooed, but when my hair dries, it is softer, smoother, and less frizzy than when I was using shampoo. There was no "adjustment period" or anything like that, but it took some experimenting to get the right brand/mixture of conditioner.


What exactly do you do?

I pretreat my hair with oil, preferably overnight. I mix my conditioner with aloe juice and honey (4 parts conditioner, 1 part aloe, 1 part honey - aka SMT). I wet my hair, apply the SMT mixture, cover with a shower cap, and use a heating cap for up to half an hour (when I can). Then rinse well, and that's it. I do this once a week, and I don't need to do anything in between.


What about grease in your hair?

It's possible for me to put too much oil in as a pretreatment (say half a cup of coconut oil). Then I have to CO again to get the excess out. But a few tablespoons of oil is fine. It is also possible to get greasy-looking results from using a very rich conditioner, like Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose; for me, the CO conditioner shouldn't have much oil in it. Sebum itself is never a problem; conditioner washes it out beautifully.


Do you think it saves you money?

Yes and no. No, because shampoo is cheap. Yes, because there's no need for fancy expensive conditioners when the hair is no longer being assaulted with shampoo.

[BunnyBee]

Yes it works.

What I do depends on if I have put oil in my hair or not. If yes, I cover my hair in lots of conditioner, wrap it up in cling film (saran wrap?) and leave it about an hour before rinsing (this is good if you can sit in the bath with a book for an hour XD), if i didn't use oil, i leave it about 10 minutes unwrapped, rinse thouroughly.. that's it.

It doesn't make my hair greasy at all, it looks like it's been washed with shampoo but feels SO much better.

Does it save me money? Not particularly since my favourite conditioner is expensive but I wash once maybe twice a week so it lasts a while.

[busnutmedic]

I did this a long time ago (getting back to it now, I'm regrowing!!) and the key for me was long times (20 minutes) for the conditioner to stay on, massage, and lots of rinsing (and 'conr-free condish).

However the other day I did CO for the first time in years and didn't let it sit but just massaged really well and rinsed well and it turned out exceptionally well :)

Oh, and I used a plastic grocery bag over it, tied so it was out of my face. I basically plastered my hair to my head with conditioner, so the bag just clings to it.

[Siiri]

Hello everyone.

I am wondering if some people could give me some info on conditioning only.

Does it work you for?
What exactly do you do?
What about grease in your hair?
Do you think it saves you money?

Thanks so much!:D

I have CO-washed for nearly year and a half and it does work for me. I CO-wash every other day now.

First I wet my hair in the shower and pad it with a towel so that it doesn't drip with water. I apply two small handfuls of conditioner on my scalp and hair and massage it. Then I let it sit for about five minutes while I do other things. Then I apply a handful of water on my hair and massage my scalp. I do that two or three times. It creates foam and it feels like it cleanses better, and makes it easier to rinse the conditioner out. Then I rinse it while massaging my scalp until it feels like there's no conditioner left, it doesn't take very long. I don't use another conditioner on my length but I use a leave-in conditioner. I clarify my hair with a clarifying shampoo about once a month, even though none of my hair care products have silicone or mineral oil in them, I seem to get some build up anyway.

It removes grease well, I've never had a problem with it. If I have oil in my hair, I apply the conditioner on dry hair and let it sit for about half an hour or longer. On oiled hair I use twice as much conditioner.

It doesn't really save money because I use so much conditioner, and I never used expensive salon products anyway. To save money you can dilute the conditioner with water, about half and half. The conditioner is also easier to apply when it's diluted, you can use an applicator bottle. I did try it a few times, and it did work just as well as undiluted conditioner.

[pepperminttea]

Does it work you for?
Yes, it works.

What exactly do you do?
Light conditioner, throughout dry hair, and lots of it. Lots of massaging. Bun, and wait twenty minutes. Hop in shower, de-bun, massage as rinsing. Keep rinsing. Use heavier conditioner just on length. Do other shower stuff. Rinse out. The key for me is lots of massaging, and lots of rinsing.

What about grease in your hair?
There isn't any? It cleans it. I know it seems like it shouldn't, but it does.

Do you think it saves you money?
Compared to using really cheap S/C? No. Compared to using painfully expensive SLS-free S/C? Yes. My light washing conditioners set me back 71p for 750ml, and 60p for 500ml. (The 71p is thinner, so I use more, and the bottles end up lasting about the same amount of time.) One bottle is about three washes for me. To put that in perspective, Giovanni used to cost me £9 a bottle, for 250ml. And compared to the price of a typical bottle of 'cone-y conditioner round here, they go for £2-5 for a bottle.

[Anje]

Does it work you for?
Works great for me. Less frizz than with shampooing, more moisturized hair, and my scalp gets greasy slower than it does if I shampoo with sulfates. (My scalp seems to respond to getting dry by pumping out tons of oil.)

What exactly do you do?
Basically what the article describes, but I prefer to rinse with warm water. Mostly because it's not cold. :)

What about grease in your hair?
Normally not a problem. It didn't do a great job at getting off the loads of castor oil I once put on my scalp, but for normal oils and normal sebum it works great for me.

Do you think it saves you money?
Compared to S&C with Suave products, no. But it doesn't cost me much. I think I go through a family-size bottle of Suave conditioner in about a month, so it's not like this is an expensive method for me.

[Roscata]

Does it work you for?
Yes.

What exactly do you do?
I apply diluted Suave Juicy Green Apple Conditioner (1 part conditioner, 3-4 parts water) to the scalp, massage it in, apply VO5 Moisture Milks Moisturizing Conditioner Strawberries on the length, put my hair up for 5-10 minutes then rinse it out completely.

What about grease in your hair?
The CO removes all the grease, plus any deep oil treatments I might have on my scalp and hair. And I can go 3-4 days without washing and my hair looks fine. NOTE: I had to find the right conditioner for this to work properly. When I used VO5 Herbal Escapes Clarifying Conditioner Kiwi Lime Squeeze my scalp was greasy all the time. So you might want to experiment until you find the right conditioner for you.

Do you think it saves you money?
Absolutely, the conditioners I use are $1 each and they last me a few months which means I spend about $2 every 3 months toward washing my hair.

[BerryFlap]

Does it work for you?

Yes, it leaves my hair exactly as it would if I had shampooed and conditioned it, but softer and more manageable.

What exactly do you do?

I use it exactly as I would a shampoo. massage about a walnut sized amount into the scalp for a minute or so and run more through the ends. Leave it in for 5+ minutes and wash it out pretty thoroughly.

What about grease in your hair?

I first did this on a day that my hair was greasier than a fast food fryer and it turned out beautifully. As long as you massage well using the pads of your fingers for awhile then all the dirt and oil should be lifted off and washed away with the conditioner.
It does seem odd, you'd expect just conditioner to grease up your hair to no extent, but to be honest, I think ridding your hair of dirt and oils is more in the motion of application than the actual product.

Do you think it saves you money?

Indeed. A bottle of shampoo (if you use it once a week or something) will last for ages, and one bottle of conditioner doesn't need to cost more than £5 (or $5, depends where you come from I guess :D)



It's definitely something worth trying, and it does make a noticeable difference after the first time :)

[SpinDance]

Does it work you for?

Yes, after I stopped using cones CO has worked quite well for me.


What exactly do you do?

I'm still in the experimentation phase, getting the right combination of conditioner/dilution/whatever, but I've been getting really good results with a combination of diluted and full strength conditioner. I use diluted Suave Naturals conditioner, any but the coconut, which has protein. It worked well with 1:1 dilution, and I'm currently trying 2:1 water to conditioner. I wet my hair with warm water in the shower, this is just warm enough to be comfortable, not hot. Once wet I apply the diluted conditioner to my head and hair, carefully working it through to my scalp, massaging it in from underneath as much as possible without pulling. I tip my head so gravity helps me get underneath the hair as I massage in the conditioner. I use "lots" of this slurry, enough so it feels really slippery from top to bottom.

If my ends have been feeling dry I may add some full strength conditioner to the ends and lengths and smoosh it in. Otherwise after it feels massaged clean I rinse, then either apply full strength to the lengths and ends, with diluted on the scalp, or sometimes I'll do the whole thing first with diluted again, then smoosh the full strength into the ends. It really depends on how my hair was feeling, whether it was heavily oiled or the ends were feeling dry.

After the 2nd conditioner application is on I let it hang down my back, out of the way and out of the water while I do my other showerly stuff, then rinse well. After rinsing I squish out some of the excess water then put a slightly damp flour sack cloth towel under it to catch the drips as I finish drying off and get out of the shower and write in my hair journal what I did. After this initial drip I replace the flour sack cloth with a piece of handkerchief linen 'towel' clipped around my neck like a cape and let it drip onto that smooth cloth while I eat breakfast. The linen is even smoother and finer than the flour sack cloth so doesn't disturb what waves I've got, plus linen is very absorbent, more than cotton.

I have used GF Triple Nutrition on the ends and lengths sometimes as part of the 2nd 'wash', but it usually ended up making my hair feel greasy before the end of the first day. I haven't tried these heavier conditioners in any kind of dilution yet, so I don't know if they will work OK if I just dilute them more. I'm also going to work a couple of the Trader Joe conditioners into my experiments. They aren't as heavy as Triple Nutrition and so far the results have been OK. It takes me a long time to run some of these experiments!


What about grease in your hair?

CO gets it all out better than using shampoo. If I've used a lot of oils I don't compound the problem by using heavy conditioner, though.


Do you think it saves you money?

Compared to what? Compared to the tiny amounts of much more expensive S&C I used to use 2 times per week or so? Yes, I think so. Suave for example is really cheap, and diluted so much it is cheaper yet, even if I use lots.

All told, I believe that I spend a lot less on my hair now, even with the oils, Panacea, various different conditioners, etc, than I used to. The best thing is that I am getting much better results and my hair is in better over all condition than ever before. To me that's worth a lot, but I love that it's not costing me a lot!