Co-Dependent, or, How I Kissed Shampoo Goodbye - Part I

I like natural stuff.  I eat organic vegetables and make my own yogurt and drink non-homogenized and/or raw milk. I use baking soda and vinegar in the wash as a fabric softener. I make my own facial toner.  I exfoliate my face with sugar and milk and moisturize with coconut oil.  Let's just say I've been called "crunchy granola" more than once 10 times.

I was researching alternative and natural methods of cleansing my hair without chemicals, and I stumbled across the co-wash method.

The what now?

Co-washing is a method where one washes ones hair with only conditioner, the "co" in "co-washing." Popular with women of color, co-washing has actually been around for a long time.  It turns out that conditioners are a great way to gently cleanse hair, even fine, wavy hair like mine.  This method allows the natural oils in the hair to travel all the way to the ends and trains the scalp to produce less oil, since it's not being dried out by shampoo on a regular basis.  This method is recommended for color-treated hair.

Co-washing also allegedly reduces frizz and the need for frizz-control products.  Since I have a drawer full of those types of products, which are expensive, and only work some of the time, I was happy to find an alternative.

Now here's the challenge:  I have oily hair.  I always have.  I have washed it every day (sometimes twice a day) of my post-pubescent life.  Even dry shampoo is no match for the oil my scalp pumps out.  But since my hair is getting long, the ends dry out if I wash it all the time, no matter how much I condition.  It's a conundrum.

There had to be a way to train my scalp to let up on the oil production.  I've tried other methods, like the baking soda/water method.  It was horrible and turned my hair to straw, which I then had to cut short.  Then there was the time I switched to Wen, and it turned my hair to straw and I had to cut it off.  See a pattern here?  

But conditioner...that couldn't hurt, right?  I decided to give it a try.

See more after the break

Since I didn't think I'd be blogging about this - because honestly, I didn't think it would work out - I didn't take an official "before" picture, but here's a (horrible blurry) one for reference.

My hair looks fine.  Not great, but fine.  It's also coated in silicone conditioner and serums and hair spray and mousse.  And it's still frizzy.  What the heck?

According to this, one needs to use a conditioner without silicone (anything ending with a -cone; dimethicone, etc.) in order to do successfully co-wash.  Silicone is not water-soluble, so if you don't wash it out of your hair with some kind of detergent (shampoo), it will build up and make your hair flat and gross, as well as potentially harm your hair and scalp.  In searching for silicone-free conditioners, Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut conditioner was widely recommended (and CHEAP - $1.49 at Target), so I went for it.

I realized that this approach also required giving up styling aids with silicone, so I had to dump my drawer of anti-frizz serum, curl smoother, and curl activation spray. Fine by me.

Armed with a big bottle of cheapo conditioner and nothing to lose, I was ready to give this a try.

Here's a basic breakdown of the process:

• In the shower, I loaded up my palm with conditioner and worked it into my hair from root to tip.  
• Using the pads of my fingers, I scrubbed my scalp (as I would if I was lathering shampoo), and then combed the conditioner through my hair.
• I let the conditioner sit on my hair while I did the rest of my shower-y business, and then scrubbed my scalp again and rinsed it out.
• I let my hair dry overnight and then styled as usual in the morning (I add silicone-free mousse to my roots and blow dry, and then tame my cray-cray waves with a curling iron).

Want to know how it turned out?  Tune in for part II tomorrow!

Lip graphic via