Thanks to the lovely Danielle, I frequent a great site called, "naturallycurly.com". While looking at my Facebook news feed (I'm a fan of their page), I saw something called "The no-poo method". I thought, what the heck?! Upon clicking on the link and reading the articles, I realized they meant "no shampoo" and "conditioner washing (co-wash)". This is something I had heard of before - many years ago, thanks to Chaz Dean and his Wen cleansing conditioner info-mercials. I did some research and apparently Australians have been doing this for ages. It's nothing new.
The whole thing behind NOT using shampoo, and instead washing your hair with conditioner is...shampoo has tons of harsh detergents that dry and frizz out your hair. Makes sense. Conditioner on the other hand, still has detergents, just not harsh enough to dry out your hair like shampoo does.
A few weeks ago, I decided to try it. I said, why not? What do I have to lose? I have super dry, damaged, frizzed out, sickly hair. I've been trying my best to avoid putting another relaxer in it. I've managed not to do it. I thought I had to at least nurse my hair back to life before I do anything like that (but I think I'm just going to grow it out and embrace my natural hair).
I'm telling you. Wow. It's amazing. Obviously, if your hair gets greasy and dirty really quickly, this is not for you. This is how you co-wash:
#1 Get your hair REALLY wet. I mean thoroughly.
#2 Squeeze a GANG of sulfate-free conditioner in your hands and start at your scalp. Work it into your scalp in circular motions, massaging it into your scalp. Do this for a couple of minutes!
#3 This is very important...RINSE all of that conditioner out of your hair. If you don't do this, all the oils in your scalp remain on your hair and will leave your hair greasier than before you did this.
#4 Apply another LARGE amount of conditioner into your hair. This time, do it as you normally would (smoothing it on, instead of working it through and massaging).
#5 After you leave that in for the duration of your shower...rinse it off, but if your hair is super curly and/or super dry, leave a little bit behind - don't wash it completely out.
Viola!
I did this for a couple of weeks and my hair had never been smoother, shinier or softer. I recently had a Cosmetology student straighten my hair (blow dry & flat iron) and she insisted on Shampooing it. She is not yet a convert of the co-washing method for my hair type. But it's ok...she made up for it by getting my hair so straight and smooth with just a blow dryer and flat iron! Although, my hair is full of static. My guess is because she used that harsh shampoo on my hair. *tisk *tisk
Anyways, I'm sticking to the co-washing method from now on and I will try really hard to convince the professionals to do it as well. But I guess shampooing once a month isn't too bad. But I'd rather give it up for good!
