OSCO method

[meteor]

On a friendly suggestion from another LHC thread, I decided to post the method of washing I've had best results with and decided to stick with after experimenting with CWC, LOC, herbs, soaps + acidic rinses, clays and some other hair-friendly approaches.

I call it OSCO: Oil + Shampoo + Conditioner + Oil
1) Oil: heavy pre-poo oiling overnight or longer on dry hair.
Preferred oils: coconut, avocado, olive, palm. Coconut oil is proven to penetrate hair shaft, other oils I've listed are likely to penetrate hair due to their fatty acid composition (palmitic acid, oleic acid).
The reasoning behind pre-poo oiling is that oil penetrates hair, thus reducing its porosity, increasing elasticity, preventing too much keratin loss and damage from harsh cleansing and hydral fatigue. Oils reduce the water uptake by hair. This effect is even pronounced on chemically treated, damaged and porous hair.
This post (http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/...er-or-oil.html) very well explains the reasons why oil is better than conditioner as a pre-poo, and that's why I prefer OSCO to CWC.

2) Shampoo: diluted, sometimes applied twice depending on how dirty hair is.

3) Conditioner / Masque: diluted, because it significantly helps spreading all over hair and adsorption. I like to use a soak, drenching hair in a bowl of conditioner + water. I often use SMT or conditioners rich in proteins and other humectants, as this is the "wet" stage.

3) Oil: sealing, light oil like mineral oil or grapeseed oil. Just a few drops. This works better at sealing moisture for me than most leave-ins that tend to dry.


What are your thoughts, guys? Anybody else does this or would like to experiment with this?

[lapushka]

*Love* that you decided to share this method, meteor! I mostly use oil (mineral) in my styling method (or a serum), but I can't use oils as "masques" or deep treatments. Always afraid the drain is going to get clogged.

[Agnes Hannah]

I've tried this, it does make my ends very soft. Thanks

[Marika]

I do something quite similar but I haven't tried diluting my shampoo and/or conditioner. Is there a particular ratio in diluting or do you just go with a flow? I'm slowly coming over my fear of mineral oil (it clogged my pores pretty badly when I used it for months to take off my mascara). I might try that too because I have some samples of Johnson's baby oil. And I know my current leave-in (Redken Anti-Snap) has some mineral oil in it and I haven't had any problems.

Thanks for posting!

[Rio040113]

I do this! Most days I miss out the 'S' and just co-wash (+ honey), once a week or so it's the full routine with shampoo though I use coconut oil as my pre-wash and avocado oil and vit. e oil as my post wash oils. With the weather being so poopy right now I'm layering a tiny bit of shea butter over the top of my oils as well, great results so far.

[Aingeal]

Thank you. I've been using coconut lightly to seal lately and my hair is soaking it up.

[TrapperCreekD]

Me, me, me!

My routine is very similar to this. I heavily oil the length with EVOO the night before, let it marinate in sleep braid, shampoo out in the morning with slightly diluted shampoo (stick palm under shower head), then condition/smt. The conditioner, it's a watery V05, so I don't dilute it. Once the ends are damp, I put a dab of EVOO on them. My hair absolutely hates coconut oil and gets crispy feeling if I put it on wet or damp hair - dry, it loves it.

The sealing oil - are you applying to your length or just the ends?

[HintOfMint]

Haha, this is exactly the routine I've settled on this year, glad it has an acronym to go with it now! I don't dilute my shampoo or conditioner, but all in all, the pre-wash oiling, shampoo, conditioner (often an SMT), and a sealing oil is pretty much my routine, down pat.

[Naima]

I do this most of the time. But I don't dilute conditioner. When I'm in a hurry, I replace it with CWC.

[0xalis]

this would probably make my hair a greaseball. I just use diluted shampoo on my scalp, use a cheap light condish [vo5] all over my hair and then apply some coconut oil to the ends when i'm done